This article will kickstart a series of posts looking at how the New York Islanders stack up against each Metropolitan Division opponent heading into next season (done in no particular order). First up: the New York Rangers.
OFFENSE
The Rangers added two significant pieces to their forward group from last year in Artemi Panarin and Kaapo Kakko. Add that to Mika Zibanejad who’s coming off a 74-point season of his own, Chris Kreider, Pavel Buchnevich and the emerging group of young talent like Filip Chytil, Brett Howden and Lias Andersson and that’s a pretty good group.
The Islanders’ ability to create offense, on the other hand, is a huge problem for the team. Mathew Barzal remains the Islanders’ only star forward, while Josh Bailey, Jordan Eberle, Anders Lee and Brock Nelson, though quality players, aren’t capable of driving enough offense on their own.
EDGE: RANGERS- Kakko, Panarin and Zibanejad make for a deadly three-headed offensive beast. The Rangers have depth on top of that, while the Islanders lack one or two true top-six forwards.
DEFENSE
With the addition of Jacob Trouba, the Rangers’ defense core now looks much stronger. However what the Rangers have is a blue line core that is able to put up points but aren’t great defensively. Between Trouba, Tony DeAngelo, Kevin Shattenkirk and Brady Skjei, the Rangers had four defensemen who scored at a rate of at least 25 points per 82 games. DeAngelo is very poor defensively, while Shattenkirk and Skjei were certainly nothing to write home about either in their own end and Marc Staal, while solid defensively, can provide very little offense. While Trouba helps the Rangers’ blue line in a huge way, they still suffer from a lack of truly well-rounded defenders, despite the production that the group as a whole can provide.
For the Islanders, Ryan Pulock established himself as a true top-pairing defenseman, capable of both providing offense and being defensively reliable while Devon Toews is already excellent in preventing zone entries. Nick Leddy’s offensive pace slowed down last season but in turn, he was much better defensively than ever before. Adam Pelech and Scott Mayfield aren’t spectacular in any specific area and don’t create any significant offense but are both solid defensively.
EDGE: ISLANDERS- The addition of Jacob Trouba certainly helps the Rangers but while the Islanders blue line may not have as much flash, as of now it’s overall the more well-rounded group.
GOALTENDING
It’s hard to project how Semyon Varlamov may perform this year because of his inconsistency from year to year. At his best, he’d be far ahead of where Lundqvist is in his career right now but Varlamov’s season to season stats range drastically from an excellent season to a poor one.
With Henrik Lundqvist, the Rangers have a goalie who though no longer at the prime of his career, remains consistently solid. Last season was arguably the worst of his career but even with that, his numbers were far from atrocious. Despite the age factor, expect Lundqvist to bounce back with a better season than his 2018-19 campaign.
EDGE: TIE. This is pretty close, with both goalies are coming off a less than stellar season. Lundqvist is probably a safe bet to at least reach an “okay” year but Varlamov could be an x-factor for the Islanders if he performs at his best.
OVERALL: The Battle of New York could be a pretty even one for next season. It’s going to be interesting to see where these teams end up and there’s a good chance that both will be fighting for a playoff spot late in the year. Generally, the teams match up pretty evenly and goaltending is an area that could push one team ahead of the other.
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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