The final score from Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden flatters the Rangers.
The Rangers beat the Islanders 5-2. Alexis Lafrenière had a hat trick. Both things are true. It's also true that two of those three goals went into an empty net in the final two minutes of the third period, after the Islanders had already pulled their goalie down a goal. Strip those out and it's a one-goal game for 58 of 60 minutes, with Oliver Bjorkstrand's second-period power-play goal the actual difference-maker. The Islanders climbed back from down 2-0 to make it one-goal before it came apart late. It was a tight, physical rivalry game that got a lopsided final score bolted onto it in garbage time.
Tuesday wasn't proof the Rangers have solved the Islanders. The Islanders swept this series a year ago, outscored New York 14-3 across four meetings, and opened that slate with a shutout at the same building. Matthew Schaefer, the Islanders' No. 1 pick, promised he'd beat the Rangers every time he played them, and for a full season he was right. One game where the Rangers survived a third-period push and then feasted on an empty net doesn't erase that. Calling this a rivalry statement means explaining why it looks nothing like the ones the Islanders have been making against the Rangers for a year.
What should have Rangers fans encouraged has nothing to do with the Islanders specifically: this team is 3-0 at home to start the season. A year ago, they lost their first several home games and didn't get a third home win until deep into the schedule. That's a real, specific pattern from last season reversing in real time. A team that used to bleed out at Madison Square Garden in October is now winning there, and winning while pushing pace instead of sitting on leads. That's a different identity. Give the roster additions time to settle in, and this looks like a team playing with more jump than it's had in years.
Those two things can both be true at once: the home-ice turnaround is real, and the rivalry claim is premature. The Islanders have owned this matchup too recently and too thoroughly for one game, closed out in a goalie-pulled final minute, to count as proof of anything about New York's two teams. It's proof the Rangers aren't collapsing at home anymore. That's a real fix, separate from who happened to be standing across the ice for the third straight home win.
A hat trick that was two-thirds empty-netters doesn't mean the balance of power between these two teams just shifted. It hasn't. The Islanders are still the team that has to lose this rivalry for New York to actually believe it's turned, and Tuesday wasn't that. It was a tight game the Rangers survived, then blew open against an opponent who'd already given up. The home-ice fix is real. The rivalry claim is wishful thinking stretched over a 5-2 final score.
