No one was willing to call this a declaration or a statement. Not this early in the season.
But what was so clearly seen on Tuesday night at the Garden was two New York teams switch their recent histories, with the Rangers going into an utterly disastrous five-minute defensive tailspin and the Islanders showing an exploitive nature to bury their cross-river rivals.
The result was a 6-3 Islanders win, the second straight game the Rangers have lost by that score. It was close to goalie Henrik Lundqvist getting pulled for the second straight game, but he had to stay there in his crease as the final buzzer sounded and the chants of “Let’s go Islanders” echoed around the Garden.
“We just came in here and talked about playing the right way,” said Isles forward Kyle Okposo, who scored his 100th career goal to open the floodgates in the third, which began tied 2-2. “I think in the third period, that’s really how we want to play.”
As for the Rangers, panic might not have exactly arrived on Broadway quite yet, but urgency certainly has.
“The only way we’re going to get through this is together,” said Rangers’ first-year captain Ryan McDonagh. “We have to be much smarter in our game. The offensive end will take care of itself. We have to get it right on the defensive side of the puck.”
What was more striking was the attitude of Islanders coach Jack Capuano after the game, following three goals in the first 5:20 of the third period, and another within the first 10:59. Yet Capuano had to go into the locker room after a dreadful second period and give his team a good old reaming, reminding his players that sloppy play is how you get outshot 21-8 in one 20-minute span, and only by the virtue of new goaltender Jaroslav Halak were they in the game at all.
“I shouldn’t have to go in after the second and say the things that I have to say,” Capuano said. “They should know the way that we need to play. And I’m pleased that they responded, but we have to make sure that the consistency in our game and the way we have to play becomes a focus.”
So the Islanders have still gotten themselves their first 3-0 start since they had four straight wins to open the 2001-02 season — and only the fourth time in franchise history they’ve started 3-0, according to MSG — and that might have more to do with a season-opening home-and-home with the lowly Hurricanes, and then this match against what has become a reeling Rangers team. Yet for the Isles, a team that has made the playoffs once in the past seven years, they are not looking to make too much of this one contest.
“The Rangers obviously proved a lot last year, going deep in the playoffs, but we have a heck of a week coming up here,” said captain John Tavares, who got his second goal of the season late in the second period to tie it 2-2. “ ‘Statement games’ and things like that are kind of hard to say right now. We still have a lot to prove and there is still a long way to go.”
After Rick Nash got the first of his two goals 6:21 into the game, Johnny Boychuk scored his second power-play tally of the season to tie it for the Isles 1-1 going into the second. That’s when the Rangers dominated, but could only muster one goal from Derick Brassard, as Halak was terrific.
“That’s what he gets paid to do,” Capuano said.
Then the wound in the third was opened by Okposo, and he was followed on the score sheet four minutes later by NHL-points-leader Brock Nelson — his fourth goal and eighth point — and then Mikhail Grabovski and Nick Leddy.
All the new additions on the Islanders seem to be jelling rather quickly, and the man that brought it all together, general manager Garth Snow, was walking out of the building after the game and asked if he could let his guys celebrate this one just a little bit.
“Why?” he asked. “There are still 79 more to go.”