One last rivalry game ends in same misery for the Rangers
The Rangers likely would be happy if they never had to play another game in Brooklyn.
They continued their futility having never won a regular-season game at Barclays Center, dropping a 2-1 contest to the Islanders on Thursday night. It was the Rangers’ sixth straight loss in Kings County since the Islanders moved in as urbanite neighbors in 2015-16, and it took the visiting Blueshirts to 1-9-2 total in either building over that span.
With both teams set to miss the playoffs, it was Jaroslav Halak in net for the Islanders (34-37-10) once again, stopping 34-of-35 shots to win his eighth game in the past nine against the Rangers (34-38-9). During that stretch, Halak now improved to have an absurd 1.61 goals-against average and a .946 save percentage.
“I don’t know [why], but I’m not going to talk to him about it,” coach Doug Weight said. “The numbers are eye-opening. It’s not just a good roll. He gets up for those games and competes and finds a way to beat them.”
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Ironically enough, the win also had the Islanders leapfrog the Rangers in the standings, thus worsening their odds for a lottery pick.
Islanders rookie forward Mathew Barzal collected his 61st assist of the season — his 83rd point — as he continues to cruise to an inevitable Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year. Yet the education for the 20-year-old is going to continue with Team Canada in the World Championships, which start May 4 in Denmark.
“I think it’ll be great,” said Barzal, who was part of two national teams in each of the under-20 and under-18 tournaments. “Another chance to play against the best players in the world. You get a chance to wear the Canadian flag again.”
Barzal was selected by the Islanders with the No. 16-overall pick in the 2015 draft, and he already broke the franchise record for rookie assists. He got this helper on Thomas Hickey’s second-period goal which made it 1-1 after the Rangers’ first-period power-play tally from Kevin Hayes. The Islanders then won it when Anthony Beauvillier beat Ondrej Pavelec at 7:27 of the second.
The Rangers got Mats Zuccarello back after a foot injury kept him from their 5-2 loss to the Devils in Newark on Tuesday. He bumped David Desharnais from the lineup.
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Rangers winger Ryan Spooner is set to become a restricted free agent and got his first shot as the top-line right wing, alongside Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad. They couldn’t get much generated after the same thing happened with Vladislav Namestnikov in that spot Tuesday.
The Islanders shut down veteran defenseman Johnny Boychuk for the final two games of the season, hoping the 34-year-old can fully recover this summer from the assortment of ailments that limited him to 58 games.
“He’s a good old boy from Edmonton and he plays that way,” Weight said. “But he’s getting up in years. I think the one thing that we got across to John is his importance to the team. When he’s out of the lineup, we’re not as good as we are when he’s in. We know how much he cares. So it’s a big offseason for him.”