LIGHTS OUT! Power Outage Cancels Tilt Between New York Islanders and NJ Devils

NEWARK — I’ve seen the lights go down in Newark was probably the tune the New York Islanders sang as the team bus departed Prudential Center on Thursday.

A partial power outage knocked out half the lights at the Prudential Center and forced the cancellation of the Islanders’ scheduled preseason tilt against the New Jersey Devils. The official announcement came down nearly 50 minutes after the whole saga began.

Video of the team packing up their equipment appeared on TV before the announcement was made.

Arena officials did update the fans in attendance around 7:16 PM that the building had suffered a partial power outage and that staff was working to rectify the issue. The game had been scheduled for a 7 pm start.

Final Preseason Games Become Critical for Ilya Sorokin, Cory Schneider

“Because of a power outage that occurred prior to tonight’s game vs. the New York Islanders, lighting in the northeast bank of the arena was unable to be restored,” the Devils said in a statement. “In consultation with the Islanders and the NHL, it was determined that the playing conditions were unsustainable for players on both teams. Therefore, tonight’s preseason contest has been canceled and will not be re-scheduled.”

Issues began just after warmups had concluded when the arena video board went dark, the music abruptly stopped and the lights dimmed on the end of the ice that the Islanders defend twice. The PA system did return shortly after, but the lights remained dimmed as arena staff worked to fix the problem.

The situation was reminiscent of a similar scenario that occurred on December 12, 2018, at the Barclays Center. The New York Islanders game against the Vegas Golden Knights was delayed 16 minutes because the lights inside the arena wouldn’t turn back on.

The Islanders would lose that game 3-2 in regulation in front of a small crowd in Brooklyn.

During the 45-plus minute delay, the Prudential Center DJ tried to bring some levity to the situation by playing “Light My Fire” by The Doors, “Shine a Little Love” by Electric Light Orchestra and “A Sky Full of Stars” by Coldplay among other electric themed songs.

The fans have resorted to doing the wave to keep themselves entertained. I'm all for it.

— Christian Arnold (@C_Arnold01) October 7, 2021

Thursday night’s game was to be the penultimate game of the preseason for the New York Islanders. It would have marked the second time this preseason that New Jersey and New York would have faced one another.

Islanders head coach Barry Trotz had planned to play Ilya Sorokin for a full game with Semyon Varlamov’s status for opening night very much up in the air. Andy Greene had been slated to play in his first preseason game, Zdeno Chara would have been on the ice once again and Anders Lee was supposed to get his second game in with Mathew Barzal and Kyle Palmieri.

The New York Islanders will now close out their preseason on Saturday when they host the New York Rangers.