Palmieri Says ‘No,’ Team Didn’t Play with Pride; Rest of Room Defeated

ELMONT, N.Y. — The New York Islanders suffered their most humiliating loss of the season 9-2 at the hands of the New York Rangers. The loss all but officially eliminated the Islanders from playoff contention. The Montreal Canadiens need just one more point to finish off the 2024-25 New York Islanders.

The game began with Ryan Pulock and Adam Pelech floundering defensively to the tune of three straight Rangers goals, dropping them behind 3-0. Then, in the final minute of the period, Alexander Romanov foolishly dropped to a knee to try and stop a bouncing puck. He whiffed. 2-on-1 for the Rangers, and it was 4-0.

No Pride:

The game was over. Kyle Palmieri said it postgame. They knew the game was over then. He called it embarrassing and said he was embarrassed. Asked what the intermission talk had been about, Palmieri said: “Yeah, I mean, we talked about pride, talked about a bunch of things. And then the result is the result.”

Woof. For a guy four games away from 900 career games, for him to essentially say, “Yeah, we blew smoke in the intermission. Just look at the result.” Speaks volumes about where the team is mentally. They’re going to miss the playoffs for the second time in four years.

Asked later if he felt the team had enough pride tonight, he said “No.” Then, pressed to elaborate, Palmieri sucked in a gust of breath. Then, he hesitated and said “Not Really [sure why]. I mean… No. Not really.”

It seemed pretty clear Palmieri didn’t want to name names or elaborate. I asked why the Rangers were able to outscore the Islanders 23-5 over four games this year, but he had no answers. He blasted the team’s structure, saying they gave goaltender Marcus Hogberg no chance.

Head Coach Patrick Roy refused to agree with Palmieri’s assessment, saying they had 45 shots. He said if they had no pride, they wouldn’t have kept working. Roy felt the team at least kept working.

Rest of Room Defeated, Out of Answers:

Captain Anders Lee spoke just a precious few words postgame. What little he said, said it all: “There’s not much to say. We played a horsesh*t game . . . We had shots, we hit posts, but we gave up too many opportunities the other way, whether it was turnovers or puck management.”

Bo Horvat seemed equally stumped at what went wrong: “It sucks. A big game like this against a rival team. We started the way we did, and it just seemed like everything they did tonight went in. It’s not even a fault of our goaltending or anything like that. It’s more on us giving them the greater opportunities than we got.”

If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s quite similar to things said after the Rangers blasted the Islanders 5-2 in UBS Arena back in February.

I also asked Horvat why the Rangers have been able to cruise against the Islanders in all four meetings this year. Horvat said, “If we knew why, obviously things would change. They had our number this year. We have to figure out what we need to do better against this team, obviously.”

Systemically, Roy did not blame the defensive structure. Rather, he said he didn’t exist. He called out turnovers and awful puck management, something he says plagued this entire season. When I asked about veterans Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock opening up the game allowing three straight goals and finishing a combined -9, Roy refused to condemn them specifically.

However, he made it clear to repeat turnovers over and over in his response, making it clear what he thought of the play from his veteran defenders tonight.

Roy’s Goalie Debacle:

Ilya Sorokin did not dress tonight due to an undisclosed lower-body injury. That left the Islanders with recently struggling Marcus Hogberg and Tristan Lennox, a 2021 third-round pick who has played four career AHL games.

After Hogberg allowed his sixth goal of the game in the third period, Roy pulled Hogberg, allowing rookie Tristan Lennox to make his NHL Debut. Lennox allowed a goal on the second shot he faced, and Roy immediately yanked him and re-inserted Hogberg.

Postgame, Roy elaborated why: “After the sixth goal, I wanted to give a break to Marcus, mentally more than anything else. And I put Lennox in, and when I saw the first goal…it’s on me. Maybe I should have kept [Hogberg in]. The kid didn’t have a chance to practice, and I thought that was unfair to him, to put him out there like this. So that’s why I put Marcus back in. Didn’t want to expose him [Lennox] and put him in a tough spot.”

Hogberg himself said he’d never been pulled and then thrown back in the same game. He said he was “so disappointed” in how he played. Asked if each goal added stress and hurt his confidence, he denied it, saying “I just want to try to refocus after every goal, so no.”

It’s hard not to feel for Hogberg. No, he played nowhere near good enough. But he also faced a team with constant odd-man rushes and free reign to score at will.

The Islanders’ next game is Saturday afternoon against the Philadelphia Flyers.