When the New York Islanders and New York Rangers face off this season, a new element will be added to their rivalry. Islanders head coach Barry Trotz and Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant have met before on the NHL’s biggest stage. In 2018, Trotz and Gallant faced off in the Stanley Cup Final. Trotz was the head coach of the Washington Capitals, and Gallant was the head coach of the Vegas Golden Knights. Moreover, Trotz and Gallant will bring another dimension to New York’s hockey rivalry.

Last season the Islanders and Rangers met eight times, and the Islanders won six out of eight of those contests. The Islanders also decisively won those six games, only giving up three goals, shutting the Rangers out in four of the six, and they outscored the Rangers in the eight-game season series 23-12.

The Islanders’ domination over the Rangers this past season is a part of why the Rangers decided to clean house this past offseason. The Rangers fired general manager Jeff Gorton and team president John Davidson. The Rangers fired head coach David Quinn, along with his three assistants as well.

The Islanders’ physical domination against the Rangers resulted in a switch in the Rangers’ mentality, going from primarily highly-skilled players for a mix of both skill and grit. The Islanders’ well-oiled machine of all four lines and their ability to wear teams down was a clear mismatch for the young Rangers’ team.

In Quinn’s three seasons with the team, the Rangers categorized themselves as a rebuilding organization. They sent a letter to season ticket holders, alerting them that the group was rebuilding.

After failing to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs once since 2017 and failing to win a single game during their qualifying series in the bubble against the Carolina Hurricanes, the Rangers have shifted away from the center stage of hockey in New York. They are no longer the glamorous team on broadway that is always contending for the Stanley Cup. With the Rangers rebuild and fall from contention, the Islanders became a Stanley Cup contender, to everyone’s surprise.

The Islanders have firmly established themselves as “the” hockey team to watch in New York in the past two seasons. After years of being a laughing stock of an organization, the Islanders cemented themselves as a regular playoff team and then proved they were a Stanley Cup contender, shifting themselves onto the center stage in New York.

While the Islanders became the premier team to watch in New York, making back-to-back trips to the Eastern Conference Final and the Stanley Cup Semifinals, the Rangers have slid into no man’s land of the NHL, where they have struggled to keep up with the rest of the Metropolitan Division, and especially their New York foe. Still, they are not bad enough to be a topic of discussion.

Moreover, after three seasons with the team, the Rangers fired head coach David Quinn. The Rangers then hired former Vegas Golden Knights coach Gerald Gallant. Gallant’s hiring symbolizes the Rangers are finished rebuilding and are in win-now mode.

With Gallant’s arrival in New York City, not only will a revamped Rangers team be a threat to the Islanders’ success, but Trotz and Gallant’s history will add another dimension to the upcoming battle of New York.

Ethan Halle

Ethan is an Economics Major at the University of Florida looking to pursue a double major in Sports Management with a minor in political science.