Islanders B2B Gameday News: Home for the Panthers

No rest for the victors, as the Islanders return to Long Island to host the Florida Panthers after winning in Columbus last night. The Panthers are rested and might even be a little healthier, having lost at home to the Sabres on Friday night. The two-time defending champs are 30-26-3 on the season and sit […]

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Islanders B2B Gameday News: Home for the Panthers

[Simon knows best. | Aaron Doster-Imagn Images]

Simon knows best. | Aaron Doster-Imagn Images

Dominik

Sun, March 1, 2026 at 6:33 PM UTC·
3 min read

No rest for the victors, as the Islanders return to Long Island to host the Florida Panthers after winning in Columbus last night. The Panthers are rested and might even be a little healthier, having lost at home to the Sabres on Friday night.

The two-time defending champs are 30-26-3 on the season and sit eight points behind the second wild card spot. Atlantic teams occupy both of those spots right now, so that’s really the only avenue they have to make a big climb back into it. If they miss the playoffs, they certainly wouldn’t be the first Cup champ to do so, but they’d have a little more grace considering how much hockey they’ve played and how many key injuries they’ve had for much of the season.

Amid that backdrop is the status of Sergei Bobrovsky, who’s having another mid-career-level Bobrovsky season rather than anything close to his Columbus and Panthers Cup-run peaks. His top-dollar contract certainly carried him through some highs and lows, so the Panthers are right not to want to rush into a premium extension for a guy who will be 38.

The Isles won’t concern themselves with any of that, of course. They’ll just want to have a better performance than the last two games, where they found ways to pull off 4-3 OT wins despite some shoddy play.

First Islanders Goal picks go here.

Islanders News

Dmitry Kulikov might return for the Panthers tonight; he hasn’t played since the second game of the season. [NHL]

The Skinny: Ilya Sorokin remains unbeaten in regulation against Columbus, and the Isles are 7-2-0 in their last nine games… The Isles improve to 14-2-3 when tied after two periods; the 14 wins lead the NHL. [Isles]

Gross: The OT win over the Blue Jackets is an example of the desperation the Isles will need to carry through to a playoff spot. [Newsday]

Sears: The Isles’ OT success has been the difference between playoff position and playoff chasing. [Post]

Patrick Roy, who has been burned on multiple goalie interference challenges this season, said he wouldn’t have issued the challenge the Blue Jackets did on the J-G Pageau goal last night:

#Isles Patrick Roy said, had it been him, he would not have challenged for interference on Pageau goal because contact came outside the crease.
"If it's not in the crease, I don't know if I would challenge anything right now in the league."

— Andrew Gross (@AGrossNewsday) March 1, 2026

Elsewhere

Thirteen games in the NHL Saturday night, including the Penguins getting a point against the Smurfs.

The Kings have fired coach Jim Hiller, who was once an Isles assistant, replacing him with DJ Smith, who gets the interim tag for the remainder of this season. [NHL]

The “embarrassing” losses continue to pile up for the Leafs, who lost at home to Ottawa. [Sportsnet]

Elias Pettersson’s slump hits a new low. [Sportsnet]

Evgeni Malkin will wait till after the season to engage in his latest round of contract drama with the Penguins. [TSN]

Adam Henrique has a no-trade clause and no intention of waiving it in Edmonton. [TSN]

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