Takeaways: Islanders Fall to Rangers 6-1 in Preseason Action

The New York Islanders fell 6-1 to the New York Rangers on Friday night in preseason action at UBS Arena.

Oliver Bjorkstrand, J.T. Miller (1G, 1A), Tye Kartye, Gabe Perreault, Will Cuylle and Mika Zibanejad (1G, 1A) netted the Rangers' goals. Adam Fox had three assists on a night where the Rangers iced  an NHL-heavy lineup while the Isles iced a largely AHL squad.

"There's a mismatch in lineups, an obvious mismatch in lineups, but I think when you look at the game from an evaluation point of view, you've got to pick out the good moments,” Head Coach Pete DeBoer said. “The things that guys did individually well, even though the team game was tilted in their favor."

Pierre Engvall was the Islanders lone goal scorer, breaking Igor Shesterkin’s shutout bid with 8:38 remaining.

Shesterkin stopped 15-of-16 shots. Semyon Varlamov stopped 21-of-27 shots for the Islanders.

The Islanders will play their final preseason tilt on Saturday at UBS Arena against the New Jersey Devils.

Semyon Varlamov Plays Full Game

Varlamov played his first full 60 minutes since Nov. 29, 2024. After coming off a clean sheet against the Blueshirts in a half game on Tuesday, Friday's matchup was a tougher outing for Varlamov, who conceded six goals on 27 shots.

After seeing nine total shots on Tuesday, Varlamov saw 10 shots on goal in the first period alone. Varlamov was beat high on the short side twice by Miller and Kartye and on a pair of loose pucks in front of the net, which DeBoer is focused on cleaning up this season. There was little he could do about Zibanejad’s power-play goal to make it 6-0.

While it was a tough outing for the team as a whole, Varlamov playing a full game was still a positive step for the veteran netminder in his journey back from a two-year injury.

"I don't care about the score," DeBoer said. "I actually talked to him [Varlamov] at the end of the second.  I gave him the option if he wanted to come out and take a break, because the shot clock wasn't that high, but there was a lot of zone time, a lot of quality [chances], some hard minutes there. But he wanted to finish. He wanted the whole game, and you know, good on him. A lot of guys would have taken that exit ramp and got out of there, and he didn't."

Alexander Romanov's Return

Alexander Romanov played his first NHL game since suffering a season-ending right shoulder injury in November 2025. He recorded 20:24 TOI, which was the third-highest of any Islanders player. Romanov skated on a pair with Ryan Pulock, who was also playing his first game of the preseason – and first since offseason shoulder surgery.

Romanov  also recorded five blocked shots.

Romanov thought that he got off to a slow start, but liked his play as the game progressed.

"I just have to get used to it," Romanov said. "Just [the] speed and how fast you have to think, skate well and shoot. I think in the third, I played not bad. [The] first two [periods] I was struggling, but the third one, I liked."

Pulock and Emil Heineman both played their first games of the 2026-27 preseason. Pulock said he had some rust initially, but it was good to get back into game action.

"I felt good from a from a recovery standpoint, from a battle standpoint," Pulock said. "I thought I was in a lot of positions where you know I was engaged, and obviously it felt really good."

Daylan Kuefler also played in his first game of the season and led all Isles with five hits.

Next Game

The Islanders wrap up the preseason on Saturday night against New Jersey. Puck drop is at 7:30 p.m.