Good Morning, Islanders Country.
The final game of 2025 offered a simple, sometimes uncomfortable reminder: the only thing that truly survives the standings is the two points. Not the aesthetics. Not the shot charts. Not the vibes. Just the points.
And the Islanders took them.
It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t smooth. Patrick Roy admitted it was “hard to watch” at times during the post-game. It certainly wasn’t the kind of hockey you’d bottle and sell as a vision statement. But it counted —, and that’s the whole point. After jumping out to a 2–0 lead in the first period against a battered, short-handed Chicago team, it felt like one of those nights where the Islanders might finally exhale and run away from someone.
Instead, they hung on for dear life.
Chicago rang four pucks off the post. Missed an open net in the final seconds. Turned what should have been a quiet close into a survival drill. Regulation ended not with confidence, but with relief. Then came overtime, and even there the Islanders found a way to complicate things — squandering a golden 4-on-3 power play that felt like the game begging to be ended politely.
It wasn’t.
So it went to the shootout, that great equalizer of frustration and fortune. And that’s where Bo Horvat and David Rittich stepped in and cleaned up the mess. Horvat with the poise. Rittich with the calm. And suddenly, everything that came before mattered a whole lot less.
That’s how seasons work. You don’t remember how you won in December. You remember that you won, no matter how ugly it was.
The Islanders have now gone seven straight games without scoring more than two goals, finishing the calendar year 3-3-1 without reaching three goals. That’s not a trend you frame. But maybe it’s a 2025 problem — one that stays behind when the calendar flips, the ball drops at UBS Arena, and 2026 offers a fresh page.
Two points are two points. The rest is just part of the journey.
