Tonight the Islanders and Rangers face off for a late season “battle” in which both are theoretically chasing a playoff spot but are realistically just finding new or repetitive ways to torment their fanbase.
It’s not quite the late ‘90s, when both teams were really bad and missing the postseason for multiple seasons in a row, but there are echoes. Each team sits — slouches, really — at 79 points, eight points behind the final wild card-holding Canadiens who have won six in a row.
Punctuating how much they don’t want this, the Smurfs even lost 8-5 last night to the Flyers(!