Sunday night in their first home preseason game, the New York Islanders fielded a reasonably “this is almost our opening lineup” at forward and at least three or arguably four of their expected blueline regulars, culminating in a 2-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers.
It’s just preseason, it was just Oct. 2, but at least they avoided perpetuating the anxiety of a winless preseason. They even got a couple power play goals, which may calm that “what happened to our special teams?” feeling, at least for a day.
The preseason is just weird, there’s no two ways about it.