{"id":551511,"date":"2026-04-13T03:48:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T03:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/551511\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T03:48:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T03:48:24","slug":"islanders-regular-season-finale-will-have-preseason-tryout-feel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/551511\/","title":{"rendered":"Islanders’ regular-season finale will have preseason-tryout feel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Game 82 of 2025-26 looks set to be the first preseason game of 2026-27.<\/p>\n

After the Islanders were officially eliminated from playoff contention <\/a>on Sunday with a 4-1 loss to the Canadiens, coach Pete DeBoer indicated he\u2019d like to use the last game of the season \u2014 a home match against Carolina on Tuesday \u2014 to \u201csee as many guys as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

That may have been a nod to Victor Eklund, who could be in line to make his NHL debut after helping AHL Bridgeport clinch a playoff spot on Sunday night, though it\u2019s unclear whether the Isles will call up the Swede.<\/p>\n

Certainly, it seems like Isaiah George should play, and that some call-ups could happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll have to talk to Mathieu [Darche] about roster and some things like that,\u201d DeBoer said. \u201cBut for me, the more guys I can see in game action that are potentially part of this going forward, I think that\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NewIslanders defenseman Isaiah George (36) runs a drill during practice at the Northwell Health Ice Center, Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025, in East Meadow, NY. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

Hired a week ago Sunday, DeBoer was in the awkward position of dealing with a devastated team after just his third game in charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m disappointed,\u201d DeBoer said. \u201cI know they were in a good spot a month ago, or coming out of the Olympic break, probably. A lot of work goes into that. I can only speak to the last seven days.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese guys have had a lot of stuff thrown at them. One coach left, a new coach came in. A lot of new stuff. So they\u2019re wearing that a little bit and you feel for them. I can tell you I\u2019m proud they didn\u2019t quit. They played right to the buzzer tonight. We know we\u2019ve got a lot of work to do here, but there\u2019s a lot of good things too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ondrej Palat was a healthy scratch, with Anthony Duclair coming into the lineup for just the second time in the Islanders\u2019 last 11 games.<\/p>\n

\"IslandersIslanders head coach Peter DeBoer responds to questions from reporters during press conference after an NHL hockey game against the Montreal Canadiens Sunday, April 12, 2026, in Elmont, N.Y. AP<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOn the ice from Long Island\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Islanders by Ethan Sears, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Ilya Sorokin started his ninth straight game in net and has now appeared in 14 straight, dating back nearly a month.<\/p>\n

Coach Pete DeBoer ruled out any possibility of Alexander Romanov returning from shoulder surgery in the regular season. The Islanders had liked Romanov\u2019s chances of returning in the playoffs since he got hurt in mid-November, but with a playoff berth highly unlikely, it now appears he won\u2019t be back until training camp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Game 82 of 2025-26 looks set to be the first preseason game of 2026-27. After the Islanders were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5110],"tags":[5,122,3328,159,5190,5189,4,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-551511","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-islanders","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-islanders","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-islanders","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkislanders","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116395358075235255","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}