Story summary
On October 7, the New York Islanders dominated the home-opener against the New Jersey Devils with a decisive 6-0 victory. The game featured standout performances from key players like Matthew Schaefer, who was cheered loudly by the sellout crowd at UBS Arena. Schaefer assisted on two of the team's three goals in the second period, opening up the game and showcasing his skills. Head coach Pete DeBoer’s strategy to mix up line combinations proved successful, with new groupings like Simon Holmstrom, JG Pageau, and Anthony Duclair performing well together. This win highlights the Islanders' potential as they aim to solidify their place among top teams in the NHL.
Written for “Islanders Hockey Win” on 2026-10-04,
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It’s nights like these, where Matthew Schaefer is flying and the crowd is booming and the power play is actually functioning, where you can see the vision.
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you → ’ → vision
The Islanders, for much of training camp, looked like a team that is still on its way to the launchpad.
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that → look → launchpad
Two games isn’t much to judge on, and one rollicking home opener even less.
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games → judge → ?
What Saturday night’s 6-0 win over the Devils in front of a sellout crowd does affirm is that there is so much potential, even if the bigger-picture timeline is unclear.
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timeline → affirm → crowd
Everyone knows that, of course, but stating it like a slogan in preseason is a different thing from seeing it play out in the regular season.
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it → know → season
The line blender on which Pete DeBoer hit puree after Wednesday night turned up something good.
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DeBoer → hit → something
Simon Holmstrom, JG Pageau and Anthony Duclair fit like a glove.
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Holmstrom → fit → glove
Emil Heineman complemented Bo Horvat and Kyle Palmieri well.
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Heineman → complement → Horvat
Ondrej Palat, quietly, has had an excellent start to the season on a resurgent fourth line, and Victor Eklund never looked out of place in the top six.
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Eklund → have → six
Not only that, but the Swedish rookie was one fight off a Gordie Howe hat trick, scoring his first NHL goal on his 20th birthday, fighting to get to the net to bury one past Nico Daws with his family on hand.
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rookie → score → hand
That, at 11:32 of the third, made it 4-0, and before the crowd had started to chant Eklund’s name, Palat had made it five.
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it → make → name
For good measure, a shorthanded goal from Cizikas in the waning minutes extended the lead to six.
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goal → extend → six
The Islanders were equal to the speed and physicality of a Devils side that figures to challenge for the Metropolitan Division.
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that → figure → Division
They got to the net and it paid off against a shaky Daws.
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it → get → Daws
Schaefer, who drew the biggest cheer of introductions and heard his name chanted by the UBS crowd within 90 seconds of puck drop, set up two of the Islanders’ three second-period goals, breaking the game open with a superb piece of hand-eye coordination.
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name → draw → coordination
Schaefer swatted the puck out of the air to keep it in and then sent a cross-ice pass to Bo Horvat below the right dot to make it 3-0 12:08 into the third.
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it → swat → third
It was Horvat’s 100th goal with the Islanders, his 200th point with the Islanders and the first power-play goal of the season for a club that desperately needs a 5-on-4 boost.
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that → need → boost
Indeed, after a miserable first outing, the Islanders power-play units threatened repeatedly before Horvat finally hit pay dirt.
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Horvat → threaten → dirt
Before that, Eklund notched his first assist of the season after snagging Schaefer’s rebound off the boards and feeding Brayden Schenn from just behind the net.
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Eklund → notch → net
That doubled a lead which Holmstrom had opened at 3:32 of the second, finishing a rush with Pageau to score the year’s first goal at UBS.
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Holmstrom → double → UBS
The Devils couldn’t say they were terribly outplayed.
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they → say → ?
The match was up and down for stretches, with high-danger chances and expected goals close to even for much of the night.
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match → expect → night
Ilya Sorokin, who finished a 37-save shutout, was a difference-maker, especially on the penalty kill, but the Islanders never left him to fend for himself.
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Islanders → finish → himself
The defense pairs that took too long to settle into the opener were much cleaner here, if still not perfect.
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that → take → opener
For Alexander Romanov and Ryan Pulock especially, this was the best they’ve looked across the preseason and two regular-season games.
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they → look → preseason
And it’s hard to have picked a better night for it.
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it → ’ → it
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