Rangers youngsters shine in preseason loss to Islanders

Rangers youngsters shone in a 5-4 preseason loss to the Islanders at Madison Square Garden, a game that saw Brett Berard, Gabe Perreault and Brennan Othmann provide the brightest moments for a young group even as the team wasted a 4-2 lead entering the third period. The result followed Tuesday’s 5-4 overtime defeat to the Devils, in which New York surrendered a 4-1 cushion in the third. The clash featured a different roster configuration, with Hartford’s projected No. 1 netminder Dylan Garand stepping in for Jonathan Quick at the 40-minute mark and allowing a pair of what the coach called wonky goals. “I think it happened two completely different ways,” head coach Mike Sullivan said, adding that such breakdowns are not what the team wants to see too often. “We’ve just got to do a better job of controlling the momentum.”

Perreault worked on the left side of the top line with J.T. Miller and Mika Zibanejad, while Brennan Othmann slid in on the left wing to complete the Vincent Trocheck–Alexis Lafrenière connection, with Artemi Panarin sidelined day to day and skating on his own with coaches. Berard was deployed on the third line as part of the energy group with Noah Laba and Conor Sheary, a unit tasked with providing a spark and contesting in transition. The young players delivered early and often, with Berard pouncing on Laba’s backhand feed to beat the goalie at 7:33 of the second period to push the Rangers ahead 3-2, moments after Othmann’s left-side power-play finish set the tone for a Machado-like late surge. Rempe added fronting traffic on that power play, helping create the moment for Berard to convert.

The lineup showcased a mix of evaluating prospects and veterans, as the organization continues to sort its options ahead of final cuts. Perreault was active throughout, and Sullivan spoke highly of the youngster’s potential. “Perreault is a really exciting player for us,” the coach said, underscoring the notice he’s drawn with the NHL club’s new-look forward corps. He also highlighted Othmann, noting that the winger “has shown glimpses of brilliance.”

Sullivan framed the night as part of a broader evaluation process. “We’re trying to see what we have and what guys are capable of,” he said, describing preseason as a platform to test players in different roles and pressures. The coach acknowledged there are immediate decisions to be made while balancing longer-term considerations, a theme he echoed after the game by stressing the need to balance the two tracks as the team narrows its roster. “There are immediate decisions and big-picture decisions and we’re trying to balance the two,” Sullivan said.

The game’s dynamics underscored the difference between this outing and Tuesday’s matchup with the Devils, in which the Rangers blew a 4-1 lead in the third period. The Islanders spoiled what looked like a controlled pace for much of the night, capitalizing on moments when the Rangers’ young crews were forced to defend and transition quickly. Garand’s appearance, stepping in for Quick at the midway point, offered a chance to assess his readiness behind a group that is still jockeying for spots. While the result is a preseason mark against an Atlantic rival, the performance of Berard, Perreault and Othmann provided a substantive takeaway for the club’s evaluators: the pipeline is active, and the players are showing promise in higher-leverage roles.

As the slate continues to turn toward the regular season, the Rangers are carrying 48 players, with a significant number of decisions looming ahead of Monday night’s game on Long Island. The organizational calculus remains complex, balancing the goal of creating competition at the NHL level with the need to protect players who can help in deeper rotations or on a future timeline. The coaching staff stressed that while results matter to some degree, the core objective of preseason is to learn more about the players’ ceilings and how they fit within the team’s strategic framework. The early returns suggest the young group already possesses a few compelling building blocks, even if the final roster decisions are still forthcoming.