Takeaways: Islanders Drop Season Opener to Maple Leafs 2-1
Emil Heineman scores shorthanded goal, but Islanders can't climb out of early 2-0 deficit
Emil Heineman scores shorthanded goal, but Islanders can't climb out of early 2-0 deficit
By Cory Wright NewYorkIslanders.com October 01, 2026 Link copied The New York Islanders season started off on a losing note, falling 2-1 to the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday night.
Emil Heineman scored a shorthanded goal with 5:51 to play, but it was not enough for the Isles to overcome a 2-0 deficit on first period goals by Colton Sissons and Easton Cowan (PPG). Ilya Sorokin stopped 24 of 26 shots in the loss, while Anthony Stolarz stopped 26 of 27 in the win for the Maple Leafs.
“We battled the entire 60 minutes,” Head Coach Pete DeBoer said. “There’s lots of things to work on, lots of things I liked. It’s hard to win on the road in this league and especially when you put yourself in a 2-0 hole.”
As DeBoer said, there were positives and negatives to pull after the game. Defensively, the Islanders held the high-octane Maple Leafs to eight high danger chances at five-on-five (per Natural Stat Trick), but allowed two goals on plays around the net, an area DeBoer said the team needs to improve.
Both goals came on somewhat bad bounces for the Islanders, who found themselves scrambling after a Tony DeAngelo pass caromed off a skate, leading to Sissons deflecting a slap pass from Nick Paul at 7:14. Cowan cleaned up a Jack Roslovic rebound for a power-play goal at 11:55 of the first period, moments after Morgan Rielly batted a Ryan Pulock clearing attempt out of the air.
“There was some stuff we want to tighten up in our zone,” Heineman said. “They had too many chances down low in front and in the inside slot, so it’s something we’ll have to figure out for Saturday.”
Aside from that, the Isles really didn’t give up a bevy of grade-A chances to Auston Matthews and company – a “world class top six according to DeBoer – keeping the game relatively low event at even strength after the opening 20 minutes.