NY Islanders New-Look Second Line Produces in First Chance

A combination of youth and experience is paying off for the New York Islanders.

Oct 3, 2026; Elmont, New York, USA; New York Islanders center Brayden Schenn (10) celebrates his goal against the New Jersey Devils with teammates during the second period at UBS Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The New York Islanders suffered a 2-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs in their season opener, which led to head coach Peter DeBoer looking to shake things up to generate some more offensive chances.

It certainly paid off. In the home opener at UBS Arena, the Islanders hosted the New Jersey Devils and ran them off the ice, winning 6-0. That kind of offensive outburst is exactly what the head coach was looking for, with six different players scoring a goal and 11 players recording a point.

Four players had multi-point games, including two that are on the new-look second line that DeBoer put together. He is still looking to find the right combination of players to find the most two-way success on the ice, but one trio certainly stood out against the Devils.

Two of the youngest and least experienced players on the roster, right winger Victor Eklund and center Cal Ritchie, shared a line with left winger Brayden Schenn, who is one of the most experienced players.

Islanders second line finding early success

Oct 3, 2026; Elmont, New York, USA; New York Islanders center Brayden Schenn (10) reacts after missing a shot against the New Jersey Devils during the first period at UBS Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

All three of them stuffed the stat sheet. Eklund, who was playing in his third NHL game, recorded the first goal of his career, which also happened to be on his birthday. He added an assist as one of the four multi-point scorers.

A second one was Schenn, who scored the second goal of the night for New York, with the assist from Eklund and star defenseman Matthew Schaefer. The veteran winger was one of two players to then record an assist on Eklund’s goal, along with Ritchie.

Schenn was tied for the team lead with four shots on goal, which Casey Cizikas, Ondrej Palat and Bo Horvat also recorded. The four hits that Schenn handed out tied defenseman Logan Stanley for the team lead. 

A Home Opener to remember.#Isles | @DimeCommercial pic.twitter.com/RlKyGKtPFu

— New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) October 4, 2026

That combination is one that DeBoer will certainly lean into more moving forward, as their debut against New Jersey was incredibly successful. As shared by Hockey Stats, that trio shared the ice for 8:28 and produced an expected goals for of 1.02 and expected goals against of 0.82, with an xGoal Share of 55.4%.

That was the second most productive line combination on the team, with the “fourth line” of Casey Cizikas, Matias Maccelli and Ondrej Palat, with an xGF of 0.46, xGA of 0.08 and xGoal Share of 84.7%.

DeBoer has said he won’t use lines in a traditional sense, mixing and matching depending on who is playing well on a given night. But he will start with some structure to the lineup, and the trio of Eklund, Ritchie and Schenn is one that should get plenty of chances.