Hockey Night In New York - A New York Islanders Podcast · Hockey Night In New York

3/15/26 - Skin of Their Teeth! Guest: Jeremy Rutherford, The Athletic

March 16, 2026·1 hr 19 min·5 clips

Jeremy Rutherford says Braden Shen is the type of player who puts culture and teammates above everything.

Sunday night starts loose. Sean Cuthbert opens from Rockville Center with Arthur Staple beside him, some Tuesday banter, and Jeremy Rutherford set up for Braden Schenn and St. Louis Blues talk. Then the Leafs talk takes over. Toronto is described as sitting at the bottom of the Atlantic, Auston Matthews' season is over, and the whole thing sounds low on answers. Five games feels light to them. The issue is not only Radko Gudas or the hit. It is what happened after Matthews went down. Nobody on Toronto answered for him. That sticks with them more than the suspension debate, because a team with Max Domi and Jake McCabe should not need anyone explaining that part afterward. The problems sound bigger than one play. They get into the wider mess: no prospects coming, Mitch Marner gone, and the chance that Matthews could want out if the summer gets ugly. Poor John Tavares catches the punchline. It is dry, and pretty funny, but the hockey read underneath is real. The Leafs come off like a pressure cooker with not much left to sell. For the Islanders, that matters right away. Sean notes Toronto is next on Tuesday, and Arthur lands on the old line that every game is big now. Yes, it is a cliche. In this stretch, though, it is also true. The next run of Islanders games becomes the test. The show keeps moving: jokes, player-safety logic, roster-collapse speculation, then back to the Islanders before it drifts too far. The close is housekeeping. No show next week, then a March 31 return for the Islanders-Sabres watch party tied to the Buffalo game at Chris and Tony's in Syosset.

As heard by us

A brisk Islanders episode that treats Tuesday in Toronto as the real test.

Sean Cuthbert and Arthur Staple keep the Islanders front and center, even as Jeremy Rutherford joins for a side trip into Braden Shen and the Blues. The conversation then moves to Toronto, Austin Matthews, and what the Islanders need to do on Tuesday.

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Why you'd press play

You want Islanders pressure, Leafs drama, and a pregame read before Tuesday's puck drop.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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