New York Islanders: Three Better Options for NBC Games to Broadcast

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 15: Brock Nelson #29 of the New York Islanders and Fredrik Claesson #33 of the New York Rangers battle during the second period at the Barclays Center on November 15, 2018 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

New York Rangers @ Barclays Center | January 16th

NBC Game that night: N/A

Want an inter-divisional game that means something? Get a Rangers versus Islanders game. Every time these two meet it’s a dramatic affair. Both teams – and their fans – have hated each other since 1972.

To this day, Rangers fans still chant “Potvin sucks” after Rangers Ulf Nilsson was injured following a hit by the legendary Islanders defender. And they don’t just chant that at Rangers-Islanders games, they chat “Potvin sucks” for every home game. For crying out loud they have a website dedicated to the nonsense. It’s good TV when the two New York teams play.

It’s a hate-filled encounter thanks to decades of built-up animosity.

But being divisional rivals, they face each other more than once during the season (four times to be exact). So why this game in particular?

Because this is the second time they’ll play each other in four nights. The proceedings should get downright nasty with such a short break between encounters.

And with nothing else on the schedule that night it would make perfect sense to have this game on their schedule. I’m not sure how NBC missed this one. Maybe there are some TV rights shenanigans that muddy the waters here. Because this seems like a slam dunk.