The Islanders' Rivalry Mistress

UBS Arena gets a visit from "the other Rangers."

It's been quite a home stand already.

Last week, the New York Islanders morphed from late-game stumblers to late-game stallions, and the timing couldn't be better, given who comes to town Monday.

Islander fans do not care much for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Check any Leafs internet message board, and you'll see the feeling is mutual. 

Of course, if hockey rivalries are monogamous, then both Toronto and the Isles are spoken for, by the Canadiens and Rangers respectively. But they have had a wild on-again/off-again fling on the side going for decades. It's impressive how just three playoff meetings and one free agent signing – spread spaciously over the course of 45 years – can spring such emotions. 

The Maple Leafs and Islanders have never shared a division. They weren't even in the same conference for 24 years. Only periodically have they had much of anything to do with each other. 

Yet this unlikely rivalry is real.

Why the animosity? 

From an Isles perspective, it's simple. Toronto has delivered three especially bitter disappointments. The 1978 ousting at the hands of Roger Neilson's upstarts is the most shocking upset the Isles ever endured. The butchery of 2002 was ugly and violating. And the departure of John Tavares in 2018 was taken personally.

Which is not to say it's all one-sided. The Nassaumen have gotten their counterpunches in too.

In 1981, Al Arbour's champs avenged the 1978 letdown by sweeping the Buds in three games by a total margin of 20-4. Game Four of the 2002 playoffs, culminating in Shawn Bates's game-winning penalty shot with 2:30 to go, was one of the most exciting matches the two clubs ever played.

After Michael Peca and Kenny Jonsson were injured on "questionable" hits by Darcy Tucker and Gary Roberts in the next game, the Islanders answered by physically pummeling the entire Toronto lineup in Game Six and again in the first meeting the following season amid thunderous chants of "We Want Tucker!" from the bloodthirsty Coliseum crowd.

And, of course, the Tavares story cannot be told without the unbelievable response by the team and community he left behind. 

The only thing better than Mat Barzal's hat trick in Scotiabank Arena on Dec. 29, 2018, was the atmosphere at the downsized Coliseum before and during JT's return on Feb. 28, 2019, one of the most unique and incredible regular season sporting events imaginable. 

On Monday, he's back as a Leaf for the seventh time, and the reaction never gets old.

Toronto comes with its full arsenal of playmakers in good health, while the Isles remain without two of their top defenders, Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock. 

But Lane Lambert's lads have been stingy of late – 7-1-2 over the past three weeks – and as has been shown before, anything can happen in an Islanders-Maple Leafs game. 

So brush off those flannel pajamas and your No. 91 jersey with the nameplate covered in medical tape. And rest your voice. Perhaps by night's end, you'll be singing another encore of "We Don't Need You." 

Just don't let the Rangers find out you've been hating someone else.