ELMONT, NY — There are still good days and bad days for Kyle Palmieri after tearing his ACL 10-and-a-half months ago, but Tuesday night at UBS Arena was an exceptionally good night.
The New York Islanders’ veteran winger scored twice — his first two goals of the season and his first tallies since Nov. 18, 2025 — including the game-winner in a 3-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks.
“It’s been such a process getting back here,” Palmieri said. “Just stepping on the ice for the first day of training camp was emotional. To be able to put one in, I don’t know how long it’s been — 11 months or so since the last goal — it feels good. It always feels good.”
With the game tied at two 5:38 into the third period, the puck moved behind the Canucks net after a driving Matthew Schaefer effort, where Matias Maccelli — who also scored his first goal as an Islander earlier in the evening — found Palmieri between the circles. His wrister got through a couple of Vancouver defenders and squeaked through the armpit of netminder Leevi Merilainen.
With his arms extended to his side, he skated backward calmly into the right boards in a muted celebration that exuded relief after going goal-less in New York’s first five games.
“There’s a lot on my plate coming back,” Palmieri admitted. “It was a long time. I’m not the youngest guy to be coming back from an injury, so I knew it was gonna take time, and it’s still a process for me that I’m learning something about my body every day.”
At 35 years old, Palmieri admitted that the not-so-good days of life after this injury make him feel like his age and that he’s “been playing for a while.”
“But when you add the knee into it, you just don’t feel all that great,” he continued. “But you take a look around during the course of the season and feeling 100% isn’t really an option. So I think it’s something that I just have to keep on and take it day by day.”
The fact that he had not scored until Tuesday night admittedly had Palmieri feeling “a little bit down on himself,” as head coach Pete DeBoer described it.
“Everything he’s going through is normal,” the bench boss added. “The fact that he’s not 25 makes that process even a little bit tougher… It was nice for him to get rewarded tonight.”
The Islanders (3-3-0) scored twice in 53 seconds late in the first period to take a commanding 2-0 lead. Palmieri got that elusive first goal when he deflected a Matt Kessel shot from the point over Merilainen with 5:03 left in the first.
Kessel, drawn into the lineup for Scott Mayfield, was making his Islanders debut after 99 career games with the St. Louis Blues.
Maccelli responded with his first as an Islander with 4:10 to go. Receiving the puck from Schaefer, listing to the left circle, and firing a wrister past Merilainen’s blocker.
“He was phenomenal tonight,” Islanders captain Bo Horvat said of Maccelli. “He was making plays, obviously had a great goal, made a heck of a pass to Palms. He was all around it, so fun to watch.”
But the Islanders backed off in the second period, and with it, chased the Canucks throughout a second period that saw the visitors tie it. Max Sasson beat Ilya Sorokin from the left circle at the 7:52 mark before Brock Boeser’s power-play one-timer equalized with 1:05 remaining in the frame.
After the Islanders killed off a Tony DeAngelo unsportsmanlike conduct penalty at the very start of the third, the tide began to turn thanks to Schaefer driving the offense forward, and Palmieri ultimately was able to put the game away.
“I was so happy for him,” Horvat said. “It’s not easy to go what he went through, and I just saw a lot of the hard work that he put in to get back to where he is right now. To finally see him get rewarded for it was really special.”
For more on Kyle Palmieri and the Islanders, visit AMNY.com
