ISLES THUMP RANGERS, FOR OPENERS

Brock Nelson, Anders Lee and Mathew Barzal scored in the opening period and the Islanders beat the Rangers, 4-0, in the season opener at the Garden Thursday night.

Semyon Varlamov stopped 24 shots for his 28th career shutout and third with the Islanders. Defenseman Nick Leddy added two assists.

“We know how important points are in a shortened season, we wanted to come out and play well,” Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. “I thought our whole bench was moving their legs and doing all the right things.”

Igor Shesterkin stopped 29 shots as the Rangers fell in the first of eight games between the rivals. Alexis Lafreniere, the first overall selection of the 2020 draft, made his debut and recorded one shot in 15:27 minutes of ice time.

“It was a good lesson for our young group in patient hockey and what it takes to win at this level,” Rangers alternate captain Chris Kreider said. “That’s a very detailed team, they don’t give you a whole lot. Anything you get, you got to earn. I think we relied a little too much on our East-West play, too much on our skill. … That’s a very good team, but we definitely didn’t play well.”

Barzal capped off the three-goal first period with an impressive stick-handling maneuver before sending the puck past Shesterkin. The Islanders signed Barzal to a threeyear contract earlier this month worth a reported $21 million. The 23-year-old center has led the Islanders in scoring in each of his three NHL seasons.

Nelson scored his first of the season 2:33 into the first period on the power play. Anthony Beauvillier’s shot deflected off Adam Fox’s skate to Nelson in the slot for an early Islanders lead.

“When you get that close like we did last season, it makes you just want to get back to that spot and take that next step,” Lee said in reference to last season’s playoff run to the Eastern Conference final. “You can’t just get there, you have to play a whole regular season and put all the work in. It started with that mentality tonight, we got a long way to go. We have a great foundation to build off of.”