(Photo credit: Talia Sprague-Imagn Images)

The New York Islanders and Utah Mammoth are in far better position entering 2026 than most people could have anticipated at the start of the NHL season -- and also a little dissatisfied with how they ended 2025.

The Islanders and Mammoth will each hit the midway point of their season Thursday, when New York faces Utah in a New Year's Day clash in Elmont, N.Y.

The Islanders last played Tuesday, when they frittered away an early two-goal lead before beating the host Chicago Blackhawks, 3-2, in the shootout. The Mammoth have been off since Monday, when they squandered a third-period lead in a 4-3 loss to the visiting Nashville Predators.

Despite a spate of injuries and a lengthy offensive slump, the Islanders went 9-4-1 in December and will enter the new year three points behind the first-place Carolina Hurricanes in the Metropolitan Division.

New York lost right winger Kyle Palmieri (left knee) and defenseman Alexander Romanov (right shoulder) to season-ending surgeries in November and played five games in December without leading scorer Bo Horvat (lower-body injury).

The Islanders have scored three goals or fewer in eight straight games, a span in which they've gone 4-3-1. New York has played the last five games without starting goalie Ilya Sorokin, who is sidelined with an unspecified injury. David Rittich has gone 3-1-1 in his absence.

But perhaps aware of how thin the margin of error is in the parity-ridden NHL, the Islanders weren't thrilled by nearly squandering two points against the Blackhawks, whose 35 points entering Wednesday were tied for the second-fewest in the league.

'I thought we had a really good first,' said Horvat, who scored the Islanders' second goal and the only one in the shootout. 'After that, I just think our whole team just sat back a little bit too much. We weren't as crisp in the second. I thought we did a little bit better in the third, but overall, I think we can be a lot better as a team.'

The Mammoth are in a similar spot after ending the calendar year with 11 losses in the final 17 games (6-11-0). Utah, which missed the playoffs by seven points last season following the franchise's move from Arizona, will enter Thursday two points out of a wild-card spot in the Western Conference.

The Utah/Arizona franchise hasn't made the playoffs since the pandemic bubble in 2020, when the Coyotes beat the Predators in the qualifying round before falling to the Colorado Avalanche. The Coyotes last qualified for the postseason in a full campaign in 2011-12.

The Mammoth emerged as a contender by going on a seven-game winning streak from Oct. 15-26. But Utah has won consecutive games just three times since, a span in which it has endured four losing streaks of at least three games.

The Mammoth have scored three goals or fewer in 24 of the last 31 games. They have been shut out three times since Nov. 29 and lost the following game each time. Utah responded to a 1-0 loss to the NHL-leading Colorado Avalanche on Dec. 23 by taking a trio of one-goal leads Monday before Steven Stamkos scored the tying and go-ahead goals in a span of 1:38 in the third period for Nashville.

'As they say, you have to learn from your mistakes and not repeat them,' Mammoth defenseman Mikhail Sergachev said. ' ... There's (going to) be some lapses and stuff, but we've got to get into it and play much better there in the crucial last 10 minutes of the game.'

--Field Level Media