WESTBURY, N.Y. (AP) — When Peter DeBoer took over as coach of the New York Islanders near the end of last season, his runway of four games was not long enough to make the playoffs in a last-ditch effort.
Players did get a small taste of what DeBoer is like. Now, reigning rookie of the year Matthew Schaefer, new captain Bo Horvat and the rest of their teammates will get the full effect of life playing for DeBoer when training camp opens later this week.
“He can just lay his foundation and what he wants for the year, lay (out) what exactly we need to do to be successful right away,” Horvat said Monday at the team's annual charity golf tournament. “Get a good training camp under our belt and kind of know what the game plan is going into Game 1. He’s very good at making things very clear. There’s no gray area, and things are black and white.”
DeBoer, 58, brings his 17 seasons of NHL coaching experience to his first camp on Long Island. This is his chance to mold the Islanders in his image.
“We need to establish a foundation and an identity," DeBoer said. "That’s always the goal of a coaching staff: What’s going to be the identity of this year’s team? What are we going to hang our hat on? How are we going to win games? That’s on us as coaches to implement that and players to buy in.”
New York last season looked to be solidly in playoff position in mid-March before losing 10 of 14 games down the stretch and plummeting down the standings. Schaefer, the face of the franchise who became one of hockey's top defensemen at age 18, called missing out unacceptable and believes people are now doubting the Islanders.
“I love when haters hate because we’re going to do our thing,” said Schaefer, who turned 19 on Sept. 5. “We don’t care what anyone else says because, at the end of the day, we’re a family and we’re worried about what we’re going to do. So, I’m super excited to have a full training camp with Pete and just get going because I think we have so much to show.”
DeBoer has a proven track record to that effect. He has coached two teams to the Stanley Cup Final — New Jersey in 2012 and San Jose in 2016 — and two others to the conference finals — Vegas and Dallas — each multiple times.
“We’re excited,” said winger Kyle Palmieri, who is returning from a torn ACL in his left knee. "It’s an exciting opportunity for our group to really wrap our heads around the way he wants to play and the way we’re going to need to play to be successful.”
The departure of longtime captain Anders Lee in free agency created a void, and Horvat — who held that role in Vancouver — got the call from DeBoer to tell him the role is his. DeBoer was an assistant on Canada's staff when Horvat played at the Olympics, and that preexisting relationship contributed to the move.
“I’m not going to say it was an easy decision, but it was a fairly easy decision," DeBoer said. "At the Olympics, I got to spend three weeks with him there, saw him first-hand every day how he operates, what he’s about. I had a real comfort level with what he was going to bring in that spot. He’s going to have fantastic support around him with the other people we have there.”
See AP’s full NHL coverage here
FILE - New York Islanders new head coach Peter DeBoer speaks after an NHL hockey game against the Carolina Hurricanes, April 14, 2026, in Elmont, N.Y. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump's bid to restrict mail ballots for the midterm elections, capping a flurry of last-minute legal action with voting already underway.
The decision allows states to continue sending out mail ballots under the same processes they’ve used for years and have accounted for nearly a third of votes cast.
It represented a stark defeat for Trump on an issue he consistently has emphasized as vital to ensuring election integrity even though there is virtually no evidence of fraud with mail ballots.
The Supreme Court majority did not detail its reasoning, as is typical for its emergency docket. Two justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, publicly dissented from the brief order.
The Trump administration had asked the court, once again at the center of a roiling political controversy, to clear the way for restrictions before the pivotal November contests for control of Congress.
Alito wrote in his dissent that the Postal Service “has broad authority to regulate the mail” and likely does have the power to enforce Trump's restrictions.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed that the restrictions should not go into effect for the midterms but indicated he might rule in favor of the Trump administration if the issue comes back before the court at a later time.
Election officials have said there was simply no way to carry out a complete overhaul in the weeks before the midterms. Indeed, Alabama, North Carolina and Wisconsin began sending mail ballots to voters over the past week while the new system was still not active.
The administration’s efforts had the potential to be especially disruptive in states like Washington and Oregon that send out ballots entirely by mail.
“Washington’s election workers are already hard at work preparing to carry out a safe, secure, and accurate election,” Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said in a written statement. “Now, that work continues without having to upend our election processes to meet unrealistic ballot mail requirements.”
In Colorado, where voters also cast ballots almost entirely by mail, Secretary of State Jena Griswold called the court’s ruling “a major victory for Colorado and American democracy. Mail ballots have been protected for Colorado voters.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Trump administration plan would require states to adopt a uniform envelope style and submit lists of eligible voters to an online portal. The Postal Service could refuse to deliver ballots to states that didn’t comply.
A whistleblower report, though, said the postal system’s requirements could lead to millions of mail ballots never being sent, because the portal wasn’t properly built and a single bar code error could result in an entire batch of ballots being tossed out.
Democratic state officials and voting rights groups challenged the restrictions in court, arguing that the president has no constitutional authority to set election rules that would “virtually eliminate mail voting on the eve of a major election."
Lower courts agreed and blocked Trump’s plan, including a preliminary injunction issued by a judge nominated by the president.
But the Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that federal control of the Postal Service allows them to set rules for mail ballot handling and that compliance was possible.
The federal government won an early procedural decision at the Supreme Court, but the justices pointedly did not decide the legality of the plan.
Trump has long opposed mail voting and falsely blamed it for his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, even though he often uses that method to cast his own ballot, including as recently as this year.
FILE - Election worker Wendy Wimer looks through vote-by-mail ballots for the presidential primary election, March 12, 2024, at the Clark County Elections Office in Vancouver, Wash. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)
