Featured Post

The Skinny: Carolina 6, Isles 3 (Carolina wins series 4-1)

"The Skinny" By Eric Hornick Eastern Conference Round 1, Game 5 Carolina 6, Isles 3 Carolina Wins Series 4-1 School is out. Jack D...

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Stat Trick

An ugly game produces an interesting stat trick...

1. Carolina's 8 goals tied the club record for most goals since relocating from Hartford. (The Whalers scored 11 goals three times) It also equaled the most goals that the franchise has ever scored against the Isles (Hartford 8, Isles 2 in March 1989)

2. It's the worst home loss of the Nolan era. The Isles last lost by at least five goals at home on Jan 14, 2006 (8-1 to Vancouver)

3. Rod Brind'Amour now has three career hat tricks and two of them are against the Isles. Brind'Amour was the last 'Cane to record a hat trick against the Isles, on January 7, 2001. Brind'Amour now has 414 career goals, including 40 in 80 games played against the Islanders.


Forever1940 is the nom de plume of FSN statistician Eric Hornick. Eric, who has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, celebrated his 25th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2007. Often referred to on-air as an actuary, he is one of 2,920 Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is the President of the Casualty Actuaries of Greater NY. You can find him in the "Best Seat in the House", about six feet to Howie and Billy's left, at most Islander home games. For more on the actuarial profession, visit www.beanactuary.org

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

October to remember?

As the Isles continue to enjoy this really long break (they've played as many games as the Rockies have this month - 8), a couple of notes on the month:

The Isles have clinched a winning record for the second straight October (5-3-0 with 1 to play this year after going 5-4-2 last month) -- (winning meaning more points than games played). If the first time they've done it back-2-back since 2000 (4-3-2-0 on their way to a 21-win season) and 2001 (9-0-1-1). Before that, you'd have to go back to the mid 80's to find consecutive winning Octobers.

The Isles will have a winning record at the Coliseum for a fourth consecutive season --they hadn't done that since five straight winning Octobers from 1984 to 1988.

The Isles have six points in their first four home games for the fourth consecutive season. The Isles have won their first four home games twice and gone 3-0-1 three other times, but they haven't done better than six points in the first four at home since October 1984.

If the Isles can beat Carolina Saturday, they'll finish October with 6 wins -- a total reached in October only once (in 2001) since October 1992.



Forever1940 is the nom de plume of FSN statistician Eric Hornick. Eric, who has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, celebrated his 25th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2007. Often referred to on-air as an actuary, he is one of 2,920 Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is the President of the Casualty Actuaries of Greater NY. You can find him in the "Best Seat in the House", about six feet to Howie and Billy's left, at most Islander home games. For more on the actuarial profession, visit www.beanactuary.org

Re: What? A week off?

Just to clarify -- the nine days between games in 1975 referenced below were not scheduled. The Isles and Red Wings were scheduled to play in Detroit on December 26, 1975, but the game was postponed by snow. It is the first of only five games in Isles history to be rescheduled due to weather.

The eight day gap in 1999 is the longest scheduled break in Isles history, ignoring All-Star breaks, Olympics, Challenge Cups, and the 1992 mini-strike.

----- Original Message ----
From: Eric Hornick <forever1940@yahoo.com>
To: islanderfans@yahoogroups.com; IslesList <isles-list@replayer.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2007 9:33:55 PM
Subject: What? A week off?

This bizarre schedule to start the season continues with the Isles now having an entire week off before hosting Carolina on Saturday night. It's not the longest in-season break the Isles have ever had, but it is one of the longest, particularly after you discount All-Star breaks, Olympics, Challenge Cups, and the 1992 mini-strike.

In 1999, the Isles opened the season in Tampa on October 2 and then didn't play again until hosting Colorado on October 10.

The longest break was over Christmas 1975, when the Isles went 9 days between games.


The Hurricanes btw will play three other games in the interim (Mon-Vancouver, Wed- Buffalo, Fri - Montreal, all at home) before journeying to Long Island.


Forever1940 is the nom de plume of FSN statistician Eric Hornick. Eric, who has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, celebrated his 25th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2007. Often referred to on-air as an actuary, he is one of 2,920 Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is the President of the Casualty Actuaries of Greater NY. You can find him in the "Best Seat in the House", about six feet to Howie and Billy's left, at most Islander home games. For more on the actuarial profession, visit www.beanactuary.org

Sunday, October 21, 2007

What? A week off?

This bizarre schedule to start the season continues with the Isles now having an entire week off before hosting Carolina on Saturday night. It's not the longest in-season break the Isles have ever had, but it is one of the longest, particularly after you discount All-Star breaks, Olympics, Challnege Cups, and the 1992 mini-strike.

In 1999, the Isles opened the season in Tampa on October 2 and then didn't play again until hosting Colorado on October 10.

The longest break was over Christmas 1975, when the Isles went 9 days between games.


The Hurricanes btw will play three other games in the interim (Mon-Vancouver, Wed- Buffalo, Fri - Montreal, all at home) before journeying to Long Island.


Forever1940 is the nom de plume of FSN statistician Eric Hornick. Eric, who has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, celebrated his 25th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2007. Often referred to on-air as an actuary, he is one of 2,920 Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is the President of the Casualty Actuaries of Greater NY. You can find him in the "Best Seat in the House", about six feet to Howie and Billy's left, at most Islander home games. For more on the actuarial profession, visit www.beanactuary.org

Stat Trick

1. Coming 48 hours after he became the first Islander captain to record a hat trick in 13 years, Bill Guerin is the first Islander captain to score in overtime since Michael Peca scored with 9 seconds left in overtime in Philadelphia on February 12, 2002 for a 1-0 Islander victory and a shutout for GM Garth Snow. (Yashin also scored in ot that season, but never did so as the captain)

2. Guerin's goal, at 4:56 of overtime, is the latest goal the Islanders ever scored in overtime in a regular season game, breaking a record set by Stefan Persson (4:54) in the Isles' second overtime victory, in 1983. Anaheim's Peter Douris scored against the Isles at 4:59 of overtime in November of 1995.

3. The Islanders have eight "pure" overtime wins over the Devils, plus three more in shootouts. They're "after 60" record is 11-7-16 vs. the Devils, and have more ot goals (8) and ot/so wins (11) against NJ than any other opponent.


Forever1940 is the nom de plume of FSN statistician Eric Hornick. Eric, who has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, celebrated his 25th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2007. Often referred to on-air as an actuary, he is one of 2,920 Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is the President of the Casualty Actuaries of Greater NY. You can find him in the "Best Seat in the House", about six feet to Howie and Billy's left, at most Islander home games. For more on the actuarial profession, visit www.beanactuary.org

Friday, October 19, 2007

Special "Special Teams"

(thru Thursday)

The Islanders' special teams are off to a terrific start.

The Isles currently rank third on the powerplay and tied for fourth on the penalty kill.

Add it together, and their percentage is 115.8 -- by far tops in the NHL.

(a percentage of 100 would mean that you were scoring pp goals at the same percentage that you were allowing pp goals - the Isles finished 99.9% last season)

TeamPP%PK%Combined
New York Islanders25.890.0115.8
Columbus Blue Jackets20.092.6112.6
Boston Bruins28.681.8110.4
Philadelphia Flyers23.186.2109.3
Nashville Predators20.088.9108.9
St. Louis Blues16.791.7108.4
Detroit Red Wings23.884.4108.2
Ottawa Senators15.891.9107.7
Carolina Hurricanes26.580.6107.1
Vancouver Canucks25.781.3107.0
Montreal Canadiens25.079.3104.3
Pittsburgh Penguins24.180.0104.1
Florida Panthers19.484.2103.6
Dallas Stars18.884.8103.6
Colorado Avalanche17.286.2103.4
Buffalo Sabres21.981.0102.9
New York Rangers15.883.999.7
San Jose Sharks16.782.499.1
Los Angeles Kings22.076.298.2
Minnesota Wild4.590.094.5
Tampa Bay Lightning16.777.394.0
Anaheim Ducks13.280.493.6
Toronto Maple Leafs11.481.592.9
Chicago Blackhawks16.175.992.0
Calgary Flames20.070.790.7
New Jersey Devils21.169.090.1
Phoenix Coyotes14.375.089.3
Washington Capitals12.575.087.5
Edmonton Oilers3.781.585.2
Atlanta Thrashers12.170.582.6


Forever1940 is the nom de plume of FSN statistician Eric Hornick. Eric, who has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, celebrated his 25th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2007. Often referred to on-air as an actuary, he is one of 2,920 Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is the President of the Casualty Actuaries of Greater NY. You can find him in the "Best Seat in the House", about six feet to Howie and Billy's left, at most Islander home games. For more on the actuarial profession, visit www.beanactuary.org

Re: [isles-list] Guerin's hat tricks

I asked the Isles to follow-up with Elias on this note early this morning--don't know whether or not this was the result, but one thing is certain --it was a record setting performance for Guerin.


From Elias:

<<
Bill Guerin scored his first three goals for the Islanders in their 5-2 win over the Capitals in Washington on Thursday night. It was the ninth regular-season hat trick of Guerin's NHL career. The Islanders are the sixth different team for which Guerin has recorded a regular-season hat trick, an NHL record. He's also scored three goals in a game for the Devils (once), Bruins (twice), Stars (three times), Blues (once) and Sharks (once).

Guerin's only hat trick in the playoffs was for not for any of the six teams for which he's had one in the regular season. He scored three goals for the Oilers in a playoff game on April 18, 2000.

Four players have had a regular-season hat trick for five different NHL teams: Eddie Shack, Ivan Boldirev, Tony McKegney and Brendan Shanahan.
>>


----- Original Message ----
From: "Kirshy, Richard" <Richard.Kirshy@LibertyMutual.com>
To: isles-list@list.replayer.com
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2007 8:24:52 AM
Subject: RE: [isles-list] Guerin's hat tricks

10 hat tricks (including the playoff one) for seven different teams.
Let's hope he gets a few more with us :)

-----Original Message-----
From: root@list.replayer.com [mailto:root@list.replayer.com] On Behalf
Of Eric Hornick
Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2007 10:43 PM
To: islanderfans@yahoogroups.com; IslesList
Subject: [isles-list] Guerin's hat tricks

1. for New Jersey at Buffalo - 12/31/96
2. for Boston at Carolina - 1/2/02
3 for Boston vs Columbus - 2/4/02
4. for Dallas vs Calgary 10/29/03
5. for Dallas vs Nashville 11/2/03
6. for Dallas vs Columbus 3/3/04
7. for St. Louis vs San Jose 2/13/07
8. for San Jose vs Chicago 3/13/07
9. for ISLANDERS at Washington 10/18/07

Guerin also recorded a hat trick for Edmonton in the playoffs against
Dallas on 418/00


Forever1940 is the nom de plume of FSN statistician Eric Hornick. Eric,
who has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, celebrated his 25th
anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January
21, 2007. Often referred to on-air as an actuary, he is one of 2,920
Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is the President of the
Casualty Actuaries of Greater NY. You can find him in the "Best Seat in
the House", about six feet to Howie and Billy's left, at most Islander
home games. For more on the actuarial profession, visit
www.beanactuary.org

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Guerin's hat tricks

1. for New Jersey at Buffalo - 12/31/96
2. for Boston at Carolina - 1/2/02
3 for Boston vs Columbus - 2/4/02
4. for Dallas vs Calgary 10/29/03
5. for Dallas vs Nashville 11/2/03
6. for Dallas vs Columbus 3/3/04
7. for St. Louis vs San Jose 2/13/07
8. for San Jose vs Chicago 3/13/07
9. for ISLANDERS at Washington 10/18/07

Guerin also recorded a hat trick for Edmonton in the playoffs against Dallas on 418/00


Forever1940 is the nom de plume of FSN statistician Eric Hornick. Eric, who has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, celebrated his 25th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2007. Often referred to on-air as an actuary, he is one of 2,920 Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is the President of the Casualty Actuaries of Greater NY. You can find him in the "Best Seat in the House", about six feet to Howie and Billy's left, at most Islander home games. For more on the actuarial profession, visit www.beanactuary.org

Stat Trick -- Bill Guerin edition

1. Bill Guerin's hat trick, the ninth of his career, is the Islanders first-ever at the Verizon Center. Derek King had the Isles' last hat trick in Landover--on New Year's Day, 1992.

2. Guerin's hat trick is the first by an Islander captain since Patrick Flatley had a hat trick against San Jose on February 1, 1994. (Yashin had two hat tricks as an Isle, but both came before he was named captain.)

3. Guerin is the first Islander to collect his first three goals as an Islander all in one game since Pat LaFontaine recorded a hat trick in his second professional game, an 11-6 blowout of the Leafs on March 3, 1984.

and one more:

4. Guerin turned his trick in his 7th game as an Isle - fewer games than anyone since LaFontaine. It's the second straight season that the Isles had a player in his first season with the team record a hat trick - Viktor Kozlov did so last December at MSG, scoring four time.



Forever1940 is the nom de plume of FSN statistician Eric Hornick. Eric, who has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, celebrated his 25th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2007. Often referred to on-air as an actuary, he is one of 2,920 Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is the President of the Casualty Actuaries of Greater NY. You can find him in the "Best Seat in the House", about six feet to Howie and Billy's left, at most Islander home games. For more on the actuarial profession, visit www.beanactuary.org

THirty years ago tonight...

(I sent this earlier today, but it never made it through)

Chico Resch and Rogatien Vachon both earn shutouts as the Islanders play the first scoreless tie in their history, before 12,254 against the Kings at the Coliseum. Resch stopped 28 shots and Vachon stopped 41. (Chico would be involved in two other scoreless ties, about three weeks apart, in 1980)

In another NY-LA game about thirty miles away, some guy named Reggie hit three home runs to lead the Yankees to the World Championship.


Forever1940 is the nom de plume of FSN statistician Eric Hornick. Eric, who has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, celebrated his 25th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2007. Often referred to on-air as an actuary, he is one of 2,920 Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is the President of the Casualty Actuaries of Greater NY. You can find him in the "Best Seat in the House", about six feet to Howie and Billy's left, at most Islander home games. For more on the actuarial profession, visit www.beanactuary.org

Friday, October 12, 2007

Fw: [isles-list] Stat Trick

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of FSN statistician Eric Hornick. Eric, who has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, celebrated his 25th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2007. Often referred to on-air as an actuary, he is one of 2,920 Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is the President of the Casualty Actuaries of Greater NY. You can find him in the "Best Seat in the House", about six feet to Howie and Billy's left, at most Islander home games. For more on the actuarial profession, visit www.beanactuary.org


----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Eric Hornick <forever1940@yahoo.com>
To: islanderfans@yahoogroups.com; IslesList <isles-list@replayer.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 11:40:34 PM
Subject: [isles-list] Stat Trick

That was ugly. But ugly games make for interesting stats, like these:

1. The 8-1 loss is the worst in the Ted Nolan era, and the Isles' worst since a loss by the same score to Vancouver at the Coliseum in January, 2006. The Isles hadn't lost a road game by 7 goals since January 30, 1999 (9-2 loss in Ottawa).

2 The seven goal defeat is also the Islanders' worst ever to Toronto. The previous most-lopsided loss to the Leafs was a 7-2 defeat at Maple Leaf Gardens on March 7, 1987.

3. The Leafs lost their previous game (to Carolina) 7-1. Thus, the Leafs improved by 13 goals (6 goal loss to 7-goal win margin) over their previous game. The Isles have never done that -- their best turnaround is 12 goals, happening twice (in 1972, in the 8th and 9th game of their history, and again in 1979).

Perhaps however this was to be expected--
The Isles played their first five games in only seven days -- the first time in their history they've ever started a season with that condensed of a schedule. In October 1980 and January 1995 the Isles opened the season with five games in eight days. (It will be six games in nine days Saturday -- which will equal the most condensed first half-dozen).

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of FSN statistician Eric Hornick. Eric, who has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, celebrated his 25th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2007. Often referred to on-air as an actuary, he is one of 2,920 Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is the President of the Casualty Actuaries of Greater NY. You can find him in the "Best Seat in the House", about six feet to Howie and Billy's left, at most Islander home games. For more on the actuarial profession, visit www.beanactuary.org

Fw: [isles-list] Schedule oddities

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of FSN statistician Eric Hornick. Eric, who has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, celebrated his 25th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2007. Often referred to on-air as an actuary, he is one of 2,920 Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is the President of the Casualty Actuaries of Greater NY. You can find him in the "Best Seat in the House", about six feet to Howie and Billy's left, at most Islander home games. For more on the actuarial profession, visit www.beanactuary.org


----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Eric Hornick <forever1940@yahoo.com>
To: islanderfans@yahoogroups.com; IslesList <isles-list@replayer.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 11:52:38 PM
Subject: [isles-list] Schedule oddities

The Isles played their first five games in only seven days -- the first time in their history they've ever started a season with that condensed of a schedule. In October 1980 and January 1995 the Isles opened the season with five games in eight days. (It will be six games in nine days Saturday -- which will equal the most condensed first half-dozen).

After Saturday's game, the Isles will play only three times in the next eighteen days (Oct 18, Oct 20, Oct 27).
It will mark the fewest games that the Isles have played in any eighteen game stretch in their history (excluding the late season 1992 strike and the three Olympics).

One has to wonder how the Isles got straddled with such a strange schedule. In fact, the Isles are playing only nine games this month - fewest of any team in the League.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of FSN statistician Eric Hornick. Eric, who has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, celebrated his 25th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2007. Often referred to on-air as an actuary, he is one of 2,920 Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is the President of the Casualty Actuaries of Greater NY. You can find him in the "Best Seat in the House", about six feet to Howie and Billy's left, at most Islander home games. For more on the actuarial profession, visit www.beanactuary.org