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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...

Friday, February 29, 2008

Happy Leap Day!

While the Isles are idle today, they have played four previous times on Leap Day.

29-Feb-84@Winnipeg 4 3 W
29-Feb-92VsNew Jersey 1 3 L
29-Feb-96@Detroit 1 5 L
29-Feb-04VsPittsburgh 2 3 Lot

The only success came in 1984; Pat LaFontaine and Patrick Flatley both made their NHL debuts in that game.


Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Re: Which way will they go?

22 days later, not much has changed...other than the deadline has passed.

11    Vancouver Canucks       63    32   22   9   73
12          Boston Bruins       62    33   23   6   72
13    New York Rangers       64    32   24   8   72
14    Colorado Avalanche       65    33   26   6   72
15    Nashville Predators       65    32   25   8   72
16            Buffalo Sabres       64    31   24   9   71
17    Carolina Hurricanes       66    33   28   5   71
18    Philadelphia Flyers       63    31   25   7   69
19    Phoenix Coyotes       64    32   27   5   69
20    New York Islanders       64    30   27   7   67
21  Columbus Blue Jackets       65    29   27   9   67
22    Chicago Blackhawks       63    30   27   6   66
23    St Louis Blues            63    28   25   10   66
24    Washington Capitals       64    29   27   8   66
25    Toronto Maple Leafs       65    28   28   9   65
26    Florida Panthers       66    28   30   8   64
27    Edmonton Oilers       64    29   30   5   63
28    Atlanta Thrashers       64    29   31   4   62
29    Tampa Bay Lightning       63    25   31   7   57
30    Los Angeles Kings       64    26   34   4   56

6 more points would have meant a tie for 10th....6 fewer points would mean 28th.

The Isles would own the 11th pick today -- they've had that pick only once -- Pat Ptrice in 1975.


 Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.


----- Original Message ----
From: Eric Hornick <forever1940@yahoo.com>
To: islanderfans@yahoogroups.com; IslesList <isles-list@replayer.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 6, 2008 10:05:24 AM
Subject: Which way will they go?

"You're either rebuilding for something special, or you're on the verge of something special. To be in between is foolish."
--Billy Beane

The Islanders are clearly not on the second group.  Will they make sure that they place themselves in the first?

16 Boston Bruins              53 27 21 5 59
17 Vancouver Canucks      54 26 21 7 59
18 Columbus Blue Jackets 55 25 23 7 57
19 Carolina Hurricanes      56 26 26 4 56
20 Atlanta Thrashers          56 26 26 4 56
21 Buffalo Sabres              52 24 21 7 55
22 St Louis Blues              52 24 21 7 55
23 Washington Capitals      54 25 24 5 55
24 Florida Panthers            55 25 25 5 55
25 New York Islanders        54 24 24 6 54
26 Edmonton Oilers            55 24 26 5 53
27 Chicago Blackhawks      52 23 24 5 51
28 Toronto Maple Leafs      55 21 25 9 51
29 Tampa Bay Lightning      54 22 27 5 49
30 Los Angeles Kings        55 22 30 3 47

Following last night's loss to Anaheim, the Isles are five points behind the eighth place Bruins, and only five points ahead of the 29th place (in the League) Lightning.

With a good run, the Isles could still find themselves in the playoff race, and even in a playoff position.  But is that the best things for the long term health of the franchise?

Probably not.

If the season ended today, the Isles would own the 6th pick in this year's draft.    They've had the sixth pick twice in their history -- Brad Dalgarno was the 6th overall pick in 1985 (the pick was acquired in a trade with Minnesota for Rollie Melanson) but the most famous 6th overall pick was in 1990.

In 1990, the Isles squeezed into the playoffs on the last day of the season (much like 2007, they needed all sorts of things to go right in the season's final days).  When Uwe Krupp scored in overtime for Buffalo (no loser points in those days) to beat the Penguins, it knocked Pittsburgh out of the playoffs, and the Islanders in.  The Isles would lose in 5 games to the Rangers.

The Penguins grabbed Jaromir Jagr with the 5th pick in that summer's draft (following Owen Nolan, Petr Nedved, Keith Primeau and Mike Ricci).  The Isles picked sixth, and Scott Scissons played two NHL games in his career.


Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Stat Trick: Penguins 4, Isles 2

1. Lots of shots: a season high 52 --with every Islander having at least one. It's the first time that the Isles have reached 50 since January 28, 2006 against Boston, when they had 51.

2. Connor James cinched the game for Pittsburgh with his 1st NHL goal.

3. The Penguins lead the season series 4-2, and have won two straight on Long Island. It's the first time that they've won consecutive games in regulation at the Coliseum since a three-game streak from 1995 to 1997.

and a few more...

4. Fedotenko's power play was welcome news for a power play that was 1-5 in the prior four games and 1-20 in the prior five.

5. The loss broke a 4-game home winning streak.

6. The Penguins played the first-half of the game with 16 skaters (including a large stretch with only 15).


Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Stat Trick: Devils 4, Isles 2

All sorts of streaks went out the window as the Devils dominated the third period and beat the Isles 4-2 in Newark.

1. Streaks ended: Six straight wins and 7 straight games with points for both the Isles and DiPietro. Six straight wins against the Devils (including 5 this season).

2. Josef Vasicek's goal gives him points in 6 of the last 7 games [2-6-8]

3. The Devils outshot the Isles 20-4, matching the most shots allowed by the Isles in a period this season. The Devils finished with 42 shots, and every Devil except Michael Rupp had at least one.

...and a few more...

4. Bryan Berard played his 600th NHL game.

5. Fedotenko's goal gives him 6 goals in the last 9 games.

6. The Devils won 36 face-offs to the Islanders' 19. John Madden won 17 of 23 and Patrik Elias won 12 of 16. Madden also had a key shorthanded goal -- the 11th allowed by the Isles this season (most in the NHL).

7. Miro Satan had the only goal in Thursday's win, but was a -3 today.

8. The Devils attracted only their 6th sellout of the season (the Islanders have had 9).

9. The Devils scored both a pp goal and a sh goal, after going 0-14 vs the Isles on the PP in the first five games of the season series.

10. The great Martin Brodeur exceeded the 56,000 mark in career minutes (third all-time) and won his 528th game (23 shy of Patrick Roy's record).

11. Zach Parise picked up another goal and assist against the Isles, giving him 5 points on the Devils' 11 goals against the Isles this season.


Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Stat Trick: Isles 1, Lightning 0

1. Six straight wins for the Isles for the first time (single season) since finishing calendar year 2003 with 6 straight wins. 13 points in the last seven games for the first time since Dec 23 2002-Jan 7 2003[

2. It's the Isles 2nd 1-0 shutout win of the season, after not having a single 1-0 win since 2002. It's only the 13th 1-0 win in Islander history (regular season) and the first at home since October 27, 1998 vs Los Angeles (Salo). Salo had four 1-0 wins in his Islander career; DiPietro is the only other Islander netminder to record two 1-0 victories.

3. Miro Satan now has three goals in four games after recording only one goal since Christmas.

...and a few more...

4. Rick DiPietro has earned a point in seven straight games--tying a career high. He had a seven game winnning streak in 2006 for a career best.

5. The Isles have allowed only 5 goals in their last four games, matching a similar streak in early November.

6. Filling the stat sheet: 4 hits and 4 shots for Trent Hunter; 2 shots and 3 hits for Sean Bergenheim.

7. Martinek and Meyer were on-ice for 5:32 of the 6:00 that the Isles were shorthanded. Tampa managed nine shots on the power play, but (obviously) didn't score.

8. The Isles are now 9-3-1 on the back-ends of back-2-backs, including 6-1-1 in their last eight back-ends. They have four more back-ends to play this season.

9. The Lightning did not score a goal at the Coliseum this season after sweeping the Isles at the Coliseum each of the past two years.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Simon in, Tambellini out

Isles went 14-11-5 in Simon's latest suspension and are 17-13-5 this season when Simon is suspended.

Tambellini returns to Bridgeport still holding a share of the AHL goal scoring lead -- he had 28 minor league markers, tied with Chicago's Brett Sterling. Bridgeport has 3 games/3 days this weekend.


Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Can the Isles make it 6 straight wins?

How hot are the Islanders? This hot.

They've had the liberty of having a day off between each of their five straight wins. Of course when they host Tampa on Thursday it will be back-to-backs for both teams.

If the Isles should beat Tampa on Tuesday that would give them six straight wins in a period just 10 calendar days. How many times has that happened in Islander history?

Only twice.

In 1989-90, the Isles strung together 9 straight wins leading up to the All-Star break. The final six wins came in a ten-day period: Jan 10-19.
In 1981-82, the Isles strung together 15 straight wins to set an NHL record. The final six of those wins also came in a ten-day period: Feb 11-20.


The Isles have been very strong this season on back-ends of back-2-backs, going 8-3-1, including 4-0 when the second game was at home. The losses on the back-end were in Toronto in October, at the Garden in November, and in Ottawa in December. Counting last night, the Isles will play 5 sets of back-to-backs in their final 22 games.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Stat Trick: Isles 3, Capitals 2 (SO)

1. The Isles are now 4-21-3 when trailing after two periods, meaning they've earned 11 points when trailing after 40 minutes. (The Isles are 19-0-1 when leading after two periods) . They've now won consecutive games that they've trailed after 2 periods, and are 2-0-1 in the last three that they trailed heading to the 3rd.

2. The Islanders have won 5 straight games for the first time since winning the final six games of 2003 and have their first six-game point streak (5-0-1) since Feb 19 -Mar 3, 2007. (Both stats single season-- the Isles won their final four games of last season and their first two games of this season)

3. Rick DiPietro has won five straight decisions for the third time in his career. He won 7 straight games in 2006 and won 5 games, with a no decision, in March 2004. Ricky is now 3-2 this season in shootouts and 16-9 in his career.

4. Radek Martinek had a tremendous game, playing 28:17, and being credited his 5 shots. He spent most of the night shadowing Alex Ovechkin and held the sniper without a point. Ovechkin attempted 11 shots, but got only 1 on goal. Four were blocked by the Isles and six others missed the net (including at least two that hit the post).

5. The Islanders blocked 21 shots, including 5 by Bergeron and 5 by Meyer.

6. For the first time since his injury, the Isles really missed Mike Sillinger on faceoffs, dropping 33 of 56 including 11 of 13 to David Steckel. Stechel beat Comrie 8 out of 9; Comrie lost 14 of 21 overall.

7. Mike Green played 33:59 for Washington, including over 11 minutes in both the 2nd and 3rd periods.

8. The Isles get back to NHL .500 on the road with the win (13-13-4).

9. The Isles win the season series 3 games to 1, and 6 points to 4. Under Nolan, the Isles are 3-0-1 in Washington after winning just twice in Washington since 1997. The Isles have held Ovechkin and friends to two goals or fewer in all 8 games under Nolan and in the last 9 games vs Washington overall. Going back further, the Isles are 11-2-1 in their last 14 games against Washington after winning only 1 of the prior 29 and 6 of the prior 42.

10. The Isles are 20-10 in all-time shootouts. Only Dallas, New Jersey and Edmonton have more shootout wins. Only Dallas (26-7) and Tampa Bay (18-7) has a better winning percentage. Comrie's winner was his first shootout goal this season (3 attempts); he is 5 for 14 (35.7%) in his career on shootouts.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

It was 28 years ago...

Friday that the United States hockey team made us all "believe in miracles"

Al Michaels of course had the most famous call, on US television. Don Chevrier, who recently passed away had the ABC radio call.

It turns out there was a third call in the US -- but unless you've seen it on YouTube, you've never heard it.

Give yourself 10 minutes and enjoy this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fztlLwgSFCg

You can also enjoy this interview with Curt Chaplin, who called the game here:

http://fangsbites.blogspot.com/2008/02/interview-with-curt-chaplin.html



Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Monday, February 18, 2008

A year ago...

As they did a year ago, the Islanders played their 60th game on President's Day.

With the win today, the Isles have 63 points in 60 games -- three points fewer than they had last season. In terms of playoffs, their basically in the same position they were last season at this point -- right on the fringe.

Last season, the 66 points put them in a three way tie for 8th place with (you guessed it), Montreal and Toronto.
This season, the 63 points puts them in 10th place, just one point behind Boston and Buffalo.

Note that the Rangers sat three points behind the Isles at this point last season ... both the Islanders and Rangers would make the playoffs.


Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Stat Trick: Isles 3, Sharks 2

If you're going to attend one Islander game next season, I'd pick the President's Day matinee. After last year's thriller against Pittsburgh, the Isles cam through with a huge third period to beat San Jose today. On to the trick:

1. Freddy Meyer now has 2 game winning goals in three games. Prior to Thursday, only Brian Curran had played more games in an Islander uniform without scoring a goal. Meyer also has a three game point streak, and along with Aaron Johnson, was a +3 today.

2. Let's put the comeback in perspective: San Jose had allowed fewer goals on the road than any team in the NHL and was 22-0-2 when leading after two periods, and they expanded the lead to 2-0 before the comeback. The one game Nabokov didn't play in was one of their two ot/so losses. The Isles are now 3-21-3 when trailing after two periods, meaning they've earned 9 points when trailing after 40 minutes. (The Isles are 19-0-1 when leading after two periods)

3. Joe Thornton had SJ's second goal -- he has more points than any NHL player since the 2002-03 season and more points than any player who had not turned 27 before the start of the season. Thornton however was beaten on 11 of 14 faceoffs by Josef Vasicek including two draws in the final 16 seconds.

and a few more...

4. The Islanders had a major power play for the second straight game after not having a major pp in the previous 58 games.

5. It was the Sharks' first visit to Long Island since October 20, 2001 and the Isles first home-ice win over San Jose since February 17 1996.

6. The Islanders have won 4 straight games for the second time this season and have their first five-game point streak (4-0-1) since Feb 19 -Mar 1, 2007. The Isles will head to Washington looking for their first five game winning streak since winning the final six games of 2003. (Both stats single season-- the Isles won their final four games of last season and their first two games of this season)

7. Rick DiPietro has a four game winning streak for the first time since last February. Back-up Wade Dubielewicz had two separate 4-game winning streaks in that period.

8. The Isles finish the season 2-2-1 against the Pacific (all at home) and 3-3-4 against the Western Conference. The Isles went 4-3-3 last season and 6-3-1 in 2005-06 against the West.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Billy Jaffe

Happy to share the word that Billy Jaffe has been nominated for a New York Emmy for his rookie season work on Islander telecasts. (The nomination period is September 1 - August 31)

The nominees are:

ON-CAMERA TALENT: Sports Analyst
Billy Jaffe. October 1, 2006. (FSN New York). Composite.
Joe Micheletti. October 1, 2006. (MSG Network). Composite.
Mark Jackson. November 1, 2006. (YES Network). Composite.
Ron Darling. April 20, 2007. (SportsNet New York). Composite.

The 51st Annual New York Emmy® Awards will be presented at a special black tie gala on Sunday, April 6, 2008 at The Marriott Marquis ~ Times Square. (Ironically that's the last night of the NHL season).

I'm honored that I've worked directly with half the nominees in this category!

Congratulations Billy!

http://www.nynatas.org/attachments/wysiwyg/4/2008NYEMMYNominationsFinalFeb72008.pdf


Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

So whatever became of...

Alexei Yashin?

Not much. Yashin is 15-24-39 in 51 games in the Russian Super League. He's the leading scorer on his team (Yaroslavl Lokomotiv) but is averaging fewer points per game than he did in the NHL.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

President's Day Matinee

The Isles will host their 8th President's Day matinee on Monday. The Isles have won 3, lost 2 and tied 2 others.

17-Feb-92Vs Winnipeg 5 4 Wot
21-Feb-94Vs Washington 4 0 W
17-Feb-97Vs Montreal 1 4 L
15-Feb-99Vs Tampa Bay 3 3 T
21-Feb-00Vs Detroit 0 2 L
16-Feb-04Vs Los Angeles 1 1 T
19-Feb-07Vs Pittsburgh 6 5 W
18-Feb-08Vs San Jose

Tom Fitzgerald scored midway through overtime to win the 1992 contest while Ron Hextall had the shutout in the 1994 game -- it was his second of three consecutive home shutouts. Perhaps the best game, though, was last year. Mike Sillinger scored at 19:33 of the third to snap Pittsburgh's 16-game point streak.


Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Do you remember the Sharks?

Believe it or not, the San Jose Sharks will be at the Coliseum Monday afternoon.

The Sharks last played on Long Island on October 20, 2001. The Isles raised Bryan Trottier's jersey to the rafters that day and then went out and tied the Sharks 2-2, extending their Laviolette-era-opening streak to 6-0-1-1.

The Isles beat San Jose in each of the Sharks' first five visits to Long Island, but haven't done so since they beat future teammate Chris Terreri 4-2 on February 17, 1996. Since then, the Sharks have won four times, including once in overtime, and there has been two ties.

As the Coliseum scoreboard once noted, the Isles took only 2,008 days to win their first Patrick Division championship -- it has been 2,312 days since the Sharks visited and 4,384 days since the Isles beat San Jose on Long Island.

The Sharks blanked the Isles 2-0 in the Tank in the 2nd game of last season. It was Evgeny Nabakov's second career shutout against the Isles.


Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Re-writing the record book -- Stat Trick -- Isles 4, Atlanta 1

Every once in a while, you have a night that just plays havoc with the record book. Tonight was that night.


1. The Isles allowed only 10 shots, breaking the club record of 11 set on 3-3-77 vs Detroit ( the 10 shots is also the fewest Atlanta has ever had)

2. The Isles had 49 shots themselves. The +39 shot differential (49-10) breaks the club record of 38, set on 2-22-77 vs Colorado (51-13).

3. Rick DiPietro recorded his fifth assist of the season -- breaking a tie with Chris Osgood's club record set in 2001-02.

4. DiPietro recorded his 12th career assist, tying Billy Smith's club record for assists by a goalie. Of course, DiPietro has played only 257 games, to Smith's 675.

....and a few others

5. By holding Atlanta to 1 goal, the Isles ended a streak of allowing at least three goals in 12 straight games. It's their longest stretch of allowing at least three goals since a 13-game stretch in January/ February 1996.

6. The Isles have scored thirteen goals in the last three games and sixteen goals in the last four games -- both are season highs.

7. The game marked the return of the Chili promotion, sponsored by Wendy's. Times sure have changed-- in the late 70's/early 80's, the Isles needed 6 goals for Chili. Now the Isles need only three. According to the team, "Fans can get a free bowl of chili at Wendy's the day after the Islanders score three or more goals. All fans have to do is go to a Long Island Wendy's tomorrow and say "I want my free chili. Let's go Islanders!""

8. The Isles had thier first major power play of the season when Garrett Exelby speared and then attacked Blake Comeau. It will be interesting to see if there will be any further discipline from the NHL. The Isles have had to kill only one 5-minute penalty all season; it was caused by Chris Simon's stomp.

9. Through two periods and a good part of the third, Trent Hunter had outshot the entire Thrasher team, 7-6. Atlanta went about 25 1/2 minutes without a shot from early in the 2nd period to midway through the third. Every Islander but Richard Park had at least one shot.

10. Bobby Holik was on ice for all three Islander even strength goals.

11. The last five games between the squads on Long Island have all been lopsided. The Isles have won three of them, and the Thrashers 2. All five games were decided by at least three goals.

12. The Isles have won three straight for the first time since late December and DiPietro has won three straight for the first time since a four game streak last February. The Isles have scored first in all three games, and are now 20-3-4 when scoring first.

13. The Isles have outshot their last two Coliseum visitors by a ridiculous count of 96-39.

14. Sean Bergenheim has three goals in the last four games and five goals in the last 11 games.

15. Ruslan Fedotenko has four goals in the last three games and five goals in the last five games.

16. Josef Vasicek has five asssts in the last three games.



Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Stat Trick: Isles 5, Toronto 4

Strange night in TO as the Isles win on Valentines Day for the first time since 1989! It's the first Islander win IN REGULATION in Toronto since March 2002 (1 shootout win, 1 tie, 7 regular season losses and 4 playoff losses)

1. The Isles scored 4 pp goals - one shy of the club record set on the night Bossy hit 50 in 50 vs Quebec. It's the first time since April 8, 2006 vs Washington (Yashin, Hunter, Yashin again and Nilsson had the pp goals in a 5-0 win over Washington) and the first time on road since October 11, 2001 at New Jersey -- game 4 under Laviolette (Aucoin, Yashin, Parrish and Hunter scored on pp in 6-4 win) that the Isles have tallied 4 road pp goals.

2. The Isles have scored 3 or more pp goals four times this season all on the road. Those four games represent 13 pp goals. The Isles have scored only 27 pp goals in their other 54 games.

3. The Isles have allowed at least three goals in 12 straight games. It's their longest stretch of allowing at least three goals since a 13-game stretch in January/ February 1996.

and a few more...

4. Freddy Meyer's EN goal turns out to be the winner. Its the first game-winner of his career, and his first of any type since November 24, 2006 (for Philadelphia against Columbus). It's also the first goal in 63 games (two stints) with the Islanders. Only one skater has appeared in more Islander games than Meyer without scoring: Brian Curran didn't score a goal in 90 games as an Islander.

5. The Isles have scored nine goals in the last two games, matching a season high (9 vs Buffalo in season-opening home/home and 9 vs NJ/Car 12/29-12/31) (Twelve goals in the last three games also matches a season high)

6. It's the Isles' third win this season when they've allowed four goals -- all on the road. They beat Buffalo 6-4 on opening night and win in a shootout in Calgary.

7. The Islanders defense combined for five points (2-3-5). Berard had a goal and two assists, and Johnson had an assist in addition to Meyer's empty-net winner. It was Berard's third multi-point game of the season and Johnson's first point in 11 games with the Isles.

8. For the first time in a long time, the Isles aren't the lowest scoring team in the league -- they have 143 goals, one more than Columbus. The Rangers have 144 goals, but the Isles have a game in hand on the Rangers.



Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Power Plays vs Times Short

As it seems to always be, the Isles look destined to finish with fewer power plays than their combined opponents... again.

They have been shorthanded more often than their opponents every season since having 27 more pp's than their opponents in 1996-97.
In fact, 1992-93 is the only other season in Islander history that they've had more pp's than their collective opponents.



Updating something I wrote last year, based on what's available on ESPN.com

It may make some of the conspiracy theorists on the list rest a little easier.

So for the 2000-01 to 2006-07 seasons:

Five teams have had more power plays that the opposition in each of the six seasons:
Tampa Bay
Carolina
Colorado
Minnesota
Ottawa

(three of these teams have won the Stanley Cup during these six seasons, and Ottawa has been to the finals)

Four teams have had more times short than the opposition in each of the last six seasons:

Chicago
Florida
NY Islanders
Washington
(Note: the Rangers fell off this list last season)

In terms of biggest power play difference (total power plays - total penalty kills)

Tampa has had the most power plays relative to their opponents= +339 (an average of 56.5 a season)

The remainder of the top 5:
Carolina280
New Jersey260
Minnesota180
Buffalo178


(again, three of the five have won the Cup in the last six seasons)


The bottom five is led by Florida. The Panthers have been short 378 times more than their opponents (an average of 63 per season)

The remainder of the bottom five:

Chicago-347
NY Rangers-262
Washington-250
NY Islanders-228
Boston-228

.


Since Montreal and Toronto have come up in these discussions in the past:

The Canadiens have had more pp's than their opponents in three of the last six seasons, and have had 53 power plays more than their opponents.

The Maple Leafs have had more pp's than their opponents only twice in the last six seasons, and have had 82 fewer power plays than their opponents.


The table below shows the entire league, in order of 6-year difference in power plays. The last column can be interpreted as "Seasons with more pp – Seasons with fewer pp – Seasons with pp total equal to opponent"

Tampa Bay3396-0-0
Carolina2806-0-0
New Jersey2604-2-0
Minnesota1806-0-0
Buffalo1785-1-0
San Jose1694-2-0
Nashville1524-2-0
Ottawa1496-0-0
Colorado1066-0-0
Dallas854-2-0
Los Angeles583-3-0
Vancouver534-2-0
Montreal533-3-0
Columbus464-2-0
Calgary333-2-1
Edmonton223-3-0
Atlanta214-2-0
St. Louis-352-4-0
Pittsburgh-422-4-0
Anaheim-442-4-0
Detroit-531-4-1
Philadelphia-672-4-0
Toronto-822-4-0
Phoenix-1681-5-0
NY Islanders-2280-6-0
Boston-2281-5-0
Washington-2500-6-0
NY Rangers-2621-5-0
Chicago-3470-6-0
Florida-3780-6-0

As for the current season (thru Wednesday):

Of the five teams that have had more pp's than their opponents in each of the last six years, only two are in good shape to do so again :

Carolina +30
Colorado +23
Minnesota +2
Ottawa -37
Tampa Bay -11

Of the four that have had fewer pp's that their opponents in each of the last six years, all have had fewer this season as well.


Chicago -16
Florida -44
NY Islanders -42
Washington -11

The Kings have the best differential (+56) while the champion Ducks have the worst (-46)

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Happy Valentines Day

The Isles will spend Valentines Day in Toronto on Thursday and Ted Nolan will try to do something that only Al Arbour has ever done -- lead the Isles to a Valentines Day victory.

The Isles are 5-7 with 4 ties on VD, having last won in 1989 vs. Edmonton. Arbour went 5-3-3 in his 11 VD games.

14-Feb-73@Chicago24L
14-Feb-74@St. Louis22T
14-Feb-76VsPittsburgh44T
14-Feb-77@Vancouver21W
14-Feb-78VsLos Angeles32W
14-Feb-79@Buffalo12L
14-Feb-80@Colorado53W
14-Feb-81VsSt. Louis11T
14-Feb-82@Hartford91W
14-Feb-87VsBuffalo15L
14-Feb-88@New York44T
14-Feb-89VsEdmonton53W
14-Feb-91@Pittsburgh25L
14-Feb-92@New York29L
14-Feb-95VsQuebec23L
14-Feb-01VsPhiladelphia13L
14-Feb-08@Toronto


This will be the Isles' first VD game in 7 years. In their last VD win (1989) rookie David Volek had the winning goal.


Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Stat Trick: Isles 4, Flyers 3

Happy New Year! The Isles finally have a 2008 home win (and only their fifth in 19 games in 2008 overall)

1.Tonight's win broke several long and nasty streaks:
0-6-1 in their last 7
0-5-2 in their last 7 at home
0-3 vs Flyers.
0 home wins in club record-tying 45 days.
0 leads at home in previous four games.

2. With the Flyers' late tally, the Isles have allowed at least three goals in 11 straight games, matching a simlar stretch suffered under Peter Laviolette Oct./Nov 2002. The Isles haven't allowed at least three goals in 12 straight games since a 13-game stretch in January/ February 1996.


3. Sean Bergenheim has goals in consecutive games for the first time in his NHL career, and now has 4 goals in his last 9 games.

and a few more...

4. Trent Hunter tied a career high by recording his 6th three-point game.

5. Rick DiPietro beat Bill Guerin to 20. DiPietro recorded his 20th win of the season, stopping a personal 0-6-2 streak. DiPietro now has four consecutive 20-win seasons, one shy of Chico Resch's club record (5). Guerin still has 19 goals -- he will become the 2nd player in NHL history, joining Ray Sheppard, to record 20 goals with six different teams, with his next tally.

6. 2008 wins by broadcaster: Howie 2, Jiggs 2, Joe Beninati (who did tonight's game on Versus) 1. Beninati is scheduled to do the Isles-Penguins game on March 24 -- hopefully he won't have a chance to tie for the lead (unless of course you're rooting for the first overall pick!)

7. Jeff Tambellini recorded his first NHL goal of the season -- it's the fourth career goal in 60 games for Tambellini.

8. Richard Park went 12-2 on draws as Isles compiled a huge 36-17 advantage. Daniel Briere had a power play goal for Philly, but lost 11 of 12 draws, and was -2. Briere is now MINUS TWENTY on the season.

9. With Witt missing the last two periods, Andy Sutton played 25:40 -- his second largest ice time of the season. Witt and Freddy Meyer were the only Isles without a shot-on-goal as the Isles poured on a season-high 47. Six different players had at least four shots.

10. Josef Vasicek had two assists, giving him five points in the four games against the Flyers this season. He had only 4 points in 18 games against the Isles prior to this season.

11. RJ Umberger was at it again, contributing an assist against the Isles. He had 15 points in 19 games against the Isles this season.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Streaking Isles... but in the wrong direction

1. Isles are 0-6-1 in their last 7 -- it's their worst stretch since suffering 7 straight regulation losses in Nov/Dec 2003 -- that team recovered to make the playoffs. The Isles have gone eight straight without a win and made the playoffs that season only once in their history. The 1989-90 suffered through a 14 games winless streak in February/March but squeezed into the playoffs on the final day of the season ... costing them Jaromir Jagr in the process.

2. Isles do not have a home win in 2008 -- going 0-5-2 in that stretch. It's only the second time in their history that they've lost seven straight (regulation/ot/so) games at home. They were 0-4-2 in January; their first winless month at home since going 0-6 in March 2001.

3. Isles have allowed at least three goals in 10 straight games, matching a simlar stretch suffered under Brad Shaw in Jan/Feb 2006. The Isles haven't allowed at least three goals in 11 straight games since October/November 2002.

4. How long has it been without an Islander home win? Consider that the Patriots beat the Giants that same night (December 29). When the Isles face the Flyers Tuesday, it will be 45 days since their last home victory. This ties the club record for calendar days between home wins (November 4 -December 19, 1999). Of course, the Giants have more victories in February (1) than the Isles (0).

5. The Isles are 0-3 vs. the Flyers this season and are 8-11 vs. Philly since the lockout. There has not been an overtime game between the two teams in that span, which contributes to the Isles earning fewer points since the lockout against the Flyers than any other divisional rival. Five of the Isles' next 23 games are against the Flyers.

6. The Isles have not led at any point of their last four home games. They led Carolina 2-0 after two periods on January 21st before losing in OT. That followed the Jan 19th home game that the Isles led the Flyers 3-1 after the first period but lost 5-3.



Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Which way will they go?

"You're either rebuilding for something special, or you're on the verge of something special. To be in between is foolish."
--Billy Beane

The Islanders are clearly not on the second group. Will they make sure that they place themselves in the first?

16 Boston Bruins 53 27 21 5 59
17 Vancouver Canucks 54 26 21 7 59
18 Columbus Blue Jackets 55 25 23 7 57
19 Carolina Hurricanes 56 26 26 4 56
20 Atlanta Thrashers 56 26 26 4 56
21 Buffalo Sabres 52 24 21 7 55
22 St Louis Blues 52 24 21 7 55
23 Washington Capitals 54 25 24 5 55
24 Florida Panthers 55 25 25 5 55
25 New York Islanders 54 24 24 6 54
26 Edmonton Oilers 55 24 26 5 53
27 Chicago Blackhawks 52 23 24 5 51
28 Toronto Maple Leafs 55 21 25 9 51
29 Tampa Bay Lightning 54 22 27 5 49
30 Los Angeles Kings 55 22 30 3 47

Following last night's loss to Anaheim, the Isles are five points behind the eighth place Bruins, and only five points ahead of the 29th place (in the League) Lightning.

With a good run, the Isles could still find themselves in the playoff race, and even in a playoff position. But is that the best things for the long term health of the franchise?

Probably not.

If the season ended today, the Isles would own the 6th pick in this year's draft. They've had the sixth pick twice in their history -- Brad Dalgarno was the 6th overall pick in 1985 (the pick was acquired in a trade with Minnesota for Rollie Melanson) but the most famous 6th overall pick was in 1990.

In 1990, the Isles squeezed into the playoffs on the last day of the season (much like 2007, they needed all sorts of things to go right in the season's final days). When Uwe Krupp scored in overtime for Buffalo (no loser points in those days) to beat the Penguins, it knocked Pittsburgh out of the playoffs, and the Islanders in. The Isles would lose in 5 games to the Rangers.

The Penguins grabbed Jaromir Jagr with the 5th pick in that summer's draft (following Owen Nolan, Petr Nedved, Keith Primeau and Mike Ricci). The Isles picked sixth, and Scott Scissons played two NHL games in his career.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Stat Trick: Ducks 3, Islanders 0

This one could go on forever, but it would be too depressing!

1. The Islanders remain winless at home in 2008, going 0-5-2. The Islanders had lost seven home games in a row only once in their history:

13-Nov-99VsSt. Louis35L
27-Nov-99VsWashington34L
30-Nov-99VsDallas12L
2-Dec-99VsCalgary05L
4-Dec-99VsAtlanta34L
9-Dec-99VsMontreal24L
14-Dec-99VsEdmonton24L


2. The Isles have lost five straight overall, have been outscored 19-5, and have not led at any point in any of the five games. All five losses have been by at least two goals.

3. JS Giguere records his 2nd consecutive shutout (he lost 1-0 in a shootout to St Louis on Friday). IT was his 29th career shutout, extending his club record. Guy Hebert had 27 shutouts. It was the first Ducks shutout against the Isles since Ron Tugnutt blanked the Isles in Anaheim's first visit to Long Island in 1993.

and a few more...

4. Teemu Selanne made his season debut, and recorded an assist. His 667 points is two short of Paul Kariya's club record. Only 4 active players have more goals: Shanahan, Jagr, Sakic and Sundin.

5. How long has it been without an Islander home win? Consider that the Patriots beat the Giants that same night (December 29). When the Isles return home next Tuesday against the Flyers, it will be 45 days since their last home victory. This ties the club record for calendar days between home wins (November 4 -December 19, 1999).

6. Frans Nielsen made his season debut for the Isles, recording two shots in 9:01 of playing time. Jeff Tambellini had three shots on goal in 13:56.

7. Josef Vasicek went 12-4 on face-offs.

8. It was the Ducks' first win on Long Island since October 17, 2000.


Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Monday, February 04, 2008

Chhh Chhh Changes

Thanks nyi.
<<
Breaking news this afternoon out of Islanders Iceworks in Syosset, where Ted Nolan's team is about to begin practice:

Center Mike Sillinger (hip injury) is expected to be out of the lineup for approximately three weeks. His spot in the lineup will likely be filled by Islanders prospect Frans Nielsen, recalled this morning from Bridgeport of the American Hockey League.

Nielsen's linemate Jeff Tambellini, the leading goal scorer in the American Hockey League with 29 goals, has also been recalled by the Islanders from Bridgeport.

Veteran forward Richard Park missed today's practice with the flu and is questionable for tomorrow, when the Islanders host the defending Stanley Cup champion Anahaim Ducks at 7:05 pm at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Veteran enforcer Kip Brennan has also been recalled by the Islanders and took the ice at practice today.
<<
Nielsen will be getting his 2nd crack with the Isles, having played 15 games last season (1-1-2). He is 23 years old.

One has to wonder how many more cracks Tambellini will get with the Isles. He has appeared in eight games this season with nary a point and is 3-10-13 in 56 career NHL games.

Brennan is averaging over 5 pen mins a game for Bridgeport. He has 58 NHL games' experience, accumulating 210 pen mins along the way. He is a former Duck, recording his only NHL assist for the Ducks on October 5, 2005 (the NHL's first day of play following the lockout). His only NHL goal was scored for the Kings on November 19, 2003.

Brennan's NHL debut was for the Kings, at the Coliseum, on January 5, 2002. My "Quick Notes" (predecessor to "The Skinny") note that Steve Webb won a face-off in that game -- the first one he had taken in 4 yers of real-time stats. Brennan didn't fight that night-- his first NHL fight came four nights later, against the Rangers' Steve McKenna.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Friday, February 01, 2008

Tambellini stays hot

Jeff Tambellini had two goals (27 & 28) and an assist tonight, but the Sound Tigers 7-5 to Wilkes Barre -Scranton before over 7,500 in the Poconos.

Kyle Okposo had an assist for Bridgeport. Ok-po-so (and yes, they are now pronouncing the "k") will be featured during an intermission of Saturday's Islander telecast. Mark Morrison made 30 saves for B-port.

The Sound Tigers are in Hartford on Saturday night.

Canada

Ted Nolan will try to do something Saturday that only Al Arbour has ever done -- lead the Islanders to three consecutive victories in Canada.

The Islanders won in Calgary and Ottawa to conclude their road trip last month and will be looking to win three straight games North of the Border for the first time since 1993.


17-Nov-93@Ottawa 8 1 W
18-Nov-93@Montreal(@ Hamilton) 5 1 W
22-Dec-93@Montreal 5 3 W

(The middle game of the three was an Islander road game that was played in Hamilton, ONT)

Those were the most recent of eight streaks of at least three consecutive regular season Isles wins in Canada, all done under Arbour. The longest streak, 6 games, ran from March - December, 1980.

This will be the Isles' first game in Montreal since Rick DIPietro was injured in a collision with Steve Begin last March. Montreal has beaten the Isles three straight times, and will be looking for their first four game win streak over the Isles since 1997.


Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

First drugs, then taxes

From a local paper...

"Public Notice of County Treasurer's Sale of Tax Liens on Real Estate in the Town of Oyster Bay"

HILL MARGARET AND SEAN
$9,736.12
Sec 25 Blk C01 Lot 56

Hill's house was put up for sale shortly after last spring's fiasco and he moved out shortly thereafter. The house was for sale for over six months, but recently had an "in contract" sign placed in front of it.