Friday, November 20, 2009

Calling the Yukon; leading the Rangers?

The Isles resume their franchise record-tying seven game road trip in Minnesota tonight.

The Isles no longer lead the league in loser points and Tampa earned their 7th last night.  In fact, the Lightning, who got a magnificent goal by Steven Stamkos last night have a very similar record to the Isles.  Tampa is 8-4-7 while the Isles are 8-6-7.

During last night's Lightning-Ducks game, Ducks voice John Ahlers noted that the Lightning's record looked more like an area code than a hockey record.  In fact, with their loser point last night the Bolts record is an area code in suburban Chicago (847).

The Isles on the other hand have the entire Yukon covered as wikipedia explains:

<<Area code 867 is the area code for the three Canadian territories in the Arctic far north.  867 was created on October 21, 1997 from portions of two existing Canadian area codes. It has the largest land area of any area code in the North American Numbering Plan. The territorial extent reaches 3,173 km from Cape Dyer on Baffin Island to the Alaska border, and 4,391 km from the south end of James Bay to the North Pole. The largest distances between exchanges are 2,200 km from Sanikiluaq to Grise Fiord, and 3,365 km from Beaver Creek to Pangnirtung. Four different official time zones are observed within the area.
>>

Tonight in St. Paul, the Isles have an opportunity to do something for the first time in 22 months -- look down on the Rangers (and drop the idle Blueshirts into last place in the division).  The teams are tied with 23 points.  The Isles have not had more points than the Rangers at any point in the Scott Gordon era.  You have to go back to the morning of January 24, 2008 to find the last time.  A Ranger win and Islander loss that evening knotted the teams with 54 points.  The Isles have not led the Rangers in points since then.


 Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since 1982. Visit my blog: forever1940.blogspot.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

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