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The Skinny: Rangers 5, Isles 2

"The Skinny" By Eric Hornick Game 68 Rangers 5, Isles 2 Johnny Brodzinski broke a 2-2 tie with 4:59 left in the middle period and ...

Sunday, February 12, 2012

The Skinny: Florida 4, Isles 1

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick
 
Game 55
Panthers 4, Isles 1
Tomas Fleischmann and Kris Versteeg each scored a goal and added an assist in the second period as the Florida Panthers overcame an early Frans Nielsen goal to defeat the Islanders 4-1 in front of 14,179 at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The loss leaves the Isles within eight points behind 8th place Toronto and ten points behind 7th place Ottawa.

The Scoring:
First Period
3:35 EV NYI 51 F.NIELSEN(10) 15 P.PARENTEAU(38) 47 A.MACDONALD(6)
14:57 EV FLA 23 T.STRACHAN(1) 57 M.GOC(10)
 
Second Period
4:17 EV FLA 14 T.FLEISCHMANN(18) 32 K.VERSTEEG(26) 9 S.WEISS(27)
11:41 PP FLA 32 K.VERSTEEG(22) 14 T.FLEISCHMANN(24) 51 B.CAMPBELL(35)
18:33 EV FLA 12 J.SKILLE(3) 18 S.MATTHIAS(12)
 
Third Period – None
 
The Skinny: The Isles are 4-2-1 since the All-Star Break, 4-2-2 in their last eight and 7-3-2 in their last 12 games.  The Islanders drop one game under .500.  Tyson Strachan, playing his 75th NHL game, recorded his first goal. Fleichmann's goal was his 200th NHL point; Campbell's assist was his 350th in the NHL.

The Shots
Islanders:  9-7-11=27
Panthers: 9-6-4=19

Home and Road
The Islanders are 23-24-8 overall and are 12-13-5 at home. The Isles are 6-4-2 in their last 12 games at home.
The Panthers are 27-17-11 overall and 13-12-4 on the road.  The Panthers, who were 1-6-4 in the last 11 on the road prior to Saturday, sweep a back-to-back road set against the Devils and Islanders.

In the Nets
Evgeni Nabokov made 11 saves through two periods but falls to 13-14-0 on the season. Nabokov is 7-3-0 in his last ten games. Al Montoya stopped all four shots he faced in the third period.
Jose Theodore stopped the final 26 Islander shots after Nielsen scored on the Isles' first shot.  He records his 18th victory against the Isles (18-9-2) and the 275th of his career.

Leaning on #91
John Tavares has 54 points (22-32-54) on 125 Islander goals this season (43%).  No Islander since Zigmund Palffy has recorded points on over 40% of the team's goals in a complete season.
Tavares is 0-1-1 in six games in February after having 22 points on 35 Islander goals in January.

Power Plays
The Islanders went 0-2 on the power play while the Panthers were 0-1. The Isles are 1-13 in their last six games with the extra man.
The Isles have allowed two goals their last 10 times short (80%), covering six games, but have killed 49-54 (90.7%) over the last 25 games, dating back to December 16th. 

They Said It
Evgeni Nabokov: "They probably had seven or eight scoring chances, and they scored four goals. That was the difference right there."

They Tweeted It
@OnGoldenPond "#FlaPanthers RW Kris Versteeg ties career high w/ 22nd goal in win v #Isles. Did it first 3 years ago w/ #Blackhawks in full season

The Coach
"You give up two faceoff goals and a power-play goal, you're not going to win too many games. We had our chances, we didn't bury."

Leading Ice Men
Mark Streit led the Isles with 22:57; Brian Campbell led Florida with 29:13. It's only the 2nd time in last nine games that Andrew MacDonald did not lead the Isles in ice-time. 

In the Circle
The Islanders won 23 draws; Florida won 28 – the Isles lost the majority of draws in all three games on this homestand. Jay Pandolfo won 3 of 4 for the Isles; Marcel Goc won 13 of 22 for Florida, including the one in the first period that Tyson Strachan converted for his first NHL goal.

Heavy Hitters
The Islanders outhit Florida 27-20. NHL hit leader Matt Martin led the Isles with four hits, raising his total to 254.  Martin, who had a club record 299 hits last season (hits have only been recorded since 2005-06) leads the NHL in hits by a wide margin.  He is on a pace to have 379 hits, which would be the highest total of any NHL player since the lockout.  MacDonald led the Isles with 7 hits; Matt Greene had nine hits for LA.

Lots of Blocks
The Isles were credited with 11 blocks.  They lead the NHL with 955.  Florida blocked 22 (19 other Islander shots missed the net).

Third Periods
Neither team scored in the third period. The Isles have been outscored 58-40 overall in the third period (46-33 excluding empty nets). In the first two periods, the Isles have been outscored 93-84. 

All-time Winners
The Islanders drop to four games over all-time NHL .500 (1336-1332-429 in 3,097 games).  The Isles have twice this season been one game below .500. Prior to this season, they had not been below NHL .500 since they were 177-178-83 prior to their victory on January 16, 1978.

Scoring
The Isles have scored 75 goals in their 23 wins (3.27 per game) and 52 goals in their other 32 games (0-24-8; 1.63 per game).  In their 24 regulation losses, the Isles have scored 30 goals (1.25 per game).

Head of the Class
John Tavares has 175 career points; he is 29 points ahead of Matt Duchene for most among 2009 draft picks.  No other player in that draft is anywhere close. (Duchene suffered a knee injury in late December and has not yet resumed skating.)

Longest Point Streaks in NHL, Last 2 Seasons
·         Sidney Crosby, 25 games (11/5/10-12/28/10)
·         John Tavares, 12 games (12/29/11-1/21/12)
·         Ilya Kovalchuk 12 games (2/1/11-2/25/11)
 

Friends, Friends, Friends
Moulson has 24 goals this season; John Tavares has earned assists on 16 of them.  He has now been on-ice for 48 consecutive Moulson goals, earning assists on 32 of them, dating back to a Moulson goal on November 17, 2010 against Tampa. 

MOT-ley Crew?
Since being put together 21 games ago, Matt Moulson is 8-12-20, Kyle Okposo is 6-10-16, and John Tavares is 10-17-27.  The Isles are 12-7-2 in those games.

20-20-20, 30-30-30?
Matt Moulson is the first Islander since Jason Blake (4 seasons: 2002-03 to 2006-07) to have at least three consecutive 20-goal seasons. He is six goals away from a third consecutive 30-goal season; no Islander since Ziggy Palffy has accomplished that feat. In fact, no Islander since Palffy has had three consecutive 25-goal seasons.  Moulson has 85 goals as an Islander – the most by any Islander since the lockout.

20-20-20 x 2
Moulson and Tavares are the first Islander teammates to record at least twenty goals in three straight seasons since Mark Parrish and Jason Blake did so in 2002-03, 2003-04, and 2005-06.  Tavares, by the way, is the fifth player to score at least 20 goals for the Islanders in each of his first three NHL seasons, joining:
·         Billy Harris (first six seasons: 1972-73 through 1977-78),
·         Clark Gillies (five: 1974-75 through 1978-79),
·         Bryan Trottier (13: 1975-76 through 1987-88) and
·         Mike Bossy (all 10 seasons: 1977-78 through 1986-87).
 
Okposo Stopped
Kyle Okposo's home point streak ended at 14 games.  It's the longest streak on home ice by an Islander since Ziggy Palffy also had a 14-game home streak in 1998.  The last Islander to have a longer streak participated in "Skate with the Greats" tonight: Mike Bossy, who had a 20-game streak in 1983-84.

Ironman
Matt Moulson, the Isles' reigning ironman, has played in all 219 games since joining the team. Moulson's streak is the longest for an Islander since Richard Park played in 221 games from October 2006- February 2009.  Moulson is one of only five Islanders in the last thirty years to appear in 200 consecutive games:
·         Richard Park 10/5/2006 – 2/18/2009 221
·         Bryan McCabe 10/7/1995-2/4/1998 220
·         Matt Moulson 10/3/2009-CURRENT  219
·         Bryan Trottier 3/7/1981- 1/12/1984 219
·         Mariusz Czerkawski 12/23/1999 – 4/14/2002 215
Billy Harris played in the first 576 games in Islander history; that figure still stands as the club record.
Mark Streit is the only Islander defender to appear in every game this season.

Missing Men
Travis Hamonic (broken nose) and Rhett Rakhshani (healthy) were scratched.  Dylan Reese, Marty Reasoner, Mike Mottau, Rick DiPietro, and Mark Katic are on injured reserve.  The Isles have lost 272 man-games to injury so far this season. 

List Time
Career Wins, Active Goalies
4. Evgeni Nabokov  306
 
Career Wins
21. Sean Burke 324
23. Billy Smith 305
 
Most First Goals of Game (NHL This Season)
1
Matt Moulson
9
2
Five Players with
7
 
Career Goals as an Islander
32
Butch Goring
87
33
Matt Moulson
85
34
Tomas Jonsson
84
35
Wayne Merrick
81
35
Dave Scatchard
81
37  
Marty McInnis
79
38
Miroslav Satan
78
39
Claude Lapointe
76
40
John Tavares
75
41
Lorne Henning
73
41
JP Parise
73







Career Games as an Islander (skaters)
58
Arron Asham
300
 
58
Roman Hamrlik
300
 
60
Frans Nielsen
292
 
61
Gord Dineen
287
 
62
Jeff Norton
282
 
63
Steve Thomas
275
 
64
Josh Bailey
266
65
Blake Comeau
261
 
65
Andre St. Laurent
261
 



 
71
Brad Isbister
247
 
71
Brendan Witt
247
 
73
Sean Bergenheim
246
 
74
Kyle Okposo
244
 
75
Miro Satan
243
 



 
85
Michael Peca
222
 
86
Bob Lorimer
220
 
86
Bryan McCabe
220
 
88
Matt Moulson
219
 
89
Andy Hilbert
218
 
90
John Tavares
216
 
91
Paul Boutilier
211
 
91
Mark Streit
211
 
93
Gary Nylund
209
 





 
Career Points as an Islander
39
Lorne Henning
184
40
John Tavares
175
41
Randy Wood
172



50
Roman Hamrlik
153
51
Matt Moulson
149
52
Kyle Okposo
146
52
Frans Nielsen
146
54
Michael Peca
142




Season Series Stats
The Panthers lead the season series three games to none (6 points to 0).  The Isles will look to avoid a sweep when they visit Sunrise, Florida on March 25th.

Happy Anniversary
10 years ago tonight (2-12-02):  Michael Peca scored a shorthanded goal in overtime and Garth Snow stopped 25 shots as the Isles blanked the Flyers 1-0 in Philadelphia. The Isles would not shut the Flyers out in Philadelphia again until Evgeni Nabokov did so earlier this week.
All-time, the Isles are 7-10-3 on this date.
On The Farm
The Sound Tigers got an overtime goal from David Ullstrom to defeat Connecticut 2-1 on Sunday after blasting Springfield 8-1 on Saturday. Bridgeport is 13-1-0-1 in their last 15 games and trail the Whale by three points. Bridgeport is off until Saturday, when they host Adirondack.

Up Next
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14th   ISLANDERS AT WINNIPEG 8:30PM
[MSG+2 (Islanders Game Night at 8:00pm), WRHU (88.7FM)]
The Islanders begin a two-game road trip as they celebrate Valentine's Day in Winnipeg on Tuesday.  Each team owns a road win in the season series, with the Islanders' win coming in a shootout.
And Finally…
Happy Birthday to Islanders voice Howie Rose, who celebrates his birthday on Monday.
Eric Hornick has been the statistician on Islander home game telecasts since 1982. Information contained in "The Skinny" has been gathered from various sources.  Follow Eric @ehornick on Twitter.
 
Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

1 comment:

Tony O said...

I have a question that has been eating away at me for years. The amount of 1st career NHL goals the islanders have let up (Tyson Strachan on Sunday, Mike Modano vs Glen Healy etc) Also, the amount of milestones that were reached against the isles ( Lemieux 600th goal vs Tommy Soderstrom, Gretzky goal 8XX vs Wade Flaherty, Shane Doan 1st Hat Trick, Crosby youngest player to reach 100 pts in a season etc) you get the picture..

Tony