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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 ...

Friday, January 31, 2014

Stastny apparently okay; Moulson not

When #isles -nation heard about Paul Stastny being injured in last night's #Avs game, thoughts were that this could open an Olympic spot for someone such as red-hot Kyle Okposo.

However, this afternoon's word from Denver (Adrian Dater of the Denver Post) is:
"The good news on Paul Stastny is he's only day-to-day with an ankle injury suffered Thursday night. He hurt an ankle in a collision with other players and didn't practice Friday.
But he should be on skates again soon and his Olympic participation status is still good to go."

In other news - former Islander Matt Moulson is expected to be out until after the Olympic break after suffering an "upper body injury" that resulted from either "a slash or cross-check to his arm" in Buffalo's win in Phoenix last night.  Moulson, like Thomas Vanek, is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season is rumored to be on the trading block, again.  That deal will likely have to wait.


 
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

Stadium Series a Ratings Hit

The NHL is reporting this morning that NBCSN did a 3.58 rating in the NY area for the Isles-Rangers game.  IT is the highest-rated NHL regular-season game ever on NBCSN in the NY market.

By comparison, the Yankees rating on YES last season was a 2.63 while the Mets rating on SNY was about a 1.60.

So, Wednesday's game drew a rating approximately 36% greater than last year's Yankee average and a whopping 124% higher than last season's Mets average.


Ratings were even higher for Devils/Rangers on Sunday on NBC, with a 5.1 rating in New York, matching the highest rating in the New York market for any NHL game ever broadcast on NBC (Gm. 1 LA-NJ Stanley Cup Final, 5/30/12).   (Eric note -- I'm a bit surprised that the local ratings for playoff telecasts on NBC in the 70s weren't higher due to the fewer choices; NBC carried three NYR playoff games in 1974 (including Rangers/Flyers game 7) and three NYI playoff games in 1975 (including Isles/Flyers game 6).)


I thought nobody cared about hockey :)



 
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

Thursday, January 30, 2014

The Skinny: Rangers 2, Isles 1

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick
 
Game 56
Rangers 2, Isles 1

Daniel Carcillo scored the only goal of the third period and it turned out to be the winner as the Rangers defeated the Islanders 2-1 in the Stadium Series before a crowd of 50,027 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. The loss, technically in a home game for the Islanders stretches their winless streak to four games (0-3-1).

The Scoring:
1st Period
NONE
 
2nd Period
18:33    NYI Brock Nelson (10) Snap shot - ASST: Matt Donovan (6), Cal Clutterbuck (4) 1 - 0 NYI
19:13    NYR Benoit Pouliot (9) Wrist shot - ASST: Derick Brassard (21), Mats Zuccarello (23) 1 - 1 Tie     
 
3rd Period
04:36    NYR Daniel Carcillo (3) Wrist shot - ASST: Dominic Moore (7), Brian Boyle (9)      2 - 1 NYR

The Skinny:  
The two second period goals were scored 40 seconds apart.  It's the first time since December 20th (at MSG) that the Isles have allowed a goal in the first minute after scoring a goal… Kyle Okposo's point streak ended at six games …The Isles have been outscored 77-68 in the second period; more goals have been scored in second period of Islander games than any other teams…The game established an Islander franchise record for attendance (50,027); the two Stadium Series games at Yankee Stadium drew a combined attendance of 100,132 and are the two largest crowds for a regular season game in the new Yankee Stadium… The road team (in this case the Rangers) has won all four games between the clubs this season…The Isles are 1-1-1 all-time in "home" games not played at Nassau Coliseum…Brock Nelson is only the 12th rookie this season to record 10 goals; he has 7 goals in the last 13 games and breaks a tie with Michael Grabner for fifth place in club goal-scoring…The road teams are now 9-1-1 in all-time outdoor NHL games.

Eight's Not Enough!
The Isles are 8-6-1 in January, with one game to play. However, the Isles are 0-3-1 in the last four.
It's the first time since 2003 that the Isles have earned 8 wins in January and matches their most January wins since they earned 9 in January 1990.  The Isles have earned ten victories in January only once in franchise history, going 10-4-1 in 1980 (April and May were pretty good that year, too!)

The Shots:
 
Isles      10-15- 6=31
Rangers  6-14-14=34
 
Home and Road
The Islanders are 21-27-8 overall, 8-12-8 at home (including 0-1-0 at Yankee Stadium) and 13-15-0 on the road.   The Isles are 7-5-1 in their last 13, 12-8-1 in their last 21 and are 13-9-3 in their last 25 games overall.
The Rangers are 29-23-3 overall; they are 12-13-3 at home and 17-10-0 on the road. The Rangers have won two straight and are 13-5-1 since losing to the Islanders on December 20th.

By Division
The Isles are 5-13-3 in Division games and are 16-14-5 in games against other divisions. They are 7-5-3 vs. the Atlantic Division, 6-4-1 vs. Central Division, and 3-5-1 vs. the Pacific Division.

In the Nets
Evgeni Nabokov made 32 saves but falls to 9-9-5 on the season. 
Henrik Lundqvist made 30 saves for the Rangers and improves to 19-18-3 on the season.  Lundqvist 4-1-0 in his last five starts and 7-2-0 in his last; he improves to 28-12-5 in his career against the Isles.

Power Plays
The Islanders were 0-4 (including a 3 second advantage at the end of the game) while the Rangers were 0-1.  In the season series, the Isles are 2-16 while the Rangers are 5-16.
The Isles are 13-6-4 when they score at least one power play goal and 8-21-4 when they do not.  The Isles are 10-15-3 when they allow at least one power play goal and 11-12-5 when they do not. 
The Islander power play is 0-17 in their last four games.  The Isles have killed 25 of 28 (89.5%) over the last 11 games. 

Tale of Four Seasons
The Isles PP went 10-33 in the first 10 games, before going 7-79 in the next 24 games. They rebounded to go 10-32 in the following 11 games but are only 4-42 in their 12 games.

Three is a Magic Number
The Isles are 19-7-3 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 2-20-5 when they do not. 

Comeback Kids
The Isles are 9-8-6 when they score first and are 12-19-2 when they allow the opening goal.  The Isles have allowed the first goal in 13 of their last 18 games. The Isles have scored first in 16 of their 28 home games (including the Yankee Stadium game) but are 6-4-6 in those games.

Second to The One
Jack Capuano became the 2nd coach in Islander history to win 100 games in Toronto on January 7th and became the 2nd coach in Islander history to coach 250 games on January 27th against Boston. He is 2nd on the all-time Islander list in both games coached (250) and wins (105).

Most games coached (Islanders):
1.     Al Arbour 1,500
2.     Jack Capuano 251
3.     Mike Milbury 191
4.     Terry Simpson 187
5.     Scott Gordon 181
 
Most wins by Islander coaches:
1.     Al Arbour 740
2.     Jack Capuano 105
3.     Terry Simpson 81
4.     Peter Laviolette 77
5.     Ted Nolan 74

They Said It
John Tavares: "It was cold, but it was fun. …I enjoyed the atmosphere. It was unbelievable. It was a lot of fun…. I think anyone that's ever played in it really says it's quite the
experience."

 They Tweeted It
@theActual_Danny  That having been said... no regrets about going to the stadium tn. Awesome event that hockey fans across the world should experience. #Isles
@____kaytee Had a ton of fun tonight with my big brother, freezing our butts off for our team #StadiumSeries #isles @miketorok
@janke24 Coolest experience of my life #stadiumseries #isles #yankeestadium
@Steve_Lafleur Also, let's all get at least a little bit excited about Nelson scoring 7 goals in the last 13 games? Love him at centre. #Isles

The Coach
"(I thought) we'll regroup after the second and come back out,' and we got away from our game a little bit. We needed to do a little bit more and we didn't do it."

Back-to-Backs
The Isles are 6-6-0 in the front-end and 5-5-2 on the back end of back-to-backs this season.  The Isles have swept three back-to-backs:  November 1st/2nd vs. Ottawa and Rangers; January 6th/7th vs. Dallas and Toronto and January 20th/21st vs. Philadelphia and the Rangers.
In the twelve sets of back-to-backs, they have earned 4 points three times, 3 points once, 2 points four times, 1 point once and no points on three occasions. 
The Islanders do not play back-to-back again until they host New Jersey and Florida on March 1st and 2nd.

Leading Ice Men
Andrew MacDonald led the Isles with 24:15 of ice-time. Ryan McDonough led the Rangers with 26:13 of ice-time.
The Isles are 14-15-6 when MacDonald leads in ice-time, are 7-10-2 when Hamonic leads, are 0-1-0 when Okposo leads and are 0-1-0 when Tavares leads.

In the Circle
The Islanders won 34 of 61 draws.  John Tavares won 13 of 20 draws for the Isles; Brian Boyle won 4 of 5 for the Rangers.

Heavy Hitters
The Isles were out-hit 17-16. Josh Bailey led the Isles with three hits; Matt Martin added one. Martin's 264 hits lead the NHL by a wide margin.  He had now recorded at least 200 hits in four straight seasons. 
There were no fights.  The Isles have been involved in 20 fights this season: Martin (7), Boulton (5), Carkner (5), McDonald (2), and Okposo (1).

Giving Up the Body
The Isles were credited with 11 blocked shots. Lubomir Visnovsky led the way with four blocks; Andrew MacDonald added one, as he extended his NHL-leading total to 181.

Three Over All-Time .500
The Islanders fall to three games over all-time NHL .500 (1392-1389-447 in 3,228 games). The Isles have been 1-under all-time .500 after six games this season and have gone 4-0-2 in the following game. 
The Isles have finished every season since 1977-78 above all-time NHL .500 and have not been more than 1 game under NHL-.500 since January 11, 1978.

Ironmen
Frans Nielsen is the Islanders' reigning ironman.  He has played 186 consecutive games, and is one of four Islanders to have played in every game this season.  Other ironman streaks: Andrew Mac Donald (157), Matt Martin (117), and Thomas Hickey (57). 

Century Club
Andrew MacDonald has the 4th longest consecutive game streak for a defenseman in Islander history:
1.     Denis Potvin 11/29/1975-1/17/1979  262
2.     Bryan McCabe 10/7/1995-2/4/1998 220 (*)(**)
3.     Gerry Hart 3/1/1975-11/22/1977 198
4.     Andrew MacDonald 12/19/11- CURRENT 157
5.     Janne Niinimaa 3/13/2004-1/7/2006 136 (**)
6.     Ken Morrow 3/1/1980-12/29/1981 134 (*)
7.     Mark Streit  10/8/2011-4/26/2013 130
8.     Travis Hamonic 2/24/2012-1/12/2014 117
9.     Travis Hamonic 11/24/2011– 2/4/2012 113 (*)
10.  Jean Potvin 10/23/1975-1/2/1977 110
11.  Kenny Jonsson 12/26/1996-2/4/1998 104
 
(*) Start of NHL career.
(**) Entire career with Islanders

Missing Men
Travis Hamonic was placed on injured reserve on Tuesday. Matt Donovan was recalled from Bridgeport and replaced Matt Carkner in the lineup.  Radek Martinek was scratched for the third straight game while Eric Boulton was scratched for the fifth straight game.
The Isles have lost 146 games this season due to injury.

Career Goals as an Islander
15         Mariusz Czerkawski       145
16         John Tavares   135
17         Jason Blake      127
 
28         Mikko Makela    95
28         Kyle Okposo    95
28         David Volek      95
31         Randy Wood     94
32         Greg Gilbert      93
32         Garry Howatt     93
34         Travis Green      92
35         Butch Goring     87
36         Tomas Jonsson            84
37         Wayne Merrick  81
37         Dave Scatchard            81
39         Michael Grabner 79
39         Marty McInnis    79
41         Miroslav Satan  78
41         Frans Nielsen   78
43         Claude Lapointe 76
 
Career Assists as an Islander
16         Ed Westfall       181
17         John Tavares   178
18         Kenny Jonsson 175
19         Alexei Yashin    171
20         Duane Sutter     171
21         Jean Potvin       167
22         Jeff Norton       166
23         Zigmund Palffy 163
24         Frans Nielsen   161
25         David Volek      154
26         Mariusz Czerkawski 150
27         Kyle Okposo    147      
28         Travis Green      145
           
Career Games as an Islander (skaters)
24         Eddie Westfall  493
25         Radek Martinek 479
26         Gerry Hart         476
                       
32         Frans Nielsen   423
33         Dave Langevin  422
34         Wayne Merrick  411
35         Jean Potvin       402
36         David Volek      396
37         Bert Marshall     392
38         Travis Green      388
39         Anders Kallur    383
40         Randy Wood     381
41         Josh Bailey      380
42         Kyle Okposo    374
43         Dave Scatchard            347
44         John Tavares   346
44         Alexei Yashin    346
46         Mark Parrish     345
 
Career Points as an Islander
16         Ziggy Palffy      331
17         John Tavares   313
18         Mariusz Czerkawski       295
                       
24         David Volek      249
25         Kyle Okposo    241
26         Frans Nielsen   239
27         Ray Ferraro       238
 
Season Series Stats
The season series is even 2 games to 2 (and 4 points to 4). The Isles are 0-2-2 in their last four "home" games against the Rangers.
The teams will meet for the final time in this regular season on Friday night at Madison Square Garden.

Happy Anniversary
14 years ago today (1-29-00):  Mathieu Biron scores the winning goal in overtime as the Islanders defeat San Jose in the Shark Tank 3-2. It's the second straight win for Roberto Luongo—the only time he won consecutive games as an Islander.  (Evgeni Nabokov gave up two early goals in that game and was replaced by Steve Shields for San Jose)
All-time, the Isles are 7-5-4 on this date, even though they have never won at home (0-4-3, including 0-1-0 at Yankee Stadium).  The Isles are 7-1-1 on the road on this date.

On The Farm
Bridgeport has won four straight and his improved to 18-22-1-4 on the season.
Anders Lee leads Bridgeport (and is tied for the AHL rookie lead) with 17 goals. Ryan Strome leads the team (and all AHL rookies) in assists (30); he also leads the Sound Tigers in points (40).  Strome's 40 points place him 7th in league scoring despite playing at least eight fewer games than anyone ahead of him in AHL scoring.
Bridgeport is off until Friday when they visit Albany.

Up Next
FRIDAY, JANUARY 31th – ISLANDERS AT RANGERS 7:00PM
[MSG+2 (pre-game at 6:30pm), 88.7 WRHU-FM, 103.9 WRCN-FM]
This most unusual home-and-home series between the teams concludes on Friday at Madison Square Garden.
The Islanders have won three straight games in Manhattan and are 3-2-2 in the last seven games overall against the Rangers.  Since 2005, the Isles are 14-12-2 at MSG (despite going 0-7-1 immediately before this three-game win streak).

And Finally…
I watched this game from the stands with my wife and boys, something I last did for an Islanders game in 2004.  Happy Birthday to "Mrs. Skinny", my wife Diane!

Eric Hornick has been the statistician on Islander home game telecasts since January 21, 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

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

The Skinny on the Stadium Series

The NHL announced today that the game is completely sold out; however, there are numerous tickets available on the secondary market are most are discounted from face value.  (StubHub has about 1,700 tickets available)

TV Stuff:
NBCSN has the right to the actual telecast as part of "Wednesday Night Rivalry".  Their pre-game starts at 6:30 and the game coverage begins at 7:30.  Expect puck drop more in the 7:45 - 7:50 range (and I would not expect there to be a sun glare delay).  NHL Live starts their coverage at 6:30.

NBCSN is also airing "NHL Rivals: Islanders/Rangers" three times this week.  It premieres at approximately 10:30 pm tonight (after Washington/Buffalo and post-game coverage). Re-airs at 12:30am Thursday (I should be thawed out by then) and at 7:00am Thursday.

There will be 1 hour of post-game coverage on MSG Network after the game at (approximately) 10pm; it will re-air multiple times on MSG and MSG+ overnight and into Thursday.

Radio Stuff:

Chris King's radio broadcast is on the usual outlets WRHU and WRCN but will also be heard on WCBS-880 so if you're anywhere on the East Coast you should be able to hear it.  Coverage begins at 7:30.

Ranger radio coverage on ESPN 98.7 begins at 7:00.

 
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

The Skinny: Boston 6, Isles 3

"The Skinny"
 By Eric Hornick
 
Game 55
Boston 6, Isles 3
 
Brad Marchand scored a goal and added three assists as the Boston
Bruins broke a 3-3 tie with three unanswered goals as they defeated the
Islanders 6-3 before a crowd of 13,819 at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Overall
six different Bruins scored goals and twelve players recorded points. Kyle
Okposo had a goal and two assists for the Isles, who fall to 0-2-1 on their
three-game homestand (all against potential division champions) and to 8-11-8
at the Coliseum this season.

The Scoring:
1st Period
07:47    BOS Loui Eriksson (6)
Wrist shot - ASST: Daniel Paille (5), Torey Krug (17) 1 - 0 BOS     
15:29    NYI  Frans Nielsen (18) Wrist shot - ASST: Kyle
Okposo (33)       1 - 1 Tie           
 
2nd Period
04:50    BOS Brad Marchand (17)
Snap shot - ASST: Patrice Bergeron (21), Reilly Smith (22) 2 - 1 BOS    
08:20    NYI Michael Grabner (9)
Wrist shot - ASST: Kyle Okposo (34), Thomas Hickey (12) 2 - 2 Tie         
12:21    BOS Reilly Smith (17)
Wrist shot - ASST: Shawn Thornton (1), Brad Marchand (14) 3 - 2 BOS       
15:08    NYI Kyle Okposo (23)
Wrist shot - ASST: Michael Grabner (11)    3
- 3 Tie           
19:27    BOS Carl Soderberg (7)
Wrist shot - ASST: Milan Lucic (21), Jarome Iginla (19)    4 - 3 BOS         
 
3rd Period
02:17    BOS Patrice Bergeron (14)
Snap shot - ASST: Brad Marchand (15)          5
- 3 BOS         
08:12    BOS Zdeno Chara (12)
Wrist shot - ASST: Brad Marchand (16), Dougie Hamilton (7) 6 - 3 BOS

The Skinny:  
Frans Nielsen set a career high with his 18th goal; the Islanders
are the only NHL team to have four players with at least 18 goals…Kyle Okposo's
two assists give him 34, which is a new career high; his previous high of 33
was set in 2009-10; his 23rd goal ties John Tavares for the team
lead….The Isles are 8-5-1 in 2014 and are 12-7-1 in their last 20… …Okposo
extended his point streak six games but John Tavares' point streak ended at 6
games…Brad Marchand recorded his third career game with at least four points
(and first this season). ..Former Islander Zdeno Chara's third period goal was
his 500th NHL point…Casey Cizikas was -4 for the Isles while Colin
McDonald and Matt Martin both went -3…Brad Marchand and Torey Krug each went +3
for Boston….Each team scored in a delayed penalty situation in the second
period…The Isles have allowed six goals in each of their last three regulation
losses; the six goals allowed matches a season high, now done five times…The
Isles are 1-17-0 when they allow three goals in a period…The Isles have been
outscored 76-67 in the second period; more goals have been scored in second period
of Islander games than any other teams…There were 14 second period goals scored
in the three Islander-Bruin games this season; only 73 goals have been scored
in the second period of the Bruins' other 48 games…Marchand, Patrice Bergeron
and Reilly Smith all extended point streaks to six straight games.

Le Magnifique
If the Bruins had gotten a vote, Kyle Okposo would have been heading to
Socchi.  The Isles scored eleven goals
against Boston this season, and Okposo earned points on nine of them (2-7-9).  Okposo is the first opponent to record three
games with at least three points against the Bruins in the same season since
Mario Lemieux did it for Pittsburgh in 1995-96.
Okposo now has four three-point games this season; he had never had had
more than two in a season prior to this year.

Eight's Not
Enough!
The Isles are 8-5-1 in January, with two games to play. However, the
Isles are 0-2-1 in the last three
It's the first time since 2003 that the Isles have earned 8 wins in
January and matches their most January wins since they earned 9 in January
1990.  The Isles have earned ten
victories in January only once in franchise history, going 10-4-1 in 1980
(April and May were pretty good that year, too!)

TheShots:
Isles     18-9-10=37
Bruins  12-17-8=37
 
It's the third time this month and the fifth time this
season that the shots in an Islander game have been exactly even.

Home and Road
The Islanders are 21-26-8 overall, 8-11-8 at home and 13-15-0 on the road.   The
Isles are 7-4-1 in their last 12, 12-7-1 in their last 20 and are 13-8-3 in
their last 24 games overall.
The Bruins are 33-15-3 overall; they are 19-5-2 at home and 14-10-1 on
the road. The Bruins have won three straight and are 4-0-1 in their last five.

By Division
The Isles are 5-12-3 in Division games and are 16-14-5 in games against
other divisions. They are 7-5-3 vs. the Atlantic Division, 6-4-1 vs. Central
Division, and 3-5-1 vs. the Pacific Division.

In the Nets
Kevin Poulin made 30 saves but was
pulled after the last Bruins goal as he falls to 11-16-1 on the season. 
Evgeni Nabokov returned to action for
the first time in three weeks and stopped the only shot he faced.
Chad Johnson made 34 saves for the Bruins
and improves to 9-3-0 on the season as he evens his career mark to 1-1 against
the Isles.

Power Plays
The Islanders were 0-5 while the Bruins were 0-2. 
The Isles are 13-6-4 when they score at least one power play goal and 8-20-4
when they do not.  The Isles are 10-15-3
when they allow at least one power play goal and 11-11-5 when they do not. 
The Islander power play went 0-13 in the three game homestand.  The Isles have killed 24 of 27 (88.9%) over
the last ten games. 

Tale of Four
Seasons
The Isles PP went 10-33 in the first 10 games, before going 7-79 in the
next 24 games. They rebounded to go 10-32 in the following 11 games but are
only 4-38 in their 11 games.

Three is a
Magic Number
The Isles are 19-7-3 when they score at least three goals (including
shootout winners) and are 2-19-5 when they do not. 

Comeback Kids
The Isles are 9-7-6 when they score first and are 12-19-2 when they
allow the opening goal.  The Isles have
allowed the first goal in 13 of their last 17 games. The Isles have scored
first in 15 of their 27 home games but are 6-3-6 in those games.

Second to The
One
Jack Capuano became the 2nd coach in Islander history to win
100 games in Toronto on January 7th and tonight became the 2nd coach in Islander history to coach 250 games. He is 2nd on the
all-time Islander list in both games coached (250) and wins (105).

Most games coached (Islanders):
1.     Al Arbour 1,500
2.     Jack
Capuano 250
3.     Mike Milbury 191
4.     Terry Simpson 187
5.     Scott Gordon 181
 
Most wins by Islander coaches:
1.     Al Arbour 740
2.     Jack
Capuano 105
3.     Terry Simpson 81
4.     Peter Laviolette 77
5.     Ted Nolan 74
 
They Said It
Kyle Okposo: ""We came out sluggish, but I think we had a real
good second period. But at the end of the day, we have to bear down, bury our
chances, and clean up a few things in the D-zone."

They Tweeted
It
@tsnscottcullen Islanders RW Kyle Okposo 11 G, 12 A in past 15 GP
@munzy24 Leaving Bobby Ryan off the U.S. roster for the Olympics was
crazy, but even crazier to me is they left Okposo off. That's insane to me.
#NHL

The Coach
"There's a few guys that are struggling, no question. There's a
few guys trying to play through [struggles]. It's a grind."

Back-to-Backs
The Isles are 6-6-0 in the front-end and 5-5-2 on the back end of
back-to-backs this season.  The Isles
have swept three back-to-backs:  November
1st/2nd vs. Ottawa and Boston; January 6th/7th vs. Dallas and Toronto and January 20th/21st vs.
Philadelphia and the Rangers.
In the twelve sets of back-to-backs, they have earned 4 points three
times, 3 points once, 2 points four times, 1 point once and no points on three
occasions. 
The Islanders do not play back-to-back again until they host New Jersey
and Florida on March 1st and 2nd.

Leading Ice
Men
John Tavares led the Isles with 23:03 of ice-time; it's the second time
in three games that a forward has led the Isles in ice-time. Zdeno Chara led
the Bruins with 22:50 of ice-time.
The Isles are 14-14-6 when MacDonald leads in ice-time, are 7-10-2 when
Hamonic leads, are 0-1-0 when Okposo leads and are 0-1-0 when Tavares leads.

In the Circle
The Islanders won 43 of 70 draws.  Casey Cizikas won 7 of 10 draws for the Isles;
no Bruin won more draws than he lost.
It was the second-best night in the circle for Isles, who won 45 of 72
from Dallas on January 6th.

Heavy Hitters
The Isles out-hit Boston 32-18. Cal Clutterbuck and Matt Martin led the
Isles with six hits each; Martin's 263 hits lead the NHL by a wide margin.  He had now recorded at least 200 hits in four
straight seasons. 
There were no fights.  The Isles
have been involved in 20 fights this season: Martin (7), Boulton (5), Carkner (5),
McDonald (2), and Okposo (1).

Giving Up the
Body
The Isles were credited with 19 blocked shots. Matt Carkner and Brian
Strait led the way with three blocks; Andrew MacDonald added two, as he extended
his NHL-leading total to 180.

Four Over All-Time
.500
The Islanders fall to four games over all-time NHL .500 (1392-1388-447 in
3,227 games). The Isles have been 1-under all-time .500 after six games this
season and have gone 4-0-2 in the following game. 
The Isles have finished every season since 1977-78 above all-time NHL
.500 and have not been more than 1 game under NHL-.500 since January 11, 1978.

Ironmen
Frans Nielsen is the Islanders' reigning ironman.  He has played 185 consecutive games, and is
one of four Islanders to have played in every game this season.  Other ironman streaks: Andrew Mac Donald (156),
Matt Martin (116), and Thomas Hickey (56). 

Century Club
Andrew MacDonald has the 4th longest consecutive game streak
for a defenseman in Islander history:
1.     Denis Potvin 11/29/1975-1/17/1979  262
2.     Bryan McCabe 10/7/1995-2/4/1998 220 (*)(**)
3.     Gerry Hart 3/1/1975-11/22/1977 198
4.     Andrew
MacDonald 12/19/11- CURRENT 156
5.     Janne Niinimaa 3/13/2004-1/7/2006 136 (**)
6.     Ken Morrow 3/1/1980-12/29/1981 134 (*)
7.     Mark Streit  10/8/2011-4/26/2013 130
8.     Travis Hamonic 2/24/2012-1/12/2014 117
9.     Travis Hamonic 11/24/2011– 2/4/2012 113 (*)
10.  Jean Potvin 10/23/1975-1/2/1977 110
11.  Kenny Jonsson 12/26/1996-2/4/1998 104
 
(*)
Start of NHL career.
(**)
Entire career with Islanders
 
Missing Men
Lubomir Visnovsky and Evgeni Nabokov were activated from injured reserve;
both players dressed as Matt Donovan and Anders Nilsson were both returned to
Bridgeport. Travis Hamonic missed his eighth game with an upper body
injury.  Radek Martinek was scratched for
the second straight game while Eric Boulton was scratched for the fourth
straight game.
The Isles have lost 145 games this season due to injury, including 46
from Visnovsky, who made his first appearance since being injured on October 19th.


Career Goals as an Islander
15         Mariusz Czerkawski       145
16         John Tavares   135
17         Jason Blake      127
 
28         Mikko Makela    95
28         Kyle Okposo    95
28         David Volek      95
31         Randy Wood     94
32         Greg Gilbert      93
32         Garry Howatt     93
34         Travis Green      92
35         Butch Goring     87
36         Tomas Jonsson            84
37         Wayne Merrick  81
37         Dave Scatchard            81
39         Michael Grabner 79
39         Marty McInnis    79
41         Miroslav Satan  78
41         Frans Nielsen   78
43         Claude Lapointe 76
 
Career Assists as an Islander
16         Ed Westfall       181
17         John Tavares   178
18         Kenny Jonsson175
19         Alexei Yashin    171
20         Duane Sutter     171
21         Jean Potvin       167
22         Jeff Norton       166
23         Zigmund Palffy163
24         Frans Nielsen   161
25         David Volek      154
26         Mariusz Czerkawski 150
27         Kyle Okposo    147      
28         Travis Green      145
           
Career Games as an Islander (skaters)
24         Eddie Westfall  493
25         Radek Martinek 479
26         Gerry Hart         476
                       
32         Dave Langevin  422
33         Frans Nielsen   422
34         Wayne Merrick  411
35         Jean Potvin       402
36         David Volek      396
37         Bert Marshall     392
38         Travis Green      388
39         Anders Kallur    383
40         Randy Wood     381
41         Josh Bailey      379
42         Kyle Okposo    373
43         Dave Scatchard            347
44         Alexei Yashin    346
45         Mark
Parrish     345
45         John Tavares   345
47         Marty McInnis    337      
 
Career Points as an Islander
16         Ziggy Palffy      331
17         John Tavares   313
18         Mariusz Czerkawski       295
                       
24         David Volek      249
25         Kyle Okposo    241
26         Frans Nielsen   239
27         Ray Ferraro       238
 
Season Series
Stats
The Islanders win the season series 2 games to 1 (and 4 points to 2). The
loss breaks a three game winning streak against Boston.
The Islanders fail to sweep the season series against
Boston for the first time since winning all four games in 2005-2006

Happy
Anniversary
24 years ago today (1-27-90):  Patrick
Flatley matched a career high with five points as the Isles pounded Pittsburgh
9-3 at the Coliseum.  Pat Lafontaine had
two goals for the Isles, giving him 42 goals on the season. 
All-time, the Isles are 6-10-3 on this date.
On The Farm
Bridgeport completed a great weekend with a 6-5 win over Syracuse on
Sunday, giving them three wins in three days and four straight wins overall. John
Persson recorded his first pro hat trick as Bridgeport improves to 18-22-1-4 on
the season.
Anders Lee leads Bridgeport (and is tied for the AHL rookie lead) with 17
goals. Ryan Strome leads the team (and all AHL rookies) in assists (30); he
also leads the Sound Tigers in points (40).  Strome's 40 points place him 7th in league scoring despite
playing at least eight fewer games than anyone ahead of him in AHL scoring.
Bridgeport is off until Friday when they visit Albany.

Up Next
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY
29th -- RANGERS VS. ISLANDERS AT YANKEE STADIUM 7:30PM
[NBCSN (pre-game at 6:30pm), 88.7 WRHU-FM, 103.9 WRCN-FM, 880 WCBS-AM]
After 3,227 regular season games indoors, the Islanders
head outdoors to face the Rangers at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.  The game will be nationally televised in both
the United States and Canada.
This is technically an Islander home game, only the
third that the Isles have ever played away from Nassau Coliseum.  Back in 1992-93 and 1993-94 each team played
two neutral-site games and the Islander home games were played in Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma and Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The Bronx will be the 4th New York county
that the Isles have played in this season, having played in Nassau County,
Manhattan County and a pre-season game in Kings County (Brooklyn).  The Isles will play in a fifth New York
county in April, when they visit the Sabres in Buffalo, Erie County.
This is the first of a most unusual home-and-home
series between the teams, who will complete their season series on Friday at
Madison Square Garden.
Note the additional radio outlet for Wednesday's
game: WCBS 880.

Eric Hornick has
been the statistician on Islander home game telecasts since January 21, 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