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The Skinny: New Jersey 4, Isles 0

"The Skinny" By Eric Hornick Game 71 New Jersey 4, Isles 0 Timo Meier had a Gordie Howe hat trick, all in the second period, as th...

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

The Skinny: Florida 4, Isles 2

"The Skinny"

 By Eric Hornick
 
Game 48
Florida 4, Isles 2
 
The comeback kids finally found a lead that they could not overcome as Aleksander Barkov gave Florida the lead just 32 seconds into play and the Panthers scored three first period goals enroute to a 4-2 victory over the Islanders before a crowd of 13,730 at BB&T Center. The loss snaps the Islanders' 4-game winning streak overall and seven game road winning streak.  It's the 15th time this season that the Islanders have allowed at least three goals in a period (0-15-0).

The Scoring:
1st Period
00:32    FLA      Aleksander Barkov (8) Snap shot - ASST: Brad Boyes (10)          1 - 0 FLA          
15:34    FLA      Drew Shore (1) Wrist shot - ASST: Krystofer Barch (3), Ed Jovanovski (1) 2 - 0 FLA        
19:24    FLA      Nick Bjugstad (10) Wrist shot - ASST: Scottie Upshall (14) 3 - 0 FLA       
 
2nd Period
15:59    FLA      SHG - Scottie Upshall (7) Wrist shot - ASST: Brian Campbell (15) 4 - 0 FLA
19:29    NYI       Colin McDonald (3) Wrist shot - ASST: Matt Martin (4), Calvin de Haan (6) 4 - 1 FLA

3rd Period
02:38    NYI       Thomas Vanek (16) Wrist shot - ASST: Frans Nielsen (20), Kyle Okposo (27) 4 - 2 FLA

The Skinny:  
Aleksander Barkov's goal was the earliest allowed by the Islanders this season…Florida had scored only 22 first period goals before tonight…Scott Upshall's goal was the 4th shorthanded goal allowed by the Islanders this season (all in the last 23 games)..Thomas Vanek's goal gives the Islanders four players with 16 goals, joining Chicago as the only teams in the league with at least four 16-goal scorers...The Isles have outscored their opponents 16-3 in the third period over the last nine games…Calvin deHaan had no points in his first 17 games this season but now has a 5-game point streak (1-5-6)… Florida is unbeaten in regulation when leading after 2 periods (9-0-1)… Isles had won the last 4 games that they trailed 2-0 (@ San Jose, @ Minnesota, Vs Dallas, @ Dallas)… The Isles had won eight straight games outside the Metropolitan Division.

End of Seven
This was only the second time in franchise history that the Isles have won at least seven straight on the road:
·         8 in 1980-81
·         7 in 2013-14
·         6 in 1980-81, 1981-82, and 2001-02
The 7-game winning streak is the longest road winning streak in the NHL this season:
7 NY ISLANDERS Dec 20, 2013 Jan 12, 2014
6 ANAHEIM Dec 6, 2013 Dec 23, 2013
6 CHICAGO Nov 21, 2013 Nov 30, 2013
6 NY RANGERS Oct 26, 2013 Nov 23, 2013
6 DALLAS Nov 3, 2013 Nov 17, 2013
6 COLORADO Oct 8, 2013 Nov 1, 2013
 
Isles at 48
The Isles are 18-23-7 through 48 games; they were 24-17-7 last season, which lasted only 48 games.
·         Goals For:  132+  (139 last season)
·         Goals Against: 156+ (139 last season)
·         John Tavares 21-35-56 +2 (28-19-47 -2 last season)
·         Kyle Okposo 19-27-46 -2 (4-20-24 -2 last season)
·         Frans Nielsen 16-20-36 -10 (6-23-29 -3 last season)

The Shots:
Isles           8-10-15=33
Panthers  10-10- 6 =26 
 
Every Islander but Josh Bailey and Thomas Hickey was credited with at least 1 shot on goal.
 
Home and Road
The Islanders are 18-23-7 overall, 7-9-7 at home and 11-14-0 on the road.   The Isles have won 4 of 5, are 9-4-0 in their last 13 and are 10-5-2 in their last 17 games overall.
The Panthers are 18-21-7 overall; they are 10-9-4 at home and 8-12-3 on the road. The Panthers are 4-1-2 in their last seven games.

By Division
The Isles are 3-10-3 in Division games and are 15-13-4 in games against other divisions. They are 6-4-3 vs. the Atlantic Division, 6-4-0 vs. Central Division, and 3-5-1 vs. the Pacific Division.

In the Nets
Kevin Poulin made 22 saves but falls to 9-13-0 on the season.  The loss breaks a career-best five game winning streak.
Tim Thomas made 31 saves for Florida; he improves to 12-11-3.

Power Plays
The Islanders were 0-3 while the Panthers were 0-5.
The Isles are 10-6-4 when they score at least one power play goal and 8-17-3 when they do not.  The Isles are 8-14-3 when they allow at least one power play goal and 10-9-4 when they do not. 
The Islander special teams are much improved as of late.  The power play is 11-39 (28.2%) over the last 13 games while the Isles have killed 36 of 42 (85.7%) over the last 14 games while scoring two shorthanded goals. 
Florida, on the other hand, is 0-22 on the power play in their last seven games.

Tale of Three Seasons
The Isles PP went 10-33 in the first 10 games, before going 7-79 in the next 24 games.  Since then, the Isles are 11-39 in the last 14 games (including 9-25 in the last eight games (36.0%)). 

Three is a Magic Number
The Isles are 17-4-2 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 1-19-5 when they do not. 

Helps to Score First
The Isles are 9-5-5 when they score first and are 9-18-2 when they allow the opening goal.  The Isles have allowed the first goal in 9 of their last 10 games.

Second to The One
Jack Capuano became the 2nd coach in Islander history to win 100 games in Toronto on January 7th. He is 2nd on the all-time Islander list in both games coached (243) and wins (102).

Most games coached (Islanders):
1.     Al Arbour 1,500
2.     Jack Capuano 243
3.     Mike Milbury 191
4.     Terry Simpson 187
5.     Scott Gordon 181
 
Most wins by Islander coaches:
1.     Al Arbour 740
2.     Jack Capuano 102
3.     Terry Simpson 81
4.     Peter Laviolette 77
5.     Ted Nolan 74

They Said It
Colin McDonald: "We talked before tonight's game that we wanted a better start; obviously we didn't do that….They came pretty hard, with all five guys…forced us to rush the puck…cost us the game."

They Tweeted It
@fornabaioctp Longest AHL streak: 2 (4x) MT @ehornick Calvin deHaan now has a 5 game point streak
@ckRaggio Frustrating loss, but every streak has to come to an end. We'll start a new one on Thursday. Shake it off, boys! Let's Go #isles!!
@bgeezy44 Dont worry about tonight boys just wasnt the night 34 games left keep grinding #isles#nevergiveup

The Coach
"We had quite a few chances… we got into penalty trouble, obviously...the first and third goal were tough…It's self-inflicted."

Back-to-Backs
The Isles are 5-6-0 in the front-end and 4-5-2 on the back end of back-to-backs this season.
In the eleven sets of back-to-backs, they have earned 4 points twice, 3 points once, 2 points four times, 1 point once and no points on three occasions.
The next set of back-to-backs will be on January 20th-21st as they will host Philadelphia before visiting the Rangers.

Head of the Class
John Tavares has 305 career points; he is 73 points ahead of Matt Duchene for most among 2009 draft picks.  No other player from that draft is anywhere close.  Tavares also has more goals and more assists than any other player from that draft.

Leading Ice Men
Andrew MacDonald played 29:39 to lead the Isles for the 29h time this season.  Brian Campbell led the Panthers with 30:21 of ice-time.
The Isles are 11-13-5 when MacDonald leads them in ice-time and 7-10-2 when Hamonic leads them.

In the Circle
The Islanders won 32 of 64 draws.  John Tavares won 14 of 21 draws for the Isles; Aleksander Barkov won 13 of 22 for Florida.
The Islanders killed all five Florida power plays, despite losing all 10 face-offs on Florida power plays.

Heavy Hitters
The Isles out-hit Florida 37-18.  Four Islanders, including Matt Martin, shared the team lead with four hits.  Martin's 234 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 15 fights this season: Martin (6), Boulton (4), Carkner (4), McDonald (1). 

Giving Up the Body
The Isles were credited with 11 blocked shots. Andrew MacDonald left the Isles with 4 blocks, extending his NHL-leading total to 163.  Matt Carkner also had 4.

Four Over All-Time .500
The Islanders fall to four games over all-time NHL .500 (1389-1385-446 in 3,220 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 178 consecutive games, and is one of four Islanders to have played in every game this season.  Other ironman streaks: Andrew Mac Donald (149), Matt Martin (109), and Thomas Hickey (49). 
Travis Hamonic did not play; he is "day-to-day" with an "upper body injury".

Hamonic's absence ends his consecutive game streak at 117 games; his entire NHL career to this point has been played in two lengthy consecutive games stretches (8th and 9th among all Islander defenders)

Century Club
 
Travis Hamonic is the only defenseman in Islander history with two streaks in which he played at least 100 consecutive games. Those are two of only 10 streaks of at least 100 consecutive games by 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 149
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 11/24/2010 – 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, Radek Martinek and Evgeni Nabokov remain on injured reserve. Peter Regin was scratched for the 4th straight game while Eric Boulton was scratched for the 3rd straight game. Matt Carkner returned to the lineup, replacing Travis Hamonic (upper body injury).  The Isles have lost 123 games this season due to injury.

Nobody Beats the Viz
The Isles were 19-12-4 last season and are 3-3-2 this season with Lubomir Visnovsky in the lineup.  They were 5-5-3 last season and are 15-20-5 this season without him in the lineup.
Career Goals as an Islander
15         Mariusz Czerkawski       145
16         John Tavares   133
17         Jason Blake      127
 
28         Mikko Makela    95
28         David Volek      95
30         Randy Wood     94
31         Greg Gilbert      93
31         Garry Howatt     93
33         Travis Green      92
34         Kyle Okposo    91
35         Butch Goring     87
36         Tomas Jonsson            84
37         Wayne Merrick  81
37         Dave Scatchard            81
39         Marty McInnis    79
40         Miroslav Satan  78
41         Michael Grabner 77
42         Frans Nielsen   76
42         Claude Lapointe 76
44         Lorne Henning   73
44         J.P. Parise        73
 
Career Assists as an Islander
16         Ed Westfall       181
17         Kenny Jonsson 175
18         John Tavares   173
19         Alexei Yashin    171
20         Duane Sutter     171
21         Jean Potvin       167
22         Jeff Norton       166
23         Zigmund Palffy 163
24         Frans Nielsen   156
25         David Volek      154
           
Career Games as an Islander (skaters)
24         Eddie Westfall  493
25         Radek Martinek            476
25         Gerry Hart         476
27         Mariusz Czerkawski       470
                       
32         Dave Langevin  422
33         Frans Nielsen   415
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      372
42         Kyle Okposo    366
43         Dave Scatchard            347
44         Alexei Yashin    346
45         Mark Parrish     345
46         John Tavares   338
47         Marty McInnis    337      

Career Points as an Islander
16         Ziggy Palffy      331
17         John Tavares   305
18         Mariusz Czerkawski       295
                       
25         Ray Ferraro       238
26         Travis Green      237
27         Kenny Jonsson 232
27         Frans Nielsen   232
29         Greg Gilbert      231
29         Kyle Okposo    231
31         Benoit Hogue    229
31         Trent Hunter      229

Season Series Stats
The Panthers lead the season series 1 game to 0 (and two points to none). The teams will also meet on March 2nd and April 1st at the Coliseum.
The loss breaks the Isles' four game win streak against Florida; they are 6-4-0 in their last ten against the Cats.

Happy Anniversary
2 years ago tonight (1-14-12): Evgeni Nabokov became the 26th goalie in NHL history to win xxx games as the Islanders defeated Buffalo 4-2 at the Coliseum. Michael Grabner scored the winning goal with 3:03 to play and added an empty-net; in between, Nabokov stopped Thomas Vanek on a penalty shot to preserve the lead.
Overall, the Isles are 7-6-2 on this date, including an 8-5 win over Quebec in 1988, during which Denis Potvin became the first defensemen in NHL history to record his 300th goal

On The Farm
Bridgeport is 14-20-1-4 on the season. The Sound Tigers are off until Friday, when they begin a 3-game in 3-day weekend in Binghamton.
Anders Lee leads Bridgeport with 15 goals; Lee and Dallas Jackson leads current Sound Tigers in assists (14) while Lee leads current players in points (29).  Ryan Strome still leads the team in assists (24) and points (33). 

Up Next
THURSDAY, JANUARY 14th —ISLANDERS AT TAMPA BAY 7:30PM
[MSG+ (Islanders pre-game at 7:00pm), 88.7 WRHU-FM, 103.9 WRCN-FM]
The Islanders recent hot streak began with a win at Madison Square Garden that following a disappointing shootout loss to Tampa Bay at the Coliseum. Valtteri Filippula scored twice in the final three minutes, including the tying goal off a scramble with less than 4 seconds to play and then also scored in the shootout.
Despite that shootout loss, the Isles are 9-3-1 in their last 13 games against the Lightning.

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

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