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The Skinny: Isles 3, Florida 2

"The Skinny" By Eric Hornick Game 72 Isles 3, Florida 2 Mathew Baral and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored second period goals to erase a...

Sunday, January 19, 2014

The Skinny: Philadelphia 6, Isles 4

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick
 
Game 50
Philadelphia 6, Isles 4

Michael Raffl scored the winning goal with 4:15 to play as the Philadelphia Flyers rallied from 2-0 and 4-3 deficits for a 6-4 victory over the Islanders before a crowd of 19,992 at the Wells Fargo Center. The loss gives the Isles a 4-2-0 record on their road trip and is only their second in the last ten games on the road (8-2-0). 

The Scoring:
1st Period
07:43    NYI John Tavares (22) Wrist shot - ASST: Thomas Vanek (25), Kyle Okposo (28) 1 - 0 NYI           
11:54    NYI SHG - Cal Clutterbuck (7) Wrist shot - ASST: Frans Nielsen (22), Brian Strait (5) 2 - 0 NYI       
14:43    PHI Andrej Meszaros (3) Snap shot - ASST: NONE         2 - 1 NYI          
18:38    PHI Andrej Meszaros (4) Snap shot - ASST: Scott Hartnell (17), Wayne Simmonds (20) 2 - 2 Tie
           
2nd Period
03:45    PHI Adam Hall (2) Tip-in - ASST: Mark Streit (16)  3 - 2 PHI         
11:05    NYI Brock Nelson (7) Deflected shot - ASST: Calvin de Haan (7), Josh Bailey (12) 3 - 3 Tie          
14:00    NYI Brian Strait (3) Tip-in - ASST: Michael Grabner (9), Brock Nelson (8)   4 - 3 NYI
           
3rd Period
07:14    PHI Jakub Voracek (14) Snap shot - ASST: Claude Giroux (30), Kimmo Timonen (14) 4 - 4 Tie      
15:45    PHI Michael Raffl (4) Snap shot - ASST: Claude Giroux (31), Jakub Voracek (21) 5 - 4 PHI           
19:04    PHI EN - Matt Read (11) Wrist shot - ASST: Sean Couturier (14), Mark Streit (17) 6 - 4 PHI

The Skinny:  
 
The Islanders had a goal disallowed in the second period when it was ruled that Thomas Vanek interfered with the Flyer goaltender…The Isles drop to 6-2-4 in games that they have led 2-0…. The Isles had outscored their opponents 16-3 in the third period over the past 10 games but were outscored 3-0 tonight…According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Flyers tied a team record with its ninth victory this season when trailing at any point in the third…The Flyers are 15-2-2 in their last 19 games against the Isles…Cal Clutterbuck recorded his third SH goal of the season, to tie for the NHL lead.  Nine of his 69 career goals have come with his team shorthanded…Claude Giroux set-up the tying and winning goals; he has had a multiple-point game in 13 of the last 25 meetings between the teams…Matt Read now has four goals against the Islanders this season, including three into empty nets.  The Isles have allowed six empty net goals this season (3 to Read)… It's the 16th time this season that the Islanders have allowed at least three goals in a period (0-16-0)… The Isles have now lost third period leads 12 times this season, but this was only the second time on the road.  They are 3-4-5 in those 12 games (meaning that they have earned only 11 of a possible 24 points in those games). It's the first time since February 11, 2013 that the Isles have lost a game in regulation in which they scored four times (22-0-2).

Road Trips with at Least 8 points
·         11/21/78-12/2/78 4-0-1  9 points
·         1/27/83-2/3/83 4-0-1  9 points
·         10/6/01-10/11/01 4-0-0 8 points
·         3/17/12-3/27/12 4-1-0 8 points
·         1/7/14-1/18/14 4-2-0 8 points
·         11/29/83-12/10/83  3-1-2 8 points
·         11/11/09-11/23/09 3-2-2 8 points

The Shots:
Isles      12-15-2=29
Flyers    8-10-14=32 

Home and Road
The Islanders are 19-24-7 overall, 7-9-7 at home and 12-15-0 on the road.   The Isles have won 5 of 7, are 10-5-0 in their last 15 and are 11-6-2 in their last 19 games overall.
The Flyers are 25-19-5 overall; they are 13-8-1 at home and 12-11-4 on the road. The Flyers are 12-4-2 in their last 18 games.

By Division
The Isles are 3-11-3 in Division games and are 16-13-4 in games against other divisions. They are 7-4-3 vs. the Atlantic Division, 6-4-0 vs. Central Division, and 3-5-1 vs. the Pacific Division.

In the Nets
Kevin Poulin made 26 saves but falls to 10-14-0 on the season.  
Chris Mason made 20 saves but was pulled after allowing the fourth Islander goal; Ray Emery stopped all five shots he saw in the final 26 minutes and picked up the victory, improving to 6-8-0.

Power Plays
The Islanders were 0-3 while the Flyers were 0-2 and allowed a shorthanded goal to Cal Clutterbuck.
The Isles are 11-6-4 when they score at least one power play goal and 8-18-3 when they do not.  The Isles are 9-14-3 when they allow at least one power play goal and 10-10-4 when they do not. 
The Islander special teams are much improved as of late.  The power play is 12-46 (26.1%) over the last 15 games while the Isles have killed 40 of 47 (85.1%) over the last 16 games while scoring three shorthanded goals. 

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 12-46 in the last 16 games (including 10-32 in the last nine games (31.3%)). 

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

Helps to Score First
The Isles are 9-6-5 when they score first and are 10-18-2 when they allow the opening goal.  The Isles had allowed the first goal in 10 of their last 11 games including seven straight on the road before Tavares scored the first goal in this game.

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 (245) and wins (103).

Most games coached (Islanders):
1.     Al Arbour 1,500
2.     Jack Capuano 245
3.     Mike Milbury 191
4.     Terry Simpson 187
5.     Scott Gordon 181

Most wins by Islander coaches:
1.     Al Arbour 740
2.     Jack Capuano 103
3.     Terry Simpson 81
4.     Peter Laviolette 77
5.     Ted Nolan 74
 
They Said It
Andrew MacDonald: "It felt a little bit like we were sitting back a little bit [in the third]…We weren't executing on plays in the [defensive] zone. They got us scrambling a bit, and we missed some coverage. They've got a pretty potent lineup over there and managed to score. It's pretty frustrating."

They Tweeted It
@SAL8116 @NYIslanders Really needed these two points tonight. Have to get two Monday. #Isles

The Coach
"I thought we played pretty well there for the 40 minutes.  We made some mistakes in the first 40, but we stopped getting pucks to the net…. And then in our own end, we didn't win the battles that we needed to win."

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 308 career points; he is 75 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 28:41 to lead the Isles for the 31st time this season.  Bryadon Coburn led the Flyers with 21:12 of ice-time.
The Isles are 12-14-5 when MacDonald leads them in ice-time and 7-10-2 when Hamonic leads them.

In the Circle
The Islanders won 19 of 58 draws.  Brock Nelson won 5 of 9 draws for the Isles but his teammates won only 14 of 49; Adam Hall won 11 of 13 for Philadelphia.

Heavy Hitters
The Isles out-hit Philadelphia 36-34.  Colin MacDonald led the Isles with seven hits while Matt Martin added four.  Martin's 241 hits lead the NHL by a wide margin.  He had now recorded at least 200 hits in four straight seasons. 
Eric Boulton fought Jay Rosehill in the second period.  The Isles have been involved in 17 fights this season: Martin (6), Boulton (5), Carkner (4), and McDonald (2). 

Giving Up the Body
The Isles were credited with 19 blocked shots. Calvin deHaan led the Isles with 6 blocks; Andrew MacDonald, extend his NHL-leading total to 168 with 4 blocks. 

Four Over All-Time .500
The Islanders drop to four games over all-time NHL .500 (1390-1386-446 in 3,222 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 180 consecutive games, and is one of four Islanders to have played in every game this season.  Other ironman streaks: Andrew Mac Donald (151), Matt Martin (111), and Thomas Hickey (51). 

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 151
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 remain on injured reserve. Travis Hamonic missed his third game with an upper body injury and has returned to New York.  Matt Carkner and Eric Boulton replaced Radek Martinek and Peter Regin in the lineup.
The Isles have lost 129 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 16-21-5 this season without him in the lineup.

Career Goals as an Islander
15         Mariusz Czerkawski       145
16         John Tavares   134
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   174
19         Alexei Yashin    171
20         Duane Sutter     171
21         Jean Potvin       167
22         Jeff Norton       166
23         Zigmund Palffy 163
24         Frans Nielsen   158
25         David Volek      154
           
Career Games as an Islander (skaters)
24         Eddie Westfall  493
25         Radek Martinek 477
26         Gerry Hart         476
                       
32         Dave Langevin  422
33         Frans Nielsen   417
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      374
42         Kyle Okposo    368
43         Dave Scatchard            347
44         Alexei Yashin    346
45         Mark Parrish     345
46         John Tavares   340
47         Marty McInnis    337      
 
Career Points as an Islander
16         Ziggy Palffy      331
17         John Tavares   307
18         Mariusz Czerkawski       295
                       
25         Ray Ferraro       238
26         Travis Green      237
27         Frans Nielsen   234
28         Kyle Okposo    232
28         Kenny Jonsson 232
30         Greg Gilbert      231
 
Season Series Stats
The Flyers lead the season series 3 games to 0 (and 6 points to 0). The teams will meet for the final time in the regular season on Monday afternoon at the Coliseum.
The Flyers have outscored the Isles this season by a 16-8 margin, dropping the Isles to 2-7-0 in their last nine games against Philadelphia.

Happy Anniversary
41 years ago tonight (1-18-73):  In the most memorable victory of the Islanders' inaugural season, the Islanders defeated the Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins 9-7 at Boston Garden.  The Isles built a 5-0 lead and then held on, despite four goals from John Bucyk, for the second road win in franchise history.
Overall, the Isles are 9-2-0 on this date.

On The Farm
Bridgeport is 14-22-1-4 on the season after dropping games in Binghamton on Friday and Hershey on Saturday.  Ryan Strome saw his 9-game point steak end in the loss in Hershey.
Anders Lee leads Bridgeport with 15 goals; Strome still leads the team in assists (26) and points (35). 

Up Next
MONDAY, JANUARY 20th — PHILADELPHIA AT ISLANDERS 1:00PM
[MSG+ (Islanders pre-game at 12:30pm), 88.7 WRHU-FM, 103.9 WRCN-FM]
The Islanders have ten games remaining before the Olympic break and nine of them are in the New York area, including Monday's rematch with the Flyers. 
The Isles are 16-13-4 in games against other divisions but are only 3-11-3 in Division games this season.
It's the 8th straight year that the Isles will host an MLK matinee (2-3-2), and the 13th time since 1994 that they have played at home on MLK Day (4-5-3).
 
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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