"The Skinny"
By Eric Hornick
Game 76
Isles 2, Ottawa 1
Josh Bailey scored a first period goal and then assisted on Casey Cizikas' winning goal as the Islanders defeated the Ottawa Senators 2-1 before a crowd of 16,516 at the Canadian Tire Centre. The Isles have a season-high six-game point streak (5-0-1). It's the first time since March 27-29, 2012 (both vs. Pittsburgh) that Bailey has had consecutive multi-point games.
The Scoring:
1st Period
17:09 NYI PPG - Josh Bailey (8) Snap shot - ASST: Ryan Strome (10), Matt Donovan (11) 1 - 0 NYI
2nd Period
NONE
3rd Period
06:41 OTT PPG - Milan Michalek (17) Wrist shot - ASST: Chris Neil (5), Patrick Wiercioch (17) 1 - 1 Tie
09:31 NYI PPG - Casey Cizikas (6) Wrist shot - ASST: Josh Bailey (25), Ryan Strome (11) 2 - 1 NYI
The Skinny:
Josh Bailey played in his 400th NHL game; he has consecutive multi-point games and is 10-9-19 in 34 career April games. Bailey also extended his career-best assist total to 25…Casey Cizikas' goal was his first in 34 games (1/2/14 vs. Chicago) and his first career power play goal…Playing without John Tavares, the Isles are 9-5-2 since the Olympic break…The Senators' power play goal was only their 15th at home all season…The Isles improve to 14-6-6 when leading after two periods…. In his last five games Ryan Strome is 1-5-6; both of the multi-point games in his career have come in this stretch…. The Isles improve to 18-9-4 with Strome in the lineup…The Isles allowed a tying goal in the third period for the 22nd game this season (8-6-8)…The loss broke a five game point streak for Ottawa (4-0-1).
The Shots:
Isles 14-6-7=27
Ottawa 13-7-16=36
The Young Get Younger
The Isles dressed ten rookies for the fourth straight game: Kevin Czuczman, Calvin de Haan, Matt Donovan, Mike Halmo, Anders Lee, Brock Nelson, Anders Nilsson, Ryan Strome, Johan Sundstrom, and John Persson.
The average age of the 20 players the Isles dressed tonight was 25.33 years. If you exclude the goaltenders, the average age drops to 24.66 years. Matt Carkner was the only Islander over 30 (he is 33 ½). None of the other Isles have turned 30 (Frans Nielsen will do so later this month).
Home and Road
The Islanders are 31-35-10 overall, 13-18-8 at home (including 0-1-0 at Yankee Stadium) and 18-17-2 on the road. The Isles are 7-2-1 in their last 10 games.
Over the last two seasons, the Isles are 23-29-11 (57 points in 63 games) at home and 32-23-6 (70 points in 60 games) on the road.
Ottawa is 32-30-14 overall; they are 16-16-6 at home and 16-14-8 on the road.
By Division
The Isles are 9-15-3 in Division games and are 22-20-7 in games against other divisions. They are 11-6-4 vs. the Atlantic Division, 7-6-1 vs. Central Division, and 4-8-2 vs. the Pacific Division.
The Isles do not have a winning record against every division opponent. They are 1-3-0 against Carolina, 1-1-1 (with one to play) against Columbus, 2-2-0 (with one to play) against New Jersey, 2-3-0 against New York, 1-3-0 against Philadelphia, 1-2-1 against Pittsburgh., and 1-1-1 against Washington (with one to play).
This was the sixth of 12 consecutive games against Eastern Conference opponents to end the regular season. The Isles have started this stretch 5-0-1.
In the Nets
Anders Nilsson made 35 saves as he improves to 6-5-2 on the season.
Craig Anderson made 25 saves for Ottawa but falls to 23-15-8 on the season.
Power Plays
The Islanders were 2-4 on the power play while Ottawa was 1-5.
The Isles are 18-8-4 when they score at least one power play goal and 13-27-6 when they do not. The Isles are 14-19-4 when they allow at least one power play goal and 17-16-6 when they do not.
The Isles are 12-91 in the last 24 games on the power play and have allowed 14 power play goals in 60 times short over the last 15 games.
Feast or Famine
The Isles PP went 10-33 in the first 10 games, before going 7-79 in the next 24 games. They rebounded to go 11-32 in the following 11 games but are only 16-116 in their last 31 games.
Three is a Magic Number
The Isles are 25-10-3 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 6-25-7 when they do not.
Comeback Kids
The Isles are 15-9-7 when they score first and are 16-26-3 when they allow the opening goal. The Isles have allowed the first goal in 26 of their last 38 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 (271) and wins (115).
Most games coached (Islanders):
1. Al Arbour 1,500
2. Jack Capuano 271
3. Mike Milbury 191
4. Terry Simpson 187
5. Scott Gordon 181
Most wins by Islander coaches:
1. Al Arbour 740
2. Jack Capuano 115
3. Terry Simpson 81
4. Peter Laviolette 77
5. Ted Nolan 74
They Said It
Josh Bailey: "It always feels good to get on the scoresheet. (Our recent performance) shows that there has been no quit. They were a desperate team (but we got) great goaltending."
They Tweeted It
@islesfansunite
I
I BELIEVE
I BELIEVE THAT
I BELIEVE THAT WE
I BELIEVE THAT WE JUST WON!!!!!
@7thWoman Oh and -- @RealJiggsMcD still the #isles lucky charm!
@batteryjackson wow #isles rookies. holdin it down. next year may be a good one...I hope
The Coach
"After the first, again, we settled down. I thought (Anders Nilsson) did a great job …made some huge saves for us."
Back-to-Backs
The Isles are now 7-8-1 in the front-end and 7-7-2 on the back end of back-to-backs this season. The Isles have swept four back-to-backs: November 1st/2nd vs. Ottawa and Boston, January 6th/7th vs. Dallas and Toronto, January 20th/21st vs. Philadelphia and the Rangers and April 1st/2nd vs. Florida and Ottawa.
In the 16 previous sets of back-to-backs, they have earned 4 points four times, 3 points once, 2 points five times, 1 point twice and no points on four occasions.
The Isles next two games will also be in a back to back set as they host Washington on Saturday and visit Columbus on
Sunday. In all, six of the Isles' final eight games are being played as part of three back-to-back sets.
Leading Ice Men
Travis Hamonic led the Isles with 26:13 of ice-time while Erik Karlsson led Ottawa with 26:47.
The Isles are 15-17-6 when MacDonald leads in ice-time, are 15-13-4 when Hamonic leads, are 1-0-0 when deHaan leads, are 0-1-0 when Okposo leads, are 0-1-0 when Strait leads, are 0-2-0 when Tavares leads and are 0-1-0 when Vanek leads.
In the Circle
The Islanders won 19 of 53 draws (36%). No Islander center won at least one-half of their draws; Mika Zibanejad won 10 of 12 for Ottawa.
Heavy Hitters
The Isles out-hit Ottawa 24-21. Matt Martin led the Isles with six hits while Cal Clutterbuck was one of three Isles with three hits. Martin now has 333 hits on the season and leads the NHL in hits by a wide margin; it is the second time in his career that he has recorded 300 hits. Clutterbuck now has 254 hits this season and is now in the top 5 in hits.
There were no fights in the game. The Isles have received 32 fighting penalties this season: Martin (10), Boulton (8), Carkner (8), McDonald (2), Hamonic (2), Halmo (1) and Okposo (1).
Giving Up the Body
The Isles were credited with 25 blocked shots, including a team-high five blocks for Frans Nielsen.
All-time Winners
The Islanders go five games over all-time NHL .500 (1402-1397-449 in 3,248 games) with five games remaining in the current regular season. 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.
With their win tonight, the Isles are guaranteed to finish the regular season at least at all-time NHL .500.
Ironman
Thomas Hickey is the Islanders' reigning ironman. He has played 77 consecutive regular season games, and is the only Islander to have played in every game this season.
Missing Men
John Tavares is on injured reserve. Michael Grabner (concussion), Eric Boulton (hand), Brian Strait (broken hand), and Lubomir Visnovsky (upper body injury) are also injured. Kyle Okposo missed his fourth straight game with a lower body injury. Radek Martinek was scratched.
The Isles have lost 207 games this season due to injury.
Career Wins, Active Goalies
Career Wins
17. Rogie Vachon 355
19. Gump Worsley 335
20. Nikolai Khabibulin 333
Career Shutouts, Active Goalies
5. Henrik Lundqvist 50
Career Shutouts
16 Turk Broda 62
17 John Ross Roach 58
17 Evgeni Nabokov 58
19 Clint Benedict 57
| Career Goals as an Islander |
15 Mariusz Czerkawski 145
16 John Tavares 136
17 Jason Blake 127
27 Trent Hunter 99
28 Kyle Okposo 99
29 Mikko Makela 95
29 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 Frans Nielsen 83
38 Michael Grabner 82
39 Wayne Merrick 81
39 Dave Scatchard 81
| Career Assists as an Islander |
16 Ed Westfall 181
17 John Tavares 179
18 Kenny Jonsson 175
19 Alexei Yashin 171
20 Duane Sutter 171
21 Jean Potvin 167
22 Jeff Norton 166
23 Frans Nielsen 165
24 Zigmund Palffy 163
25 Kyle Okposo 155
26 David Volek 154
| Career Games as an Islander (skaters) |
24 Eddie Westfall 493
25 Radek Martinek 479
26 Gerry Hart 476
29 Scott Lachance 450
30 Frans Nielsen 441
31 Jason Blake 426
34 Wayne Merrick 411
35 Jean Potvin 402
36 Josh Bailey 400
37 David Volek 396
38 Bert Marshall 392
39 Kyle Okposo 390
40 Travis Green 388
41 Anders Kallur 383
42 Randy Wood 381
43 John Tavares 350
44 Dave Scatchard 347
| Career Points as an Islander |
16 Ziggy Palffy 331
17 John Tavares 315
18 Mariusz Czerkawski 295
22 Jason Blake 258
22 Steve Thomas 258
24 Kyle Okposo 254
25 David Volek 249
26 Frans Nielsen 248
27 Ray Ferraro 238
Season Series Stats
The Isles lead the season series, 2 games to 0(and four points to one), sweeping both games this season in Ottawa.
The Islanders have won three out of the last four against Ottawa but this was their first regulation win over Ottawa in the last 10 games between the squads.
The season series concludes on Tuesday in the Isles' home finale.
Happy Anniversary
21 years ago tonight (4-2-93): Pierre Turgeon scored his 50th goal of the season as the Islanders defeated the Rangers 3-2 at Madison Square Garden. Turgeon's historic tally came at 3:41 of overtime and stretched the Isles' lead over the Rangers to three points. The Rangers would never recover and would miss the playoffs while the Isles would advance to the Conference Finals.
All-time, the Isles are 12-9-1 on this date.
On The Farm
Bridgeport visits Wilkes Barre/Scranton on Friday. The Sound Tigers are 1-10-1-1 in their last 13 games and 27-34-2-5 on the season.
Up Next
SATURDAY, APRIL 5th – WASHINGTON AT ISLANDERS 5:00PM
[MSG-Plus (Isles Pre-game at 4:30), 88.7 WRHU-FM, 103.9 WRCN-FM]
[MSG-Plus (Isles Pre-game at 4:30), 88.7 WRHU-FM, 103.9 WRCN-FM]
The Isles return home to face Alex Ovechkin and the desperate Washington Capitals in a rare 5:00 start.
This will be the fourth and final meeting of the season between the teams; the Isles are 1-1-1 in the first three. Washington exploded for five goals in a season-changing second period to defeat the Isles 6-2 on November 5th and then staged a daring comeback to defeat the Isles in overtime over Thanksgiving weekend before Evgeni Nabokov blanked the Caps in DC just before the Olympic break.
Note the early start time: 5:00PM.
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
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