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"The Skinny" By Eric Hornick Eastern Conference Round 1, Game 5 Carolina 6, Isles 3 Carolina Wins Series 4-1 School is out. Jack D...

Monday, November 09, 2015

The Skinny: Boston 2, Isles 1

"The Skinny"  

By Eric Hornick
 
Game 15
Boston 2, Isles 1
Tuukka Rask made 36 saves as the Boston Bruins held on to defeat the Islanders, 2-1, before a crowd of 13,197 at Barclay Center.  The Isles are 1-3-2 in their last six games after a 6-2-1 start and have scored just 9 goals over the six games.  Johnny Boychuk scored the lone Isles goal, on a 3rd period 5-on-3.  It was the first goal Boychuk has scored against his former mates.

The Scoring:
1ST PERIOD
13:00    BOS     PPG - Ryan Spooner (3) ASST: David Krejci (10), Patrice Bergeron (9)     1 - 0 BOS         
 
2ND PERIOD
14:13    BOS     Patrice Bergeron (5) ASST: Kevan Miller (3), Brad Marchand (5)   2 - 0 BOS         
 
3RD PERIOD
13:18    NYI       PPG - Johnny Boychuk (2) ASST: Kyle Okposo (7), Frans Nielsen (5)      2 - 1 BOS

The Skinny:
 
Both Ryan Spooner's first period goal and Johnny Boychuk's 3rd period goal came on 5-on-3's.  It was the 2nd 5-on-3 goal allowed by the Isles and the first scored by the team this season…Boychuk's goal was the first power play goal the Isles have scored in the third period this season and their first in the last four games…The Bruins have more wins in Brooklyn (2) than they do in Boston (1)…John Tavares, who had 11 points in the Isles' first eight games, was held without a point for the fourth straight game that he has played (and the 7th straight Islander game)...Bruin defenseman Colin Miller saw his point streak end at six games…Taylor Beck, acquired from Toronto in the Michael Grabner deal, played 8:56 in his Islander debut.  Beck, who had three hits, also hit the goalpost in the second period…The Isles loss, coupled with New Jersey's overtime win over Vancouver, dropped the Isles into 5th place in the Metropolitan….The Isles have played more home games than any other team in the NHL (10); it's only the 2nd time in franchise history that they've open with 10 out of 15 at home (also in 2002-03)…The Isles have scored only 7 first period goals this season.
 
First Times in a Long Time
The Isles had 7 power plays, including five in the third period.  It's the first time since December 31, 2014 at Winnipeg that the Isles have had seven power plays.
 
The Isles have been held to two goals or less in six straight games for the first time since an 8-game stretch in November/December 2013.
 
The Shots:
Isles        11-13-13=37
Boston     11-10-6=27
 
The 37 shots are the most for the Isles since they had a season-high 44 vs. Winnipeg on October 12th.

Home and Road
The Islanders are 7-5-3 overall; 5-3-2 at home and 2-2-1 on the road.
Boston is 7-6-1 overall; 1-4-1 at home and 6-2-0 on the road.  

By Division
The Isles are 2-0-2 in Division games and are 5-5-1 in games against other divisions. They are 0-4-0 vs. the Atlantic Division, 3-1-1 vs. Central Division, and 2-0-0 vs. the Pacific Division. 
The Isles finished last season 21-6-3 against the Met and 26-22-4 against other Divisions. 

In the Nets
Jaroslav Halak made 25 saves.  He is 4-3-1 this season, with a 1.88 GAA.  Halak is 8-6-0 in his career against Boston.
Tuukka Rask made 36 17 saves to improve to 4-5-1.  He is 9-3-0 in his career against the Isles.

Power Plays
The Islanders were 1-7 on the power play, while Boston was 1-3.   The Isles have allowed PP goals in three straight games (7-10, 70% PK) while Boston has scored and allowed at least one power play goal in each of the last six games.
The Isles are 4-2-2 when they score at least one power play goal and 3-3-1 when they do not.  The Isles are 2-3-1 when they allow at least one power play goal and 5-
2-2 when they do not. 

Three is a Magic Number
The Isles are 6-1-0 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 1-4-3 when they do not.  The Isles were 40-8-4 when they scored at least three goals (including SO winners) last season.

One Goal Games
The Isles are 3-2-3 in games decided by a single goal including 2-2-0 in regulation. They are 1-2 in games decided in overtime and are 0-1 in shootouts.  The Isles are 1-0 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1 goal game into a 2-goal game.

First Goal
The Isles are 5-1-1 when they score first and are 2-4-2 when they allow the opening goal.   

Second to The One
Jack Capuano is the 2nd winningest coach in Islander history. Capuano is 172-153-49 behind the Islander bench. Among the 9 New York teams, only the Giants' Tom Coughlin and the Yankees' Joe Girardi have led their respective teams longer than Capuano.

Most games coached (Islanders):
1.     Al Arbour 1,500
2.     Jack Capuano 374
3.     Mike Milbury 191
4.     Terry Simpson 187
5.     Scott Gordon 181
 
Most wins by Islander coaches:
1.     Al Arbour 740
2.     Jack Capuano 172
3.     Terry Simpson 81
4.     Peter Laviolette 77
5.     Ted Nolan 74

Back-to-Backs
The Isles are 0-1-2 on the front-end and 1-2-0 on the back end of back-to-backs this season.  The next back-to-back set will be November 12-13 in Los Angeles and Anaheim.

Tired vs. Rested
·         The Isles are 0-1-0 when both teams played the night before.
·         The Isles are 2-1-0 when they are rested and their opponents are not.
·         The Isles are 1-1-0 when their opponents are rested and the Isles are not.

Ice-time Leaders
Isles: Travis Hamonic (24:35); Boston: Zdeno Chara (28:46).
Isles record by ice-time leaders: Travis Hamonic (4-2-1), Johnny Boychuk (3-2-0), Calvin deHaan (0-0-1), Nick Leddy (0-0-1), Tied (0-1-0)
John Tavares led Isles forwards with 21:33 of ice-time. Isles record by Forward ice-time leaders: John Tavares (3-3-2), Ryan Strome (2-0-0), Frans Nielsen (1-0-0), Josh Bailey (1-0-0), Kyle Okposo (0-1-1), Tied (0-1-0). 

Face-offs
Isles 33, Boston 33 (50%)
John Tavares won 14 of 25 for the Isles; Patrice Bergeron won 20 of 32 for Boston.
The Isles won 25 of 46 draws at even strength but only 7 of 15 on the power play and 1 of 5 on the penalty kill.  The Isles had a large advantage on draws early, winning 20 of 29 but Boston won 24 of 37 the rest of the way.

Heavy Hitters
Isles 25, Boston 25.  Matt Martin led the Isles with 4 hits.

Fights
There were no fights.  Season total – 2 (Boychuk, Martin).  

Blocked Shots
The Isles were credited with 13 blocked shots; Brock Nelson and Calvin deHaan led the team with three each.

For the Corsi Crowd
All situations:  Isles 61, Boston 45
Even-Strength: Isles 55, Boston 36. The Corsi stat measures shots attempted, both for and against (including blocks). 
Steve Bernier led the Isles with a +14 even-strength Corsi rating and a team-leading 79% of Corsi For events. Zach Trotman led Boston with a +8 rating.

Ironmen
·         Nikolay Kulemin -165 (68 for Toronto and 97 for the Isles)
·         Brock Nelson  -150 (all for Isles)

Missing Men
Eric Boulton and Thomas Hickey are on injured reserve; Josh Bailey and Jean-Francois Berube were scratched. Ryan Strome has been loaned to Bridgeport.
The Isles have lost 31 games this season due to injury/illness.
All-time Islander Leader Board:
John Tavares has:
·         180 goals (12th all-time, 4 behind Billy Harris and 26 behind John Tonelli)
·         232 assists (15th all-time, 17 behind Tomas Jonsson and 27 behind Billy Harris)
·         412 points (13th all-time and 31 behind Billy Harris)
·         444 games played (33rd among Islander skaters all-time, and 7 behind Scott Lachance)
Kyle Okposo has:
·         121 goals (19th all-time and 1 behind Duane Sutter)
·         195 assists (17th all-time and 8 behind Frans Nielsen)
·         316 points (18th all-time, 15 behind Ziggy Palffy and 17 behind Tomas Jonsson)
·         465 games played (30th among Islander skaters all-time, 5 behind Mariusz Czerkawski, 11 behind Gerry Hart and 14 behind Radek Martinek)
Frans Nielsen has:
·         104 goals (27th all-time, and 1 behind Ed Westfall)
·         203 assists (16th all-time and 29 behind John Tavares)
·         307 points (19th all-time and 9 behind Kyle Okposo)
·         540 games played (18th among Islander skaters all-time, 3 behind Lorne Henning, 8 behind Duane Sutter and 10 behind Ken Morrow.)
 Josh Bailey has:
·         140 assists (tied-29th all-time with Steve Thomas and 5 behind Travis Green)
·         224 points (tied-33rd all-time with Matt Moulson and 5 behind Trent Hunter and Benoit Hogue)
·         490 games played (26th among Islander skaters, 3 behind Ed Westfall and 19 behind Mick Vukota and Rich Pilon)

Season Series Stats
Boston leads the season series 2 games to 0 and 4 points to 0.  The Isles are 1-7-0 in their last eight home games against the Bruins, including two losses this season.  The season series will conclude in Boston on March 12th.

On The Farm
The Sound Tigers are 10-4-0-0 after a pair of shutout wins this weekend (4-0 over Springfield and 1-0 over Hartford).  Ryan Strome played in both games, recording an assist on Saturday. Stephon Williams stopped 26 shots on Saturday while Christopher Gibson handled all 30 that he saw on Sunday.
Bridgeport continues their homestand, hosting Providence on Wednesday.

Up Next
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10th –ISLANDERS AT SAN JOSE 10:30PM
[MSG+ (Pre-game at 10:00), 91.5 WNYE-FM. 88.7 WRHU-FM, 103.9 WRCN]
The Isles head west for three games in four nights, beginning on Tuesday at the Shark Tank, against San Jose.  It's the first multi-game road trip of the season for the Isles, who will play six of the next nine on the road.
The Isles defeated the Sharks 6-3 on October 17th and will be looking to sweep the Sharks in the season series for the first time since 1995-1996. It was the first time in 36 games dating back to March 27, 1993 that the Isles had scored at least six goals vs. San Jose,
The two games that the Isles won in the 1995-1996 season to sweep the season series represent the last time that the Isles beat the Sharks in consecutive games, something that they will try to do again on Tuesday.

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 & on his blog www.nyiskinny.com.

 
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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