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The Skinny: Utah 5, Isles 4 (OT)

"The Skinny" By Eric Hornick Game 1 Utah 5, Isles 4 (OT)    Dylan Guenther became the first player in 107 years to record consecu...

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

The Skinny: Isles 3, Philadelphia 1

"The Skinny"  

By Eric Hornick
 
Game 22
Isles 3, Flyers 1
Kyle Okposo scored 5:14 into the second period to break a 1-1 tie and that held up for the winning goal as the Islanders defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 3-1 before a crowd of 13,027 at Barclay's Center.  The win snapped the Isles' 2-game losing streak and gave the Isles at least a point in all five divisional games this season (3-0-2).

The Scoring:
1ST PERIOD
03:59 PHI PPG - Claude Giroux (8) Slapshot: Shayne Gostisbehere (2), Jakub Voracek (11) 1 - 0 PHI       
19:02 NYI SHG - Casey Cizikas (3) Wrist shot - ASST: Cal Clutterbuck (2)1 - 1 Tie
 
2ND PERIOD
05:14 NYI Kyle Okposo (5) Wrist shot - ASST: John Tavares (10) 2 - 1 NYI
 
3RD PERIOD
18:51 NYI EN - Frans Nielsen (9) Wrist shot - ASST: Anders Lee (8), Travis Hamonic (5)    3 - 1 NYI

The Skinny:
 
The Isles had scored only 7 first period goals this season before scoring eight over the last seven games… Kyle Okposo's goal extended his point streak to six games (1-7-8); his assist streak ended at 5 games…The Isles have scored at least one first period goal in seven straight games and at least one third period goal in five straight games…Casey Cizikas' shorthanded goal was the 3rd of his career, and the first Isles SH goal scored at Barclay's Center…Both Nick Leddy and Matt Martin were involved in 2nd period fights; it was the Isles' first multi-fight game of the season…The Isles' 25 points through 22 games is their second-highest point total at this stage of the season in the last 8 years (32 points last season)…Frans Nielsen's empty net goal broke a tie with Brock Nelson for 2nd place on the team in goals. Nielsen now has nine goals, one fewer than John Tavares…Tavares extended his point streak to four games while Anders Lee and Travis Hamonic extended their streaks to three; Lee also has five points (1-4-5) in his last five games…The Isles are 9-1-1 when they lead after two periods…The Flyers have been held to 2 goals or fewer through regulation play in 8 straight games…Jaroslav Halak recorded his 44th win as an Islander (44-21-5), tying Garth Snow (44-52-13) for 11th place on the Isles' all-time goalie win list.
 
Back into a Playoff Spot
 
The Isles win, coupled with a loss by New Jersey, pushes the Isles back into the top wild card spot in the East at US Thanksgiving with an identical record as the Detroit Red Wings (11-8-3).  The Isles have a better goal differential than Detroit.  Over the past 7 seasons, 48 of the 56 teams to make the Eastern Conference playoffs were in a playoff spot on Thanksgiving Day.
 
The Shots:
Isles             9-12-15=36
Philadelphia  8-6-4=18
 
Home and Road
The Islanders are 11-8-3 overall; 7-4-2 at home and 4-4-1 on the road. 
 
Philadelphia is 7-10-5 overall; 4-4-3 at home and 3-6-2 on the road.  

By Division
The Isles are 3-0-2 in Division games and are 8-8-1 in games against other divisions. They are 0-6-0 vs. the Atlantic Division, 3-1-1 vs. Central Division, and 5-1-0 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 rebounded from his shortest start as an Islander to make 17 saves and improve his record to 6-4-1. Halak is 8-3-0 against the Flyers.
Steve Mason made 33 but falls to 3-7-4 on the season and 5-2-3 in his career against the Isles.

Power Plays
The Islanders were 0-2 on the power play, while Philadelphia was 1-5; the Isles did score their third shorthanded goal of the season.
The Isles power play is 1-24 (4.2%) over the last seven games after opening the season 9-36 (25%) while the penalty killers have allowed 10 goals in 32 times short over the last ten games (68.7%).
The Isles are 5-2-2 when they score at least one power play goal and 5-7-1 when they do not.  The Isles are 5-5-1 when they allow at least one power play goal and 6-3-2 when they do not. 

Three is a Magic Number
The Isles are 10-2-0 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 1-6-3 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 3-3-3 in games decided by a single goal including 2-3-0 in regulation. They are 1-2 in games decided in overtime and are 0-1 in shootouts.  The Isles are 3-2 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1 goal game into a 2-goal game.

First Goal
The Isles are 8-3-1 when they score first and are 3-5-2 when they allow the opening goal.   

Second to The One
Jack Capuano is the 2nd winningest coach in Islander history. Capuano is 176-156-49 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 381
3.     Mike Milbury 191
4.     Terry Simpson 187
5.     Scott Gordon 181
 
Most wins by Islander coaches:
1.     Al Arbour 740
2.     Jack Capuano 176
3.     Terry Simpson 81
4.     Peter Laviolette 77
5.     Ted Nolan 74
 
They Tweeted It
@JustinSobieski The @NYIslanders scored 3 goals tonight and they did a great job tonight.
@J8SHF Amazing game, amazing seats, amazing win. Well done @NYIslanders
@BillySmith44 Was a game they had to win and they were successful.. hopefully they sweep the Florida trip. #Isles

Back-to-Backs
The Isles are 0-2-2 on the front-end and 2-2-0 on the back end of back-to-backs this season.  The next back-to-back set will be on November 27th in Florida and November 28th in Tampa Bay.

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

Ice-time Leaders
Isles: Travis Hamonic (24:39); Philadelphia: Michael Del Zotto (23:00).
Isles record by ice-time leaders: Travis Hamonic (6-2-1), Johnny Boychuk (4-3-0), Calvin deHaan (0-0-1), Nick Leddy (1-2-1), Tied (0-1-0)
John Tavares led Isles forwards with 20:05 of ice-time. Isles record by Forward ice-time leaders: John Tavares (7-6-2), 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 19, Philadelphia 30 (39%).
John Tavares won 8 of 14 for the Isles but his teammates won only 11 of 35; Claude Giroux won 14 of 20 for Philadelphia.
The Isles won less than 50% of the draws in each period, including only 4 of 16 in the third period.
The Isles won 13 of 35 draws at even strength, 1 of 3 on the power play and 5 of 11 on the penalty kill.

Heavy Hitters
Isles 37, Philadelphia 30.  Travis Hamonic led the Isles with 7 hits.

Fights
Nick Leddy fought Claude Giroux in the 2nd period. It was the first fight of Leddy's career. Later in the session, Matt Martin fought Wayne Simmonds for the 4th time in their careers (more than any opponent) Season total – 5 (Martin-3, Boychuk, Leddy).  

Blocked Shots
The Isles were credited with 21 blocked shots; Brock Nelson and Brian Strait led the team with four each.

For the Corsi Crowd
All situations:  Isles 65, Philadelphia 48.
Even-Strength: Isles 51, Philadelphia 39. The Corsi stat measures shots attempted, both for and against (including blocks). 
Nick Leddy led the Isles with a +13 even-strength Corsi rating; Frans Nielsen had a team-leading 71% of Corsi For events. Wayne Simmonds led Philadelphia with a +14 rating.

Ironmen
·         Nikolay Kulemin -172 (68 for Toronto and 104 for the Isles)
·         Brock Nelson  -157 (all for Isles)

Missing Men
Eric Boulton and Thomas Hickey are on injured reserve; Steve Bernier and Marek Zidlicky replaced Taylor Beck and Adam Pelech in the lineup.
The Isles have lost 45 games this season due to injury/illness.

All-time Islander Leader Board:
John Tavares has:
·         184 goals (tied-11th all-time with Billy Harris, 22 behind John Tonelli and 27 behind Derek King)
·         237 assists (15th all-time, 12 behind Tomas Jonsson and 22 behind Billy Harris)
·         421 points (13th all-time and 22 behind Billy Harris)
·         451 games played (31st among Islander skaters all-time, 8 behind Trent Hunter and 19 behind Mariusz Czerkawski)
Kyle Okposo has:
·         122 goals (18th all-time and 5 behind Jason Blake)
·         202 assists (17th all-time and 3 behind Frans Nielsen)
·         324 points (18th all-time, 7 behind Ziggy Palffy and 9 behind Tomas Jonsson)
·         472 games played (29th among Islander skaters all-time, 4 behind Gerry Hart, 7 behind Radek Martinek and 21 behind Ed Westfall)
Frans Nielsen has:
·         108 goals (25th all-time, and 8 behind Ray Ferraro)
·         205 assists (16th all-time and 32 behind John Tavares)
·         313 points (19th all-time, 11 behind Kyle Okposo and 18 behind Ziggy Palffy)
·         547 games played (tied-16th among Islander skaters all-time with Duane Sutter, 3 behind Ken Morrow and 47 behind John Tonelli.)
 Josh Bailey has:
·         144 assists (28th all-time, 1 behind Travis Green and 6 behind Mariusz Czerkawski)
·         228 points (33rd all-time and 1 behind Trent Hunter and Benoit Hogue)
·         497 games played (26th among Islander skaters, 12 behind Rich Pilon, 13 behind Mick Vukota and 17 behind Dave Lewis)

Season Series Stats
The Isles lead the season series 1 game to 0 and 2 points to 0.  The teams will next meet on December 8th in Philadelphia.
The Isles have won four straight home games against Philadelphia for the first time since 1998.
 
On The Farm
The Sound Tigers dropped their second straight game, falling to the Albany Devils 3-1 in the New York capital.  Ryan Strome had Bridgeport's only goal as the Sound Tigers fall to 5-2-1-0 in their last eight games.   
The Sound Tigers host Hartford on Saturday and Syracuse on Sunday.

Up Next
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27th–ISLANDERS AT FLORIDA 7:30PM
[MSG+2 (Isles Pre-game at 7:00), 91.5 WNYE-FM. 88.7 WRHU-FM, 103.9 WRCN]
 
The Isles head to the Sunshine State for a pair of games, beginning Friday night in Sunrise against Jaromir Jagr and the Florida Panthers.
The Panthers won last season's series 2 games to 1, with each team owning a shootout win.  The Isles are 6-3-1 in their last 10 games against Florida, including 3-1-1 in their last five games on the road against the Cats.
Find your channel for Friday's MSG+2 telecast here:
And Finally
Just two words: Happy Thanksgiving!
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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