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Tuesday, December 01, 2015

The Skinny: Isles 5, Colorado 3

"The Skinny"  

By Eric Hornick

Game 25
Isles 5, Colorado 3
They hit, they check, and tonight they scored.  Cal Clutterbuck and Casey Cizikas scored third period goals to break a 2-2 tie as the Islanders defeated the Colorado Avalanche 5-3 before a crowd of 11,585 at Barclays Center. The Isles are 3-0-1 in their last 4 games as they move five games over NHL .500 for the first time this season.

The Scoring:
1ST PERIOD
10:20    COL      Blake Comeau (4) ASST: Carl Soderberg (10)     1 - 0 COL         
19:58    NYI       PPG - Kyle Okposo (6) ASST: Frans Nielsen (10)            1 - 1 Tie           
 
2ND PERIOD
06:31    NYI       Mikhail Grabovski (4) ASST: Ryan Strome (6), Nikolay Kulemin (7)           2 - 1 NYI          
07:12    COL      Jarome Iginla (8) ASST: NONE   2 - 2 Tie           
 
3RD PERIOD
01:52    NYI       Cal Clutterbuck (6) ASST: Thomas Hickey (1), Marek Zidlicky (7)  3 - 2 NYI          
08:16    NYI       Casey Cizikas (4) ASST: NONE  4 - 2 NYI          
16:26    COL      Nick Holden (1) ASST: Carl Soderberg (11)         4 - 3 NYI          
19:12    NYI       EN - Ryan Strome (3) ASST: NONE        5 - 3 NYI
 
The Skinny:
The Isles have scored at least one third period goal in eight straight games, outscoring their opponents 15-6… The Isles' 30 points through 25 games is their third-highest point total at this stage of the season in the last 27 years (36 points in 2014-15 and 35 points in 2001-02)…Mikhail Grabovski scored his first goal in 9 games… Josh Bailey played in his 500th NHL/Islander game… The Isles finish November with a 7-6-1 record...Kyle Okposo's 5-on-3 goal gave the Isles 3 PP goals in the last 2 games – the first time that they have done that this season…Since opening the season 0-1-1 vs Chicago, the Isles are 9-1-0 vs. the Western Conference…Jarome Iginla scored his 597th goal while skating in his 1,416th career game, which tied Al MacInnis for 29th on the NHL's all-time GP list; Iginla is looking to become the 19th NHL player to score 600 goals…The teams combined for 100 hits, 51 by Colorado…The Isles now have 9 players with at least four goals, joining Montreal and Ottawa as the only teams that can make that claim…Former Islander Blake Comeau scored his 2nd goal in 10 games against his former team…Nick Holden's 6th attacker goal, his first in 49 games, made Casey Cizikas' 25th career goal a game-winner.  Six of the 25 have been game-winning goals – all scored in the third period, and all but tonight's in games decided by a single goal…The Avs played 3:28 with an empty-net before Ryan Strome's empty-netter cemented matters; the Isles have scored 7 empty-net goals this season, and have outscored their opponents 34-21 in the third period…Frans Nielsen extended his point streak to 4 games (1-3-4); he now has a point in 7 of the last 8 games…Marek Zidlicky now has three assists in the last 3 games…Kyle Okposo's goal was the Isles' second 5-on-3 goal this season…The Isles held Matt Duchene without a point; Duchene finished November with 11 goals, an Avalanche record for November.
 
Class of 2008:
 
Josh Bailey is the 4th player from his draft class to play in 500 NHL games, joining Drew Doughty (547), Steve Stamkos (517), and Luke Schenn (514).  With 230 career points, Bailey is 6th in his draft class, trailing only Stamkos (517), Erik Karlsson (329), Jordan Eberle (287), Doughty (279) and Derek Stepan (264).
 
Bailey is also the first player drafted by General Manager Garth Snow to reach the 500 game mark with the Islanders.  The last Islander to play 500 games for the GM who drafted him was Pat LaFontaine, who played all 530 games of his Islander career with Bill Torrey as the GM.
 
The Shots:
Isles         7-14-7=28
Colorado  10-4-14=28
 
The Avs went a period of over 23 minutes (after Jarome Iginla's goal) with only two shots on goal.
 
Home and Road
The Islanders are 13-8-4 overall; 8-4-2 at home and 5-4-2 on the road. 
Colorado is 9-14-1 overall; 3-6-1 at home and 6-8-0 on the road.  

By Division
The Isles are 3-0-2 in Division games and are 10-8-2 in games against other divisions. They are 1-6-1 vs. the Atlantic Division, 4-1-1 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
Thomas Greiss made 25 saves and improves to 7-3-2.  Greiss is 5-1-0 in his career against Colorado.
Semyon Varlamov made 23 saves but falls to 5-7-1 on the season and 2-2-1 in his career against the Isles. 

Power Plays
The Islanders were 1-3 on the power play, while Colorado was 0-3.
The Isles power play is 3-6 in the last two games after converting only once in the prior 8 games [1-25 (4.0%)]. The Isles have killed all 8 opponent power plays in their last 3 games; it's the first time since October 15- November 1 (9 games) that the Isles killed all opposing power plays in consecutive games.
The Isles are 7-2-2 when they score at least one power play goal and 5-7-2 when they do not.  The Isles are 5-5-1 when they allow at least one power play goal and 8-3-3 when they do not. 

Three is a Magic Number
The Isles are 12-2-0 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 1-6-4 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 4-3-4 in games decided by a single goal including 3-3-0 in regulation. They are 1-2 in games decided in overtime and are 0-2 in shootouts.  The Isles are 4-2 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 5-5-3 when they allow the opening goal.   The Isles have allowed the first goal in four straight games, but have gone 3-0-1 in those four games.

Second to The One
Jack Capuano is the 2nd winningest coach in Islander history. Capuano is 178-156-50 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 384
3.     Mike Milbury 191
4.     Terry Simpson 187
5.     Scott Gordon 181
 
Most wins by Islander coaches:
1.     Al Arbour 740
2.     Jack Capuano 178
3.     Terry Simpson 81
4.     Peter Laviolette 77
5.     Ted Nolan 74
 
They Tweeted It
@NumberBradleyF @NYIslanders  this 4th line is invaluable #isles
@esd714 What will Donny Grapes say now about the fourth line?  #Isles
@miczahn The #Isles have more points (30) than any of the seven teams in the Pacific Division so far this season.

Back-to-Backs
The Isles are 0-2-3 on the front-end and 3-2-0 on the back end of back-to-backs this season.  The next back-to-back set will be on Friday vs. St. Louis and Saturday in Ottawa.

Tired vs. Rested
·         The Isles are 1-1-0 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 (25:53); Colorado: Erik Johnson (26:17).
Isles record by ice-time leaders: Travis Hamonic (7-2-2), Johnny Boychuk (4-3-0), Calvin deHaan (0-0-1), Nick Leddy (1-2-1), Tied (0-1-0)
Travis Hamonic led Isles forwards with 20:36 of ice-time. Isles record by Forward ice-time leaders: John Tavares (7-6-3), Ryan Strome (2-0-0), Kyle Okposo (0-1-1), Brock Nelson (1-0-0), Frans Nielsen (1-0-0), Josh Bailey (1-0-0), Tied (0-1-0). 

Face-offs
Isles 34, Colorado 20 (63%). It was the Isles' best performance in the faceoff circle (by percentage) this season.
Casey Cizikas won 10 of 13 and John Tavares won 12 of 19 for the Isles; Matt Duchene won 5 of 6 for Colorado.
The Isles won 13 of 18 in the first period and 13 of 20 in the third; the teams split 16 draws in the middle period.
The Isles won 26 of 41 draws at even strength, 5 of 8 on the power play and 3 of 5 on the penalty kill.

Heavy Hitters
Isles 49, Colorado 51.  Cal Clutterbuck and Matt Martin led the Isles with 8 hits each.
The 49 hits by the Isles were the 6th highest total recorded under Real time; the other 5 have all occurred in the last 53 weeks.  The 51 hits by Colorado was the most-ever by an opponent; the previous record of 48 was set on November 13, 2009 by Carolina.
An NHL team has recorded at least 49 hits 104 times since Real Time stats were instituted in 2002.  51 of the 104 have occurred since the start of the 2013-14 season.

Fights
There were no fights. Season total – 7 (Martin-4, Boychuk, Leddy, Okposo).  

Blocked Shots
The Isles were credited with 15 blocked shots; Travis Hamonic led the team with four.

For the Corsi Crowd
All situations:  Isles 56, Colorado 53.  Even-Strength: Isles 42, Colorado 33.
The Corsi stat measures shots attempted, both for and against (including blocks). 
 
Matt Martin led the Isles with a +10 even-strength Corsi rating; Martin also had a team-leading 73% of Corsi For events. Mikhail Grigorenko and Andreas Martinsen led Colorado, each with a +6 rating.

Ironmen
·         Nikolay Kulemin -175 (68 for Toronto and 107 for the Isles)
·         Brock Nelson  -160 (all for Isles)

Missing Men
Eric Boulton and Jean-Francois Berube are on injured reserve; Brian Strait and Steve Bernier were scratched.
The Isles have lost 51 games this season due to injury/illness.

All-time Islander Leader Board:
John Tavares has:
·         185 goals (11th all-time, 21 behind John Tonelli and 26 behind Derek King)
·         237 assists (15th all-time, 12 behind Tomas Jonsson and 22 behind Billy Harris)
·         422 points (13th all-time and 21 behind Billy Harris)
·         454 games played (31st among Islander skaters all-time, 5 behind Trent Hunter and 16 behind Mariusz Czerkawski)
Kyle Okposo has:
·         123 goals (18th all-time and 4 behind Jason Blake)
·         202 assists (17th all-time and 6 behind Frans Nielsen)
·         325 points (18th all-time, 6 behind Ziggy Palffy and 8 behind Tomas Jonsson)
·         475 games played (29th among Islander skaters all-time, 1 behind Gerry Hart, 4 behind Radek Martinek and 18 behind Ed Westfall)
Frans Nielsen has:
·         108 goals (25th all-time, and 8 behind Ray Ferraro)
·         208 assists (16th all-time and 29 behind John Tavares)
·         316 points (19th all-time, 9 behind Kyle Okposo and 15 behind Ziggy Palffy)
·         550 games played (tied-15th among Islander skaters all-time with Ken Morrow and 44 behind John Tonelli)
 Josh Bailey has:
·         144 assists (28th all-time, 1 behind Travis Green and 6 behind Mariusz Czerkawski)
·         230 points (30th all-time, 1 behind Greg Gilbert, 2 behind Kenny Jonsson, 7 behind Travis Green and 8 behind Ray Ferraro)
·         500 games played (25th among Islander skaters, 9 behind Rich Pilon, 10 behind Mick Vukota and 14 behind Dave Lewis)

Season Series Stats
The Isles lead the season series 1 game to 0 and 2 points to 0.  The teams will meet again in Denver on December 17th.
The Isles are 10-2-3 in their last 15 games overall vs. Colorado and are 8-1-0 in their last nine home games vs the Avs.

On The Farm
The Sound Tigers dropped a 4-0 decision to Syracuse on Sunday; Bridgeport is now 14-7-1-0 on the season.
The Sound Tigers are off until Friday, when they visit Springfield in the first of a "3 game in 3 day" weekend.  Bridgeport will host Portland on Saturday and Hartford on Sunday.

Up Next
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2nd--RANGERS AT ISLANDERS 8:00PM
[NBCSN's Rivalry Night (NHL Live Pre-game at 7:00), 91.5 WNYE-FM. 88.7 WRHU-FM, 103.9 WRCN]

The Isles will welcome the Rangers to Brooklyn on Wednesday for a nationally-televised game.
It's the first of only four meetings on the season between the teams, and their only meeting until January 14th.
Last season, the Isles won the first three games, including twice at Madison Square Garden, before the Rangers won the final two games, both at Nassau Coliseum.  Jaroslav Halak was the winning goalie for all three Isles wins while since-departed backup Cam Talbot earned the win in the final two meetings for the Rangers.
Over the last two seasons, the road team has won 8 of 10 games with all 10 games being decided in regulation. 

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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