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The Skinny: Seattle 5, Isles 2

"The Skinny"  By Eric Hornick Game 27 Seattle 5, Isles 2 Vince Dunn set up two goals in the first period and then scored the event...

Saturday, December 16, 2023

The Skinny: Boston 5, Isles 4 (SO)

The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick

Game 29
Boston 5, Isles 4 (SO) 
David Pastrnak scored the deciding goal in the shootout as the Boston Bruins used three power play goals to rally from 2-0, 3-2, and 4-3 deficits and defeat the Isles 5-4. before a sellout crowd of 17,255 at UBS Arena. The Isles finish their homestand with a 4-0-2 record and extend their season-best point streak to eight games (6-0-2).

Bo Horvat had a goal and two assist for the Isles and Brock Nelson and Mathew Barzal each had two points, but the Isles allowed three tying goals, including two in the third period. 

The Isles have points in fourteen of their last fifteen games (9-1-5); thirteen of those games have been one-goal games. 

The Isles are 14-7-7 on the season and remain in second place in the Metropolitan Division; they drop five points behind the first place Rangers. The Isles conclude the back-to-back set on Saturday in Montreal. 

The Scoring:
1st Period
No Goals

2nd Period
Alexander Romanov (2) Mathew Barzal (21), Bo Horvat (17) 01:42 BOS 0,NYI 1
Simon Holmstrom (9) Jean-Gabriel Pageau (10) 13:26 BOS 0,NYI 2
Morgan Geekie (4)James van Riemsdyk (13), Brad Marchand (14) 14:45 BOS 1,NYI 2 PPG
David Pastrnak (17) Kevin Shattenkirk (5), Morgan Geekie (6) 17:26 BOS 2,NYI 2 PPG

3rd Period
Bo Horvat (11) Brock Nelson (12), Mike Reilly (4) 05:06 BOS 2,NYI 3 PPG
James van Riemsdyk (6) Kevin Shattenkirk (6), David Pastrnak (24) 10:48 BOS 3,NYI 3 PPG
Brock Nelson (13) Bo Horvat (18), Mathew Barzal (22) 12:01 BOS 3,NYI 4 PPG
Mason Lohrei (2) 16:51 BOS 4,NYI 4

OT
No Goals

The Shootout
Bo Horvat (NG)/Jake DeBrusk (NG)
Mathew Barzal (NG)/ Charlie Coyle (G)
Simon Holmstrom (G)/ David Pastrnak (G/GDG)

The Isles are 1-3 in the shootout while Boston is 2-0… Ilya Sorokin falls to 6-11 in his career in shootouts while Linus Ullmark improves to 12-4…The Isles are 4-15 in their last 19 shootouts...The Isles have scored on 5 of 19 shootout attempts, with Bo Horvat and Oliver Wahlstrom each scoring twice and Simon Holmstrom scoring once…Islander goalies have stopped 12 of 19 opponent shootout attempts…It was David Pastrnak's 4th career game deciding goal as he improves to 9 of 35 in his career.

The Skinny    
The Isles are 6-0-2 in their last eight games overall  (longest since a 12 game point streak in 2021) and 5-0-3 in their last eight games at home; it is their longest point streak ever at UBS Arena and longest at any home venue since opening the 2020-21 season with a 12-0-2 home record … Bo Horvat extended his point streak to nine games (6-9-15), matching his career high (set last season with Vancouver) while Mathew Barzal now has 16 points in his last eight games…Barzal's two assists allowed him to tie/pass Bob Nystrom and tie Pat Lafontaine for 13th place in Isles history… Noah Dobson went +2 and played  a career-high 31:31; it is the 11th straight game he has played at least 25 minutes (no Islander has averaged 25 minutes per game since 2013-14)…The Isles' defense now has eighteen points in the last six games.… The Isles have outscored their opponents 27-16 in the first period and 34-32 in the middle period; however, they have been outscored 44-29 in the third period and overtime this season … The Isles allowed third period tying goal for the thirteenth and fourteenth time this season; they have scored six....It was the third time this season that they have allowed two tying goals in the third period (11/18 at Calgary and 11/30 at Carolina)… The Isles are now two points ahead of last season's pace (14-7-8 vs. 17-12-0)…It was the Isles' 19th one-goal games (10-1-8); they lead the NHL in both 1-goal games and 1-goal wins…Simon Holmstrom now has nine goals; Jean-Gabriel Pageau has an assist on seven of them… Each team had a goal  disallowed …The Isles have scored at least four goals in eight of their last nine games after doing it only four times in the first 20 games; they have scored at least three goals in 14 of the last 16 games.… Brock Nelson had a goal and an assist; the Isles are 8-0-1 when he has an assist and are 9-1-6 when he earns a point… Boston scored on all three of their power plays and is now 5-6 on the power play vs. the Isles this season…The Isles allowed at least three power play goals for the fourth time this season, after not allowing it to happen once in the prior five seasons…Brad Marchand tied Bobby Orr for 6th place on the Bruins' point list with 888 points…Ilya Sorokin has earned a point in his last nine games at home (4-0-5); Semyon Varlamov had a ten game home point streak in 2020-21 and that is the only longer streak by an Isles goalie at home in the past thirty years.

First Times in a Long Time
The Isles scored two power play goals in the third period for the first time since doing so on January 21, 2021, vs. New Jersey. 

The Isles were shorthanded at least three times and allowed goals on each power play for the first time since they did so exactly seven years ago: December 15, 2016, vs. Chicago (in Brooklyn).

The Isles have eight overtime loser points this season through 29 games for the first time since it was introduced for the 1999-2000 season. They previously play eight ties through 29 games five times, most recently in 1996-97.

The Bruins scored two tying goals in the final 10 minutes of regulation for the first time since December 4, 1986 vs. Quebec (and only the third time in their 100 year history).

Noah, Noah!
Noah Dobson is 5-24-29 on the season (giving him 150 career points); he is tied-4th among NHL defensemen in assists (and 4th in defenseman points). Dobson has thirteen assists in the last nine games; he is the first Islander to do that since John Tavares had 14 assists over three overlapping stretches of 9 8 games in 2017. 

Tom Kurvers had 14 assists in nine games in January 1992; he was the last Isles defenseman with such a streak. However, Dobson is also +12 in this stretch – the only other Isles defenseman with 13 assists and a +12 rating in a 9-game stretch was Denis Potvin, who did so three times, most recently in October 1982.

Dobson now has 24 assists through 29 games; Denis Potvin had 24 or more through 29 games five times but Dobson is the only other defenseman to do so.

Fewest Regulation Losses Thru 29 Games (Post-Cup era)
6 (2019-20; 20-7-2)
6 (2021; 19-6-4)
7 (2023-24; 14-7-8) 

+121
The Isles all-time record remains 121 games over NHL-500 (1781-1660-540).

Overtime Is (Not) Our Time
The Isles are 3-5 in games decided by an overtime goal, and they are 1-3 in shootouts. In games decided in overtime, Ilya Sorokin is 2-5, while Semyon Varlamov is 1-0;  Sorokin is 1-2 in shootouts while Varlamov is 0-1.

The Isles have won 14 of the last 36 games decided by an overtime goal (since January 11, 2020).

Killing Their Own PP
The Isles have taken a penalty to interrupt their power play eleven times this season.

Power Play Up; Penalty Killing Down
The Isles have scored 21 power play goals; they scored 35 all last season.
The Isles have allowed 26 power play goals; they allowed 39 all last season. Only 11 of those 39 were at home; the Isles have already allowed 14 home power play goals this season.

Heavy Hitters
Cal Clutterbuck and Matt Martin are 1-2 all-time in hits:
1. Cal Clutterbuck 3,823
2. Matt Martin 3,734

Martin (7) and Clutterbuck (3) have combined for the 10-biggest hits seasons in Isles history in the Real-Time era, which began in 2005-06. 

Last Year vs. This Year
2023-24  14-7-8 for 36 points in 29 games
2022-23  17-12-0 for 34 points in 29 games

Offense from Defense
Today:  1-1-2
Season: 10-48-58
Last Season (Final) 41-132-173

The Islander defense scored 41 goals last season, which was the most since they scored 42 in 2003-04. The 173 points were their most since 1993-94, when they had 174 points in an 84-game season.

Best of the Best
Ilya Sorokin has 18 shutouts in 149 career starts. He has recorded a shutout in 12.1% of his starts, which is the second-highest in NHL history (since 1943-44) among goalies with at least 100 starts:
Roman Cechmanek 12.2%
Ilya Sorokin 12.1%
Ken Dryden 11.8%
Dominik Hasek 11.3%

Lots of Work for Sorokin
Ilya Sorokin has faced 694 shots in his 19 games (an average of 36.5 per game). No goalie has ever played the full season for the Islanders and led the NHL in this category; Kelly Hrudey did in the season he was traded at the deadline to Los Angeles (1988-89).

Varly, Varly
Semyon Varlamov has 40 career shutouts and 278 career wins. Among active NHL goalies (and excluding Carey Price, who is technically still active), Varlamov is 6th in wins (276) and tied-third in shutouts (40).

All-time Goalie Wins
50. Brian Elliott 279
51. Semyon Varlamov 278
52. Marty Turco 275

Home and Road
The Isles are 14-7-8 overall; they are 8-3-6 at home and 6-4-2 on the road.
Boston is 19-5-4 overall; they are 10-2-1 at home and 9-3-3 on the road.

East and West
The Isles are 10-4-5 against the East (5-2-3 vs. Metropolitan and 5-2-2 vs. Atlantic) and 4-3-3 against the West (1-2-0 vs. Central and 3-1-3 vs. Pacific).

Home is Where the Fans Are
The Isles have played 99 games at UBS Arena and recorded 68 sellouts of 17,255. 

Sweet Lou
Lou Lamoriello has the second-highest win total for any general manager in NHL history:
1. David Poile 1,531
2. Lou Lamoriello 1,420
3. Glen Sather 1,319

First Things First
The Isles are 9-2-7 when scoring first and are 5-5-0 when allowing the opening goal. They are 0-0-1 when the game heads to a shootout following a scoreless tie.

The Shots
Isles       15-14-4-4=37
Boston  9-10-10-5=34
The Isles are 4-2-3 when they outshoot their opponents, 1-0-0 when the shots are even and 9-5-5 when they are out-shot.

In the Nets
Ilya Sorokin made 30 saves; he is 8-4-7 on the season and 1-2-2 vs. Boston. 
Linus Ullmark made 33 saves; he is 9-4-2 on the season and 9-5-1 vs. the Isles. 

Special Teams
The Isles were 2-4 on the power play (6:02); Boston was 3-3 on the power play (3:13).

The Isles are 8-4-5 when they score at least one power play goal and 6-3-3 when they do not. The Isles are 5-5-5 when they allow at least one power play goal and 9-2-3 when they do not.

Three is (Usually) a Magic Number
The Isles are 12-2-7 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 2-5-1 when they do not. Under Lane Lambert the Isles are 47-8-11 when scoring at least three goals.

One-Goal Games
The Isles are 10-1-8 in games decided by a single goal including 6-1 in regulation. They are 3-5 in games decided in overtime and are 1-3 in shootouts. The Isles are 0-1 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1-goal game into a 2-goal game.

Back-to-Backs     
Including tonight, the Isles are 1-0-3 in the front end and 0-1-2 in the back end this season. This back-to-back concludes Saturday in Montreal.The next set of back-to-backs will be on Tuesday vs. Edmonton and Wednesday in Washington. 

Ice-time Leaders
Isles: Noah Dobson (career high 31:31);  Boston: Hampus Lindholm (26:04)
Brock Nelson led Islander forwards with a season high 22:19 of ice-time. 

Isles record by ice-time leaders: Ryan Pulock (2-0-2), Noah Dobson (10-5-5), Alex Romanov (2-2-0), Adam Pelech (0-0-1).

Face-offs
Isles 43, Boston 33 (57%)
Brock Nelson won 12 of 17 for the Isles; John Beecher won 10 of 18 for Boston.

Hit Count
Isles 28 (Cal Clutterbuck and Alexander Romanov -4)
Boston 15 (Three with 2)

Fights 
None. Season total: 4 (Martin 1, Pelech 1, Lee 1, Mayfield 1)
 
Blocked Shots
Isles 18 (Three with 3)
Boston 7 (Brandon Carlo -2)

For the Analytics Crowd 
Corsi: All situations: Isles 63, Boston 67
Corsi: 5-on-5: Isles 48, Boston 52
 
5-on-5 leaders:
Isles:  Anders Lee +11
Boston: Parker Wotherspoon +12 

High Danger Scoring Chances (per Natural Stat Trick)
All situations: Isles 19, Boston 11
5-on-5: Isles 13, Boston 6

Scratches
Matt Martin (IR), Adam Pelech (upper body – LTIR), (Scott Mayfield -IR), (Ryan Pulock-IR), Oliver Wahlstrom, Grant Hutton
Games Lost to injury: 45

The Ironmen
Anders Lee is the Islanders' ironman, having played 141 consecutive games. Brock Nelson (113) is the only other Islander to have played at least 100 consecutive games:

Challenges
Isles:2 successful, 1 failures – WSH goalie interference (11/2), OTT offside (11/24), LA no goalie interference (12/9)

Opponents: 1 successful, 2 failures – BUF no offside  (10/21), CAR no high-stick (11/30); ANA goalie interference (12/13)

Quickies
The Isles have scored two goals in under a minute three times this season (twice at home – CBJ 12/7 x2 and once on road-11/24 @OTT) and allowed two in the same span three times (COL 10/25 x2, MIN 11/8)

Multi-Goal 3rd Period Comeback Wins
The Isles have come from at least two goals behind after two periods to win one time this season and have allowed the opposition to do so four times.
For (1): LA 12/9 (trailed 0-2, won 3-2 in OT)
Vs (4): DET 10/30 (trailed 0-2, won 4-3 in OT); CAR 11/4 (trailed 1-3, won 4-3 in OT) ; @ NJ 11/28 (trailed 2-4, won 5-4 in regulation); SJ 12/5( trailed 1-4; won 5-3 in OT)

Last Minute Heroes:
The Isles have scored two goals and have allowed four goals in the final three minutes of the third period to tie or go-ahead:
For (2: Bo Horvat 10/20 vs NJ 18:49 (Isles lost in OT); Simon Holmstrom 12/13 vs ANA 18:27 (GWG)
Vs (4): Curtis Lazar 11/28 @ NJ 19:37 (GWG); Sebastian Aho 11/30 @ CAR 19:57 (Isles won in OT); Tomas Hertl vs SJ 18:30 (SJ won in OT); Morgan Rielly 12/11 vs TOR 19:53 (Isles won in OT)

OT Winners
For (3):   Mathew Barzal (vs CAR) 11/30, Jean Gabriel Pageau (vs LA) 12/9, Bo Horvat (vs TOR) 12/11
Vs (5):   Jack Hughes (NJ) 10/20, Lucas Raymond (DET) 10/30, Sebastian Aho (CAR) 11/4, Quinn Hughes (VAN) 11/15; William Eklund (SJ) 12/5

Shootout Winners
For (1):  Oliver Wahlstrom (Vs CGY) 11/18
Vs (3):  Kailer Yamamoto (SEA) 11/16, Tyson Foerster (PHI) 11/25, David Pastrnak (BOS) 12/15

All-time Islander Leader Boards:
Games Played (skaters)
1. Bryan Trottier 1,123 *** 2. Denis Potvin 1,060 *** 3. Josh Bailey 1,057…
6. Bob Bourne 814 *** 7. Brock Nelson 787 *** 8. Matt Martin 780 *** 9. Casey Cizikas 774…
11. Patrick Flatley 712 *** 12. Anders Lee 707 *** 13. Brent Sutter 694 *** 14. John Tavares 669 *** 15. Cal Clutterbuck 665

Goals    
1. Mike Bossy 573 *** 2. Bryan Trottier 500 *** 3. Denis Potvin 310 …
7. John Tavares 272 *** 8. Brock Nelson 254 *** 9. Anders Lee 247 …
23. Alexei Yashin and Frans Nielsen 119 *** 25. Steve Thomas, Matt Moulson and Mark Parrish 118 *** 28. Ray Ferraro 116 *** 29. Mathew Barzal 115 *** 30.Benoit Hogue and Ed Westfall 105 *** 32. Anthony Beauvillier and Casey Cizikas 102

Assists
1. Bryan Trottier 853 *** 2. Denis Potvin 742 *** 3. Mike Bossy 553 …
12. Derek King 288 *** 13. Pat LaFontaine and Mathew Barzal 279…
17. Tomas Jonsson 249  *** 18. Brock Nelson 233…
22. Pierre Turgeon 193 *** 23. Ed Westfall 181 *** 24. Anders Lee 179…
34. Steve Thomas 140 *** 35. Mark Streit 139 *** 36. Greg Gilbert 136 *** 37. Ryan Pulock 133

Points
1. Bryan Trottier 1,353 *** 2. Mike Bossy 1,126 *** 3. Denis Potvin 1,052…
13. Patrick Flatley 488 *** 14. Brock Nelson 487 *** 15. Billy Harris 443 ***  16. Anders Lee 426 *** 17. Mathew Barzal 394…
32. Ray Ferraro 238 *** 33. Travis Green 237 *** 34. Kenny Jonsson and Casey Cizikas 232

+/-
1. Bryan Trottier +467 *** 2. Denis Potvin +456 *** 3. Mike Bossy +380…
15. Bob Lorimer +105 *** 16. Adam Pelech +83 ***  17. Tomas Jonsson +76 *** 18. Garry Howatt +75 *** 19. Pat Price +70 *** 20. JP Parise +67 *** 21. Jude Drouin +58 *** 22. Patrick Flatley +57 *** 23. Greg Gilbert +54  

Defense Goals
1. Denis Potvin 310 *** 2. Tomas Jonsson 84 *** 3. Kenny Jonsson 57…
5. Jean Potvin 46 *** 6. Nick Leddy and Ryan Pulock 45 *** 8. Roman Hamrlik 43 *** 9. Mark Streit 40 *** 10. Johnny Boychuk and Noah Dobson 35

Defense Assists
1. Denis Potvin 742 *** 2. Stefan Persson 317 *** 3. Tomas Jonsson 249…
7. Jeff Norton 166 *** 8. Mark Streit 139 *** 9. Ryan Pulock 133 *** 10. Travis Hamonic 120 *** 11. Dave Lewis 117 *** 12. Noah Dobson 115 *** 13. Roman Hamrlik 110 *** 14. Tom Kurvers and Gerry Hart 109 *** 16. Adam Pelech 102… 
20. Dave Langevin and Thomas Hickey 95 *** 22. Scott Mayfield 90

Defense Points
1. Denis Potvin 1,052 *** 2. Stefan Persson 369 *** 3. Tomas Jonsson 333…
7. Jeff Norton 188 *** 8. Mark Streit 179 *** 9. Ryan Pulock 178… 10. Roman Hamrlik 153 ***
11. Noah Dobson 150… 
15. Johnny Boychuk and Bryan Berard 131 *** 17. Gerry Hart 128 *** 18. Adam Pelech 127…
20. Thomas Hickey 117 *** 21. Scott Mayfield 115

Goalie Games
1. Billy Smith 674 *** 2. Rick DiPietro 318 *** 3. Glenn Resch 282 …
8. Glenn Healy 176 *** 9. Ilya Sorokin 155 *** 10. Semyon Varlamov 145

Wins
1. Billy Smith 304 *** 2. Glenn Resch 157 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 130…
6. Jaroslav Halak 88 *** 7. Ilya Sorokin 78 *** 8. Roland Melanson 77 *** 9. Glenn Healy 66 *** 10. Semyon Varlamov 65

Shutouts
1. Glenn Resch 25 *** 2. Billy Smith 22 *** 3. Ilya Sorokin 18 *** 
4. Rick DiPietro 16 *** 5. Semyon Varlamov 15

On the Farm  
Bridgeport dropped a 3-0 decision in Charlotte on Friday to fall to 6-16-1-0 on the season. 

They will face the Checkers again on Saturday.

Season Series Stats
Boston leads the season series 2 games to 0 (and 4 points to 1). The teams will conclude the season series March 2nd at UBS.

The Bruins have won six straight from the Isles, holding the Islanders (0-4-2) to 15 goals in the five games. However, four of those games were in Boston. 

On Long Island, the Isles are 6-1-1 in their last eight games with the B's, including 2-1-1 at UBS Arena.

UP NEXT
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16th  —ISLANDERS AT MONTREAL– 7:00pm ET
[MSGSN2 (6:30 pre-game), WRHU 88.7 FM, WRCN 103.9FM, ESPN Radio].
The Isles head to Montreal to face the Canadiens for the first time this season.

The Isles have gone 2-0-1 in each of the last two seasons against Montreal, going 2-0-1 at home and 2-0-1 on the road.

This is the first of two games in Montreal for the Isles this season; they will return to La Belle Province on January 25th to play the 4,000th game in franchise history.

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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