So how have the Islanders done on Easter Sunday?

We all know about the Easter Epic, which actually ended in the early morning hours of Easter Sunday.

 

But how have the Isles done on Easter Sunday historically?

 

Not well... except, ironically, in New Jersey.  Not counting the LaFontaine martathon, the Isles are 3-6-1 on Easter Sunday, with nine of the ten coming on the road.  The only time the Isles played at home on Easter Sunday was in 1978, to make up a game that was snowed out in the "Blizzard of 78".

 

The Isles are however, 2-0 on Easter Sunday at the Swamp, including a season-ending win there in 1991.

 

The Islanders were scheduled to play a game 7 in Ottawa on Easter 2003, but the Sens ended that series in 5.

 

 

Easter Sunday

 

      22 April 1973 season over

      14 April 1974 season over

      30 March 1975 T @ Atl 2-2

      18 April 1976 idle

      10 April 1977 idle

      26 March 1978 W Min 6-3 [make-up for snow-out]

      15 April 1979 idle

       6 April 1980 idle

      19 April 1981 L @Edm 5-2 PLAYOFFS

      11 April 1982 L @Pit 5-2 PLAYOFFS

       3 April 1983 L @Phil 4-2 

      22 April 1984 idle

       7 April 1985 idle

      30 March 1986 idle

      19 April 1987 early morning LaFontaine

       3 April 1988 L @ Boston 3-2

      26 March 1989 L @ Washington 3-2

      15 April 1990 season over

      31 March 1991 W @ NJ 3-2

      19 April 1992 season over

      11 April 1993 W @ NJ 5-4

       3 April 1994 idle

      16 April 1995 L @ NYR 3-2 [lockout season]

       7 April 1996 idle

      30 March 1997 idle

      12 April 1998 idle

       4 April 1999 idle

      23 April 2000 season over

      15 April 2001 season over    

      31 March 2002 idle

      20 April 2003 season over    

      11 April 2004 idle    

      27 March 2005 no season    

      16 April 2006 idle

       8 April 2007 Game 82 @ NJ    

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of FSN statistician Eric Hornick. Eric, who has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, celebrated his 25th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2007. Often referred to on-air as an actuary, he is one of 2,920 Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is the President-Elect of the Casualty Actuaries of Greater NY.You can find him in the "Best Seat in the House", about six feet to Howie and Billy's left, at most Islander home games.For more on the actuarial profession, visit www.beanactuary.org

Permutations and Combinations

There are five games remaining in the NHL season that will decide the Isles' fate.  These are the three remaining Islander games and Montreal's games with the Rangers and Toronto.

 

Each of these five games has four possible outcomes:

 

Home team win in regulation

Home team win in overtime/shootout

Road team win in overtime/shootout

Road team win in regulation

 

Thus, there are 1,024 possible combinations of results  (4 x 4 x 4 x 4 x 4).

 

How many of those get the Islanders in the playoffs?  24.

 

In 16 of those scenarios, Montreal ends with 91 points (Toronto ends with 92 points in eight of these, losing the tie-break to the Isles, and with 91 in the other 8)

 

In the other 8 scenarios that get the Isles in, Montreal ends with 90 points (Toronto has 92 in four of these, losing the tie-break to the Isles and 91 in the other 4)

 

So it's 24 chances of 1024 -- or about 1 in 43.  Not good, but not impossible either.

 

 

In 1990, with 5 games remaining the affected the Isles in that season, there were 243 combinations of results (only three possibilities for points then), only 2 of which would get the Isles into the playoffs.  That 241-2 shot actually came in... when Uwe Krupp's OT goal knocked the Isles into the playoffs and sent Jaromir Jagr to the Penguins in the entry draft (leaving the Isles with Scott Scissons).

 

Since nothing will change on Wednesday, the Isles will get to Thursday still alive...and with a better shot mathematically than they had in 1990. 

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of FSN statistician Eric Hornick. Eric, who has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, celebrated his 25th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2007. Often referred to on-air as an actuary, he is one of 2,920 Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is the President-Elect of the Casualty Actuaries of Greater NY.You can find him in the "Best Seat in the House", about six feet to Howie and Billy's left, at most Islander home games.For more on the actuarial profession, visit www.beanactuary.org

Stat Trick

1. The Sabres' two first period shorthanded goals tied a club record against the Islanders. It's the fifth time it happened. The Flyers did it in the season finale last year.

2. The teams combined for five special teams goals in the first period-- which might be an Islander club record (it's not listed in their media guide). The club record for power play goals combined in a period is 4. (There were 3 pp goals and 2 sh goals in the first period tonight).

3. Sad but true. No goalie other than Rick DiPietro has won a game for the Islanders after February 1st since the lockout. (Dunham's last win this season was on February 1st, and neither Snow nor Dubie won a game after in February, March or April last season.) Dunham has lost all five games that he has appeared in during March, allowing 24 goals. He has played only one complete game (the 8-5 debacle in Florida), as he has been pulled three times and replaced DiPietro in his first appearance. He has allowed 24 goals in only 211 minutes played -- a goals against average of 6.83! To put Dunham's numbers in perspective, the last time that the Islanders allowed more than 24 goals in a 4-game period (240 minutes) was in October 1990 and the last time that they scored more than 24 goals in a 4-game period was in January 1993.

Dunham was 2-0-1 in his first four appearances and is 2-10-2 since then.

....and two more on a postive note.

Viktor Kozlov's two goals gives him 24 goals on the season; his previous career high was set in 2002-03.
Jason Blake's goal gives him 39 goals on his career year; it's the most goals that he has scored at any level since potting 50 for the Waterloo Blackhawks of the USHL in 1993-94.

The dreaded "Post Ranger letdown"

Something that the Isles certainly can't afford tonight.....

The Isles, over the past several seasons have had a terrible time in the game following a game against the Rangers (like tonight).
Since the beginning of the 1999-2000 season, the Isles are 11-22-7 in the next game following a game with the Rangers.

Before beating Boston in January, in fact, the Isles hadn't won a game this century against anyone other than the Rangers if they had beaten the Rangers in the previous game.

This year, they are 2-4-0 in these games (with one of the losses coming in the back-end of a home-and home).

In their history, they are 81-91-34 in games following a game against the Rangers. The "letdown" is less when the Isles don't beat the Rangers -- they are 30-40-21 in games following a win over the Rangers and 51-51-13 in games following a non-win.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of FSN statistician Eric Hornick.Eric, who has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, celebrated his 25th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2007. Often referred to on-air as an actuary, he is one of 2,921 Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is the President-Elect of the Casualty Actuaries of Greater NY.You can find him in the "Best Seat in the House", about six feet to Howie and Billy's left, at most Islander home games.For more on the actuarial profession, visit www.beanactuary.org

Real-time stats

Someone asked recently about the extra stats (commonly referred to as "real time"). While not available on the public site, they are available for the media.

Here are some highlights (thru Sunday):

HITS

TeamPosGPHits
1CHRIS NEILOTTR76271
2DUSTIN BROWNLAKL75240
3MICHAEL KOMISAREKMTLD76234
4TRENT HUNTERNYIR70225
5SEAN HILLNYID74224
6RYAN HOLLWEGNYRC73220
7BRENDAN WITTNYID74215

BLOCKS
RKPlayerTeamPosGP BkS
1ANTON VOLCHENKOVOTTD73 260
2JASON SMITHEDMD76 215
3NICLAS HAVELIDATLD71 212
4BRETT CLARKCOLD75 188
5BRENDAN WITTNYID74 184
6SEAN HILLNYID74 177

MISSED SHOTS (wide, hit post, etc.)
Gagne leads with 166; No Islander has more than 87 (Bergeron)

GIVEAWAYS
Jagr leads with 117. Bergeron is also the top Isle in this category (72)

TAKEAWAYS
RKPlayerTeamPosGPTkA
1PAVEL DATSYUKDETC7296
2MARIAN HOSSAATLR7690
3BOBBY HOLIKATLC7676
4MARTIN ST. LOUISTBLR7676
5DAYMOND LANGKOWCGYC7575
6RYAN SMYTHNYIL6574

FACEOFF PERCENTAGE
1YANIC PERREAULTTORC5962.7
2CHRIS DRURYBUFC7059.2
3ROD BRIND'AMOURCARC7159.1
4MIKE SILLINGERNYIC7558.5

% of TEAM's FACEOFF TAKEN
RKPlayerTeamPosGPFO%%Tm
1ROD BRIND'AMOURCARC7159.143.8
2MATS SUNDINTORC6854.837.1
3SIDNEY CROSBYPITC7349.436.3
4VINCENT LECAVALIERTBLC7646.335.1
5JOHN MADDENNJDC6949.435.0
6MIKE SILLINGERNYIC7558.534.9

ICE TIME

Total: Lidstrom leads with 2,064:51. Poti leads Isles with 1809:34 and is 18th overall (He averages 25:29 per game --15th in NHL)
Total (Forwards) TB has all of the top 3 (St.Louis, Richards & Lecavalier in that order. Sillinger leads Isles forwards and is 30th in NHL
(Per game -- Forwards) St. Louis still leads; Smyth leads Isles at 20:34 per game.

PP Ice Time: Gonchar leads NHL with 547 minutes; Poti leads Isles with 324:51 (63rd overall).

SH Ice Time: Total Per game
1DERIAN HATCHERPHID75428:345:42
2ZDENO CHARABOSD73358:144:54
3BRENDAN WITTNYID74356:144:48
4CHRIS PHILLIPSOTTD76348:454:35

(Poti is 10th)

SHIFTS
Brett Clark (Colorado) leads with 2627. Sean Hill leads the Isles with 2074 (32nd).

AVERAGE Shift Time
Dan Boyle and Scott Niedermayer are the only players averaging more than 1:00 per shift. Miro Satan leads the Isles at just under 54 seconds/shift.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of FSN statistician Eric Hornick.Eric, who has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, celebrated his 25th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2007. Often referred to on-air as an actuary, he is one of 2,921 Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is the President-Elect of the Casualty Actuaries of Greater NY.You can find him in the "Best Seat in the House", about six feet to Howie and Billy's left, at most Islander home games.For more on the actuarial profession, visit www.beanactuary.org

Kyle Okposo

Kyle Okposo's freshman season came to an end today in Denver, as Minnesota was beaten by North Dakota in overtime. [North Dakota, Boston College, Maine and Michigan State are Hockey's Final 4 -- they'll play the national semis on April 5th in St. Louis].

Okposo was held off the scorecard today, and finished the season 19-21-40 in 40 games played (he missed four games due to the World Juniors].

In addition to the highlight reel goal earlier in the season that we showed on FSN, he had another highlight reel goal recently (3/11).

The free video is here:
http://www.gophersports.com/video56/CTVDTPQFMOLTTTO.20070312142231.wmv?DB_OEM_ID=8400

Maybe he'll join DiPietro for batting practice at Shea some day -- when you see the goal, you'll understand why.

Stopping Sidney

(thanks Elias for the background)

The Isles held Crosby without a point last night, leaving Sid the Kid with 17 points on the season (in 7 games -- he missed an early season game).

By stopping Crosby, the Isles kept Mario and Jagr in the record book -- most points against the Islanders in a single season.
Those two share the record with 18.

Most points against the Islanders -Single Season
18 - Mario Lemieux - Pit -1988-89 (7 games)
18 - Jaromir Jagr - NYR -2005-06 (8 games)
17 - Sidney Crosby - Pit - 2006-07 (7 games)

Despite Crosby's dominance, the islanders actually won the season series from the Penguins, 9 points to 8 (each team won four games, but one of the Pittsburgh wins was in OT).