Looking back to look ahead

EASTERN CONFERENCE Standings morning of March 5, 2007
W-L-OL-SL Pts
*Buffalo 44-16-2-3 93
*New Jersey 40-19-0-7 87
Ottawa 38-23-2-3 81
Pittsburgh 35-21-4-5 79
*Tampa Bay 37-26-3-1 78
Atlanta 34-23-7-3 78
NY Islanders 33-23-5-4 75
Carolina 33-28-3-4 73

Montreal 33-29-1-5 72
Toronto 31-26-3-6 71
Boston 32-28-2-3 69
NY Rangers 31-27-3-4 69
Florida 27-26-6-7 67
Washington 24-30-2-10 60
Philadelphia 17-37-5-6 45

That night at MSG, Ricky stood on his head, making 56 saves (many of them of the amazing variety) yet the Isles would eventually lose to the Rangers in a shootout. Three nights later (52 weeks ago tonight) they would beat the Isles 2-1 at the Coliseum in the Chris Simon game and close within three points of the Isles. The Rangers would ride those two games to eventually finish 42-30-5-5 (42-30-10) and make the playoffs comfortably while the Isles would Dubie their way in on Easter Sunday.

Tuesday night at MSG it was the Islanders prevailing in a shootout in a game that the Rangers jumped all over the Isles early but Dubie held the fort.

The standings heading in to Tuesday's game look quite similar but with the Isles and Rangers reversed:

STANDINGS - MORNING OF MARCH 4, 2008
W-L-OL-SL Pts
*Pittsburgh 37-23-4-3 81
*Montreal 36-22-4-5 81
*Carolina 34-29-3-2 73
New Jersey 37-23-3-3 80
Ottawa 37-24-2-4 80
Boston 35-24-3-3 76
NY Rangers 34-24-3-5 76
Philadelphia 33-25-3-5 74

Buffalo 31-26-1-8 71
Washington 31-28-4-4 70
NY Islanders 31-29-5-2 69
Toronto 29-28-7-3 68
Florida 29-31-3-5 66
Atlanta 29-31-1-6 65
Tampa Bay 26-32-6-1 59

Time will tell whether the similarities end there.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Ovechkin

Alexander Ovechkin had two more goals in Washington's 3-1 win in Buffalo tonight. He now has 54 goals on the season, with 14 games to play.

Ovechkin has 54 of the Capitals' 198 goals (27.3%) -- the standings will show 200 goals, but that includes 2 shootout wins.

He is on pace to finish the season with 65 goals.

How does Ovechkin's share of his team's goals compare with others? Consider this:

In 1981-82, Wayne Gretzky had 92 of Edmonton's 417 goals (22.1%)
In 1983-84, Gretzky had 87 of Edmonton's 446 goals (19.5%)
In 1978-79, Mike Bossy had 69 of the Islanders' 358 goals (19.3%)
In 1970-71, Phil Esposito had 76 of the Bruins' 399 goals (19.0%)
In 1944-45, Maurice Richard had 50 of the Canadiens' 228 goals (21.9%)

If Ovechkin doesn't score another goal this season, he likely would still have a higher percentage than any of them -- the Capitals would have to score 47 goals --with NONE from Ovechkin -- in their final 14 games for Ovechkin to finish with a lower percentage than Gretzky.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Have you met my friend?

(Those reading in digest form will not see me and a certain trophy. Hopefully others will.)

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Stat Trick: Islanders 4, Rangers 3 (SO)

When things are going bad...really bad...who better to come onto the Isles schedule than the Rangers.

1. Wade Dubielewicz is now 4-0 in career shootouts. It was his first shootout since poke-checking the Isles into the playoffs last season. Dubie has now beaten the Rangers twice in shootouts; he also has a shootout win over Pittsburgh in 2006 on his resume.

2. Since Ted Nolan became the Isles coach, the Islanders have met the Rangers in a game following a regulation loss four times. The Isles are now 4-0-0 in those games. The Isles under Nolan are 9-2-2 against the Rangers.

3. The Isles improve to 20-0-1 when leading after two periods. They've lost only once in regulation when leading after two periods in the Nolan era (the game Ricky got hurt in Montreal last season).

... a few more...

4. There were only 9 face-offs in the entire third period (including one to start the period, one after the Ranger goal and three after penalties).

5. The Isles improve to 4-2 this season in shootouts. The Rangers are 5-6.

6. The Isles have now allowed 14 shorthanded goals (two shy of the club record) and have been outscored 4-2 on their own power play in the last eight games.

7. Jeff Tambellini had the least amount of ice-time for the Isles (10:07) but recorded five hits and had a shot on goal before dethroning King Henrik

8. Colton Orr had eight hits for the Rangers, but the Isles out-hit the Rangers 41-30.

9. The Isles now lead the series 4 games to 1, and 8 points to 3. They'll look for only their third-ever sweep of a home and home against the Rangers on Thursday.

10. This is the Isles' 36th regular season win at MSG. They are 7-19-10 in games following a win in the Garden, although they did win last season in Boston after winning at MSG.

11. The Isles are 4-1 in their last five on the road (4-1-1 in their last 6). The last 3 road wins have come in either OT or SO.

.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Isles, Anderson make NHL history

Thanks, Elias.

<<
ANDERSON STOPS 53 SHOTS IN 1-0 VICTORY
Craig Anderson needed every one of his 53 saves in the Panthers' 1-0 victory over the Islanders. It was the most saves any goaltender has made in a shutout since the NHL started tracking shots on goal as an official statistic in the 1955-1956 season. The previous high was 52, by Jacques Plante of the Canadiens (Nov. 13, 1995 (sic), 2-0 win vs. Black Hawks) and Curtis Joseph of the Oilers (Dec. 10, 1996, 0-0 tie vs. Red Wings).

Anderson stopped 29 shots in the second period alone. The only goaltender to make that many saves in one period without allowing a goal-again, since the start of the 1955-1956 season-was Allan Bester of the Maple Leafs. He turned aside all 32 shots by the Hartford Whalers before allowing four goals in the third period in a 5-3 loss on March 15, 1984.>>

We knew about Jacques Plante's effort during the telecast yesterday (the year was 1955), but all we knew for certain before we went off the air was that the Isles had broken the club record, which as I noted online last night, was 42 (Theodore in 2002).

In the Stanley Cup playoffs, the record is 70 shots without allowing a goal. Dominic Hasek shut out the Devils on April 27, 1994 for 125:43 before Dave Hannan won the game for Buffalo in the 4th OT. The goal tied that series at 3; the Devils would win game 7 and advance to play the Rangers.

Some might be curious how does this get on the air at all? During the 2nd intermission, yours truly put in a request with the guys in our truck to contact Elias, who serves as the official statistical bureau of the NHL (and basically everybody else). Late in the third period we got the information on the potential team record (the Isles have been shutout a little more than 100 times in their history) but it took longer for the NHL record to be verified.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Chasing history

It's been a strange season, to say the least, at Fort NeverLose.

The Isles have only six home games left and so far in 2008 have had home streaks of 0-5-2, 4-0-0 and 0-3-0.

The Isles have scored only 78 goals at home this season (plus one more that they are credited for in their lone home shootout win of the season). That means that the club record for goals at home in a season (210 in 1981-82) appears safe :)

What may not be safe though is the Isles' club record for fewest goals in a home season is 94, set in 1999-2000. The Isles will have to rally to match the original Isles, who scored 100 goals at home.

Making the Isles' playoff chase a little harder: among the teams in the East, only Ottawa has as few games left at home.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Stat Trick: Panthers 1, Isles 0

3 for 137 -- that's the Islanders' shooting in the three home games since the trade deadline. On to the trick:

1. The Isles set a season high with 53 shots (one shy of the club record) and set club records for:
-- most shots in a period, 29 -- breaking the previous record of 28 set in 1978 vs Pittsburgh and matched in 2004 in Florida.
-- most shots in a shutout against -- breaking the previous record of 42 set on November 7, 2002 in Montreal (Jose Theodore).

Craig Anderson made a career high 53 saves.

2. The Isles have had 47 shots or more 4 times in their last 11 games.

3. It was the first time since November 15, 1997 that the Islanders had been blanked 1-0 at the Coliseum (Five 1-0 losses on the road in that stretch)

...and a pair more:

4. The Isles entered the game with an 8.2 shooting percentage, which is 29th in the NHL. The only team worse was the Rangers, who were at 8.0%.

5. While both games had crowds of over 15,000, neither game for "Core of the Four" weekend was a sellout.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.