Stat Trick: Isles 4, Buffalo 2.

A stat trick delayed is a stat trick denied. On to the trick.

1. The Isles went 2-7-1 in their opening 10 games, but are 6-3-1 in their second 10. They were outscored 37-25 in the first 10, but have outscored their opponents 27-26 in the second 10.

2. The Isles improve to 4-4-1 on the road; it's their second best 9-game road start since going 7-2 in the first year under Laviolette. (The Isles were 5-3-1 in their first nine on the road two seasons ago.

3. The Isles won the middle period, 1-0, despite being outshot 18-2.

...and a few more.

4. Andy Hilbert scored for the second straight game and now has five goals on the season. Hilbert last scored in consecutive games on April 15-17, 2006, when he tallied in both ends of a home and home for Pittsburgh AGAINST THE ISLANDERS. Hilbert has 5 goals on the season (on pace for 20); he's never scored more than 12 goals in an NHL season.

5. Jon Sim is becoming a regular Cy Young. He's 5-1 on the season (goals/assists) and is 57-47 in his career.

6. Mark Streit also recorded his fifth goal of the season, giving the Isles five players with at least five goals. Streit's goal was a pp-empty netter. All five of his goals have come on special teams (4pp, 1 sh). Among NHL defensemen, only Mike Green has more pp goals (6) and special teams goals (6). Ten of Streit's 14 points have come on special teams.

7. The Isles were outshot 37-26; all but two Sabres had at least one shot on goal. One of the two who didn't, Andrew Peters, took a shot to his head.

8. Jeremy Colliton had a good season debut. Recalled to replace the injured Frans Nielsen, Colliton won eight of 12 draws and was credited for a team-high five hits. Colliton has gone 18 straight games without an NHL point (since earning an assist on April 18, 2006).

9. It was the Isles second win in their last seven trips to Buffalo (2-5-0).

10. Up next: the road trip concludes Monday in Montreal. The Isles will be looking to win consecutive road games for the first time this season. The Isles have lost 6-straight to Montreal, beginning with the loss in the game DiPietro suffered a concussion in a collision with Steve Begin in 2007. Of all the losses, perhaps the latest was the most memorable, as Les Habitants erased a 4-1 deficit and beat the Isles 5-4 on November 1. Plekanac and Kovalev each had two goals and two assists in that game.

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: New Jersey 5, Isles 2

The stars were all aligned for an Isle win in Newark tonight; 3 straight wins, 3 straight days off, and going against a Devil team that had played last night. So much for the stars. On to the trick:

1. After earning points in 7 of 8 game slast season, the Isles drop to 0-2-0 against New Jersey, with both losses on the road, this season.

2. Jamie Langenbrunner and Zach Parise each had three assists. Parise leads the Devils in both goals (12) and points (23).

3. Frans Nielsen suffered apparent head and lower body injury when he was elbowed by Mike Mottau in the third period. It will be interesting to see whether Mottau is suspended, and if so, for how long.

... a few more

4. The Devils scored five goals against the Isles for the first time in 36 games, covering over 5 1/2 years (Devils 6, Isles 0 -- March 30, 2003).

5. Mitch Fritz was in the line-up, replacing the injured Okposo. Fritz saw only 2:30 minutes of ice-time, including only one shift in the 2nd --the 23 second shift in which the Devils responded to the Isles' goal -- and did not play in the third.

6. The Isles lost 32 of 50 faceoffs; rookie Josh Bailey had an awful night in the circle, losing 9 of 10. Travis Zajac won 14 of 17 for New Jersey.

7. Part of it may reflect a difference in how "hits" are accounted for in different buildings, but the Isles were credited with only 3 for the entire game. (NJ had 11.)

8. Ex- Isle Kevin Weekes picked up the 100th win of his career; 10 of those wins came for the Islanders.

9.Joey Mac Donald made his 9th straight start (Peter Mannino dressed for the first time, as his back-up.) He allowed five goals in a game for only the second time this season (Columbus Day vs. Buffalo was the first).

10. Looking ahead: the Isles face the struggling Sabres in Buffalo on Saturday; the Isles have lost five of their last six games in Buffalo.

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: Isles 2, Vancouver 1 (SO)

Uh, oh.  Don't look now, but the Isles are closer to a playoff spot (2 points) than they are to the first pick in the draft (3 points).  Any they beat that Luongo kid too.  On to the trick:

1.  Many people could tell you that the Islanders have won three straight games for the first time since a six-game win streak last February. But only on the trick do you get these:

--The Isles have won three straight games against Canadian opponents for the first time since beating Montreal and Toronto twice each in a three-week period in February, 2007
-- The Isles have won three straight, all against Canadian opponents for the first time since beating Vancouver, Montreal and Winnipeg in a four-daystretch in January, 1990.  Those were the final three games of a 9-game win streak -- the Isles have not had a nine game iwnning streak since.

2.  The Isles have allowed only 4 goals in their current 3-game win streak.  The last time they did that was in the final three-games of their six-game win streak last February.

3.  Doug Weight padded his team scoring lead with his 4th goal and 16th point.  Weight, who has recorded a point in three straight games, now has 3 pp goals.  He has a point on 10 of the Isles 13 pp goals this season.

...and a few more

4.  The teams played a scoreless third period tonight.  The Isles have allowed 25 third period goals (most in the NHL) while Vancouver has allowed only eight (fewest in the NHL).

5.  The second period has been good to the Isles this season; they've now outscored thier combined opponents 16-13.

6.  The Isles won for the first time this season after trailing after 1 period (1-4-1) while the Canucks failed to win after leading after 1 period for the first time (7-0-1).

7.  The Isles improve to 3-1-0 against the West while the Canucks are now 1-3-1 against the East.

8.  The Isles are noe 23-12 all-time in shootouts, and are 12-4 at home.  The Isles have lost exactly once in a shootout at home in each season including this one.  Frans Nielsen had the only goal of the shootout; he's now 2-3 in shootouts.

9.  Andy Sutton appeared in his 500th NHL game.

10  Pavol Demitra continued his point-a-game pace against the Isles; he has 8 goals and 10 assists in 18 games vs the Isles.

 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: Isles 3, Ottawa 2

The last time the Isles opened a season by beating the Sens in their first two meetings, Mike Milbury was in his first year as Islander coach. In fact, in the first of those wins in 1995-96, Don Maloney was still the Islander General Manager. On to the trick:

1. Joey MacDonald had another strong night in goal, making 38 saves--a season high. He's had more than 38 saves only once in an NHL game--this past April Fools Day against the Devils.

2. The Isles are now 4-2 in their last six games against Ottawa; it's their best stretch against the Sens since going 4-1-3 in the first eight games between the squads.

3. Trent Hunter filled up the box score, even though he didn't had a point. He had six shots on goal (plus 6 more that were blocked or missed the net) and four hits.

...and a bunch more

4. The Isles are 4-2-1 in their last 7 (after opening 2-7-1). It's their best seven game stretch since following up an OT loss with six straight wins last February.

5. The Isles improve to 3-6-1 at home, winning in regulation for the first time since the season opener.

6. The Isles were outscored 2-1 in the third, and have been outscored 25-14 in the third period this season. The Isles were outshot 11-8 in the third and have been outshot 197-142 in the third period this season.

7. The Isles now had 6 pp goals at home and 6 on the road, but they've had 18 fewer chances on the road (6-50, 6-32). Three of their 12 goals have come in the two games against Ottawa.

8. Tim Jackman recorded seven penalty minutes in his fight with Chris Neil --Neil left the game and did not return. Before the fight, Jackman had more goals (1) than penalty minutes (0) -- a stat this is not likely to recur again this season. Jackman later recorded an assist on Campoli's game winner.

9. The Isles have now scored 22 goals 5-on-5 and 22 goals in all other situations. They've allowed 36 goals 5-on-5 and 18 in other situations.

10. The Sens were 15-2-0 after 17 games last season; 6-9-2 this year.

11. The Isles had 31 shots, despite having only 1 shot in the first 8:15 (it came from their own zone, 133 ft away) and only one shot in the final 15 minutes.

Finally, a look ahead--- the Canucks will visit the Coliseum on Monday. Scott Gordon will be the fifth different man to coach the Isles in the last five games between the clubs:

11-Mar-03 - Laviolette
3-Feb-04 - Stirling
14-Jan-06 - Shaw
8-Jan-08 - Nolan
17-Nov-08 - Gordon

The Isles are 1-2-1 in the previous 4, with the win coming on an Aucoin overtime goal in 2004.

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: Isles 3, Ottawa 1

I don't how many people saw it because there was this football game going on, but the Islanders went up to Ottawa and won for the 2nd straight time... on to the trip.

1. It's only the 2nd time the Isles have won 2 straight in Ottawa. They won their first two trips to Canada's capital on January 17 1993 and November 17 1993.

2. The Isles are now 4-2 in their last six trips to Canada after winning only twice in their previous 21 games North of the Border.

3. The Isles played the final 4:16 shorthanded due to an elbowing penalty to Thomas Pock, and played short 8:16 of the final 12:22. Despite a FIlip Kuba pp goal, the Sens are 3-last 26 on the power play.

...and a few more

4. Ottawa failed to score on a 6 skater-on-3 situation in the game's final 46 seconds.

5. Okposo (Bailey, Campoli) was the scoring on the Isles' first goal. If it repeats that way 10 years from now..and for the Islanders...there will be plenty of good times on Long Island. Bailey played 13:10 in his second NHL game.

6. The Sens outshot the Isles 16-5 in the third, but it was the Isles who scored the only goal -- their first in any of the five games they've led after 40 minutes this month.

7. The Isles improve to 3-3-1 on the road; they're only 2-6-1 at home.

8. This is the front end of the first home-and-home ever between the teams; the Isles do not play consecutive games against the same opponent again this season.

9. Trent Hunter now has a team-leading 7 goals; he needs only five more to match last season's total.

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: Flyers 3, Isles 1

Good effort. Bad power play. Familiar result. On to the trick:

1. Isles are now 2-6-1 at home; equaling their worst start at home since 1989-90.

2. Josh Bailey played 12:35 in his NHL debut. The good: 7-4 on faceoffs. The bad: -1. The ugly: 2 penalties -- one cost the Isles momentum in the first period; the second cost the Isles a chance to get the game even in the third.

3. The Isles entered the third period trailing for the first time in November. THey are 0-7-1 this season when allowing the first goal and 0-7-1 when trailing after 40 mins.

a few more:

4. The Isles had two 5-on-3's and eight pp's overall, but went 0-8 and allowed a shorthanded goal.

5. Guerin, Streit and Hunter combined for 20 of the Isles' 36 shots.

6. The Flyers have had the Isles' number of late. Philly has beaten the Isles 6 straight, and 9 of 10. Isles record is 1-7-2 in that stretch vs. Philadelphia.

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: Atlanta 4, Isles 3

Even when the Isles were a terrific team, they had some terrible Novembers.

November 2008 is shaping up to be memorable, having blown three multi-goal leads (1-2-0) in the final 20 minutes this week.   On to the trick:

1.  The Isles are now 3-2-0 when they lead after two periods.  20 of the 30 teams have not lost in regulation when leading after two.  Carolina (5-2-1) is the only other team to have lost twice; they blew a 2-1 lead going to the third period tonight.  The Isles lost only once each of the last two seasons when leading after two periods:
22-1-2 in 2007-08
29-1-5 in 2006-07

2.  The Isles have been outscored 11-2 in the third period of the last four games.  They have allowed 20 third period goals -most in the NHL.

3.  The Isles have won 39 regular season games in their history at the Garden.  They are 7-22-10 in their next game, including an incomprehensible 2-18-4 in the last 24 games.  (BTW, five of the 39 games ended a regular season; the Isles are 0-4-1 in the first game of the following season -- including 2008-09!)

and a few more...

4. Trent Hunter, Frans Nielsen and Mark Streit each had two points in a 17-second span; Nielsen now has five points in 4 games this month, while Streit has 11 points (Filip Kuba leads all defensemen with 14).

5. Mitch Fritz had only one 41 second shift.  Perhaps coincidentally, the Islanders had only six hits in the entire game (Atlanta had 17).

6.  Face-offs remain a problem; Isles dropped 42 of 66 draws tonight.  Comrie lost 8 of 10 while Weight dropped 13 of 18.

7.  Four Thrashers: Little, White, Havelid, and Kozlov, were +3.

8.  With the regulation win, the Thrasher jump over the Isles, going to 10 points to the Isles' 9.  Florida also has 9 --the Panthers are playing in Los Angeles tonight.

 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.