Stat Trick: Columbus 3, Isles 1

1.  The Isles have been outscored 30-11 over the last 6 games, all losses.  How bad is that?  The last time the Isles were outscored by 19 goals in a six-game period was in the 1995-96 season:

25-Mar-96 @ Montreal 1 4 L
26-Mar-96 Vs Washington  1 7 L
30-Mar-96 @ Hartford 1 3 L
31-Mar-96 Vs New York  1 4 L
2-Apr-96 Vs Philadelphia 2 6 L
5-Apr-96 @ Ottawa 2 4 L

when they were outscored by 20 goals in a 6-game period.  The Isles have also lost six straight on the road.

2.  Can't say the Isles didn't come out hitting- outhitting the BJ's 41-16.

3,  Richard Park had the Isles' only goal -it was the Isles 7th SH goal this season.  Only Philadelphia (11) has more.

...and a few more.

4.  Fredrik Modin is heating up for Columbus; he now has 4 goals in 6 games. Jason Chimera and Andrew Murray had the other Columbus goals.

5.  Joey  Mac Donald allowed 3 goals; fewest since the win over Ottawa whne he allowed 2.  It's the first time since November 11 that he allowed three goals or fewer and lost.

6.  The Isles remain winless in Columbus (4 losses, a tie and a shootout loss).  Counting a loss and a tie in Cleveland in 1978, the Isles are winless in eight trips to Ohio since a 6-3 win in Cleveland on March 27, 1977.  Really.

7.  The Isles now have 11 points in their first 16 road games, equalling their lowest total since the 1995-96 season.

8.  The Isles last lost six straight, all in regulation time, Jan 22-Feb 7, 2008.  They then lost in overtime on February 9th to extend the losing streak to 7.

9.  It's the first time since February, 2000 that the Isles have not won at least once in the first six games of a calendar month.  (The club record of consecutive non-wins to start a month is 11, in December 1972 (0-9-2))

10.Looking ahead:
Tuesday's game is on Versus as the Isles return home to face Washington.  The Capitals began this six game losing streak for the Isles by scoring three in the third to beat the Isles on December 4.  The Isles have won 6 of the last 7 Coliseum matchups between the teams (6-1-0), losing only last Columbus Day, 2-1.   Joe Beninati and Billy Jaffe should have the call.  (Beninati is the voice of the Caps when he's not working for Versus) 

 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.

Re: Stat Trick: Flyers 4, Isles 3 (correction)

Probably would be a good idea to get the score of the game correct.  Flyers 4, Isles 3.

a Stat Trick delayed is a Stat Trick denied...

1. The Isles have now lost seven straight to Flyers (0-5-2) and six straight in Philadelphia (0-5-1).

2.  Yann Danis has started twice for the Isles and blown multiple-goal leads in both.  The Isles led 2-0, as Hilbert and Weight scored in the first 10 1/2 minutes.  Hilbert, who led the Isles with six shots,. now has has seven goals; he scored eight times in each of his first two seasons with the Isles.

3.  It's the Isles first loss on the back-end of a back-to-back since losing in Florida 4-2 on March 12.  The Isles had won six straight, including all four this season.

...and a few more...

4. Who or what is a Darroll Powe?  He scored his first NHL goal.  Does it seem like a player does that to the Isles almost every night?

 
5.  Mitch Fritz played just 2:18, but it was enough time for him to record 7 pen mins -- five of them in a scrap with Riley Cote.

6.  Simon Gagne had the winning goal -- only the fifth of his 14 goals that he's scored 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: Penguins 9, Isles 2

How bad could it get?  Well, that's what tonight's trick is all about.

1.  The Isles allowed nine goals for the first time since a 9-6 loss in Toronto on December 19, 2005 -- that loss was the beginning of the end for Steve Stirling as Islander coach-- he'd lose 9 of his final 11 games as Islander coach.

2.  The Isles allowed a hat trick to Petr Sykora; his first in 871 NHL games.  The goals were #'s 283-285 of his NHL career.  He had scored more goals than any active player without potting three in a game (Larry Murphy holds the all-time record with 287); his 42 2-goals games without a career hat trick were also an NHL record . (although one source says that he only had 38 2-goal games).

3.  With Sykora completing his hat trick, Shane Doan now has the most career goals without a hat trick among active players --240, or one more than Mike Sillinger.

...lots, lots more

4.  The Isles also gave up the first career hat trick to Pascal Dupuis as well. (According to the media guide), it's the 4th time the Isles have allowed two hat tricks in a game:

10/20/81 Los Angeles (Dionne/Kelly)
11/23/82 Minnesota (Broten/Payne)
12/18/86 Philadelphia (Poulin/Kerr)

5.It's the Isles first loss by 7 goals since an 8-1 defeat in Toronto last October that was the beginning of the end for Wade Dubielewicz as an Islander.

6.  It's the 2nd worst Isles loss ever to Pittsburgh.  They lost to the Pens 9-1 in 1972.

 
7.  Searching for a positive -- the Isles have scored a power play in 5 straight games (all losses).  In fact, they've score a pp goal in each of their last 7 losses, dating back to the Turkey eve loss to the Pens that will go down as the turning point of the season.

8,  The Isles allowed 3 pp goals for the fourth time this season.  The 3 pp goals helped keep down the minuses, but Sillinger, Comeau and Meyer were all -3.

9. The Isles have allowed 27 goals in the last 5 games; they last did that in December 2005; they haven't allowed more than 27 over a five game span since 1991-92!  They've allowed 36 goals in the last 7 games  (first time since 1991-92) and 41 goals in the last 8 games (first time since 1992-93).

10. The Isles were outscored 5-0 at 5 on 5.  They scored a pp goal and a 4-on-4 goal.

11.  The Isles have lost 4 straight to Pittsburgh (0-3-1) and 6 out of 7.  They've also lost 6 of their last 7 in Pittsburgh.

12.  The Isles have been outscored 27-10 over the last five games.  The last time that they had a -17 differential over five games was in 2003.  The streak reversed itself with the blizzard win over the Hawks, the first in a 29-16-9-4 stretch to finish that season.

12.  Looking ahead:  Can it get worse?  Of course it can.  The Isles head to Columbus on Saturday.  The Isles have never beaten the Blue Jackets in Columbus (3 losses, a tie, and a shootout loss).   The Isles have won their last two games against the BJ's, both at home, including a 4-3 overtime win earlier this season.

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.

Fw: Stat Trick: Flyers 4, Isles 2

a Stat Trick delayed is a Stat Trick denied...

1. The Isles have now lost seven straight to Flyers (0-5-2) and six straight in Philadelphia (0-5-1).

2.  Yann Danis has started twice for the Isles and blown multiple-goal leads in both.  The Isles led 2-0, as Hilbert and Weight scored in the first 10 1/2 minutes.  Hilbert, who led the Isles with six shots,. now has has seven goals; he scored eight times in each of his first two seasons with the Isles.

3.  It's the Isles first loss on the back-end of a back-to-back since losing in Florida 4-2 on March 12.  The Isles had won six straight, including all four this season.

...and a few more...

4. Who or what is a Darroll Powe?  He scored his first NHL goal.  Does it seem like a player does that to the Isles almost every night?

 
5.  Mitch Fritz played just 2:18, but it was enough time for him to record 7 pen mins -- five of them in a scrap with Riley Cote.

6.  Simon Gagne had the winning goal -- only the fifth of his 14 goals that he's scored 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: Flyers 4, Isles 2

a Stat Trick delayed is a Stat Trick denied...

1. The Isles have now lost seven straight to Flyers (0-5-2) and six straight in Philadelphia (0-5-1).

2.  Yann Danis has started twice for the Isles and blown multiple-goal leads in both.  The Isles led 2-0, as Hilbert and Weight scored in the first 10 1/2 minutes.  Hilbert, who led the Isles with six shots,. now has has seven goals; he scored eight times in each of his first two seasons with the Isles.

3.  It's the Isles first loss on the back-end of a back-to-back since losing in Florida 4-2 on March 12.  The Isles had won six straight, including all four this season.

...and a few more...

4. Who or what is a Darroll Powe?  He scored his first NHL goal.  Does it seem like a player does that to the Isles almost every night?

 
5.  Mitch Fritz played just 2:18, but it was enough time for him to record 7 pen mins -- five of them in a scrap with Riley Cote.

6.  Simon Gagne had the winning goal -- only the fifth of his 14 goals that he's scored 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: Toronto 4, Isles 2

It's five (regulation losses) in six games for the 2nd time this season... paging the draft lottery board...on to the trick.

 

1.  No Canada -- tonight's loss stops an Islander five game winning streak against Canadian opponents; it's their first win in three games in Canada this season.

 

2.  Old friend Jason Blake had the winning goal and later recorded his 200th NHL assist.  He had three points on the night, giving him six points in his last three games.

 

3.  The Isles were outscored 1-0 in the third period and have been outscored 43-20 in the third period this season.

 

a few more...

 

4.  Bill Guerin now has a three game point streak.  His goal was #398 of his career, and the 11th of the season, tying Trent Hunter for the club lead.

 

5.  It was the 1,200th loss in Isles history.  The Isles have 1,233 wins.
 

6.  Mike Sillinger's goal was his first since January 24 against Boston.  He is 11 goals shy of 250.  His goal came on the power play and was unusual -- neither Weight nor Streit was on the ice.

 

7.  Freddy Meyer played in his 100th game as an Islander; it was his shot that Guerin tipped home for the Isles' first goal.

 

8.  Joey MacDonald played in his 17th straight game--the Isles are 8-8-1 in that streak.

 

9.  Trent Hunter had 4 shots and 5 hits for the Islanders.  The Leafs' Pavel Kubina attempted five shots on goal -- all five were blocked by the Isles.

 

10.  Up next: the Isles are in Philly Tuesday night for a Versus-exclusive telecast. (7pm; no pre-game).  It's the fifth time that the Isles are playing on consecutive days.  They are 4-0 on the back-end and have won six straight back-ends, going back to last season.  They haven't had a longer back-end streak since winning seven back-ends in 1981-82.  The club record is 9.  The Isles however have lost six straight to Philadelphia (0-4-2) and have lost five straight in Philly (0-4-1).

 

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 5, Isles 1

Ten days and one period ago, all the Isles had to do was hold off the Penguins in the third period to get back to NHL .500.  Four losses in five games suggest that NHL .500 may be a long ways off.  On to the trick:

1.  The Thrashers have outscored the Isles 8-1 in the last 4 periods, and 5-0 in the third period this season.

2.  Atlanta has beaten the Isles in regulation in consecutive games for the first time since winning the first two games between the franchises in 1999.

3.  Bill Guerin' first minute pp goal was the 397th goal of his NHL career.

and a few more....

4.  The Isles have won consecutive home games only once since February.

5.  The penalties started early and ended late.  The Isles earned a power play only 19 seconds into the game; there was a scrum that produced 42 minutes of penalties with 19 seconds to play.

6.  Ilya Kovalchuk had a goal and two assists for Atlanta.

7.  The Isles have allowed 24 goals in their last five games -- they haven't allowed more in a five-game stretch since December 2005.

8. Blake Comeau had three shots and three assists in his NHL season debut.  He played Friday night for Bridgeport, where his game was reffed by Jamie Koharski.  Jamie's dad, Don, was one of tonight's refs.

9. Josh Bailey led the Isles forwards in first period ice-time (7:16) but played only 9:20 the rest of the way.

10.  Brendan Witt had eight hits and five blocked shots.  Three of the blocks came on one shift, all on shots by Kovalchuk.

Up next:  The Isles begin a 4-game trip in Toronto.  The Isles won the series last year, 5 points to 4.  They went 5-3-0 against the Leafs under Nolan; the Leafs are the only Eastern Conference team that the Isles have not played this season.

 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.