Nino

Mike Fornbaio with a story on Nino's stay in B'port.  http://www.ctpost.com/sports/article/Niederreiter-getting-healthy-in-limited-Sound-2252739.php

 
Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

The Skinny: Jets 3, Isles 0

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick

Game 10

Winnipeg 3, Isles 0

Evander Kane scored on the game's first shot and the Winnipeg Jets, behind superb goaltending from Onrdej Pavelec made it stand up, as the Jets added two late goals (one into an empty net) for a 3-0 victory over the Islanders 3-2 before 10,157 at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.   The loss extends the Isles' winless streak to six games (0-4-2).

First Period was Kane's

The first period was the Evander Kane show.  Kane beat Rick DiPietro from right in front of the goal at 4:21 and then drew a penalty shot which DiPietro stopped five minutes later.  It was the second time in as many seasons that DiPietro has stopped Kane on a penalty shot.  The Isles outshot the Jets 9-8 in the opening session.

Un-Able to Score

The Islanders dominated the second period, outshooting Winnipeg 19-6, but could not beat Pavelec to tie the game.

Oduya Does it to Isles Again

Johnny Oduya had the backbreaker as his shot with less than four minutes to play in the third deflected in off Andrew MacDonald's stick; it was his first goal in 63 games since scoring against the Islanders last December 11^th.  Trailing 2-0 Jack Capuano pulled DiPietro shortly after the Oduya goal, but Alexander Burmistrov hit the empty net for the final margin of victory.  3-0 Final.

Home and Road

The Islanders are 3-5-2 overall and 3-3-1 at home.  The Isles have been shutout in all three of their home regulation losses.

The Jets improve to 3-1 on their Eastern swing; they are 5-6-1 overall and 3-4-1 on the road.

In the Nets

Rick DiPietro appeared in his third straight game for the first time in 11 months and made 23 saves but drops to 0-1-2 on the season.

Ondrej Pavelec records his 1^st shutout of the season and the first for this generation of Jets.  It was his 7^th career shutout.  It's the first time a Winnipeg goaltender has ever beaten the Islanders by shutout.  Markus Mattsson dueled Chico Resch to a scoreless tie on February 12, 1980 – the only previous time Winnipeg has held the Isles without a goal.

Power Plays

The Islanders were 0-3 on the power play while the Jets did not have a power play.   The Isles are now 7-36 on the power play and 31-36 on the penalty kill this season.  It's the first time since November 2, 2009 (vs. Edmonton) that the Isles have not allowed an opposition power play and the first time in nearly 10 years (January 29, 2002 vs. New Jersey) that the Isles have lost a game in which they did not allow a power play.

They Tweeted It 

@StapeNewsday:  Coliseum scoreboard just wished Mark Streit's grandmother, Frida Krebs, a happy 97th birthday. First time she's ever been to the States.

Leading Ice Men

Mark Streit, playing in front of his grandmother for the first time in his NHL career, led all players with 26:35.  Dustin Byfuglien led Winnipeg with 23:40 of ice-time.

Wrong Side of History, I

The Isles have been shut-out three times in a seven-game home stretch for the first time in club history.

Wrong Side of History, II

The Isles have scored 18 goals in the first ten games, setting a club record for the fewest goals in the opening 10 games.  The 1973-74 team scored 19 times in the first ten games.

Fewest Goals Scored, First 10 Games

·         18 in 2010-11

·         19 in 1973-74

·         20 in 1998-99

·         21 in 1999-00

Holy Howe

Evander Kane fought the Isles' Travis Hamonic and earned an assist on Oduya's goal, allowing him to complete the first "Gordie Howe Hat Trick" in the NHL this season.  It's only the 2^nd Gordie Howe Hat in franchise history.  Shean Donovan had the first one on January 17, 2000 in Boston.

It's the first time the Isles have allowed a Gordie Howe Hat since the lockout. Matthew Barnaby, then with the Rangers, was the last opponent to do so (2/19/04 at MSG). The last time the Isles allowed a Gordie Howe Hat the original Jets were still in Winnipeg.  Steve Konowalchuk recorded it for Washington on March 26, 1996.

Strange but True

Kane's first period penalty shot was the 5^th attempted by the Jets franchise against the Isles – the most of any opponent.  Patrick Stefan, Marian Hossa, Eric Perrin and Kane had the prior attempts, with only Perrin successful in his attempt.

Penalty Shot Stats

Kane attempted the 47^th penalty shot against the Isles in their history.  Isles goaltenders have now stopped 33 of the 47, including the last five.  It was the second penalty shot in an Islander game this season (Nabakov stopped Kopecky on 10/22 in Florida).

DiPietro has now stopped 12 of 14 penalty shots in his career (including the last five).

The Isles have stopped five straight penalty shots (Kane, Letang, Booth, Kopecky and Kane) – the second longest such streak in club history. The Isles stopped 11 straight penalty shots between 2000 and 2005.

Two Penalty Shots vs. Isles

Kane is the 4^th player to be awarded two career penalty shots vs. the Isles.  The complete list:

·         Ron Sedlbauer (Van) Failed vs. Smith 11/19/77; Failed vs. Resch 3/7/78

·         Patrik Elias (NJ) Failed vs. Vanbiesbrouck 12/1/00; Failed vs. Snow 12/10/03

·         Erik Cole (Car) Failed vs. DiPietro 4/2/04; Failed vs. DiPietro 1/6/07

·         Evander Kane (Atl-Wpg) Failed vs. DiPietro 12/11/10; Failed vs. DiPietro 11/3/11

It was the 4^th penalty shot of Kane's career; he had the final three attempts in Thrasher history.

108 to Go

The Isles have scored 9,892 goals in their history (excluding 39 shootout winners), leaving the club 108 shy of 10,000.

Still Searching

The Isles have two forwards (Josh Bailey and Jay Pandolfo) who have played every game and have yet to record a point.

Best D since the Lockout

The Isles have allowed only 25 goals (does not include 1 in a shootout) in ten games (2.50 goals per game).  It's the fewest goals that the Isles have allowed in the first ten games since 2003-04 and the 9^th time in their history that they have allowed 25 or fewer over the first ten.  The club record for Fewest Goals Allowed, First 10 Games is 19, set in 1974-75 and equaled in 1977-78.

In the Circle

The Islanders won 26 of 50 (52%) face-offs.   John Tavares won 11 of 20, while Bryan Little won 12 of 18 for Winnipeg.

Missing Men

Mike Mottau and Evgeni Nabakov were scratched. Nino Niederreiter is in Bridgeport on a conditioning assignment.  The Isles have two players on injured reserve: Rhett Rakhshani and Mark Katic.  The Isles have lost 47 man-games to injury so far this season.

Ironmen

Matt Moulson, the Isles' reigning ironman, has played in all 174 games since joining the team. Travis Hamonic has now played 72 NHL games (all consecutive); he has the longest consecutive game streak on defense for the Isles.

Com(eau)ing Along

Blake Comeau, who had only one shot on goal in his first six games has seven shots on goal as well as seven hits in the last two games.

Has He Ever Seen West Side Story?

Matt Martin had nine hits against the Jets.  In the Isles' previous game, he had seven hits against the Sharks.  Martin has been credited with 49 hits this season; Comeau, with 22, is second on the team in that category.

Season Series Stats

The Jets lead the season series one game to none (two points to none).   The series will continue in Winnipeg on December 20^th and February 14^th before facing each other at the Coliseum in the home finale on April 5^th.

Happy Anniversary

4 years ago tonight: November 3, 2007.  Al Arbour came out of retirement to coach his 1,500^th game and the Islanders rallied from a 2-0 deficit for a 3-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. Miro Satan scored twice in the third period for the Isles to give the Coach the win just two days after his 75^th birthday.  Wade Dubielewicz replaced an injured Rick DiPietro and earned the win in relief.

Overall the Islanders are now 6-9-4 on this date.   

On The Farm

Tim Wallace scored his first three goals as a Sound Tiger as Bridgeport rallied for a 4-3 overtime win over Connecticut at Harbor Yard on Wednesday.  Justin DiBenedetto continues to lead the team in scoring (8-3-11) while Wallace (3-6-9) and Casey Cizikas (2-7-9) are tied for 2^nd.  Bridgeport is 5-4-1-0, including 2-0-1-0 on their five-game homestand, which concludes with games Saturday night vs. Norfolk and Sunday afternoon vs. St. John's. 

Up Next

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5^TH WASHINGTON AT ISLANDERS 7:00PM
[MSG+ (Islanders pre-game at 6:30pm), WRHU(88.7FM)]

The Isles will carry a scoreless streak of 89:39 into the game as they conclude the homestand (0-1-1) on Saturday when they host the Caps.  The Isles will be catching Washington on the back-end of back-to-backs as Washington will be in Carolina on Friday night. 

Last season, the Capitals won all four games, including the final game in overtime as the Caps rallied from a 1-0 deficit to tie the game in the final minute and then win in overtime on an end-to-end rush by Alex Ovechkin. All four games were decided by a single goal, with the Caps outscoring the Isles 9-5.  The Isles were 0-17 on the power play last season against Washington, while killing nine of ten Capital advantages.

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.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Back to work

A couple of folks have tweeted me this week about all the off days.

The Isles played only 9 times in the first 28 days of the season; they will play the remaining 73 over the next 157.

The Isles have had 4 consecutive off-days twice this season.  It happens again only once more -- during the All-Star break, when they go between January 24th and 31st without games.

Other than All-Star, the Isles will have 3 consecutive off days only twice more this season -- both in March.

They are off March 5-6-7, and again March 21-22-23.

One benefit of those few consecutive off days is that they play relatively few back-to-backs this season (12). The first of those is a Thanksgiving weekend home/home with New Jersey.

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Injured backline for J-E-T-S, Jets Jets Jets

The Isles will face a Winnipeg team decimated by injuries on their backline tonight.

Winnipeg has three defensemen on IR and a fourth, Mark Stuart is questionable tonight.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/hockey/ahl/Jets-raid-IceCaps-after-injuries-133146753.html

Former Islander Mark Flood could see action tonight.  Flood, who appeared in six NHL games at the end of the 2009-10 season was recalled from St. John's as was fellow defensemen Brett Festerling.

Goalie Chris Mason is also on IR so it is Ondrej Pavelec's job... at least for now.

Former Islander Peter Mannino is the backup.  Mannino, who owns a 1-1 record after 5 NHL appearances (three for the Isles, two for the Thrashers) has a memorable NHL win to his credit-- a 40 save effort against Chicago (3/15/2009) in his first NHL start.

The Isles, who have played a league-low 9 games, have scored a league-low 18 goals and allowed only 22 (plus a shootout goal).  They are 29th in the NHL in goals per game (2.00, ahead of only Minnesota) and are 9th in goals against (2.44).

The Isles (in part because they have played the fewest games) have scored only 4 third period goals -- fewest in the NHL; Winnipeg on the other hand has been outscored 16-5 in the third period.  Their -11 differential is the worst of any team in the 3rd pd this season (and equals Ottawa, -11 in the first period, for worst in any period).

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Coming Soon: Isles 40in40 #35 - A Bossy moment...and Tonelli too!

When you've scored more goals per game played than anyone in history, you're bound to turn up in a list like this fairly frequently.

However, Mike Bossy's first appearance on this list is for a game he did not score a goal.  But John Tonelli did ... and did...and did...and did...and did!

...and it's Coming Soon!

 Catch up with The List to Date:

#36 -- January 18, 1973 -- Expansion Isles Beat the Champs
#37 -- November 28, 1979 -- Billy Smith is credited with a goal
#38 -- December 23, 1978 -- Trottier re-writes the record book
#39 -- February 11, 2011 -- Isles pound Pens 9-3
#40 -- Summer 2001 -- Isles hire Laviolette, trade for Peca and Yashin, claim Osgood.

Honorable Mention:

March 16, 2010 -- Tavares' 5-point game.

February 13, 2011 -- Grab-Trick. 

March 31, 1990 -- Uwe, Uwe. 

Where's the game? Isles -Winnipeg

Tomorrow's game is one of two this month on MSG+2.  (The game in NJ the Saturday after Thanksgiving is the other).

What channel is MSG+2?  Check the listings for your provider here: http://www.msg.com/tv/channel-listings/winnipeg-at-ny-islanders-november-3-2011-1.75578

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Vancouver Province on Isles-Sharks

It's not often that the largest paper in British Columbia writes a story about the Isles when they're nowhere near a game with the Canucks.  Saturday night was an unusual night.

http://www.theprovince.com/business/fp/Gallagher+Maintaining+justice+rink+easy/5643975/story.html

 
Gallagher has some interesting ideas in here, including changing the consequence for shooting the puck out of the rink from a 2 minute penalty to a faceoff in your own zone without the benefit of a change.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick