Isles ratings soar! Rangers/Devils too!

From an MSG Press Release: http://www.msg.com/msg-news/ratings-soar-on-msg-networks-for-hockey-season-openers.html

"The MSG+ telecast of the Islanders-Devils game garnered a 1.00 household rating, making it the second-highest rated regular season Islanders game on the network ever, dating back to the 1991-92 season when MSG+ started tracking household ratings. The only Islanders game on MSG+ to generate a higher regular season rating was the March 25, 2002 matchup with the Rangers, which scored a 1.99 household rating.
 
Through two games of the 2013 season, the average household rating for ... Islanders telecasts on MSG+ are also up compared to the first two games of the 2011-12 season ... 0.79 HH vs. 0.20 HH)."

This means that Monday afternoon's game did a .58, which is still nearly TRIPLE last year's Islander rating ... for an AFTERNOON game ... against Tampa!

(The same release noted that the Rangers drew a 2.88 for the opener (highest in 17 years), while NBCSN noted that last night's Devils telecast was their highest rated Devils telecast (.77) ever in NY market that did not involve Rangers or Isles)

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Scoring up...but not as much as you might think

The NHL season is now 35 games old so (since you need two teams to play a game) each team has played on average about 2 1/3 games. 

There have been some wild periods and games so far, which might lead you to conclude that scoring is up.

And it is ... but only by about 3.4%.

First 35 games this year: 191 goals (excluding shootouts)  5.46 goals per game
First 36 games last year: 190 goals (excluding shootouts)  5.28 goals per game

It took 7 calendar days to play the 36 games last year; only four days to play the 35 games so far this season.

For their part, the Islanders have scored/allowed 10 goals in their two games this year (5 for, 5 against) after having only 5 goals scored (2 for, 3 against) in their first two games last season.

 
Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

The Skinny: Isles 4, Tampa Bay 3

"The Skinny"
By Eric Hornick

Game 2
Isles 4, Tampa Bay 3
The Islanders scored three straight goals in the second period, but it
was a David Ullstrom tally early in the third that proved to be the difference
as the Islanders spoiled Vincent Lecavalier's 1000th NHL game with
as they edged the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-3 before a crowd of 15,322 at the
Nassau Coliseum.

The Scoring:
1st Period
None


2nd Period
06:50 NYI PPG - M. Grabner (1) Tip-In - ASST: M. Streit (1) AND E. Nabokov (1) 1 - 0 NYI

16:23 NYI M. Martin (1) Wrist - ASST: J. Tavares (1) 2 - 0 NYI

17:35 NYI K. Okposo (1) Snap - ASST: J. Tavares (2) AND M. Moulson (1) 3 - 0 NYI


3rd Period
01:31 NYI D. Ullstrom (1) Wrist - ASST: K. Aucoin (1) AND T. Hamonic (1) 4 - 0 NYI

02:22 TBL M. St Louis (3) Wrist - ASST: S. Stamkos (3) AND C. Conacher (2) 4 - 1 NYI

07:26 TBL B. Pouliot (1) Wrist - ASST: B. Crombeen (1) AND A. Hall (1) 4 - 2 NYI

08:00 TBL S. Stamkos (1) Snap - ASST: C. Conacher (3) AND M. St Louis (2) 4 - 3 NYI


The Skinny:  The Islanders hosted an MLK matinee for the seventh
straight season, but recorded only their second win in that span (2-2-3).  The Islanders held Ryan Malone off the scoresheet;
Malone has 19 goals in 41 career games against the Isles.  Mark Streit briefly held the club lead in
active player assists (119), breaking a tie with John Tavares; Tavares added
two assists later to re-take the lead (120).  The Isles held on after building a 4-0 lead; they have not lost a game
that they have had a 4-goal lead in the third period since October 15, 1991 vs.
Pittsburgh (Led 6-2, lost 7-6 [OT])

The Shots:
Isles            10-16-18=44  
Lightning      7-8-11=28 

The 44 shots are the most for the Islanders in a game since
they had 47 on October 9, 2010 vs. Dallas.  It's also the most shots the Islanders have
ever had in a game against Tampa Bay (previous high 42 on 2/11/2000).

Home and Road
The Islanders are 1-1-0 overall, 1-1-0 at home and 0-0-0 on the road.
Tampa Bay is 1-1-0 overall, and 0-1-0 on the road.
In the Nets
Evgeni Nabokov stopped 25 shots to even his record at 1-1-0.  Nabokov, who also recorded his first point as
an Islander, now has 313 career wins (4th among all active goalies). 
Anders Lindback made 40 saves but
drops to 1-1-0.
Power Plays
The Isles went 1-7 on the power play while Tampa Bay was 0-3.   Matt Martin's goal came when he was sprung
from the penalty box after the Islanders killed his penalty. 
They Said It
Matt Martin: "I'm not much of a dangler, so I usually get the shot off
as quick as I can. It worked out great for me. Coming out of the box, Johnnie
clears the puck and it's pretty well right on my tape. Not a whole lot of time
to think about what I'm going to do; just go in and let it rip."
They Tweeted
It
@THamonic3: "Great game this afternoon. Nice to get the first win in
front of our @NYIslanders fans!! #theBest"
The Coach
Jack Capuano returned after missing the opener while hospitalized. "I
sense a different team than last year. We've got some veteran leadership on
this team now. Guys are a year older than they were last year. This is the
National Hockey League. There's great players in this league. No lead is safe.
You know [Tampa Bay] is going to get chances with the guys they have."
Leading Ice
Men
Mark Streit led the Isles with 29:18; Matt Carle led Tampa Bay with 24:28.
Lots of Ice
Brad Boyes saw 21:00 of ice-time in his 2nd game for the
Islanders. It's the most ice time for Boyes in a game since he played 21:11 on
February 14, 2011.  Boyes is wearing #24
as an Islander, the same number he wore when he broke into the NHL.  His #22 from his days in St. Louis and
Buffalo is retired by the Islanders (and if you're reading The Skinny I bet you
know that this is in honor of Mike Bossy).
In the Circle
The Islanders won 30 draws; the Lightning won 35.  Newcomer Keith Aucoin won 9 of 12 for the
Isles; he's won 17 of 22 in his first two games. Former Islander Nate Thompson
won 10 of 13 for Tampa Bay.
Heavy Hitters
The Islanders were out-hit 15-14.  Newcomer Colin Richardson MacDonald led the Isles with four.
There were two fights in the game, both off the opening draw.  Matt Martin fought BJ Crombeen while Joe
Finley battled Pierre-Cedric Labrie. It was the first two fight of the season
for the Islanders.
Lots of
Blocks
The Isles, who led the NHL in blocked shots last year with 1,364,
blocked 8 shots. 
Lots of Shots
to Go Around
Every Islander forward had at least one shot on goal.  Five different players each had five shots on
goal (Moulson, Tavares, Grabner, Ullstrom and Aucoin).
All-time
Winners
With the loss, the Islanders are now two games over all-time NHL .500 (1348-1346-432
in 3,126 games).  The Isles twice last
season fell one game below .500. Prior to that, they had not been below NHL
.500 since they were 177-178-83 prior to their victory on January 16, 1978.
Ironman
Matt Moulson, the Isles' reigning ironman, has played in all 248 games
since joining the team.  Moulson's streak
is the longest for an Islander in the Post-Cup era and the 4th longest in club history.  Billy Harris
played in the first 576 games in Islander history; that figure still stands as
the club record.
Three other Islanders, Frans Nielsen, John Tavares and Mark Streit,
also played in every game last season.  Tavares
extended his streak to 161 consecutive games, while Nielsen and Streit have
each played in 84.
Longest
Consecutive Game Streaks, Islander History 
1.
Billy Harris 576 
2.
Bob Nystrom 301
3.
Denis Potvin 262
4. Matt Moulson 248

Missing Men
Casey Cizikas replaced Eric Boulton in the lineup. Radek Martinek and Thomas
Hickey were also scratched. Josh Bailey and Jesse Joensuu remain suspended
after suffering injuries in Europe. Lubomir Visnovsky has not yet reported.
As Seen on
MSG+
Most Goals Since 2009-10: Steven Stamkos 157, Alex Ovechkin 120, Corey
Perry 114
List Time
Career Wins, Active
Goalies
1. Martin Brodeur657
2. Roberto Luongo339
3. Nikolai Khabibulin328
4. Evgeni Nabokov313
5. Miikka Kiprusoff311

Career Wins
21. Sean Burke 324
22. Evgeni Nabokov313
23. Miikka Kiprusoff 311

Career Goals as an
Islander
25 Trent Hunter 99  
26 Matt Moulson 97  
27 Mikko Makela 95  
27 David Volek 95  


 
32 Travis Green 92  
33 Butch Goring 87  
34 Tomas Jonsson 84  
34 John Tavares 84  
36 Wayne Merrick 81  
36 Dave Scatchard 81  



Career Assists as an Islander – active players
1 John Tavares 120  
2 Mark Streit 119  
3 Frans Nielsen 113  
4 Kyle Okposo   94  


 








Career Games as an
Islander (skaters)
49 Eric Cairns 327  
50 Alan Kerr 326  
51 Frans Nielsen 321  
51 Brad Dalgarno 321  
53 Steve Webb 316  
53 Ray Ferraro 316  
53 Richard Park 316  


 


 
59 Arron Asham 300
59 Roman Hamrlik 300
61 Josh Bailey 292
62 Gord Dineen 287  
63 Jeff Norton 282  
64 Steve Thomas 275  
65 Kyle Okposo 273  
66 Blake Comeau 261  
66 Andre St. Laurent 261  


 
71 Jude Drouin 250  
72 Matt Moulson 248  
73 Brad Isbister 247  
73 Brendan Witt 247  
75 Sean Bergenheim 246  
76 John Tavares 245  
77 Miroslav Satan 243  
78 Bryan Berard 242  
79 JP Parise 240  
79 Mark Streit 240  
81 Adrian Aucoin 235  

Career Points as an
Islander
31 Mark Parrish 214
32 Jean Potvin 213
32 Garry Howatt 213
34 Anders Kallur 211
35 John Tavares 204
36 Marty McInnis 198



40 Lorne Henning 184
41 Randy Wood 172
42 Matt Moulson 171
42 Claude Lapointe 171
42 JP Parise 171
45 Shawn Bates 170
46 Jude Drouin 169
47 Dave Scatchard 168
48 Frans Nielsen 167
49 Miroslav Satan 166
50 Kyle Okposo 163
51 Oleg Kvasha 158
52 Alan Kerr 154
53 Roman Hamrlik 153
54 Mark Streit 152
     
Season Series
Stats
The Islanders lead the season series 1-0-0 and two points to zero.  They have dominated the series at home in
recent years, having won four straight and 9 of 11 (9-2-0) vs. the Bolts. The
teams will next meet on March 14th in Tampa, before completing the
season series on April 6th at the Coliseum.
Happy
Anniversary
31 years ago tonight (1-21-82):  The
Islanders began their 15-game winning streak and Bryan Trottier began his
club-record 25 games point streak as the Islanders blasted Pittsburgh 6-1.
Thanks to my MSG colleagues for recognizing the anniversary of my first game on
Isles telecasts.
All-time, the Isles are 12-5-3 on this date, having won on January 21st in each of the past five seasons.
On The Farm
The Sound Tigers lost to Springfield 4-1 on Sunday, breaking their
two-game win streak. Bridgeport is 19-17-2-2. The Sound Tigers are off until
Friday, when they begin a two-game series in Norfolk.
Up Next
THURSDAY,
JANUARY 24st ISLANDERS AT TORONTO 7:00PM
[MSG+ (Islanders Game Night at 6:30pm), WRHU (88.7FM)]
The Islanders begin a 5-game in eight day road trip on Thursday when
they visit the Maple Leafs in Toronto.  The teams have split a pair of games in Toronto in each of the last
three seasons (with two of the Islander wins coming in overtime). This is the
first of two five-game road trips this season for the Isles; the other one will
complete the regular season.
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 January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

The Skinny: Devils 2, Isles 1

"The Skinny"
 
By Eric Hornick
 
Game 1
Devils 2, Isles 1
David Clarkson scored the winning goal midway through the third period
as the Devils spoiled the Islanders' season opener, 2-1, before a sellout crowd
of 16,170 at the Nassau Coliseum. It's the 10th time in the last
twelve seasons that the Isles have sold out the home opener.

The Scoring:
1st Period
None
 
2nd
Period
14:01 EV N.J 19 T.ZAJAC(1) 17 I.KOVALCHUK(1) 7 H.TALLINDER(1)
 
3rd
Period
7:12 PP NYI3 T.HAMONIC(1)40 M.GRABNER(1)21 K.OKPOSO(1)
8:17 EV N.J23 D.CLARKSON(1)26 P.ELIAS(1)21 M.TEDENBY(1)
 
The Skinny: Marty Brodeur
extended his own NHL record by starting the season opener for the 18th straight season.  The Isles have used
five starting goaltenders (Rick DiPietro-Joey MacDonald-Dwayne Roloson-Al
Montoya-Evgeni Nabokov) in the last five openers.  Travis Hamonic matches his career high in
power play goals in a season; he now has three career PP goals (one in each
season). It was his 50th career point.

The Shots:
Isles            3-7-9=19  
Devils         9-12-7=28 
 
The 19 shots are the fewest for the Islanders in a season
opener since they had 18 in Washington on October 9, 2003.
 
Home and Road
The Islanders are 0-1-0 overall, 0-1-0 at home and 0-0-0 on the road. All-time,
the Isles are 24-12-4 in home openers and 9-21-10 in their first game of the
regular season. The Isles are 2-5-2 when they play the season opener at home.
New Jersey is 1-0-0 overall, and 1-0-0 on the road.

In the Nets
Evgeni Nabokov stopped 26 shots but loses his first season opener as an
Islander. 
Martin Brodeur made 18 saves as he
defeated the Islanders for the 50th time in his career (50-27-6) He
has now won 657 NHL games.

Power Plays
The Isles went 1-4 on the power play while New Jersey was 0-2.   Six of the eight goals that the Isles have scored
in their last four openers have come on the power play.  Ilya Kovalchuk played all four minutes of the
two New Jersey power plays.

They Said It
Matt Moulson: "Our goal was to make the playoffs, and obviously that
didn't happen.  We'll come back next
season with that goal and figure out what's going to get us there."

They Tweeted
It
@StapeNewsday: "Just got a text from Jack Capuano: "Out of
surgery, feeling much better."

The Coach
With Jack Capuano out ill, Doug Weight handled the post-game press
conference: "Nabby looked in control tonight.  I've played a lot of hockey against Evgeni. He's a confident individual.
He brings it every night and I knew he'd have a good game tonight. He looked
quick and agile. I think he was a little screened on that second one. That was
a tough break."  (Video showed it was
even a tougher break; the puck deflected off the skate of Islander defenseman
Brian Strait.)

Leading Ice
Men
Andrew MacDonald led the Isles with 27:13; Ilya Kovalchuk led New
Jersey with 24:37.

Lots of Ice
for Okposo
Kyle Okposo played 23:43; among Islander forwards only John Tavares
(25:31) played more.  It's the most ice
time for Okposo in a game since he played 28:20 in the 2009-10 season finale.

In the Circle
The Islanders won 30 draws; the Devils won 21.  Newcomer Keith Aucoin won 8 of 10 for the
Isles; Travis Zajac won 8 of 15 for the Devils.

Heavy Hitters
The Islanders were out-hit 23-19.  Newcomer Joe Finley led the Isles with three.
There were no fights in the game

Lots of
Blocks
The Isles, who led the NHL in blocked shots last year with 1,364,
blocked 16 shots.  Andrew MacDonald led
the way with 5.

Slow Starters
The Isles are winless since 2007 on Opening Night (0-3-2). With Anaheim
and Chicago both winning today, the Isles now have the longest active Opening
Night winless streak.

Who are the
New Guys?
Sevenplayers made their
first appearance as Islanders: Matt Carkner, Keith Aucoin, Colin McDonald, Brad
Boyes, Eric Boulton, Brian Strait and Joe Finley.  One other: Thomas Hickey made the opening
night roster but did not dress.

More O from D
In addition to getting a power play goal from Hamonic, eight of the
Islanders' 19 shots came from defensemen.

It's Been a
Loooong Time
This was the Islanders' first game in exactly 41 weeks (287 days) and
their first Coliseum tilt in 289 days.

All-time
Winners
With the loss, the Islanders are now one game over all-time NHL .500 (1347-1346-432
in 3,125 games).  The Isles twice last
season fell one game below .500. Prior to that, they had not been below NHL
.500 since they were 177-178-83 prior to their victory on January 16, 1978.

Ironman
Matt Moulson, the Isles' reigning ironman, has played in all 247 games
since joining the team.  Moulson's streak
is the longest for an Islander in the Post-Cup era and the 4th longest in club history.   Billy Harris
played in the first 576 games in Islander history; that figure still stands as
the club record.
Three other Islanders, Frans Nielsen, John Tavares and Mark Streit,
also played in every game last season.  Tavares
extended his streak to 161 consecutive games, while Nielsen and Streit have
each played in 83.

Longest
Consecutive Game Streaks, Islander History 
1.
Billy Harris 576 
2.
Bob Nystrom 301
3.
Denis Potvin 262
4. Matt Moulson 247
 
Missing Men
Casey Cizikas, Radek Martinek and Thomas Hickey were scratched. Josh
Bailey and Jesse Joensuu remain suspended after suffering injuries in Europe.
Lubomir Visnovsky has not yet reported.  

List Time
Career Wins, Active
Goalies
1. Martin Brodeur657
2. Roberto Luongo339
3. Nikolai Khabibulin328
4. Evgeni Nabokov312
5. Miikka Kiprusoff311
 
Career Wins
21. Sean Burke 324
22. Evgeni Nabokov312
23. Miikka Kiprusoff 311
 
Career Goals as an
Islander
25 Trent Hunter 99  
26 Matt Moulson 97  
27 Mikko Makela 95  
27 David Volek 95  

 
32 Travis Green 92  
33 Butch Goring 87  
34 Tomas Jonsson 84  
34 John Tavares 84  
36 Wayne Merrick 81  
36 Dave Scatchard 81  



Career Assists as an Islander – active players
1 John Tavares 118  
1 Mark Streit 118  
3 Frans Nielsen 113  
4 Kyle Okposo   94  

 








Career Games as an
Islander (skaters)
51 Brad Dalgarno 321  
52 Frans Nielsen 320  
53 Steve Webb 316  
53 Ray Ferraro 316  
53 Richard Park 316  

 

 
59 Arron Asham 300
59 Roman Hamrlik 300
61 Josh Bailey 291
62 Gord Dineen 287  
63 Jeff Norton 282  
64 Steve Thomas 275  
65 Kyle Okposo 272  
66 Blake Comeau 261  
66 Andre St. Laurent 261  

 
72 Brad Isbister 247  
72 Brendan Witt 247  
72 Matt Moulson 247  
75 Sean Bergenheim 246  
76 John Tavares 244  
77 Miroslav Satan 243  
78 Bryan Berard 242  
79 JP Parise 240  
80 Mark Streit 239  
81 Adrian Aucoin 235  
 
Career Points as an
Islander
34 Anders Kallur 211
35 John Tavares 202
36 Marty McInnis 198



44 Matt Moulson 170
44 Shawn Bates 170
46 Jude Drouin 169
47 Dave Scatchard 168
48 Frans Nielsen 167
49 Miroslav Satan 166
50 Kyle Okposo 162
51 Oleg Kvasha 158
52 Alan Kerr 154
53 Roman Hamrlik 153
54 Mark Streit 151
     
Season Series
Stats
The Devils lead the season series 1-0-0 and two points to zero.  New Jersey is the only team that will visit
the Coliseum three times this season.  Since moving to New Jersey, the Devils have faced the Islanders four
times on opening night, and New Jersey has won all four games.  The teams will next meet on January 31st at the Prudential Center.
Happy
Anniversary
35 years ago tonight (1-19-78):  Billy
Smith stopped 23 shots and recently-acquired Wayne Merrick had the winning goal
as the Isles blanked the St. Louis Blues 3-0 in St. Louis.
Overall, the Isles are 8-9-3 on this date.
On The Farm
Kevin Poulin made 24 saves and rookie Scott Campbell had the winning
goal as the Sound Tigers defeated Binghamton 4-2 Saturday night. Bridgeport has
won two straight and improved to 19-16-2-2. The Sound Tigers host Springfield
on Sunday afternoon.

Up Next
MONDAY,
JANUARY 21st TAMPA BAY AT ISLANDERS 1:00PM
[MSG+ (Islanders Game Night at 12:30pm), WRHU (88.7FM)]

The season-opening homestand concludes with an MLK Day matinee, as the
Islanders host Tampa Bay.  The Lightning
defeated Washington 5-3 in their opener; former Islander Eric Brewer scored
twice (after scoring only once all last season).  Vinny Lecavalier is scheduled to play in his
1,000th NHL game. This is the first of three meetings this season
between the teams; they split four games last season, with the home team
winning all four. Both Islander wins last season were by a 5-1 score.

And Finally…
#HockeyisBack!
 
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.

Opening Night Skinny

The Skinny returns all season long beginning Saturday.  Here is some Opening Night Skinny to get you started.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 19TH NEW JERSEY AT ISLANDERS 7:00PM
[MSG+ (Islanders pre-game at 6:30pm), 88.7 WRHU-FM]
 
The Islanders begin their 41st NHL season when they welcome the Devils to the Coliseum on Saturday. It's the first of five meetings this season with New Jersey.  The Devils won last season's series 4 games to 2, as the Islanders were held to only 7 goals in the season series.
 
The Isles are opening at home for the fourth straight season -- the only time in club history that they have opened at home in consecutive years. The Isles are 24-11-4 in 39 previous home openers and 9-20-10 on Opening Night overall.  The Devils (franchise) is 19-10-8 in openers, but only 7-8-2 when they opened on the road.

Both the Isles and Devils were shutout last season on Opening Night.  Florida blanked the Isles at the Coliseum, while Philadelphia shutout the Devils 3-0 in New Jersey.

Other Opening Night Facts you might not know:

* This is the 26th consecutive home opener to be played on a weekend (all but in 1999 on a Saturday). The last mid-week home opener was in 1986 vs. Washington. The Isles have had a Saturday home opener in 34 of their 40 seasons.

* This is the 8th time in club history that the Isles have opened at home (1972, 1980, January 1995, 1998, 2009, 2010, 2011 and January 2013). The Isles are 2-3-2 when they play the season opener at home.

* This is the 4nd time that the Isles have opened the season against the Devils, but the first time they have done so at home.  New Jersey won season openings games in 1984 and 1992 at the Meadowlands and in 2008 at The Rock. The Isles also opened the 1975-76 season with a 1-1 tie in Kansas City (the Devils' original home).

* This is the 2nd time that the Isles will play a 48-game schedule. The Isles opened the lockout-shortened 1995 season on January 21 of that year, defeating the Panthers 2-1 behind two third period goals from Zigmund Palffy.  That was also the last time the Isles won a season opener on home-ice.

* The Isles will be looking for their first win on Opening Night since 2007 (0-2-2); only Anaheim and Chicago (each winless since 2006) have longer streaks.

* Get your tickets early. The Isles have sold out the home opener nine times in the last eleven years.

* The opener will be played one day after the 40th anniversary of the biggest win of the Isles' inaugural season.  On January 18, 1973, the Isles defeated the Stanley Cup Champion Bruins 9-7 at Boston Garden (one of only two road wins that season).

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Isles opener on MSG+

MSG Networks has posted the television schedule for Islander games on their website:

http://www.msg.com/teams/islanders.html

33 games, including the first four, will air on MSG+

12 games will air on MSG+2

1 game (March 14th in Tampa) will air on MSG

The other two games (1/29 in Pittsburgh and 2/26 in Boston) will likely be NBCSN exclusives.

(Devils coverage of the opener on Saturday is slated for MSG+2  See:http://www.msg.com/teams/devils.html )

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Lubo not in lineup in KHL today

Visnovsky's KHL team has a game starting at 1pm ET.  He is NOT in the lineup. http://text.khl.ru/en/35203.html
 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick