The Skinny: Isles 1, Washington 0

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick

 

Game 58

Isles 1, Capitals 0

Andrew MacDonald's first goal in 29 games was the game's only goal and Evgeni Nabokov made 22 saves for his 57^th career shutout as the Isles blanked the Caps 1-0 before a sellout crowd of 18,506 at Verizon Center. The win breaks a five game winless streak (0-4-1) for the Isles.

The Scoring:

1st Period

None

 

2nd Period

None

3rd Period

02:16    NYI       Andrew MacDonald (4) Slapshot - ASST: Brock Nelson (9)          1 - 0 NYI

 

The Skinny:  

Evgeni Nabokov recorded his 7th shutout as an Islander and the 57th of his career…The Isles have recorded 13 shutouts over the Capitals in regular season play, including nine times in Washington…It's the first time all season that John Tavares has gone seven games without a goal and four games without a point…It's the first time since March 4-10, 2012 that the Isles have been held to one goal or fewer in three straight games; that streak (all in games against New Jersey) began with a 1-0 shutout by Anders Nilsson…Nabokov's 57^th shutout tied Hockey Hall of Famer Clint Benedict for 18^th place on the all-time list; Benedict's last shutout was in 1929…The Isles improve to 4-11 in games decided in regulation by a single goal…The Isles have won more games that are tied after two periods (8; 8-5-2) than when they have led after two periods (7; 7-4-4)…US Olympian John Carlson played in his 271^st consecutive game for Washington, tying the Capital record (set by Calle Johansson) for consecutive games by a defenseman…The Isles are 10-3-0 in their last 13 road games.

The Penalty Shot

Michael Grabner is the third islander to attempt a penalty shot this season; Cal Clutterbuck scored vs Henrik Lundqvist of the Rangers while Frans Nielsen was stopped by Marc-Andre Fleury of the Penguins. Including playoffs, the Islanders are 1-5 all-time on penalty shots against the Capitals (Clark Gillies beat Bernie Wolfe in 1977 for the only goal).  The Isles have scored on 15 of 57 regular season penalty shots in their history.

Grabner established a new franchise record with his 6^th career penalty shot.  He is 1-6, scoring only against Winnipeg in April 2012 (Brad Isbister had 5 attempts).  Grabner's five unsuccessful attempts are also a club record.

The Shots:

 

Isles      8-7-13=28

Capitals 8-8-6=22

 

The Shutout

It's the 16^th 1-0 shutout win in Islander regular season history.  How many do you remember?

 

13-Jan-76          Vs        Detroit                          C. Resch

21-Dec-84         @         Hartford                        K. Hrudey

11-Feb-86         Vs        Vancouver                    B. Smith

4-Feb-90           @         Buffalo                         G. Healy

23-Mar-95          Vs        New York                      T. Soderstrom

15-Feb-97         Vs        Florida  (OT)                  T. Salo

17-Oct-98          @         St. Louis                       T. Salo

27-Oct-98          Vs        Los Angeles                  T. Salo

15-Dec-98         @         San Jose                      T. Salo

12-Feb-02         @         Philadelphia(OT)            G. Snow

31-Dec-02         @         Buffalo (OT)                  C. Osgood

16-Nov-07         @         New Jersey                   R. DiPietro

21-Feb-08         Vs        Tampa Bay                   R. DiPietro

7-Feb-12           @         Philadelphia(SO)           E. Nabokov

4-Mar-12           Vs        New Jersey                   A. Nilsson

4-Feb-14           @         Washington                   E. Nabokov

 

Home and Road

The Islanders are 22-28-8 overall, 8-12-8 at home (including 0-1-0 at Yankee Stadium) and 14-16-0 on the road.   The Isles are 8-6-1 in their last 15, 13-9-1 in their last 23 and are 14-10-3 in their last 27 games overall.

The Capitals are 25-23-9 overall; they are 15-10-4 at home and 10-13-5 on the road. The Capitals were 22-16-6 on January 10^th but are only 3-7-3 in their last 13 games.  The Caps are 0-6-0 since the start of 2014 in games against Metropolitan Division foes.

By Division

The Isles are 6-14-3 in Division games and are 16-14-5 in games against other divisions. They are 7-5-3 vs. the Atlantic Division, 6-4-1 vs. Central Division, and 3-5-1 vs. the Pacific Division.

The Isles have losing records against every division opponent except New Jersey (1-1-0 with three to play) and Washington (1-1-1 with one to play).  They are 0-3-0 against Carolina, 0-1-1 against Columbus, 2-3-0 against New York, 1-3-0 against Philadelphia, and 1-2-1 against Pittsburgh.

In the Nets

Evgeni Nabokov made 22 saves and improves to 10-10-5 on the season.  Nabokov is 13-2-3 with three shutouts in his career against the Caps.

Michael Neuvirth made 27 saves for the Capitals but falls to 4-6-2 on the season. Neuvirth had won his five previous career decisions against the Isles.

Power Plays

The Islanders were 0-5 while the Capitals were 0-6.  In the season series, the Isles are 0-11 while the Capitals are 4-14.

The Isles are 14-6-4 when they score at least one power play goal and 8-22-4 when they do not.  The Isles are 10-15-3 when they allow at least one power play goal and 12-13-5 when they do not. 

The Islander power play is 0-25 in their last six games.  The Isles have killed 34 of 37 (91.9%) over the last 13 games. 

Tale of Four Seasons

The Isles PP went 10-33 in the first 10 games, before going 7-79 in the next 24 games. They rebounded to go 10-32 in the following 11 games but are only 4-50 in their last 14 games.

Three is a Magic Number

The Isles are 19-7-3 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 3-21-5 when they do not. 

Comeback Kids

The Isles are 10-8-6 when they score first and are 12-20-2 when they allow the opening goal.  The Isles have allowed the first goal in 14 of their last 20 games.

Second to The One

Jack Capuano became the 2^nd coach in Islander history to win 100 games in Toronto on January 7^th and became the 2^nd coach in Islander history to coach 250 games on January 27^th against Boston. He is 2^nd on the all-time Islander list in both games coached (253) and wins (106).

Most games coached (Islanders):

1.     Al Arbour 1,500

2.     Jack Capuano 253

3.     Mike Milbury 191

4.     Terry Simpson 187

5.     Scott Gordon 181

 

Most wins by Islander coaches:

1.     Al Arbour 740

2.     Jack Capuano 106

3.     Terry Simpson 81

4.     Peter Laviolette 77

5.     Ted Nolan 74

 

They Said It

Evgeni Nabokov: "I've been working pretty hard since I was injured…it feels good."

They Tweeted It

@DFriedmanOnNYI Best defensive performance by #Isles in a while. Thought they were positionally sound. Excellent job shutting down No. 8.

@ImNotBrock29 This game happened because I was there. The shutout. Holding a 1-0 lead. Holding any lead at all. AMac scored. This is no coincidence

The Coach

(Nabby) played well for us…we defended real well…we're fortunate to get that bounce (the MacDonald goal).

Back-to-Backs

The Isles are 6-6-0 in the front-end and 5-5-2 on the back end of back-to-backs this season.  The Isles have swept three back-to-backs:  November 1^st/2^nd vs. Ottawa and Capitals; January 6^th/7^th vs. Dallas and Toronto and January 20^th/21^st vs. Philadelphia and the Capitals.

In the twelve sets of back-to-backs, they have earned 4 points three times, 3 points once, 2 points four times, 1 point once and no points on three occasions. 

The Islanders do not play back-to-back again until they host New Jersey and Florida on March 1^st and 2^nd.

Leading Ice Men

Andrew MacDonald led the Isles with 23:27 of ice-time; John Carlson led the Capitals with 29:13 of ice-time.

The Isles are 15-15-6 when MacDonald leads in ice-time, are 7-10-2 when Hamonic leads, are 0-1-0 when Okposo leads, are 0-1-0 when Tavares leads and are 0-1-0 when Vanek leads.

In the Circle

The Islanders won 22 of 49 draws.  Frans Nielsen won 9 of 16 draws for the Isles but his teammates won only 13 of 33; Casey Wellman won 5 of 7 for the Capitals.

Heavy Hitters

The Isles out-hit Washington 36-22. Cal Clutterbuck led the Isles with seven hits; Colin McDonald and Calvin deHaan each added six. Matt Martin had four hits; his 272 hits lead the NHL by a wide margin.  He had now recorded at least 200 hits in four straight seasons. 

Matt Martin fought Tyson Strachan in the first period.  The Isles have been involved in 21 fights this season: Martin (8), Boulton (5), Carkner (5), McDonald (2), and Okposo (1).

Giving Up the Body

The Isles were credited with 15blocked shots.  Brian Strait and Lubomir Visnovsky led the way with three blocks; Andrew MacDonald still leads the NHL with 185.

Three Over All-Time .500

The Islanders improved to three games over all-time NHL .500 (1393-1390-447 in 3,230 games). The Isles have been 1-under all-time .500 after six games this season and have gone 4-0-2 in the following game. 

The Isles have finished every season since 1977-78 above all-time NHL .500 and have not been more than 1 game under NHL-.500 since January 11, 1978.

Ironmen

Frans Nielsen is the Islanders' reigning ironman.  He has played 188 consecutive games, and is one of four Islanders to have played in every game this season.  Other ironman streaks: Andrew Mac Donald (159), Matt Martin (119), and Thomas Hickey (59). 

Century Club

Andrew MacDonald has the 4^th longest consecutive game streak for a defenseman in Islander history:

1.     Denis Potvin 11/29/1975-1/17/1979  262

2.     Bryan McCabe 10/7/1995-2/4/1998 220 (*)(**)

3.     Gerry Hart 3/1/1975-11/22/1977 198

4.     Andrew MacDonald 12/19/11- CURRENT 159

5.     Janne Niinimaa 3/13/2004-1/7/2006 136 (**)

6.     Ken Morrow 3/1/1980-12/29/1981 134 (*)

7.     Mark Streit  10/8/2011-4/26/2013 130

8.     Travis Hamonic 2/24/2012-1/12/2014 117

9.     Travis Hamonic 11/24/2011– 2/4/2012 113 (*)

10.  Jean Potvin 10/23/1975-1/2/1977 110

11.  Kenny Jonsson 12/26/1996-2/4/1998 104

 

(*) Start of NHL career.

(**) Entire career with Islanders

Missing Men

Travis Hamonic is on injured reserve. Eric Boulton replaced Peter Regin in the lineup. Matt Carkner and Radek Martinek were scratched for the third and fifth straight game respectively.

The Isles have lost 147 games this season due to injury.

Career Wins, Active Goalies

1. Martin Brodeur 682

2. Roberto Luongo 367

3. Evgeni Nabokov 345

4. Nikolai Khabibulin 333

 

Career Wins

17. Rogie Vachon 355

18. Evgeni Nabokov 345

19. Gump Worsley 335

20. Nikolai Khabibulin 333

 

Career Shutouts, Active Goalies

 

1. Martin Brodeur 124

2. Roberto Luongo 65

3. Evgeni Nabokov 57

4. Tomas Vokoun 51

 

Career Shutouts

 

17 John Ross Roach 58

18 Clint Benedict       57

18 Evgeni Nabokov 57

20 Bernie Parent       54

20 Ed Giacomin        54

 

Career Goals as an Islander

15         Mariusz Czerkawski       145

16         John Tavares   135

17         Jason Blake      127

 

27         Trent Hunter      99

28         Kyle Okposo    96

29         Mikko Makela    95

29         David Volek      95

31         Randy Wood     94

32         Greg Gilbert      93

32         Garry Howatt     93

34         Travis Green      92

35         Butch Goring     87

36         Tomas Jonsson            84

37         Wayne Merrick  81

37         Dave Scatchard            81

39         Michael Grabner 79

39         Marty McInnis    79

41         Miroslav Satan  78

41         Frans Nielsen   78

43         Claude Lapointe 76

 

Career Assists as an Islander

16         Ed Westfall       181

17         John Tavares   178

18         Kenny Jonsson 175

19         Alexei Yashin    171

20         Duane Sutter     171

21         Jean Potvin       167

22         Jeff Norton       166

23         Zigmund Palffy 163

24         Frans Nielsen   161

25         David Volek      154

26         Mariusz Czerkawski 150

27         Kyle Okposo    147      

28         Travis Green      145

           

Career Games as an Islander (skaters)

24         Eddie Westfall  493

25         Radek Martinek 479

26         Gerry Hart         476

                       

29         Scott Lachance 450

30         Jason Blake      426

31         Frans Nielsen   425

31         Greg Gilbert      425

33         Dave Langevin  422

34         Wayne Merrick  411

35         Jean Potvin       402

36         David Volek      396

37         Bert Marshall     392

38         Travis Green      388

39         Anders Kallur    383

40         Josh Bailey      382

41         Randy Wood     381

42         Kyle Okposo    376

43         John Tavares   348

44         Dave Scatchard            347

 

Career Points as an Islander

16         Ziggy Palffy      331

17         John Tavares   313

18         Mariusz Czerkawski       295

                       

24         David Volek      249

25         Kyle Okposo    242

26         Frans Nielsen   239

27         Ray Ferraro       238

 

Season Series Stats

The Capitals lead the season series 2 games to 1 (and 4 points to 3). The final meeting of the season will be in a rare 5:00 start at the Coliseum on April 5^th.

The Isles are 5-1-5 in their last 11 games against the Caps.

Happy Anniversary

36 years ago tonight (2-4-78):  Mike Bossy recorded the first of his club record 39 hat tricks as the Islanders pound the Capitals 6-1 at the Coliseum.

All-time, the Isles are 13-7-3 on this date.

On The Farm

Bridgeport split a pair of games over the weekend, dropping a 2-1 decision in Albany before rebounding to beat Springfield 3-0 on Saturday. The Sound Tigers are 19-23-1-4 on the season.  Bridgeport is off until Saturday when they host Albany.

Anders Lee leads with 18 goals. Ryan Strome leads the team (and all AHL rookies) in assists (30); he also leads the Sound Tigers in points (40). 

Leading AHL Rookie Scorers:

		Player	Team	GP	G	A	PTS	PIM
1	*	Curtis McKenzie	Texas Stars	46	16	27	43	62
2	*	Ryan Strome	Bridgeport Sound Tigers	30	10	30	40	33
3	*	Brenden Kichton	St. John's IceCaps	46	9	28	37	10
4	*	Anders Lee	Bridgeport Sound Tigers	47	18	17	35	66

Up Next

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6th – CALGARY AT ISLANDERS 7:00PM
[MSG-Plus (Isles Pre-game at 6:30), 88.7 WRHU-FM, 103.9 WRCN-FM]

The Islanders have finished their season series with traditional rivals Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and the Rangers but on Thursday they will begin their season series with their relocated expansion cousins, the Calgary Flames.

It will be the first game between the teams since a 3-1 Islander win at the Coliseum on December 29, 2011.  The Flames have visited Long Island only three times in the last ten games and the Isles have won all three games; the Isles are 5-1-0 in the last six games against Calgary.

The season series will conclude in Calgary on March 7^th, part of the Isles first regular season games in Alberta since the first week of 2011.

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

Congratulations Butch!

@91Butch was nominated today for a NY Emmy!

ON-CAMERA TALENT: SPORTS ANALYST

Bob Ojeda.(SNY).

Butch Goring (MSG PLUS).

Jim Spanarkel (YES Network).

Keith Hernandez (SNY).

Mike Fratello. (YES Network)

 

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- Caps tonight

If it seems like it has been a long time since the Isles played, it has been -- they just finished three straight days without a game for the first time (other than the mandated Christmas break) since November 24th-26th.

Of course, other teams did play and rack up points so the Isles find themselves in 14th place in the East; they are 9 points out of 10th-13th (four teams tied) and 12 points out of a playoff spot.

Despite all of the time off, only Philadelphia, New Jersey and Toronto have played as many games (57) as the Isles in the Eastern Conference and nobody has played more.

Right now it looks like you may need about 92 points to get into the playoffs (the bottom playoff teams are six points over NHL -.500 with 1/3 of a season to play) so the Isles will likely need something similar to a 21-4 run to get them there.

Howie and Butch have the night off (again) -- NBCSN has the Isles for the third time in the last six games.  Dave Strader and Brian Engblom will have the call from coast to coast in both the US and (on TSN2) in Canada.  Face-off should be right about 7:40pm.

In the sad but true category -- the Isles played 111 games in 54 weeks ending on Friday (105 regular season games + 6 playoffs); they will play as few as 25 (regular season) games in the next 35 weeks.

 
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: Rangers 4, Isles 1

"The Skinny"

 By Eric Hornick

 

Game 57

Rangers 4, Isles 1

 

Derick Brassard broke a 1-1 tie with a goal on a delayed penalty situation as the Rangers completed a sweep of back-to-back games with the Islanders, as they defeated the Isles 4-1 before a sellout crowd of 18,006 at Madison Square Garden. The Islanders end January with a five game winless streak (0-4-1).

The Scoring:

1st Period

03:29    NYR Brian Boyle (4) Tip-in - ASST: Marc Staal (6)            1 - 0 NYR         

 

2nd Period

14:28    NYI Kyle Okposo (24) Snap shot - ASST: Calvin de Haan (8), Josh Bailey (14)     1 - 1 Tie           

 

3rd Period

12:14    NYR Derick Brassard (9) Snap shot - ASST: Marc Staal (7), Mats Zuccarello (24) 2 - 1 NYR         

14:59    NYR Brad Richards (14) Wrist shot - ASST: Ryan Callahan (12), Carl Hagelin (9) 3 - 1 NYR           

19:59    NYR EN - Ryan McDonagh (8) Wrist shot - ASST: Dominic Moore (8)      4 - 1 NYR

The Skinny:  

Kyle Okposo took over the team lead in goal scoring with 24, matching a career high.  With 25 games to play, Okposo has met or exceeded career highs in goals, assists and points. …The Isles have been outscored 77-69 in the second period; more goals have been scored in second period of Islander games than any other teams…The Isles allowed 3 goals in a period for the 19^th time this season (1-18-0)…Matt Donovan had a career-high six shots to lead the Isles….Brassard's game-winning goal temporarily game Mats Zuccarello the Ranger lead in points, but Brad Richards tied him 2:45 later…Okposo finishes the month with 8 even-strength goals (tied with Rick Nash & Joe Pavelski for the NHL lead) and an NHL-leading 16 even-strength points…Okposo finished the month with 18 points; John Tavares & Phil Kessel shared the NHL lead with 20 points in January although Tavares went pointless in the final three games of the month.  It's the first time all season that Tavares has gone three games without a point this season.

Eight's Not Enough!

The Isles finish January with a winning record at 8-7-1. However, the Isles ended the month 0-4-1 in the last five.

It's the first time since 2003 that the Isles have earned 8 wins in January and matches their most January wins since they earned 9 in January 1990.  The Isles have earned ten victories in January only once in franchise history, going 10-4-1 in 1980 (April and May were pretty good that year, too!)

The Shots:

 

Isles      12-19-8=39

Rangers 14-6-17=37

 

The 39 Isles shots are the most that they have had against the Rangers since they also had 39 on December 4, 2003 at the Coliseum.  They have not had a 40-shot game against the Rangers since 1993.

 

Home and Road

The Islanders are 21-28-8 overall, 8-12-8 at home (including 0-1-0 at Yankee Stadium) and 13-16-0 on the road.   The Isles are 7-6-1 in their last 14, 12-9-1 in their last 22 and are 13-10-3 in their last 26 games overall.

The Rangers are 30-23-3 overall; they are 13-13-3 at home and 17-10-0 on the road. The Rangers have won three straight and are 14-5-1 since losing to the Islanders on December 20th.

By Division

The Isles are 5-14-3 in Division games and are 16-14-5 in games against other divisions. They are 7-5-3 vs. the Atlantic Division, 6-4-1 vs. Central Division, and 3-5-1 vs. the Pacific Division.

The Isles have losing records against every division opponent except New Jersey (1-1-0 with three to play).  They are 0-3-0 against Carolina, 0-1-1 against Columbus, 2-3-0 against New York, 1-3-0 against Philadelphia, 1-2-1 against Pittsburgh and 0-1-1 against Washington.

In the Nets

Evgeni Nabokov made 33 saves but falls to 9-10-5 on the season. 

Henrik Lundqvist made 38 saves for the Rangers and improves to 20-18-3 on the season; he has won at least 20 games in each of his 9 NHL seasons and now has 296 career victories.  Lundqvist is 5-1-0 in his last six starts and 8-2-0 in his last 10; he improves to 29-12-5 in his career against the Isles.

Power Plays

The Islanders were 0-3 while the Rangers were 0-3.  In the season series, the Isles are 2-19 while the Rangers are 5-19.

The Isles are 13-6-4 when they score at least one power play goal and 8-22-4 when they do not.  The Isles are 10-15-3 when they allow at least one power play goal and 11-13-5 when they do not. 

The Islander power play is 0-20 in their last five games.  The Isles have killed 28 of 31 (90.3%) over the last 12 games. 

Tale of Four Seasons

The Isles PP went 10-33 in the first 10 games, before going 7-79 in the next 24 games. They rebounded to go 10-32 in the following 11 games but are only 4-45 in their last 13 games.

Three is a Magic Number

The Isles are 19-7-3 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 2-21-5 when they do not. 

Comeback Kids

The Isles are 9-8-6 when they score first and are 12-20-2 when they allow the opening goal.  The Isles have allowed the first goal in 14 of their last 19 games.

Second to The One

Jack Capuano became the 2^nd coach in Islander history to win 100 games in Toronto on January 7^th and became the 2^nd coach in Islander history to coach 250 games on January 27^th against Boston. He is 2^nd on the all-time Islander list in both games coached (252) and wins (105).

Most games coached (Islanders):

1.     Al Arbour 1,500

2.     Jack Capuano 252

3.     Mike Milbury 191

4.     Terry Simpson 187

5.     Scott Gordon 181

 

Most wins by Islander coaches:

1.     Al Arbour 740

2.     Jack Capuano 105

3.     Terry Simpson 81

4.     Peter Laviolette 77

5.     Ted Nolan 74

They Said It

John Tavares: "We just looked like we ran out of gas. We just didn't seem to have that extra gear when we needed it."

They Tweeted It

@Hockeyislife61 Any person who actually knows hockey know okposo should be on team usa lets be real here

The Coach

"I thought it was frustrating in the second period when Lundqvist made some big saves .Even in the first period he made a couple of big ones that were the difference."

Back-to-Backs

The Isles are 6-6-0 in the front-end and 5-5-2 on the back end of back-to-backs this season.  The Isles have swept three back-to-backs:  November 1^st/2^nd vs. Ottawa and Rangers; January 6^th/7^th vs. Dallas and Toronto and January 20^th/21^st vs. Philadelphia and the Rangers.

In the twelve sets of back-to-backs, they have earned 4 points three times, 3 points once, 2 points four times, 1 point once and no points on three occasions. 

The Islanders do not play back-to-back again until they host New Jersey and Florida on March 1^st and 2^nd.

Leading Ice Men

Thomas Vanek led the Isles with 23:35 of ice-time; it's the third time in five games that a forward has led the Isles in ice-time. Ryan McDonough led the Rangers with 23:56 of ice-time.

The Isles are 14-15-6 when MacDonald leads in ice-time, are 7-10-2 when Hamonic leads, are 0-1-0 when Okposo leads, are 0-1-0 when Tavares leads and are 0-1-0 when Vanek leads.

In the Circle

The Islanders won 27 of 63 draws.  Frans Nielsen won 6 of 10 draws for the Isles but his teammates won only 21 of 53; Derek Stepan won 12 of 18 for the Rangers.

Heavy Hitters

The Isles were out-hit 20-19. Colin McDonald led the Isles with six hits; Matt Martin added four. Martin's 268 hits lead the NHL by a wide margin.  He had now recorded at least 200 hits in four straight seasons. 

There were no fights.  The Isles have been involved in 20 fights this season: Martin (7), Boulton (5), Carkner (5), McDonald (2), and Okposo (1).

Giving Up the Body

The Isles were credited with 15 blocked shots. Andrew MacDonald led the way with four blocks, as he extended his NHL-leading total to 185.

Two Over All-Time .500

The Islanders fall to two games over all-time NHL .500 (1392-1390-447 in 3,229 games). The Isles have been 1-under all-time .500 after six games this season and have gone 4-0-2 in the following game. 

The Isles have finished every season since 1977-78 above all-time NHL .500 and have not been more than 1 game under NHL-.500 since January 11, 1978.

Ironmen

Frans Nielsen is the Islanders' reigning ironman.  He has played 187 consecutive games, and is one of four Islanders to have played in every game this season.  Other ironman streaks: Andrew Mac Donald (158), Matt Martin (118), and Thomas Hickey (58). 

Century Club

Andrew MacDonald has the 4^th longest consecutive game streak for a defenseman in Islander history:

1.     Denis Potvin 11/29/1975-1/17/1979  262

2.     Bryan McCabe 10/7/1995-2/4/1998 220 (*)(**)

3.     Gerry Hart 3/1/1975-11/22/1977 198

4.     Andrew MacDonald 12/19/11- CURRENT 158

5.     Janne Niinimaa 3/13/2004-1/7/2006 136 (**)

6.     Ken Morrow 3/1/1980-12/29/1981 134 (*)

7.     Mark Streit  10/8/2011-4/26/2013 130

8.     Travis Hamonic 2/24/2012-1/12/2014 117

9.     Travis Hamonic 11/24/2011– 2/4/2012 113 (*)

10.  Jean Potvin 10/23/1975-1/2/1977 110

11.  Kenny Jonsson 12/26/1996-2/4/1998 104

 

(*) Start of NHL career.

(**) Entire career with Islanders

 

Missing Men

Travis Hamonic is on injured reserve. Matt Carkner, Radek Martinek and Eric Boulton were scratched for the second, fourth and sixth straight game respectively.

The Isles have lost 147 games this season due to injury.

Career Goals as an Islander

15         Mariusz Czerkawski       145

16         John Tavares   135

17         Jason Blake      127

 

27         Trent Hunter      99

28         Kyle Okposo    96

29         Mikko Makela    95

29         David Volek      95

31         Randy Wood     94

32         Greg Gilbert      93

32         Garry Howatt     93

34         Travis Green      92

35         Butch Goring     87

36         Tomas Jonsson   84

37         Wayne Merrick  81

37         Dave Scatchard      81

39         Michael Grabner 79

39         Marty McInnis    79

41         Miroslav Satan  78

41         Frans Nielsen   78

43         Claude Lapointe 76

Career Assists as an Islander

16         Ed Westfall       181

17         John Tavares   178

18         Kenny Jonsson 175

19         Alexei Yashin    171

20         Duane Sutter     171

21         Jean Potvin       167

22         Jeff Norton       166

23         Zigmund Palffy 163

24         Frans Nielsen   161

25         David Volek      154

26         Mariusz Czerkawski 150

27         Kyle Okposo    147      

28         Travis Green      145

           

Career Games as an Islander (skaters)

24         Eddie Westfall  493

25         Radek Martinek 479

26         Gerry Hart         476

                       

29         Scott Lachance 450

30         Jason Blake      426

31         Greg Gilbert      425

32         Frans Nielsen   424

33         Dave Langevin  422

34         Wayne Merrick  411

35         Jean Potvin       402

36         David Volek      396

37         Bert Marshall     392

38         Travis Green      388

39         Anders Kallur    383

40         Randy Wood     381

40         Josh Bailey      381

42         Kyle Okposo    375

43         Dave Scatchard            347

43         John Tavares   347

45         Alexei Yashin    346

 

Career Points as an Islander

16         Ziggy Palffy      331

17         John Tavares   313

18         Mariusz Czerkawski       295

                       

24         David Volek      249

25         Kyle Okposo    242

26         Frans Nielsen   239

27         Ray Ferraro       238

 

Season Series Stats

The Rangers win the season series 3 games to 2 (and 6 points to 4). The road team won the first four games before the Rangers won tonight; it ended a three-game Isles win streak at Madison Square Garden.

This was the final meeting of the regular season between the teams, who will not meet in February, March or April for the first time ever.

Happy Anniversary

40 years ago tonight (1-31-74):  Bob Nystrom recorded his first career hat trick as the Islanders defeated Los Angeles 4-1.  Nystrom became the third Islander rookie to score three goals in a game (joining Bob Cook and Germain Gagnon); he still owns a share of the club record today.

All-time, the Isles are 9-9-1 on this date, including 6-3-0 in the last nine.

On The Farm

Bridgeport lost Ryan Strome to an injury in the second period on Friday and dropped a 2-1 decision in Albany to snap their four game win streak. Alan Quine scored the only goal for the Sound Tigers, who fall to 18-23-1-4 on the season.

Anders Lee leads with 17 goals. Ryan Strome leads the team (and all AHL rookies) in assists (30); he also leads the Sound Tigers in points (40).  Strome's 40 points place him tied-8^th in league scoring despite playing at least eight fewer games than anyone ahead of him in AHL scoring.

Bridgeport returns home on Saturday to host Springfield and then are off for a week until they host Albany on February 8^th.

Up Next

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4th – ISLANDERS AT WASHINGTON 7:30PM
[NBCSN, 88.7 WRHU-FM, 103.9 WRCN-FM]

The Islanders will have an unusual weekend off before heading to Washington to face the Caps.

The Islanders were 6-5-3 on the season and had a 1-0 lead after one period when they faced the Capitals back on November 5^th; Washington scored five second period goals to drop the Islanders back to .500 and start the Isles on a 2-13-2 stretch.  That included a 3-2 overtime loss to Washington on November 30^th in which the Isles grabbed a 2-1 lead with 1:51 to play only to see the Caps score shorthanded to tie the game; Alex Ovechkin then recorded his 5^th career overtime goal against the Islanders to give Washington the win.  The Isles are 4-1-5 in their last ten games against the Caps.

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

Stastny apparently okay; Moulson not

When #isles -nation heard about Paul Stastny being injured in last night's #Avs game, thoughts were that this could open an Olympic spot for someone such as red-hot Kyle Okposo.

However, this afternoon's word from Denver (Adrian Dater of the Denver Post) is:

"The good news on Paul Stastny is he's only day-to-day with an ankle injury suffered Thursday night. He hurt an ankle in a collision with other players and didn't practice Friday.

But he should be on skates again soon and his Olympic participation status is still good to go."

In other news - former Islander Matt Moulson is expected to be out until after the Olympic break after suffering an "upper body injury" that resulted from either "a slash or cross-check to his arm" in Buffalo's win in Phoenix last night.  Moulson, like Thomas Vanek, is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season is rumored to be on the trading block, again.  That deal will likely have to wait.

 

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

Stadium Series a Ratings Hit

The NHL is reporting this morning that NBCSN did a 3.58 rating in the NY area for the Isles-Rangers game.  IT is the highest-rated NHL regular-season game ever on NBCSN in the NY market.

By comparison, the Yankees rating on YES last season was a 2.63 while the Mets rating on SNY was about a 1.60.

So, Wednesday's game drew a rating approximately 36% greater than last year's Yankee average and a whopping 124% higher than last season's Mets average.


Ratings were even higher for Devils/Rangers on Sunday on NBC, with a 5.1 rating in New York, matching the highest rating in the New York market for any NHL game ever broadcast on NBC (Gm. 1 LA-NJ Stanley Cup Final, 5/30/12).   (Eric note -- I'm a bit surprised that the local ratings for playoff telecasts on NBC in the 70s weren't higher due to the fewer choices; NBC carried three NYR playoff games in 1974 (including Rangers/Flyers game 7) and three NYI playoff games in 1975 (including Isles/Flyers game 6).)


I thought nobody cared about hockey :)

 

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