The Skinny: Chicago 3, Isles 2 (OT)

"The Skinny"  

 By Eric Hornick

 

Game 1

Chicago 3, Isles 2 (OT)

Patrick Kane scored the winning goal on a power play 1:49 into overtime as the Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Isles 3-2 in the first-ever regular season game at Barclays Center. Kane's winning goal came with Nick Leddy in the penalty box, serving a slashing penalty.

The Scoring:

1ST PERIOD

13:28    CHI       SHG - Artem Anisimov (1) Backhand shot - ASST: NONE 1 - 0 CHI         

 

2ND PERIOD

05:22    NYI       John Tavares (1) Wrist shot - ASST: Johnny Boychuk (1), Casey Cizikas (1) 1 - 1 Tie       

15:11    CHI       Patrick Kane (1) Wrist shot - ASST: Jonathan Toews (2), Duncan Keith (1)   2 - 1 CHI       

 

3RD PERIOD

01:18    NYI       Marek Zidlicky (1) Slapshot - ASST: Brock Nelson (1), Nikolay Kulemin (1)  2 - 2 Tie        

 

OT PERIOD

01:49    CHI       PPG - Patrick Kane (2) Tip-in - ASST: Marian Hossa (2), Duncan Keith (2) 3 - 2 CHI          

The Skinny

Thomas Greiss made 32 saves in his Islander debut.  He is the Isles' seventh different goalie in the last eight season openers (Rick DiPietro-Joey MacDonald-Dwayne Roloson-Al Montoya-Evgeni Nabokov-Evgeni Nabokov-Jaroslav Halak- Thomas Greiss)…John Tavares' goal was his 175^th NHL tally… For the second straight season, a newly acquired defenseman (Johnny Boychuk last year, Mark Zidlicky this year) scored in the season opener...Zidlicky (38 years, 249 days) is the oldest Islander to score a goal since Brian Rolston (38, 311 on 12/29/11 vs. Calgary) and the oldest Islander defenseman to ever score a goal…The Isles are 11-21-11 all-time in openers (3^rd worst among current NHL teams) and are 25-12-6 in road openers…This was the first time the Isles have ever allowed an overtime goal in a season opener and only the second time that the Isles have allowed an overtime goal in a home opener (Detroit - 2001)…This was the first Islander home opener on any day but Saturday since 1999…Kane has 6 goals in nine career games vs. the Isles.

The Big 3

Since the start of last season, the Isles are 39-18-7 in the 6 games that they have had Nick Leddy, Johnny Boychuk and Travis Hamonic all in the lineup.  They are 8-10-1 in the 19 games that one or two have been missing.

Tired vs. Rested

·         The Isles are 0-0-0 when both teams played the night before.

·         The Isles are 0-0-0 when they are rested and their opponents are not.

·         The Isles are 0-0-0 when their opponents are rested and the Isles are not.

 

The Shots:

Isles          12-11-12-1=36

Chicago    12-10-10-3=35

 

The Isles (2,771) finished second to Chicago (2.777) in the NHL in shots on goal last year

Home and Road

The Islanders are 0-0-1 overall; 0-0-1 at home and 0-0-0 on the road.  

Chicago is 1-1-0 overall; 0-1-0 at home and 1-0-0 on the road.

By Division

The Isles are 0-0-0 in Division games and are 0-0-1 in games against other divisions. They are 0-0-0 vs. the Atlantic Division, 0-0-1 vs. Central Division, and 0-0-0 vs. the Pacific Division. 

The Isles finished last season 21-6-3 against the Met and 26-22-4 against other Divisions. 

In the Nets

Thomas Greiss made 32 saves in his Isles debut.  He is 0-1-0 in his career vs. Chicago.

Corey Crawford made 34 saves to improve to 1-1-0 on the season.  He is 4-0-1 in his career against the Isles.

Power Plays

The Islanders were 0-2 on the power play, while Chicago was 1-3.  The Isles also allowed a shorthanded goal to Artem Anisimov -- the first regular season goal in 

Barclays Center history

The Isles are 0-0-0 when they score at least one power play goal and 0-0-1 when they do not.  The Isles are 0-0-0 when they allow at least one power play goal and 0-0-1 when they do not. 

Three is a Magic Number

Last season, the Isles went 40-8-4 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and 7-20-3 when they do not. 

One Goal Games

The Isles are 0-0-1 in games decided by a single goal including 0-0-0 in regulation. They are 0-1 in games decided in overtime and are 0-0 in shootouts. 

First Goal

The Isles are 0-0-0 when they score first and are 0-0-1 when they allow the opening goal.   

Second to The One

Jack Capuano is the 2^nd winningest coach in Islander history. Capuano is 165-148-45 behind the Islander bench. Among the 9 New York teams, only the Giants' Tom Coughlin and the Yankees' Joe Girardi have led their respective teams longer than Capuano.

Most games coached (Islanders):

1.     Al Arbour 1,500

2.     Jack Capuano 360

3.     Mike Milbury 191

4.     Terry Simpson 187

5.     Scott Gordon 181

 

Most wins by Islander coaches:

1.     Al Arbour 740

2.     Jack Capuano 165

3.     Terry Simpson 81

4.     Peter Laviolette 77

5.     Ted Nolan 74

 

They Tweeted It

@AriBZ90 Greiss had an exceptional game. Very happy to have him on the team #isles

@4Isles4Life Man do I LOVE my #isles. Played well, tough OT loss. Get em in Chitown. #LGI

@mannymanalastas Not the desired outcome but it was pretty cool seeing 3 on 3 OT although it was short lived  #Isles

Back-to-Backs

The Isles are 0-0-1 in the front-end and 0-0-0 on the back end of back-to-backs this season.

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Travis Hamonic 26:59; Chicago Duncan Keith 26:56

Isles record by ice-time leaders: Travis Hamonic (0-0-1).

John Tavares led Isles forwards with 18:41 of ice-time. Isles record by Forward ice-time leaders: John Tavares (0-0-1). 

Face-offs

Isles 40,Chicago 27 (60%)

Frans Nielsen won 13 of 19; no Hawk won more than he lost.  

The Isles won 15 of 20 in the second period. The Isles won 3 of 4 on the power play and 3 of 5 on the penalty kill.

Heavy Hitters

The Isles out-hit Chicago 42-22.  Matt Martin led the Isles with seven hits.

Fights

None.  Season total -0

Blocked Shots

The Isles were credited with 14 blocked shots; four players each had 2.

For the Corsi Crowd

All situations:  Isles 70, Chicago 57

Even-Strength: Isles 64, Chicago 47. The Corsi stat measures shots attempted, both for and against (including blocks). 

Calvin deHaan and Travis Hamonic led the Isles with a +15 even-strength Corsi rating; deHaan was on-ice for a team-leading 66% of Corsi For events. Bryan Bickell led Chicago with a +7 rating.

Ironmen

·         Nikolay Kulemin -151 (68 for Toronto and 83 for the Isles)

·         Brock Nelson  -136 (all for Isles)

·         Marek ZIdlicky -136 (114 for New Jersey, 21 for Detroit and 1 for Isles)

Missing Men

Thomas Hickey is on injured reserve. Jaroslav Halak missed the game with an injury.  Ryan Pulock and Steve Bernier were scratched.

The Isles have lost 2 games this season due to injury/illness.

All-time Islander Leader Board:

John Tavares has:

·         175 goals (12^th all-time and 9 behind Billy Harris)

·         227 assists (15th all-time, 22 behind Tomas Jonsson and 32 behind Billy Harris)

·         402 points (13^th all-time and 41 behind Billy Harris)

·         433 games played (33rd among Islander skaters all-time, and 18 behind Scott Lachance)

Kyle Okposo has:

·         117 goals (23rd all-time and 1 behind Steve Thomas, Matt Moulson and Mark Parrish)

·         188 assists (18^th all-time, 5 behind Pierre Turgeon and 8 behind Frans Nielsen)

·         305 points (18^th all-time, 26 behind Ziggy Palffy and 28 behind Tomas Jonsson)

·         451 games played (31^st among Islander skaters all-time and 8 behind Trent Hunter)

Frans Nielsen has:

·         99 goals (tied-28th all-time with Trent Hunter and 2 behind Anders Kallur)

·         198 assists (16th all-time and 29 behind John Tavares)

·         297 points (19th all-time and 8 behind Kyle Okposo)

·         526 games played (21^st among Islander skaters all-time, 4 behind Pat LaFontaine and 6 behind Tomas Jonsson)

 Josh Bailey has:

·         137 assists (32^nd all-time, 1 behind Greg Gilbert, 2 behind Mark Streit, and 3 behind Steve Thomas)

·         218 points (35th all-time, 1 behind Mikko Makela and 5 behind Matt Moulson)

·         477 games played (27^th among Islander skaters)

Season Series Stats

Chicago leads the season series 1 game to 0 and 2 points to 1.  The season series concludes on Saturday in Chicago.

The Isles are 5-0-2 in their last 7 home games vs. Chicago; the Blackhawks have won the Stanley Cup three times since defeating the Isles 3-2 on December 10, 2002 at Nassau Coliseum.

On The Farm

The Sound Tigers are 0-0-0-0.  Their home, and season, opener is on Saturday vs. Wilkes-Barre –Scranton.

Up Next

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10th –ISLANDERS AT CHICAGO 8:30PM
[MSG+2 (Pre-game at 8:00), 91.5 WNYE-FM. 88.7 WRHU-FM, 103.9 WRCN]

The season series concludes on Saturday in Chicago.

The Isles are 0-3-1 in their last four games in Chicago. Their last win came in Peter Mannino's NHL debut on March 15, 2009.

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 & on his blog www.nyiskinny.com.

 

 

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 wonders if The Greiss is Right?

We'll soon find out.

Thomas Greiss will get the start in goal for the Isles tonight, becoming the 7th goalie to start the last 8 Islander openers (Rick DiPietro-Joey MacDonald-Dwayne Roloson-Al Montoya-Evgeni Nabokov-Evgeni Nabokov-Jaroslav Halak-Thomas Greiss). 

It will be his 2nd opening night start in the NHL -- on October 8, 2011 he defeated Phoenix 6-3 for the San Jose Sharks.  (Antti Niemi would go on to start 68 times for San Jose that season)

Greiss is coming off a pre-season in which he went 0-3-0 in 198 minutes (essentially 10 periods)  with a 4.24 GAA and an 85.1 save percentage.

It will be his 70th NHL start and 90th NHL game.  Last year with Pittsburgh, Greiss was 9-6-3 with a 2.59 GAA and a 90.8 save percentage.  He has faced the Blackhawks only once in his career, mopping up for Evgeni Nabokov in a 7-2 loss on 11/25/2009.  Greiss allowed 3 goals on 12 shots.

Greiss will turn 30 on January 29th.

 

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

Opening Night Skinny

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick

It's been 181 days since a Cam Atkinson shootout goal cost the Isles home ice, and 165 days since Evgeny Kuznetsov's third period goal sent the Isles into summer, and into Brooklyn.  It all begins again on Friday.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9^th—CHICAGO AT ISLANDERS 7:30PM
[MSG+ (Islanders pre-game at 7:00pm), 88.7 WRHU-FM, 91.5 WNYE, 103.9 WRCN]
 
The Islanders begin their 44^th NHL season and the Brooklyn era when they entertain the Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks.

It's the first of a season-opening home and home series for the Isles, and their only two meetings with the Champs.  The teams split a pair of games last year, as the Isles won 3-2 at the Coliseum in December while the Hawks won 4-1 in Chicago on St. Patrick's Day.

The Isles are 8-3-2 in their last 13 vs. Chicago, dating back to Alexei Yashin's only career 4-goal game, in Chicago on March 25, 2003. The Isles are 5-0-1 in their last 6 at home vs. Chicago, dating back to 2002.  Only Arizona (earlier in 2002) and Edmonton (1999) have gone longer without a regulation win vs. the Isles in New York.

The Isles will be looking for their third straight Opening Night win, but are 3-7-2 in their last 12 Openers.  Overall, the Isles are 11-21-10 on Opening Night (2-4-2 at home).

Opening Night Skinny:
It's the 2nd time that the Isles have opened the home season against Chicago (also in 1984 - the first home game of the Post-Cup era) and it will also be the 2nd time that the Isles have played the regular season opener against the Hawks (also in 1986 - the first game of the Terry Simpson era).

The Isles had opened at home on a Saturday in each of the last 14 seasons and in 26 of the last 27 seasons (The Isles opened with a Sunday matinee against Colorado in 1999).  The Isles' last Monday-Friday home opener was on Thursday October 16, 1986 vs. Washington; it was a 7-4 win that occurred the day after the Mets' monumental 16-inning win over Houston to win the NLCS.

The Isles 11-21-10 (.381) Opening Night record is 3^rd worst among current teams; it is better than Carolina (8-19-8, .343, including Hartford entering their game on Thursday) and Anaheim 5-16-0 (.238).

The Isles have used six different goalies in the last seven season openers (Rick DiPietro-Joey MacDonald-Dwayne Roloson-Al Montoya-Evgeni Nabokov-Evgeni Nabokov-Jaroslav Halak).  It will be seven in eight if Halak doesn't play on Friday.

It is only the third time in club history that the Isles are opening their season with a home-and-home series. In 2007, the Isles won in Buffalo on Opening Night (6-4) and then defeated the Sabres (3-2) at the Coliseum the following evening; the Isles swept a pair of games from Carolina last October, 5-3 and 4-3, enroute to a 4-0-0 start.

The Isles have been involved in three shutouts on Opening Night.  Chico Resch blanked the Flyers in 1976, while the Kings (Stephane Fiset in 1996) and Panthers (Jose Theodore in 2011) turned the trick on the Isles.

A defenseman has scored the first goal of the season for the Isles in 5 of the last 6 seasons, including Johnny Boychuk last year.

Mikhail Grabovski is one of five six Active Players with an Opening Night hat trick:

·         Paul Stastny, COL (10/3/07 vs. DAL)

·         Derek Stepan, NYR (10/9/10 at BUF)

·         Mikhail Grabovski, WSH (10/1/13 at CHI)

·         Radim Vrbata, PHX (10/3/13 vs. NYR)

·         Corey Perry (ANA (10/9/14 at Pit)

·         Zach Parise (MIN (10/8/15 at COL)

The Islander club record for the fastest goal on Opening Night is 1:01, set by Dave Scatchard on October 10, 2002 in Buffalo.  The NHL record for the fastest Opening Night goal is 0:10, set by Kent Nilsson of Minnesota (10/11/86 @ Quebec).

And some other Skinny notes:

Youth Be Served

The Islanders 23-man roster consists of one player born in the 1970s (Marek Zidlicky) and ten players born in the 1990s (Jean-Francois Berube, Casey Cizikas, Calvin deHaan, Travis Hamonic, Nick Leddy, Anders Lee, Brock Nelson, Ryan Pulock, Ryan Strome and John Tavares).  The other 12 players were born in the 1980s.

The Isles do not have a teenager on the opening night roster.  Pulock is the youngest Islander; he turned  21 on Wednesday.  Ryan Strome, who turned 22 in July is the second youngest.

Johnny Boychuk is the second oldest player on the roster (1/19/1984), 12 days older than Mikhail Grabovski.

Of the 23 players, Matt Martin is "middle-age".  Martin, born May 8, 1989 is older than 11 teammates and younger than 11 others.  Despite his 401 career points, only 7 Islanders are younger than John Tavares, who turned 25 last month.

Stability at the Top

Jack Capuano begins the season as the 4th-longest tenured coach with his current team (behind Claude Julien, Joel Quenneville and Dave Tippett) while Garth Snow begins the season as the 5th-longest tenured GM with his current squad.

Of the nine New York head coaches/managers, only Tom Coughlin and Joe Girardi were appointed before Capuano, who assumed his role with the Islanders eight days before Terry Collins became the manager of the Mets.

A Look Back

The Isles were 41-20-2 in their first 63 games, but finished the 2014-15 regular season 6-8-5 in the last 19.  Their 47 wins was the most by an Isles squad since the still-reigning Stanley Cup Champions won 50 games in 1983-84.

The Isles went 25-14-2 on Coliseum ice, equaling their most home wins since 1984-85 (they finished 25-11-4-1 in 2003-04 and went 26-11-3 in 1984-85).

The Isles finished with an all-time record of 831-610-224 in 1,665 regular season games at the Coliseum.

The Isles went 22-14-5 on the road, including 6-2-4 in their last 12.  The Isles have won at least 20 road games in consecutive seasons for the second time in franchise history (1981-82 and 1982-83).

The Isles had at least 22 wins both at home and on the road for the first time since the 1983-84 season, when they won 28 at home and 22 on the road

The Big 3

The Isles went 39-18-6 in the 63 games that they have had Nick Leddy, Johnny Boychuk and Travis Hamonic all in the lineup.  They were 8-10-1 in the 19 games that one or two were missing.

The Captain

John Tavares finished with a career high 86 points, including at least one point in six straight games and a goal in three straight games… Tavares finished with over a point per game for the 2nd straight season; prior to Tavares no Islander since Ziggy Palffy had done that.

Need to Finish

The Isles allowed 8 goals in the last 10 seconds of a period last season (none into an empty net) and had six games in which they had a 2--goal lead at any point but did not win (0-3-3), including the season finale....The Isles were 6-0 in shootouts prior to Christmas, but lost six of their last seven shootouts, including the last five.

Second to The One

Jack Capuano is the 2^nd winningest coach in Islander history. Capuano is 165-148-46 behind the Islander bench. Among the 9 New York teams, only the Giants' Tom Coughlin and the Yankees' Joe Girardi have led their respective teams longer than Capuano.

Most games coached (Islanders):

1.     Al Arbour 1,500

2.     Jack Capuano 359

3.     Mike Milbury 191

4.     Terry Simpson 187

5.     Scott Gordon 181

Most wins by Islander coaches:

1.     Al Arbour 740

2.     Jack Capuano 165

3.     Terry Simpson 81

4.     Peter Laviolette 77

5.     Ted Nolan 74

Head of the Class

Islander Captain John Tavares has 401 career points; he is 83 points ahead of Matt Duchene for most among 2009 draft picks.  No other player in that draft is anywhere close.  Tavares also has more goals and more assists than any other player in that draft.

This Team is Deep!

John Tavares was held pointless 28 times last season and the Isles are 15-12-1 in those games.  Prior to 2014-2015 the Isles were 40-89-22 in the 151 games in which Tavares was scoreless.

Ironmen

Nikolay Kulemin, Brock Nelson and Marek Zidlicky are the Islanders' reigning ironmen.  Kulemin has played 150 consecutive games (68 for Toronto and 82 for the Isles) while Nelson and Zidlicky have each played 135 consecutive games (Nelson 135 for Isles, Zidlicky 114 for New Jersey and 21 for Detroit). John Tavares was the only other Islander to play every game last season.  It was the third time that Tavares has played all 82 games, the second time that Kulemin has done so and the first time that Nelson has done so.

Over the last three seasons, Marek Zidlicky has played 213 regular season games.  The Islanders (and the other 29 teams) have played only 212 in that span -- Zidlicky played 84 games last season: 63 with New Jersey and 21 with Detroit.

All-time Islander Leader Board:

John Tavares has:

·         174 goals (12^th all-time and 10 behind Billy Harris)

·         227 assists (15th all-time, 22 behind Tomas Jonsson and 32 behind Billy Harris)

·         401 points (13^th all-time and 42 behind Billy Harris)

·         432 games played (33rd among Islander skaters all-time, and 18 behind Kyle Okposo and Scott Lachance)

Kyle Okposo has:

·         117 goals (23rd all-time and 1 behind Steve Thomas, Matt Moulson and Mark Parrish)

·         188 assists (18^th all-time, 5 behind Pierre Turgeon and 8 behind Frans Nielsen)

·         305 points (18^th all-time, 26 behind Ziggy Palffy and 28 behind Tomas Jonsson)

·         450 games played (tied-31^st among Islander skaters all-time with Scott Lachance and 9 behind Trent Hunter)

Frans Nielsen has:

·         99 goals (tied-28th all-time with Trent Hunter and 2 behind Anders Kallur)

·         198 assists (16th all-time and 29 behind John Tavares)

·         297 points (19th all-time and 8 behind Kyle Okposo)

·         525 games played (21^st among Islander skaters all-time, 5 behind Pat LaFontaine and 7 behind Tomas Jonsson)

 Josh Bailey has:

·         137 assists (32^nd all-time, 1 behind Greg Gilbert, 2 behind Mark Streit, and 3 behind Steve Thomas)

·         218 points (35th all-time, 1 behind Mikko Makela and 5 behind Matt Moulson)

·         476 games played (tied-27^th among Islander skaters with Gerry Hart)

NHL Accounting

This is the start of the Isles 44th season (although they've only taken the ice in 43 of them).  It's also an anniversary year for both Howie Rose (who called his first Islander game 20 years ago Wednesday) and Jiggs McDonald (who called Isles games from 15 years from 1980-1995 and has filled in for Howie on occasion in each of the last 10 years).

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 & on his blog www.nyiskinny.com.

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

Ironman Hickey to miss start of season

The Isles announced today that Thomas Hickey will miss 4 weeks with an upper body injury.  Hickey, who last season became the 12th Islander defenseman to play at least 100 consecutive games, has missed only one game the last two seasons (11/24/14, ending a 103-game streak).

Hickey has played more games in an Islander uniform the past two seasons (163); Frans Nielsen (158) and Matt Martin (157) played the most among forwards over the same span.

The Isles will play 9 regular season games between now and October 27th, which is the 4-week mark.

Happy Birthday, Ed Westfall

Today is September 19th, which makes it a milestone birthday for the Isles' first captain.  

Happy 75th birthday to Islander Hall of Famer  
Ed Westfall, born on this date in that special year of 19-40.