The Skinny: Isles 5, Calgary 2

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick

Game 69

Isles 5, Calgary 2

Johnny Boychuk scored a goal, added two assists and went +5 while Christopher Gibson made 50 saves as the Isles snapped their eight-game winless streak (0-4-4) with a 5-2 win over the Calgary Flames before a crowd of 19,108 at Scotiabank Saddledome.

The Isles conclude their road trip with a 1-0-3 record; nine of their final 13 games are at home.

 

The Scoring: 

1ST PERIOD

02:14 New York Nick Leddy (10) ASST: Casey Cizikas (9) 1-0

02:32 New York Johnny Boychuk (5) ASST: Casey Cizikas (10), Ross Johnston (3) 2-0

07:23 Calgary Johnny Gaudreau (21) ASST: Sean Monahan (31) 2-1

10:25 New York Jordan Eberle (24) ASST: Johnny Boychuk (8), John Tavares (37) 3-1

2ND PERIOD

00:50 New York Anders Lee (32) ASST: Johnny Boychuk (9), Nick Leddy (30) 4-1

3RD PERIOD

07:24 Calgary Mark Giordano (13) ASST: Dougie Hamilton (25), Johnny Gaudreau (58) 4-2

19:49 New York EN - Anders Lee (33) ASST: John Tavares (38) 5-2

The Skinny  

Isles are 15-22-8 since December 1st and go back over NHL-.500 (30-29-10) …The Isles scored first for the 4th straight game and for the 7th time in the last eight games… The Isles had scored three goals or fewer in 12 straight games (2-6-4)… John Tavares had two assists… Christopher Gibson has stopped 132 of 138 shots (.957) in his three NHL appearances (1.90 GAA) this season…Johnny Gaudreau established a new career high in points (79) and tied for the league lead in assists (58)…Casey Cizikas tied a career high with two assists…Johnny Boychuk recorded his 2nd career three-point game (10-10-2014 vs. Carolina, in his Isles' debut) and finished the game +5...Mathew Barzal drew his 35th penalty – by far the most on the team, and 2nd in the NHL to Calgary's Matthew Tkachuk…It was the 20th 2-goal game for Anders Lee, matching a career high…Anders Lee is now one goal shy of his career high, set last season.  Lee is the first Islander winger since Ziggy Palffy to score at least 33 goals in consecutive seasons and his two goals allowed him to tie, and then pass, Ray Ferraro for 26th place on the all-time Isles goal list…The Isles scored twice in the first three minutes for the second time this season; it was the earliest this season that the Isles scored three goals (10:25) and four goals (20:50)…The Isles are seven points out of the last playoff spot in the East, while Calgary is two points out of a playoff spot in the West.  The Isles own Calgary's first and second round picks in this June's entry draft…The Isles have killed 22/24 (91.7%) in their last 11 games…Johnny Boychuk went +5 for the second time this season; prior to this year, no Islander defenseman had gone +5 in a game since Joe Reekie (2x) and Gerald Diduck did so in the 1989-90 season…Ross Johnston was on-ice for the first two Islander goals; the Isles are 6-6-2 in games that he plays.

More History for Gibson 

Christopher Gibson faced at least 50 shots for the 2nd time in his career and became only the 2nd Islander rookie to make 50 saves:

60 – Billy Smith 11/22/72 @ Philadelphia (55 saves)

52 - Christopher Gibson 3/11/18 @ Calgary (50 saves)

51 – Kevin Poulin 1/11/11 Vs. Vancouver (48 saves)

50 – Christopher Gibson 3/3/18 @ Pittsburgh (47 saves)

Gibson was the first NHL rookie to face 52 shots in a game since Frederik Anderson did so for Toronto on March 2, 2014 and is the first rookie to make at least 50 saves in a game since Devyn Dubnyk do so for Edmonton on April 10, 2010.

The Save and Shots Records are "Finnished"

Christopher Gibson made 50 saves, breaking his own record for Finnish rookie netminders set eight days ago.  Gibson faced 52 shots, breaking the record of 50 that he shared for eight days with Pekka Rinne.

50 Save Wins

Shots are official since the 1955/56 season. The Isles are the 1st team since then to win 3 games in a season with any goalie making 50+ saves, let alone three different goalies making 50 + saves!

Prior to this season, the Isles had only three wins in their history in which their goalie made 50 saves.  They now have six all-time, which ties record held by Florida (4 of 6 by Luongo).

The 6 by the Isles have come from 6 different goalies (Healy, Felix Potvin and Roloson are the ones from before this season).

Lots of Shots

The Isles just the 1993-94 Los Angeles Kings as the only teams in the last 30 years to allow 50 or more shots at least six times in a season.  The Original Islanders allowed at least 50 shots three times; no Islander team in the interim had done so more than twice.

Most times allowing 50+ shots (since 1972-73)

6-  1975/76 Caps 

6-  1975/76 Scouts

6-  1976/77 Rockies

6-  1981/82 Rockies

6-  1993/94 Kings 

6-  2017/18 Isles

The last team to allow at least 50 shots in a game seven times was the 1970-71 Buffalo Sabres.

Hall-of Fame Company

John Tavares' first period assist was his 339th as an Isle, breaking a tie with John Tonelli for 5th all-time.  The four guys ahead of him all have jerseys hanging at Barclays Center (Trottier-Potvin-Bossy-Gillies); all four are also in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

40-40-40 Club

Nick Leddy is the third defenseman in Islander history to record at least three consecutive 40-point seasons:

Denis Potvin – 15 seasons

Tomas Jonsson - 4 seasons

Nick Leddy - 3 seasons 

Barzal Is Highest Scoring Isles Rookie in 40 Years

Mathew Barzal is the third highest-scoring rookie in Islander history; with 51 assists in 69 games, he is on pace for 60 assists: 

Most Assists by an Islander Rookie

1. Bryan Trottier 63 1975-76

2. MATHEW BARZAL 51 2017-18 

Most Points by an Islander Rookie

1. Bryan Trottier 95 1975-76

2. Mike Bossy 91 1977-78

3. MATHEW BARZAL 69 2017-18 

Denis Potvin is the only rookie to ever lead the Isles in assists; Billy Harris, Potvin, Trent Hunter (tied) and John Tavares are the only rookies to ever lead the Isles in points.

Nice Company

Mathew Barzal is one of seven rookies since 1995 with at least 51 assists in a season.  You'll recognize the names!

1. Sidney Crosby PIT 2005-06 63

2. Nicklas Backstrom WSH 2007-08 55

3. Alex Ovechkin WSH 2005-06 54

4. Evgeni Malkin PIT 2006-07 52

5. MATHEW BARZAL NYI 2017-18 51

  Patrick Kane CHI 2007-08 51

  Scott Gomez NJD 1999-00 51

32 (and 33) Goals

Anders Lee now has 33 goals and John Tavares has 31.  With Tavares' next goal, they will be the first Islander teammates with at least 32 goals since Pierre Turgeon, Steve Thomas and Benoit Hogue all did so in 1993-94.

51 Helpers

Mathew Barzal has 51 assists and Josh Bailey has 48. Barzal is the first Islander to reach 51 assists since Pierre Turgeon had 56 assists in 1993-94.

When Bailey reaches 50, the Isles will have teammates with 50 assists for the first time since Mike Bossy (62) and Bryan Trottier (59) did so in 1985-86.

Three's Company

Mathew Barzal has eight games of at least three points this season (five games with three points and three games with five points). Since 1993-94, only Sidney Crosby (11 times), Artemi Panarin (10 times) and Alex Ovechkin (8 times) have done so as often in their rookie seasons.

One and Done

The Isles are 16-2-4 this season when leading after one period.  

Five's Alive

The Isles have scored at least five goals ten times at home (9-1-0) and eighteen times overall (17-1-0). The Isles have also scored two shootout winners for a fifth goal of the game (not included above). The Isles scored five goals (including shootout winners) in only 10 games all last season.

Five's Trouble

The Isles have allowed at least five goals ten times at home (1-7-2) and eighteen times overall (1-15-2).  

First Things First

The Isles have scored first 32 times this season (20-7-5). The Isles won the first eleven times they scored first this season but are only 9-7-5 in the last 21 games that they scored first.

First Goal 

The Isles are 20-7-5 when they score first and are 10-22-5 when they allow the opening goal. 

The Shots

Isles       10-13-4=27

Calgary 14-19-19=52

The Isles are 7-11-5 when they outshoot their opponents, 0-1-0 when the shots are even, and 23-17-5 when they are outshot.  (The club record for wins while being outshot in one season is 25, set by the 1983-84 team)

Offside Challenges

The Isles have challenged four times and been successful three times.  The Isles are 2-1-0 in games they win the challenge and are 0-0-1 in games they lose the challenge.

• 10/10 vs STL Blues – unsuccessful; Isles killed ensuing power play.

• 10/12 @ Ana Ducks – successful

• 1/15 @ Mtl Canadiens – successful 

• 2/16 @ Car Hurricanes - successful

The opponents have not yet challenged an Islander goal due to an offside this season.

Home and Road

The Islanders are 30-29-10 overall; 16-12-4 at home and 14-17-6 on the road.  

Calgary is 34-26-10 overall; 14-16-4 at home and 20-10-6 on the road.  

By Division & Conference

The Isles are 10-9-2 in Division games and 20-20-8 in games versus other divisions.   The Isles are 17-20-3 against the East and 13-9-7 against the West.  

Our House

The Isles are 16-12-4 at home; they are 9-9-0 against the East and 7-3-4 against the West.  All-time the Isles are 28-7-7 all-time at Barclays against the West.

In the Nets

Christopher Gibson made 50 saves to improve to 1-0-2 on the season and 1-0-0 in his career against Calgary.

Mike Smith made 22 saves but falls to 23-17-6 on the season and 5-4-0 in his career against the Isles. 

Power Plays

The Isles were 0-1 on the power play in 2:00 of PP time; Calgary was 0-4 on the power play in 8:00 of PP time.

The Isles are 17-11-3 when they score at least one power play goal and 13-18-7 when they do not.  The Isles are 16-19-3 when they allow at least one power play goal and 14-10-7 when they do not.    

Three is a Magic Number

The Isles are 28-9-5 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 2-20-5 when they do not.  

One Goal Games

The Isles are 12-7-10 in games decided by a single goal including 3-7 in regulation. They are 6-7 in games decided in overtime and are 3-3 in shootouts.  The Isles are 4-3 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1 goal game into a 2-goal game.

Back-to-Backs

The Isles are 6-7-0 on the front-end of back-to-backs and 5-7-1 on the back-end. The Isles next back-to-back set will be a home-and-home with Washington on March 15th-16th. Overall, the Isles will play four sets of back-to-backs this month. 

Tired vs. Rested

• The Isles are 2-3-0 when both teams played the night before. 

• The Isles are 6-1-0 when they are rested, and their opponents are not. 

• The Isles are 3-4-1 when their opponents are rested, and the Isles are not.

• The Isles are 18-21-9 when both teams are rested. 

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Johnny Boychuk (21:05); Calgary: Dougie Hamilton (26:00)

John Tavares led Isles forwards with 19:00 of ice-time.

Face-offs

Isles 30, Calgary 42 (42%).

Casey Cizikas won 9 of 15 for the Isles; Sean Monahan won 16 of 24 for Calgary.

 

Face-offs by period: 1st period 13/21; 2nd period 7/21; 3rd period 10/30.

Face-offs by strength: Even strength: 25/61, Power play 0/2, Penalty kill 5/9.

Hit Count

Isles 17 (Ryan Pulock-4).  

Calgary 15 (Garnet Hathaway-3)

Fights

Ross Johnston fought Garnet Hathaway in the second period. Season total – 13: (Johnston 3, Boychuk 2, Mayfield 1, Cizikas 1, Chimera 1, Prince 1, Bailey 1, Eberle 1, Nelson 1, Clutterbuck 1).

Blocked Shots

The Isles blocked 20 shots (Thomas Hickey-4)

For the Corsi Crowd 

All situations: Isles 48, Calgary 94 (including 68-26 in Calgary's favor in the final 40 minutes)

5-on-5 Isles 43, Calgary 73.

5-on-5 leaders:

Isles: Jordan Eberle +5

Calgary: Matthew Tkachuk +16

Night and Day 

The Isles are 26-28-9 in night games and 4-1-1 in matinees.  All remaining games this season will be played at night.

Ironmen

Nick Leddy 146, Anders Lee 105, Brock Nelson 82, Mathew Barzal/John Tavares 69.

Top 5 Club

Nick Leddy now holds the fifth longest consecutive game streak in Islander history for a defenseman: 

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 12/19/2011- 3/2/2014 164 (**)

5. Nick Leddy 10/23/2016 – CURRENT 146

(*) Start of NHL career.

(**) Entire career with Islanders

Scratches

(Nikolay Kulemin -IR), (Calvin deHaan-IR), (Shane Prince- IR), (Scott Mayfield - IR), (Thomas Greiss-IR), (Alan Quine-IR), Sebastian Aho, Chris Wagner, Dennis Seidenberg  

Total games lost: 247

Late Heroes

The Isles have scored five times in the final two minutes of regulation to either tie or take the lead:

10/9 – STL Blues – Anders Lee (19:00); tied game, but Isles lost in shootout

12/7 – PIT Penguins – Brock Nelson (18:50); tied game, but Isles lost in overtime

12/27- BUF Sabres – Josh Bailey (18:51); tied game, and Isles won in overtime

2/9 – DET Red Wings – Josh Bailey (18:11); took lead, Isles allowed tying goal but then won in overtime

3/5 – VAN Canucks – Jordan Eberle (18:56); tied game, but Isles lost in overtime

Late Goals Allowed

The Isles have allowed a goal six times in the final two minutes of regulation to either tie or win a game:

12/16 – LA Kings – Anze Kopitar (19:47); tied game, but Isles won in overtime

12/21—ANA Ducks – Rickard Rakell (18:45); tied game and Ducks won in overtime

2/6 – NAS Predators – Ryan Johansen (19:17); tied game and Predators won in overtime

2/9 – DET Red Wings – Mike Green (19:31); tied game but Isles won in overtime

2/11- CLG Flames – Mathew Tkachuk (18:55); won game

3/9 – EDM Oilers – Connor McDavid (18:10); tied game and Oilers won in shootout

7-11

The Isles have used 7 defensemen four times this season (10/19 @NYR, 10/21 vs SJ, 1/16 vs. NJ, 3/2 vs. MTL) and are 2-2-0 in those games.  Under Doug Weight, the Isles are 6-2-0 when they dress seven natural defensemen.

All-time Islander Leader Boards:

Games Played (skaters)

1. Bryan Trottier 1123 *** 2. Denis Potvin 1060 *** 3. Bob Nystrom 900 

…

7.  Patrick Flatley 712 *** 8. Josh Bailey 704*** 9. Brent Sutter 694 *** 10. John Tavares 656

Goals

1. Mike Bossy 573 *** 2. Bryan Trottier 500 *** 3. Denis Potvin 310 *** 4. Clark Gillies 304***

5. Pat LaFontaine and Brent Sutter 287 *** 7. John Tavares 266

…

18. Jason Blake 127 *** 19. Josh Bailey 122 *** 20. Diane Sutter 120 *** 21 Frans Nielsen and Alexei Yashin 119 *** 23. Mark Parrish, Matt Moulson and Steve Thomas 118 *** 26. Anders Lee 117

Assists

1. Bryan Trottier 853 *** 2. Denis Potvin 742 *** 3. Mike Bossy 553*** 4. Clark Gillies 359***

5.  John Tavares 340

…

13. Bobby Nystrom 278 *** 14. Billy Harris 259 *** 15. Tomas Jonsson 249 *** 16. Josh Bailey 248

Points

1. Bryan Trottier 1353 *** 2. Mike Bossy 1126 *** 3. Denis Potvin 1052 *** 4. Clark Gillies 663 ***

5. Brent Sutter 610 *** 6. John Tavares 606

…

13. Billy Harris 443 *** 14. Josh Bailey 370 

Games Played (Goalies)

1. Billy Smith 674 *** 2. Rick DiPietro 318 *** 3. Glenn Resch 282

…

6. Glenn Healy 176 *** 7. Jaroslav Halak 170 *** 8. Roland Melanson 136*** 9. Mark Fitzpatrick 129 ***

10. Garth Snow 127 *** 11.  Evgeni Nabokov 123 *** 12. Thomas Greiss 115

Wins (Goalie)

1. Billy Smith 304 *** 2. Glenn Resch 157 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 130***4. Kelly Hrudey 106 ***

5. Jaroslav Halak 86 *** 6.  Rollie Melanson 77*** 7. Glenn Healy 66 *** 8.  Tommy Salo 62 *** 

9. Thomas Greiss 60

Season Series Stats

The teams split the season series one game to one (and two points to two). 

The Isles are 6-2-0 in their last eight games against the Flames and have won six of the last nine in Calgary.

On the Farm

Bridgeport won out of three this weekend to improve to 30-23-5-3 on the season as they pursue the final playoff spot in their division. The Sound Tigers split a home-and-home with Lehigh Valley (with the road team winning both games) and then rallied from an early 4-0 deficit to beat Springfield 5-4.

Tanner Fritz (on recall to the Isles) leads Bridgeport with 37 points (10-27-37); Travis St. Denis has taken over the team lead in goals with 17 and is 32 points leads all current players. Christopher Gibson (also on recall to the Isles) is 18-11-3 in the nets with 4 shutouts.

The Sound Tigers are five points behind Charlotte, but they hold a game-in-hand. Bridgeport hosts Rochester on Thursday before visiting Hershey on Friday and Providence on Sunday afternoon.

Up Next

THURSDAY, MARCH 15th –WASHINGTON AT ISLANDERS 7:00PM 

[MSG+ (Islander pre-game at 6:30PM), WFAN 660AM/101.9FM, 88.7 WRHU-FM]

There are only 13 games remaining in the regular season, and the Isles will play nine of them at Barclays Center, beginning with the front-end of a home-and-home with Washington on Thursday night.

The teams haven't played in three months; each team owns a home-ice win so far this season.

The Isles have won the last three games in Brooklyn between the squads; it's their longest home-ice win streak against the Caps since 2004-2007 when they won five straight games.  Overall, the Isles are 5-3-0 in their last eight games against the reigning Presidents Trophy champions.

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: Edmonton 2, Isles 1 (SO)

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick

Game 68

Edmonton 2, Isles 1 (SO)

Connor McDavid tied the game with 1:50 to play, failed on an overtime penalty shot but then scored the game deciding goal in the shootout as the Edmonton Oilers rallied for a 2-1 win over the Islanders before a crowd of 18,347 at Rogers Place.

The Isles are 0-4-4 in their last seven games; it's their longest winless streak since a 10-game stretch from November 19 to December 9, 2013.  They are 0-0-3 on their four-game road trip.

 

It's the first time since October 2009 that the Isles have fallen in either overtime or a shootout in three straight games.

The Scoring: 

1ST PERIOD

No Scoring

2ND PERIOD

No Scoring

3RD PERIOD

01:54 New York Thomas Hickey (4) ASST: Brock Nelson (13), Ryan Pulock (15) 1-0

18:10 Edmonton Connor McDavid (31) ASST: Oscar Klefbom (15), Ethan Bear (1) 1-1

OT PERIOD

No Scoring

The Shootout

Edmonton Goal - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins

New York Goal - Jordan Eberle

Edmonton Missed - Leon Draisaitl

New York Missed - Anthony Beauvillier

Edmonton Goal - Connor McDavid (Game Deciding Goal)

New York Missed - John Tavares

The (Overtime) Penalty Shot

Connor McDavid was awarded a penalty shot with 2:00 to play in overtime.  He is the first opponent to have an overtime penalty shot against the Isles since Patrik Elias faced Garth Snow on December 10, 2003.  Like Elias, McDavid failed to score.

It was the second straight game that the Isles faced a penalty shot.  That last happened on December 30, 2005/ January 2, 2006.  Snow stopped Ottawa's Peter Schaefer but allowed a goal to Tampa Bay's Vincent Lecavalier.

The Skinny  

Isles are 14-22-8 since December 1st and remain at NHL-.500… The Isles have allowed 240 goals (not including shootout winners); they allowed only 238 all last season… The Isles have scored three goals or fewer in 12 straight games (2-6-4)… John Tavares had six shots on goal, one game after having a season-high eight shots on goal…Thomas Hickey now has 7 points (1-6-7) in 10 career games against Edmonton…Chris Wagner (6) and Cal Clutterbuck (5) combined for eleven hits; they are 2nd and 3rd in the NHL in hits…The Isles held Edmonton without a shot through the first 9:50 of the third period…Ethan Bear, a junior teammate of Mathew Barzal, recorded his first career point on Connor McDavid's goal…Mc David's goal was his 31st – it's the most by an Oiler since Jordan Eberle scored a career-high 34 in 2011-12…Christopher Gibson has stopped 82 of 86 shots in his two NHL appearances this season…The Isles have never scored an overtime goal against Edmonton (in regular season play; Ken Morrow had one in the 1981 playoffs)…Cal Clutterbuck was involved in his first fight as an Islander.

First Time for Everything

This was the 76th regular season game between the Isles and Oilers and was the first to enter the third period scoreless. 

Scoreless 40

This was the first Isles game to enter the third period scoreless since December 1, 2016 in Washington; it is only the 2nd Isles game to be scoreless through two periods since 2014, a span of 281 games.

Barzal Is Highest Scoring Isles Rookie in 40 Years

Mathew Barzal is the third highest-scoring rookie in Islander history; with 51 assists in 68 games, he is on pace for 61 assists: 

Most Assists by an Islander Rookie

1. Bryan Trottier 63 1975-76

2. MATHEW BARZAL 51 2017-18 

Most Points by an Islander Rookie

1. Bryan Trottier 95 1975-76

2. Mike Bossy 91 1977-78

3. MATHEW BARZAL 69 2017-18 

Over the last 10 seasons, no rookie has more assists than Barzal. (Nicklas Backstrom had 55 assists and Patrick Kane had 51 assists in 2007-08.)

Denis Potvin is the only rookie to ever lead the Isles in assists; Billy Harris, Potvin, Trent Hunter (tied) and John Tavares are the only rookies to ever lead the Isles in points.

31 Goals

John Tavares and Anders Lee are tied for the team lead with 31 goals.  When each player reaches 32, they will be the first Islander teammates with at least 32 goals since Pierre Turgeon, Steve Thomas and Benoit Hogue all did so in 1993-94.

51 Helpers

Mathew Barzal has 51 assists and Josh Bailey has 48. Barzal is the first Islander to reach 51 assists since Pierre Turgeon had 56 assists in 1993-94.

When Bailey reaches 50, the Isles will have teammates with 50 assists for the first time since Mike Bossy (62) and Bryan Trottier (59) did so in 1985-86.

Three's Company

Mathew Barzal has eight games of at least three points this season (five games with three points and three games with five points). Since 1993-94, only Sidney Crosby (11 times), Artemi Panarin (10 times) and Alex Ovechkin (8 times) have done so as often in their rookie seasons.

One and Done

The Isles are 15-2-4 this season when leading after one period.  

Five's Alive

The Isles have scored at least five goals ten times at home (9-1-0) and seventeen times overall (16-1-0). The Isles have also scored two shootout winners for a fifth goal of the game (not included above). The Isles scored five goals (including shootout winners) in only 10 games all last season.

Five's Trouble

The Isles have allowed at least five goals ten times at home (1-7-2) and eighteen times overall (1-15-2).  

First Things First

The Isles have scored first 31 times this season (19-7-5). The Isles won the first eleven times they scored first this season but are only 8-7-5 in the last 20 games that they scored first.

First Goal 

The Isles are 19-7-5 when they score first and are 10-22-5 when they allow the opening goal. 

The Shots

Isles           9-8-12-2=31

Edmonton  7-15-8-6=36

The Isles are 7-11-5 when they outshoot their opponents, 0-1-0 when the shots are even, and 22-17-5 when they are outshot.  (The club record for wins while being outshot in one season is 25, set by the 1983-84 team)

Offside Challenges

The Isles have challenged four times and been successful three times.  The Isles are 2-1-0 in games they win the challenge and are 0-0-1 in games they lose the challenge.

• 10/10 vs STL Blues – unsuccessful; Isles killed ensuing power play.

• 10/12 @ Ana Ducks – successful

• 1/15 @ Mtl Canadiens – successful 

• 2/16 @ Car Hurricanes - successful

The opponents have not yet challenged an Islander goal due to an offside this season.

Home and Road

The Islanders are 29-29-10 overall; 16-12-4 at home and 13-17-6 on the road.  

Edmonton is 29-34-4 overall; 15-17-2 at home and 14-17-2 on the road.  

By Division & Conference

The Isles are 10-9-2 in Division games and 19-20-8 in games versus other divisions.   The Isles are 17-20-3 against the East and 12-9-7 against the West.  

Our House

The Isles are 16-12-4 at home; they are 9-9-0 against the East and 7-3-4 against the West.  All-time the Isles are 28-7-7 all-time at Barclays against the West.

In the Nets

Christopher Gibson made 35 saves; he is 0-0-2 on the season and 0-0-1 in his career against Edmonton.

Cam Talbot made 30 saves to improve to 24-26-2 on the season and 7-2-0 in his career against the Isles. 

Power Plays

The Isles were 0-1 on the power play in 0:24 of PP time; Edmonton was 0-2 on the power play in 2:24of PP time.

The Isles are 17-11-3 when they score at least one power play goal and 12-18-7 when they do not.  The Isles are 16-19-3 when they allow at least one power play goal and 13-10-7 when they do not.    

Three is a Magic Number

The Isles are 27-9-5 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 2-20-5 when they do not.  

One Goal Games

The Isles are 12-7-10 in games decided by a single goal including 3-7 in regulation. They are 6-7 in games decided in overtime and are 3-3 in shootouts.  The Isles are 4-3 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1 goal game into a 2-goal game.

Back-to-Backs

The Isles are 6-7-0 on the front-end of back-to-backs and 5-7-1 on the back-end. The Isles next back-to-back set will be a home-and-home with Washington on March 15th-16th. Overall, the Isles will play four sets of back-to-backs this month. 

Tired vs. Rested

• The Isles are 2-3-0 when both teams played the night before. 

• The Isles are 6-1-0 when they are rested, and their opponents are not. 

• The Isles are 3-4-1 when their opponents are rested, and the Isles are not.

• The Isles are 17-21-9 when both teams are rested. 

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Nick Leddy (24:56); Edmonton: Connor McDavid (27:27)

John Tavares led Isles forwards with 19:56 of ice-time.

Face-offs

Isles 41, Edmonton 26 (61%).

John Tavares won 15 of 20 and Casey Cizikas won 12 of 15 for the Isles; Ryan Nugent-Hopkins won 11 of 19 for Edmonton.

 

Face-offs by period: 1st period 12/23; 2nd period 14/24; 3rd period 13/16; Overtime 2/4.

Face-offs by strength: Even strength: 39/64, Power play 0/0, Penalty kill 2/3.

Hit Count

Isles 34 (Chris Wagner-6).  

Edmonton 33 (Milan Lucic and Adam Larsson -6)

Fights

Cal Clutterbuck fought Jujhar Khaira in the first period. Season total – 12: (Boychuk 2, Johnston 2, Mayfield 1, Cizikas 1, Chimera 1, Prince 1, Bailey 1, Eberle 1, Nelson 1, Clutterbuck 1).

Blocked Shots

The Isles blocked 21 shots (Nick Leddy -3)

For the Corsi Crowd 

All situations: Isles 61, Edmonton 76

5-on-5 Isles 54, Edmonton 65.

5-on-5 leaders:

Isles: Anthony Beauvillier +8

Edmonton: Jesse Puljujarvi +10

Night and Day 

The Isles are 25-28-9 in night games and 4-1-1 in matinees.  All remaining games this season will be played at night.

Ironmen

Nick Leddy 145, Anders Lee 104, Chris Wagner 82 (including 77 for the Ducks), Brock Nelson 81, Mathew Barzal/John Tavares 68.

Top 5 Club

Nick Leddy now holds the fifth longest consecutive game streak in Islander history for a defenseman: 

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 12/19/2011- 3/2/2014 164 (**)

5. Nick Leddy 10/23/2016 – CURRENT 145

(*) Start of NHL career.

(**) Entire career with Islanders

Scratches

(Nikolay Kulemin -IR), (Calvin deHaan-IR), (Shane Prince- IR), (Scott Mayfield - IR), (Thomas Greiss-IR), (Alan Quine-IR), Sebastian Aho, Ryan Johnston, Dennis Seidenberg  

Total games lost: 241

Late Heroes

The Isles have scored five times in the final two minutes of regulation to either tie or take the lead:

10/9 – STL Blues – Anders Lee (19:00); tied game, but Isles lost in shootout

12/7 – PIT Penguins – Brock Nelson (18:50); tied game, but Isles lost in overtime

12/27- BUF Sabres – Josh Bailey (18:51); tied game, and Isles won in overtime

2/9 – DET Red Wings – Josh Bailey (18:11); took lead, Isles allowed tying goal but then won in overtime

3/5 – VAN Canucks – Jordan Eberle (18:56); tied game, but Isles lost in overtime

Late Goals Allowed

The Isles have allowed a goal six times in the final two minutes of regulation to either tie or win a game:

12/16 – LA Kings – Anze Kopitar (19:47); tied game, but Isles won in overtime

12/21—ANA Ducks – Rickard Rakell (18:45); tied game and Ducks won in overtime

2/6 – NAS Predators – Ryan Johansen (19:17); tied game and Predators won in overtime

2/9 – DET Red Wings – Mike Green (19:31); tied game but Isles won in overtime

2/11- CLG Flames – Mathew Tkachuk (18:55); won game

3/9 – EDM Oilers – Connor McDavid (18:10); tied game and Oilers won in shootout

7-11

The Isles have used 7 defensemen four times this season (10/19 @NYR, 10/21 vs SJ, 1/16 vs. NJ, 3/2 vs. MTL) and are 2-2-0 in those games.  Under Doug Weight, the Isles are 6-2-0 when they dress seven natural defensemen.

All-time Islander Leader Boards:

Games Played (skaters)

1. Bryan Trottier 1123 *** 2. Denis Potvin 1060 *** 3. Bob Nystrom 900 

…

7.  Patrick Flatley 712 *** 8. Josh Bailey 703*** 9. Brent Sutter 694 *** 10. John Tavares 655

Goals

1. Mike Bossy 573 *** 2. Bryan Trottier 500 *** 3. Denis Potvin 310 *** 4. Clark Gillies 304***

5. Pat LaFontaine and Brent Sutter 287 *** 7. John Tavares 266

…

18. Jason Blake 127 *** 19. Josh Bailey 122 *** 20. Diane Sutter 120 *** 21 Frans Nielsen and Alexei Yashin 119 *** 23. Mark Parrish, Matt Moulson and Steve Thomas 118 *** 26. Ray Ferraro 116 *** 27. Anders Lee 115

Assists

1. Bryan Trottier 853 *** 2. Denis Potvin 742 *** 3. Mike Bossy 553*** 4. Clark Gillies 359***

5. John Tonelli and John Tavares 338

…

13. Bobby Nystrom 278 *** 14. Billy Harris 259 *** 15. Tomas Jonsson 249 *** 16. Josh Bailey 248

Points

1. Bryan Trottier 1353 *** 2. Mike Bossy 1126 *** 3. Denis Potvin 1052 *** 4. Clark Gillies 663 ***

5. Brent Sutter 610 *** 6. John Tavares 604

…

13. Billy Harris 443 *** 14. Josh Bailey 370 

Games Played (Goalies)

1. Billy Smith 674 *** 2. Rick DiPietro 318 *** 3. Glenn Resch 282

…

6. Glenn Healy 176 *** 7. Jaroslav Halak 170 *** 8. Roland Melanson 136*** 9. Mark Fitzpatrick 129 ***

10. Garth Snow 127 *** 11.  Evgeni Nabokov 123 *** 12. Thomas Greiss 115

Wins (Goalie)

1. Billy Smith 304 *** 2. Glenn Resch 157 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 130***4. Kelly Hrudey 106 ***

5. Jaroslav Halak 86 *** 6.  Rollie Melanson 77*** 7. Glenn Healy 66 *** 8.  Tommy Salo 62 *** 

9. Thomas Greiss 60

Season Series Stats

Edmonton wins the season series two games to none (and four points to two). 

On the Farm

Bridgeport begins a 3-in-3 weekend on Friday in Lehigh Valley; The Sound Tigers have won four straight games to improve to 28-22-5-3 on the season and close in on the final playoff spot in their division.

Tanner Fritz (on recall to the Isles) leads Bridgeport with 37 points (10-27-37); Rookie Scott Eansor leads the team in goals with 16. Christopher Gibson (also on recall to the Isles) is 18-11-3 in the nets with 4 shutouts.

Bridgeport will then host the Phantoms on Saturday and host Springfield on Sunday afternoon.

Up Next

SUNDAY, MARCH 11th –ISLANDERS AT CALGARY 7:00PM 

[MSG+ (Islander pre-game at 6:30PM), WNYM 970AM, 88.7 WRHU-FM, WRCN 103.9FM]

The long road trip comes to an end as the Isles head to Calgary to face the Flames for the second time this season.  

Calgary defeated the Isles 3-2 at Barclays Center back on February 11th.  It was the Flames' second straight win against the Isles; they have not won three straight vs. New York since an eight-game run from 1997-2002.

The Isles have scored exactly two goals in each of the last four games against the Flames, recording two overtime wins in the four matches. 

The Isles are 5-2-0 in their last seven games against the Flames and have won 5 of the last 8 in Calgary

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: Vancouver 4, Isles 3 (OT)

 "The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick

Game 67

Vancouver 4, Isles 3 (OT)

Brendan Leipsic scored at 3:47 of overtime to complete his first career three-point game as the Vancouver Canucks overcame a 6th attacker goal by Jordan Eberle to defeat the Islanders 4-3 before a crowd of 17,307 at Rogers Arena.

The Isles are 0-4-3 in their last seven games; it's their longest winless streak since a 10-game stretch from November 19 to December 9, 2013.  They are 0-0-2 on their four-game road trip.

 

John Tavares tied Anders Lee for the team lead in goals while Mathew Barzal recorded two assists in his first game in his hometown.

The Scoring: 

1ST PERIOD

09:51 New York Josh Bailey (17) ASST: Anders Lee (20), Nick Leddy (29) 1-0

2ND PERIOD

02:59 New York John Tavares (31) ASST: Thomas Hickey (16), Mathew Barzal (50) 2-0

14:25 Vancouver Brendan Leipsic (3) ASST: Jake Virtanen (9), Bo Horvat (18) 2-1

15:59 Vancouver PS - Darren Archibald (3) 2-2

3RD PERIOD

10:31 Vancouver Jake Virtanen (8) ASST: Brendan Leipsic (14) 2-3

18:56 New York PPG - Jordan Eberle (23) ASST: John Tavares (36), Mathew Barzal (51) 3-3

OT PERIOD

02:47 Vancouver Brendan Leipsic (4) 3-4

The Skinny  

Isles are 14-22-7 since December 1st and remain at NHL-.500… The Isles have allowed 239 goals (not including shootout winners); they allowed only 238 all last season… The Isles have scored three goals or fewer in 11 straight games (2-6-3)… Mathew Barzal played 19:54; he led Islander forwards in ice-time for a third straight game…The goal by Virtanen was the 238th allowed (excluding shootouts) by Isles this season; they allowed 238 all last year…Brendan Leipsic also took three penalties for Vancouver, matching his season total; he became the first Canuck to have three points and three minor penalties in a game Mathias Ohlund (12/27/2006 vs Calgary)… Mathew Barzal has earned 18 assists on Jordan Eberle's 23 goals… Cal Clutterbuck played in his 700th NHL game...John Tavares had a season-high eight shots on goal…The Isles held the Sedin brothers off the scoreboard, ending 5 game point streaks for each…The Canucks played overtime for the third straight game (1-0-2).

 

The Penalty Shot:

There have four penalty shots in games between the teams – all attempted by Vancouver.  Archibald Is the first to score: 

• Ron Sedlbauer/Billy Smith 11/19/77 Failed 

• Ron Sedlbauer/Glenn Resch 3/7/78 Failed 

• Markus Naslund/Chris Osgood 3/21/02 Failed

• Darren Archibald/Jaroslav Halak 3/5/18 Scored

Thomas Greiss stopped Philadelphia's Nolan Patrick in the only other penalty shot in an Isles game this season.  Greiss had faced the last five Islander penalty shots, stopping four of them.

This was only the 2nd of the last 13 opposition penalty shots to be converted, and only the second that Jaroslav Halak has faced as an Islander. Halak stopped Michael Ferland of Calgary three years ago.  

The Injury

Canuck rookie Brock Boeser was injured in a late-game collision with Cal Clutterbuck. He was taken to the hospital after the game.

First Time for Everything

Jussi Jokinen became the first player to face the Islanders as a member of 4 different teams in the same season.  Mark Arcobello, Dave McLlwain and Dennis O'Brien are the others to play for 4 teams in one season.   McLlwain played for the Isles that season; the others did not face the Isles with all four of their teams.

Moving on Up

Josh Bailey's goal was his 370th point, passing both Kyle Okposo and Stefan Persson for 14th place on the all-time Isles list.

Mathew Barzal is the first Islander rookie in 40 years to reach 50 assists, tying, and then passing, Stefan Persson for 2nd place on the all-time list.

John Tavares recorded his 338th career assist, tying John Tonelli for 5th on the all-time Isles list.

Lots of Rubber for Jaro

Since December 1st, Jaroslav Halak has faced 1,185 shots.  This is 76 more than any other goaltender in that span (Frederik Andersen has faced 1,109).   Halak has faced 1,559 shots this season (6th in NHL); each goalie who has faced more shots have played in at least six more games than Halak.

Barzal Is Highest Scoring Isles Rookie in 40 Years

Mathew Barzal is the third highest-scoring rookie in Islander history; with 51 assists in 67 games, he is on pace for 62 assists: 

Most Assists by an Islander Rookie

1. Bryan Trottier 63 1975-76

2. MATHEW BARZAL 51 2017-18 

Most Points by an Islander Rookie

1. Bryan Trottier 95 1975-76

2. Mike Bossy 91 1977-78

3. MATHEW BARZAL 69 2017-18 

Over the last 10 seasons, no rookie has more assists than Barzal. (Nicklas Backstrom had 55 assists and Patrick Kane had 51 assists in 2007-08.)

Denis Potvin is the only rookie to ever lead the Isles in assists; Billy Harris, Potvin, Trent Hunter (tied) and John Tavares are the only rookies to ever lead the Isles in point.

31 Goals

John Tavares tied Anders Lee for the team lead with 31 goals.  When each player reaches 32, they will be the first Islander teammates with at least 32 goals since Pierre Turgeon, Steve Thomas and Benoit Hogue all did so in 1993-94.

51 Helpers

Mathew Barzal has 51 assists and Josh Bailey has 48. Barzal is the first Islander to reach 51 assists since Pierre Turgeon had 56 assists in 1993-94.

When Bailey reaches 50, the Isles will have teammates with 50 assists for the first time since Mike Bossy (62) and Bryan Trottier (59) did so in 1985-86.

Three's Company

Mathew Barzal has eight games of at least three points this season (five games with three points and three games with five points). Since 1993-94, only Sidney Crosby (11 times), Artemi Panarin (10 times) and Alex Ovechkin (8 times) have done so as often in their rookie seasons.

One and (Mostly)Done

The Isles are 15-2-4 this season when leading after one period.  

Five's Alive

The Isles have scored at least five goals ten times at home (9-1-0) and seventeen times overall (16-1-0). The Isles have also scored two shootout winners for a fifth goal of the game (not included above). The Isles scored five goals (including shootout winners) in only 10 games all last season.

Five's Trouble

The Isles have allowed at least five goals ten times at home (1-7-2) and eighteen times overall (1-15-2).  

First Things First

The Isles have scored first 30 times this season (19-7-4). The Isles won the first eleven times they scored first this season but are only 8-7-4 in the last 19 games that they scored first.

First Goal 

The Isles are 19-7-4 when they score first and are 10-22-5 when they allow the opening goal. 

Fastest to 50

Doug Weight is now 53-41-13 as an NHL coach. On February 3rd vs. the Blue Jackets, he reached 50 wins faster than any coach in Islander history:

Fewest Games to 50 Wins by an Islander Coach:

93 – Doug Weight (50-34-9)

98 – Ted Nolan 2006-07 & 2007-08 (50-36-12)

102- Terry Simpson 1986-87 & 1987-88 (50-39-13)

103– Peter Laviolette 2001-02 & 2002-03(50-39-10-4)

106—Steve Stirling 2003-04 & 2005-06 (50-40-11-5)

The Shots

Isles           15-7-11-1=34

Vancouver   6-8-7-2=23

The Isles are 7-11-5 when they outshoot their opponents, 0-1-0 when the shots are even, and 22-17-4 when they are outshot.  (The club record for wins while being outshot in one season is 25, set by the 1983-84 team)

Offside Challenges

The Isles have challenged four times and been successful three times.  The Isles are 2-1-0 in games they win the challenge and are 0-0-1 in games they lose the challenge.

• 10/10 vs STL Blues – unsuccessful; Isles killed ensuing power play.

• 10/12 @ Ana Ducks – successful

• 1/15 @ Mtl Canadiens – successful 

• 2/16 @ Car Hurricanes - successful

The opponents have not yet challenged an Islander goal due to an offside this season.

Home and Road

The Islanders are 29-29-9 overall; 16-12-4 at home and 13-17-5 on the road.  

Vancouver is 25-32-9 overall; 12-15-6 at home and 13-17-3 on the road.  

By Division & Conference

The Isles are 10-9-2 in Division games and 19-20-7 in games versus other divisions.   The Isles are 17-20-3 against the East and 12-9-6 against the West.  

Our House

The Isles are 16-12-4 at home; they are 9-9-0 against the East and 7-3-4 against the West.  All-time the Isles are 28-7-7 all-time at Barclays against the West.

In the Nets

Jaroslav Halak made 19 saves; he is 18-22-6 on the season and 7-5-3 against Vancouver.

Jacob Markstrom made 31 saves to improve to 18-21-6 on the season and 2-3-0 in his career against the Isles. 

Power Plays

The Isles were 1-4 on the power play in 6:00 of PP time; Vancouver was 0-1 on the power play in 1:05 of PP time.

The Isles are 17-11-3 when they score at least one power play goal and 12-18-6 when they do not.  The Isles are 16-19-3 when they allow at least one power play goal and 13-10-6 when they do not.    

Three is (Often) a Magic Number

The Isles are 27-9-5 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 2-20-4 when they do not.  

One Goal Games

The Isles are 12-7-9 in games decided by a single goal including 3-7 in regulation. They are 6-7 in games decided in overtime and are 3-2 in shootouts.  The Isles are 4-3 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1 goal game into a 2-goal game.

Back-to-Backs

The Isles are 6-7-0 on the front-end of back-to-backs and 5-7-1 on the back-end. The Isles next back-to-back set will be a home-and-home with Washington on March 15th-16th. Overall, the Isles will play four sets of back-to-backs this month. 

Tired vs. Rested

• The Isles are 2-3-0 when both teams played the night before. 

• The Isles are 6-1-0 when they are rested, and their opponents are not. 

• The Isles are 3-4-1 when their opponents are rested, and the Isles are not.

• The Isles are 17-21-8 when both teams are rested. 

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Nick Leddy (23:11); Vancouver: Alex Edler (26:30)

Mathew Barzal led Isles forwards with 19:54 of ice-time.

Face-offs

Isles 24, Vancouver 31 (44%).

John Tavares won 12 of 19 for the Isles but his teammates won only 12 of 36; Bo Horvat won 16 of 25 for Vancouver.

 

Face-offs by period: 1st period 6/19; 2nd period 6/16; 3rd period 11/19; Overtime 1/1.

Face-offs by strength: Even strength: 21/50, Power play 3/4, Penalty kill 0/1.

Hit Count

Isles 13 (Three with 3).  

Vancouver 22 (Jake Virtanen-5)

Fights

There were no fights. Season total – 11: (Boychuk 2, Johnston 2, Mayfield 1, Cizikas 1, Chimera 1, Prince 1, Bailey 1, Eberle 1, Nelson 1).

Blocked Shots

The Isles blocked 16 shots (Johnny Boychuk -3)

For the Corsi Crowd 

All situations: Isles 58, Vancouver 47

5-on-5 Isles 41, Vancouver 71.

5-on-5 leaders:

Isles: Mathew Barzal +11

Vancouver: Ben Hutton and Derrick Pouliot +7

Night and Day 

The Isles are 25-28-8 in night games and 4-1-1 in matinees.  All remaining games this season will be played at night.

Ironmen

Nick Leddy 144, Anders Lee 103, Chris Wagner 81 (including 77 for the Ducks), Brock Nelson 80, Mathew Barzal/John Tavares 67.

Top 5 Club

Nick Leddy now hold the fifth longest consecutive game streak in Islander history for a defenseman: 

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 12/19/2011- 3/2/2014 164 (**)

5. Nick Leddy 10/23/2016 – CURRENT 144

(*) Start of NHL career.

(**) Entire career with Islanders

Scratches

(Nikolay Kulemin -IR), (Calvin deHaan-IR), (Shane Prince- IR), (Scott Mayfield - IR), (Thomas Greiss-IR), (Alan Quine-IR), Sebastian Aho, Ryan Johnston, Dennis Seidenberg  

Total games lost: 235

Late Heroes

The Isles have scored five times in the final two minutes of regulation to either tie or take the lead:

10/9 – STL Blues – Anders Lee (19:00); tied game, but Isles lost in shootout

12/7 – PIT Penguins – Brock Nelson (18:50); tied game, but Isles lost in overtime

12/27- BUF Sabres – Josh Bailey (18:51); tied game, and Isles won in overtime

2/9 – DET Red Wings – Josh Bailey (18:11); took lead, Isles allowed tying goal but then won in overtime

3/5 – VAN Canucks – Jordan Eberle (18:56); tied game, but Isles lost in overtime

Late Goals Allowed

The Isles have allowed a goal five times in the final two minutes of regulation to either tie or win a game:

12/16 – LA Kings – Anze Kopitar (19:47); tied game, but Isles won in overtime

12/21—ANA Ducks – Rickard Rakell (18:45); tied game and Ducks won in overtime

2/6 – NAS Predators – Ryan Johansen (19:17); tied game and Predators won in overtime

2/9 – DET Red Wings – Mike Green (19:31); tied game but Isles won in overtime

2/11- CLG Flames – Mathew Tkachuk (18:55); won game

7-11

The Isles have used 7 defensemen four times this season (10/19 @NYR, 10/21 vs SJ, 1/16 vs. NJ, 3/2 vs. MTL) and are 2-2-0 in those games.  Under Doug Weight, the Isles are 6-2-0 when they dress seven natural defensemen.

All-time Islander Leader Boards:

Games Played (skaters)

1. Bryan Trottier 1123 *** 2. Denis Potvin 1060 *** 3. Bob Nystrom 900 

…

7.  Patrick Flatley 712 *** 8. Josh Bailey 702*** 9. Brent Sutter 694 *** 10. John Tavares 654

Goals

1. Mike Bossy 573 *** 2. Bryan Trottier 500 *** 3. Denis Potvin 310 *** 4. Clark Gillies 304***

5. Pat LaFontaine and Brent Sutter 287 *** 7. John Tavares 266

…

18. Jason Blake 127 *** 19. Josh Bailey 122 *** 20. Diane Sutter 120 *** 21 Frans Nielsen and Alexei Yashin 119 *** 23. Mark Parrish, Matt Moulson and Steve Thomas 118 *** 26. Ray Ferraro 116 *** 27. Anders Lee 115

Assists

1. Bryan Trottier 853 *** 2. Denis Potvin 742 *** 3. Mike Bossy 553*** 4. Clark Gillies 359***

5. John Tonelli and John Tavares 338

…

13. Bobby Nystrom 278 *** 14. Billy Harris 259 *** 15. Tomas Jonsson 249 *** 16. Josh Bailey 248

Points

1. Bryan Trottier 1353 *** 2. Mike Bossy 1126 *** 3. Denis Potvin 1052 *** 4. Clark Gillies 663 ***

5. Brent Sutter 610 *** 6. John Tavares 604

…

13. Billy Harris 443 *** 14. Josh Bailey 370 

Games Played (Goalies)

1. Billy Smith 674 *** 2. Rick DiPietro 318 *** 3. Glenn Resch 282

…

6. Glenn Healy 176 *** 7. Jaroslav Halak 170 *** 8. Roland Melanson 136*** 9. Mark Fitzpatrick 129 ***

10. Garth Snow 127 *** 11.  Evgeni Nabokov 123 *** 12. Thomas Greiss 115

Wins (Goalie)

1. Billy Smith 304 *** 2. Glenn Resch 157 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 130***4. Kelly Hrudey 106 ***

5. Jaroslav Halak 86 *** 6.  Rollie Melanson 77*** 7. Glenn Healy 66 *** 8.  Tommy Salo 62 *** 

9. Thomas Greiss 60

Season Series Stats

The teams split the season series one game to one (the Isles earned three points to Vancouver's two). 

The Isles are 4-0-1 in their last five games against the Canucks and are 4-2-1 in their last seven trips to British Columbia.

 

On the Farm

Bridgeport has won four straight games to improve to 28-22-5-3 on the season and close in on the final playoff spot in their division.

Tanner Fritz (on recall to the Isles) leads Bridgeport with 37 points (10-27-37); Rookie Scott Eansor leads the team in goals with 16. Christopher Gibson (also on recall to the Isles) is 18-11-3 in the nets with 4 shutouts.

Bridgeport begins a 3-in-3 weekend on Friday in Lehigh Valley; they'll then host the Phantoms on Saturday and host Springfield on Sunday afternoon.

Up Next

THURSDAY, MARCH 8th –ISLANDERS AT EDMONTON 9:00PM 

[MSG+2 (Islander pre-game at 8:30PM), WFAN 660AM/101.9FM, 88.7 WRHU-FM]

Jordan Eberle returns to Edmonton as the Isles play the third game on this four-game road trip.  Eberle went 165-217-382 in 507 games for the Oilers, before being traded to the Isles for Ryan Strome last summer.

Connor McDavid was the overtime hero in the team's meeting in Brooklyn in November; the Isles won 4-1 in Edmonton last season for their first win in the Alberta capital since 2003.

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: Pittsburgh 3, Isles 2 (OT)

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick

Game 66

Pittsburgh 3, Isles 2 (OT)

Sidney Crosby scored at 3:48 of overtime to spoil a 47-save outing by rookie netminder Christopher Gibson as the Pittsburgh Penguins rallied from 1-0 and 2-1 deficits to defeat the Islanders 3-2 before a sellout crowd of 18,661 at PPG Paints Center.

The Isles are 0-4-2 in their last six games; it's their longest winless streak since a 10-game stretch from November 19 to December 9, 2013.

 

Anders Lee regained the team lead in goals while Brandon Davidson scored his first goal as an Islander. 

The Scoring: 

1ST PERIOD

01:11 New York Brandon Davidson (4) ASST: Josh Bailey (48), Anders Lee (19) 1-0

2ND PERIOD

18:04 Pittsburgh PPG - Patric Hornqvist (18) ASST: Phil Kessel (46), Evgeni Malkin (43) 1-1

3RD PERIOD

04:59 New York Anders Lee (31) ASST: John Tavares (35) 2-1

11:29 Pittsburgh Derick Brassard (19) ASST: Phil Kessel (47), Dominik Simon (8) 2-2

OT PERIOD

03:48 Pittsburgh Sidney Crosby (22) ASST: Justin Schultz (15), Kris Letang (34) 2-3

The Skinny  

Brandon Davidson is the 367th player to score a goal for the Islanders; all eight of his previous goals had been scored for Edmonton…Isles are 14-22-6 since December 1st and have fallen to NHL-.500 for the first time since they were 3-3-1 in mid-October… Including shootout winners, the Isles have scored 213 goals in the first 66 games (highest since 1993-94 when they had 228) and allowed 237 goals (highest since 1995-96, when they allowed 256) … The Isles have scored three goals or fewer in ten straight games (2-6-2)… Mathew Barzal played the first 3:09 of overtime; he led Islander forwards in ice-time for a second straight game…Phil Kessel recorded his 399th and 400th career assists as he matched his career high of 47 assists…Sidney Crosby recorded his 2nd overtime goal of the season and 12th of his career (which ties Evgeni Malkin for the club record); it extended Crosby's point streak against the Isles to 13 games (9-14-23)... Kris Letang recorded his 333rd assist on the winning goal, breaking Paul Coffey's club record for assists by a defenseman; 16 of those assists have come in overtime, which is a franchise record…The Isles are 6-6 in games decided by an overtime goal; the Penguins are 8-2…Special teams have played a big role in the season series as the Isles power play is 0-10 while Pittsburgh is 4-7.

Historical Night for Gibson 

Christopher Gibson is the third Islander rookie to face at least 50 shots:

60 – Billy Smith 11/22/72 @ Philadelphia (55 saves)

51 – Kevin Poulin 1/11/11 Vs. Vancouver (48 saves)

50 – Christopher Gibson 3/3/18 @ Pittsburgh (47 saves)

Besides Smith and Poulin, Kelly Hrudey and Eric Fichaud are the only other Isle rookies to make 47 saves in a game.

Gibson was the first NHL rookie to face 50 shots in a game since Anders Nilsson did so for Edmonton on October 13, 2015.

The Save Record is "Finnished"

Christopher Gibson made 47 saves, establishing a new record for Finnish rookie netminders.  On February 10, 2009, Pekka Rinne stopped 46 shots; Juuse Saros matched that mark earlier this season.  The 50 shots that Gibson faced matched the record set by Rinne in that 2009 game.

Lots of Shots

The Isles are the first team since the 1993-94 Los Angeles Kings to allow 50 or more shots at least five times in a season.  The Original Islanders allowed at least 50 shots three times; no Islander team in the interim had done so more than twice.

Moving on Up

Josh Bailey's assist was his 248th, leaving him one behind Tomas Jonsson for 15th place on the all-time Isles list.  It was Josh' 369th point, tying Kyle Okposo and Stefan Persson for 14th place.

John Tavares recorded his 337th career assist, leaving him one behind John Tonelli for 5th on the all-time Isles list.

Anders Lee's goal was his 115th as an Islander, leaving him one behind Ray Ferraro for 26th place.

Heavy Hitters

Newly-acquired Chris Wagner now has 223 hits this season, leaving him 5 behind Robert Hagg for the NHL lead. Wagner has the most hits of any NHL forward.

Cal Clutterbuck, who played in his 699th NHL game, recorded his 200th hit of the season.  It is the 9th time in his career that he has reached that mark. Clutterbuck now has 2,780 career hits, passing Brooks Orpik for 3^rd among active players.    

Lots of Rubber for Jaro

Since December 1st, Jaroslav Halak has faced 1,162 shots.  This is 64 more than any other goaltender in that span (Henirk Lundqvist has faced 1,098).   Halak has faced 1,536 shots this season (6th in NHL); each goalie who has faced more shots have played in at least seven more games than Halak.

Barzal Is Highest Scoring Isles Rookie in 40 Years

Mathew Barzal is the third highest-scoring rookie in Islander history; with 49 assists in 66 games, he is on pace for 61 assists: 

Most Assists by an Islander Rookie

1. Bryan Trottier 63 1975-76

2. Stefan Persson 50 1977-78

3. MATHEW BARZAL 49 2017-18 

Most Points by an Islander Rookie

1. Bryan Trottier 95 1975-76

2. Mike Bossy 91 1977-78

3. MATHEW BARZAL 67 2017-18 

Over the last 10 seasons, no rookie has more assists than Barzal. (Nicklas Backstrom had 55 assists and Patrick Kane had 51 assists in 2007-08.)

Denis Potvin is the only rookie to ever lead the Isles in assists; Billy Harris, Potvin, Trent Hunter (tied) and John Tavares are the only rookies to ever lead the Isles in point.

Countdown to 50

Mathew Barzal has 49 assists and Josh Bailey has 48. No Islander has had 50 assists since John Tavares reached the mark in 2011-12; Pierre Turgeon is the only Islander to exceed 50 assists in the last 28 seasons (74 in 1992-93 and 56 in 1993-94).

Three's Company

Mathew Barzal has eight games of at least three points this season (five games with three points and three games with five points). Since 1993-94, only Sidney Crosby (11 times), Artemi Panarin (10 times) and Alex Ovechkin (8 times) have done so as often in their rookie seasons.

One and Done

The Isles are 15-2-3 this season when leading after one period.  

Five's Alive

The Isles have scored at least five goals ten times at home (9-1-0) and seventeen times overall (16-1-0). The Isles have also scored two shootout winners for a fifth goal of the game (not included above). The Isles scored five goals (including shootout winners) in only 10 games all last season.

Five's Trouble

The Isles have allowed at least five goals ten times at home (1-7-2) and eighteen times overall (1-15-2).  

First Things First

The Isles have scored first 29 times this season (19-7-3). The Isles won the first eleven times they scored first this season but are only 8-7-3 in the last 18 games that they scored first.

First Goal 

The Isles are 19-7-3 when they score first and are 10-22-5 when they allow the opening goal. 

Fastest to 50

Doug Weight is now 53-41-12 as an NHL coach. On February 3rd vs. the Blue Jackets, he reached 50 wins faster than any coach in Islander history:

Fewest Games to 50 Wins by an Islander Coach:

93 – Doug Weight (50-34-9)

98 – Ted Nolan 2006-07 & 2007-08 (50-36-12)

102- Terry Simpson 1986-87 & 1987-88 (50-39-13)

103– Peter Laviolette 2001-02 & 2002-03(50-39-10-4)

106—Steve Stirling 2003-04 & 2005-06 (50-40-11-5)

The Shots

Isles            8-7-9-3=27

Pittsburgh 19-19-9-3=50

The Isles are 7-11-4 when they outshoot their opponents, 0-1-0 when the shots are even, and 22-17-4 when they are outshot.  (The club record for wins while being outshot in one season is 25, set by the 1983-84 team)

Offside Challenges

The Isles have challenged four times and been successful three times.  The Isles are 2-1-0 in games they win the challenge and are 0-0-1 in games they lose the challenge.

• 10/10 vs STL Blues – unsuccessful; Isles killed ensuing power play.

• 10/12 @ Ana Ducks – successful

• 1/15 @ Mtl Canadiens – successful 

• 2/16 @ Car Hurricanes - successful

The opponents have not yet challenged an Islander goal due to an offside this season.

Home and Road

The Islanders are 29-29-8 overall; 16-12-4 at home and 13-17-4 on the road.  

Pittsburgh is 37-25-4 overall; 24-8-1 at home and 13-7-3 on the road.  

By Division & Conference

The Isles are 10-9-2 in Division games and 19-20-6 in games versus other divisions.   The Isles are 17-20-3 against the East and 12-9-5 against the West.  

Our House

The Isles are 16-12-4 at home; they are 9-9-0 against the East and 7-3-4 against the West.  All-time the Isles are 28-7-7 all-time at Barclays against the West.

In the Nets

Christopher Gibson made 47 saves in his season debut and first career start against Pittsburgh.

Tristan Jarry made 32 saves to improve to 11-5-2 on the season and 3-0-0 in his career against the Isles. 

Power Plays

The Isles were 0-2 on the power play in 4:00 of PP time; Pittsburgh was 1-2 on the power play in 2:26 of PP time.

The Isles are 17-11-2 when they score at least one power play goal and 12-18-6 when they do not.  The Isles are 16-19-3 when they allow at least one power play goal and 13-10-5 when they do not.    

Three is a Magic Number

The Isles are 27-9-4 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 2-20-4 when they do not.  

One Goal Games

The Isles are 12-7-8 in games decided by a single goal including 3-7 in regulation. They are 6-6 in games decided in overtime and are 3-2 in shootouts.  The Isles are 4-3 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1 goal game into a 2-goal game.

Back-to-Backs

Including tonight, the Isles are 6-7-0 on the front-end of back-to-backs and 5-7-1 on the back-end. The Isles next back-to-back set will be a home-and-home with Washington on March 15th-16th. Overall, the Isles will play four sets of back-to-backs this month. 

Tired vs. Rested

• The Isles are 2-3-0 when both teams played the night before. 

• The Isles are 6-1-0 when they are rested, and their opponents are not. 

• The Isles are 3-4-1 when their opponents are rested, and the Isles are not.

• The Isles are 17-21-7 when both teams are rested. 

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Nick Leddy (22:25); Pittsburgh: Kris Letang (27:59)

Mathew Barzal led Isles forwards with 20:58 of ice-time.

Face-offs

Isles 31, Pittsburgh 24 (56%).

John Tavares won 12 of 20 for the Isles; Sidney Crosby won 8 of 14 for Pittsburgh.

 

Face-offs by period: 1st period 8/15; 2nd period 8/15; 3rd period 13/22; Overtime 2/3.

Face-offs by strength: Even strength: 28/49, Power play 3/4, Penalty kill 0/2.

Hit Count

Isles 34 (Chris Wagner & Johnny Boychuk -4).  Every Islander but Andrew Ladd was credited with at least one hit.

Pittsburgh 22 (Jamie Oleksiak-4)

Fights

There were no fights. Season total – 11: (Boychuk 2, Johnston 2, Mayfield 1, Cizikas 1, Chimera 1, Prince 1, Bailey 1, Eberle 1, Nelson 1).

Blocked Shots

The Isles blocked 17 shots (Thomas Hickey -3)

For the Corsi Crowd 

All situations: Isles 53, Pittsburgh 82

5-on-5 Isles 47, Pittsburgh 72.

5-on-5 leaders:

Isles: Andrew Ladd +7

Pittsburgh: Carl Hagelin & Bryan Rust +15

Night and Day 

The Isles are 25-28-7 in night games and 4-1-1 in matinees.  All remaining games this season will be played at night.  (To the NHL, all games starting after 5:00pm local time are considered night games)

Ironmen

Nick Leddy 143, Anders Lee 102, Chris Wagner 80 (including 77 for the Ducks), Brock Nelson 79, Mathew Barzal/John Tavares 66.

Top 5 Club

Nick Leddy now hold the fifth longest consecutive game streak in Islander history for a defenseman: 

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 12/19/2011- 3/2/2014 164 (**)

5. Nick Leddy 10/23/2016 – CURRENT 143

(*) Start of NHL career.

(**) Entire career with Islanders

Scratches

(Nikolay Kulemin -IR), (Calvin deHaan-IR), (Shane Prince- IR), (Scott Mayfield - IR), (Thomas Greiss-IR), (Alan Quine-IR), Sebastian Aho, Ryan Johnston, Dennis Seidenberg  

Total games lost: 229

Late Heroes

The Isles have scored four times in the final two minutes of regulation to either tie or take the lead:

10/9 – STL Blues – Anders Lee (19:00); tied game, but Isles lost in shootout

12/7 – PIT Penguins – Brock Nelson (18:50); tied game, but Isles lost in overtime

12/27- BUF Sabres – Josh Bailey (18:51); tied game, and Isles won in overtime

2/9 – DET Red Wings – Josh Bailey (18:11); took lead, Isles allowed tying goal but then won in overtime.

Late Goals Allowed

The Isles have allowed a goal five times in the final two minutes of regulation to either tie or win a game:

12/16 – LA Kings – Anze Kopitar (19:47); tied game, but Isles won in overtime

12/21—ANA Ducks – Rickard Rakell (18:45); tied game and Ducks won in overtime

2/6 – NAS Predators – Ryan Johansen (19:17); tied game and Predators won in overtime

2/9 – DET Red Wings – Mike Green (19:31); tied game but Isles won in overtime.

2/11- CLG Flames – Mathew Tkachuk (18:55); won game

7-11

The Isles have used 7 defensemen four times this season (10/19 @NYR, 10/21 vs SJ, 1/16 vs. NJ, 3/2 vs. MTL) and are 2-2-0 in those games.  Under Doug Weight, the Isles are 6-2-0 when they dress seven natural defensemen.

All-time Islander Leader Boards:

Games Played (skaters)

1. Bryan Trottier 1123 *** 2. Denis Potvin 1060 *** 3. Bob Nystrom 900 

…

7.  Patrick Flatley 712 *** 8. Josh Bailey 701*** 9. Brent Sutter 694 *** 10. John Tavares 653

Goals

1. Mike Bossy 573 *** 2. Bryan Trottier 500 *** 3. Denis Potvin 310 *** 4. Clark Gillies 304***

5. Pat LaFontaine and Brent Sutter 287 *** 7. John Tavares 265

…

18. Jason Blake 127 *** 19. Josh Bailey 121 *** 20. Diane Sutter 120 *** 21 Frans Nielsen and Alexei Yashin 119 *** 23. Mark Parrish, Matt Moulson and Steve Thomas 118 *** 26. Ray Ferraro 116 *** 27. Anders Lee 115

Assists

1. Bryan Trottier 853 *** 2. Denis Potvin 742 *** 3. Mike Bossy 553*** 4. Clark Gillies 359***

5. John Tonelli 338 *** 6. John Tavares 337

…

13. Bobby Nystrom 278 *** 14. Billy Harris 259 *** 15. Tomas Jonsson 249 *** 16. Josh Bailey 248

Points

1. Bryan Trottier 1353 *** 2. Mike Bossy 1126 *** 3. Denis Potvin 1052 *** 4. Clark Gillies 663 ***

5. Brent Sutter 610 *** 6. John Tavares 602

…

13. Billy Harris 443 *** 14. Josh Bailey, Kyle Okposo & Stefan Persson 369 

Games Played (Goalies)

1. Billy Smith 674 *** 2. Rick DiPietro 318 *** 3. Glenn Resch 282

…

6. Glenn Healy 176 *** 7. Jaroslav Halak 169 *** 8. Roland Melanson 136*** 9. Mark Fitzpatrick 129 ***

10. Garth Snow 127 *** 11.  Evgeni Nabokov 123 *** 12. Thomas Greiss 115

Wins (Goalie)

1. Billy Smith 304 *** 2. Glenn Resch 157 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 130***4. Kelly Hrudey 106 ***

5. Jaroslav Halak 86 *** 6.  Rollie Melanson 77*** 7. Glenn Healy 66 *** 8.  Tommy Salo 62 *** 

9. Thomas Greiss 60

Season Series Stats

Pittsburgh leads the season series three games to none (and six points to two). 

Overall, the Isles are 2-2-2 in their last six games against the Penguins and are 3-2-3 in their last eight trips to The Steel City.

 

On the Farm

Parker Wotherspoon scored two third period goals as the Bridgeport Sound Tigers rallied from an early 2-0 deficit and defeated the Belleville Senators 4-2.  Bridgeport has won four straight games to improve to 28-22-5-3 on the season and close in on the final playoff spot in their division. Eamon McAdam made 23 saves for the win.

Tanner Fritz (on recall to the Isles) leads Bridgeport with 37 points (10-27-37); Rookie Scott Eansor leads the team in goals with 16. Christopher Gibson (also on recall to the Isles) is 18-11-3 in the nets with 4 shutouts.

Bridgeport begins a 3-in-3 weekend on Friday, March 9th in Lehigh Valley; they'll then host the Phantoms on Saturday and host Springfield on Sunday afternoon.

Up Next

MONDAY, MARCH 5th –ISLANDERS AT VANCOUVER 10:00PM 

[MSG+ (Islander pre-game at 4:30PM), WFAN 660AM/101.9FM, 88.7 WRHU-FM]

The Isles begin the Western Canada portion of their road trip as they face the Canucks in Vancouver.

The Isles have won four straight games from the Canucks and will be looking to sweep the season series for the second straight season.  The Isles are also 4-2-0 in their last six trips to British Columbia, including memorable wins in 2010 (5 points for then-rookie John Tavares) and 2014 (7-goal third period).

 

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: Montreal 6, Isles 3

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick

Game 65

Montreal 6, Isles 3

Alex Galchenyuk celebrated his 400th NHL game with his 2nd career hat trick and 2nd career four-point game as the Montreal Canadiens scored three goals, including an empty-netter, in the third period, and defeated the Isles 6-3 before a crowd of 10,685 at Barclays Center.

The Isles are 0-4-1 in their last five games and have lost four of their last five games in Brooklyn.

Josh Bailey matched his career high with his 16th goal of the season while becoming only the 8th Islander to play in 700 career games. 

The Scoring: 

1ST PERIOD

01:28 Montreal Brendan Gallagher (22) ASST: Alex Galchenyuk (24), Jonathan Drouin (23)0-1

19:54 New York Tanner Fritz (2) ASST: Brock Nelson (12), Thomas Hickey (15) 1-1

2ND PERIOD

02:17 Montreal Alex Galchenyuk (13) ASST: David Schlemko (3) 1-2

04:23 New York Josh Bailey (16) ASST: Nick Leddy (28) 2-2

10:31 Montreal Alex Galchenyuk (14) ASST: Mike Reilly (9) 2-3

19:56 New York PPG - Brock Nelson (15) ASST: Anthony Beauvillier (11), Andrew Ladd (13)3-3

3RD PERIOD

08:10 Montreal Paul Byron (16) ASST: Brendan Gallagher (17), Jacob De La Rose (5) 4-3

09:53 Montreal Noah Juulsen (1) ASST: Artturi Lehkonen (8), Mike Reilly (10) 5-3

19:11 Montreal EN - Alex Galchenyuk (15) 6-3

The Skinny  

Isles are 14-22-5 since December 1st and have fallen to NHL-.500 for the first time since they were 3-3-1 in mid-October… Including shootout winners, the Isles have scored 211 goals in the first 65 games (highest since 1993-94 when they had 224) and allowed 234 goals (highest since 1995-96, when they allowed 254) …The Isles remain four points out of the final playoff spot; by virtue of Carolina's win and Columbus' loss, that spot belongs to the Hurricanes based on head-to-head record… Jordan Eberle missed his first game as an Islander, ending his consecutive game streak at 215… Karl Alzner played in his 604th consecutive game (4th longest active streak and 12th longest in NHL history)… Montreal has earned points in six straight games (3-0-3)…Jaroslav Halak's 22 regulation losses are the most in his career and the most for an Islander since Joey MacDonald lost 26 in 2008-09…Mathew Barzal drew three more penalties, giving him 33 on the season.  Only Matthew Tkachuk (41) has drawn more…The Isles did not allow a shot on goal in the final 17:12 of the first period…Brock Nelson's goal was his first since he had a hat trick vs. Detroit three weeks ago…The Isles have been outscored 4-0 in 4-on-4 situations this season, including Alex Galchenyuk's first goal tonight; Galchenyuk is the 6th Canadien with a hat trick against the Isles and the first since Max Pacioretty in 2012…The Isles have allowed at least five goals 18 times this season and have allowed six goals nine times…Tanner Fritz scored a goal in a career-high 17:12 of ice-time…The Isles have scored three goals or fewer in nine straight games (2-6-1)…Newly-acquired Mike Reilly had two assists and was +4 for Montreal.

The Baby

Welcome to the World, Jack William Cizikas!  Casey's first child checked in at 7 pounds, 2 ounces.

The Injuries

Victor Mete left the game after the first period and did not return.  Max Pacioretty suffered a hand injury in the third period and did not return.

First Time for Everything

Tanner Fritz scored at 19:54 of the first period and Brock Nelson scored at 19:56 of the second period; it's the first time in Islander history (3,565 regular season games) that they have scored goals in the final six seconds of two periods in the same game.  Before tonight, the Isles had scored only one goal in the final six seconds of any period this season; Mathew Barzal scored his 2nd NHL goal in the final seconds of a 6-4 loss in Minnesota.

First Time for Everything II

Noah Juulsen scored his first NHL goal in the third period. 

Lots of Rubber for Jaro

Since December 1st, Jaroslav Halak has faced 1,162 shots.  This is 64 more than any other goaltender in that span (Henirk Lundqvist has faced 1,098).   Halak has faced 1,536 shots this season (6th in NHL); each goalie who has faced more shots have played in at least seven more games than Halak.

Barzal Is Highest Scoring Isles Rookie in 40 Years

Mathew Barzal is the third highest-scoring rookie in Islander history; with 49 assists in 65 games, he is on pace for 62 assists: 

Most Assists by an Islander Rookie

1. Bryan Trottier 63 1975-76

2. Stefan Persson 50 1977-78

3. MATHEW BARZAL49 2017-18 

Most Points by an Islander Rookie

1. Bryan Trottier 95 1975-76

2. Mike Bossy 91 1977-78

3. MATHEW BARZAL67 2017-18 

Over the last 10 seasons, no rookie has more assists than Barzal. (Nicklas Backstrom had 55 assists and Patrick Kane had 51 assists in 2007-08.)

Denis Potvin is the only rookie to ever lead the Isles in assists; Billy Harris, Potvin, Trent Hunter (tied) and John Tavares are the only rookies to ever lead the Isles in point.

Countdown to 50

Mathew Barzal has 49 assists and Josh Bailey has 47. No Islander has had 50 assists since John Tavares reached the mark in 2011-12; Pierre Turgeon is the only Islander to exceed 50 assists in the last 28 seasons (74 in 1992-93 and 56 in 1993-94).

Three's Company

Mathew Barzal has eight games of at least three points this season (five games with three points and three games with five points). Since 1993-94, only Sidney Crosby (11 times), Artemi Panarin (10 times) and Alex Ovechkin (8 times) have done so as often in their rookie seasons.

One and Done

The Isles are 16-2-2 this season when leading after one period.  

Five's Alive

The Isles have scored at least five goals ten times at home (9-1-0) and seventeen times overall (16-1-0). The Isles have also scored two shootout winners for a fifth goal of the game (not included above). The Isles scored five goals (including shootout winners) in only 10 games all last season.

Five's Trouble

The Isles have allowed at least five goals ten times at home (1-7-2) and eighteen times overall (1-15-2).  

First Things First

The Isles have scored first 28 times this season (19-7-2). The Isles won the first eleven times they scored first this season and had won a franchise-record 16 straight dating back to last season.

First Goal 

The Isles are 19-7-2 when they score first and are 10-22-5 when they allow the opening goal. 

Fastest to 50

Doug Weight is now 53-41-11 as an NHL coach. On February 3rd vs. the Blue Jackets, he reached 50 wins faster than any coach in Islander history:

Fewest Games to 50 Wins by an Islander Coach:

93 – Doug Weight (50-34-9)

98 – Ted Nolan 2006-07 & 2007-08 (50-36-12)

102- Terry Simpson 1986-87 & 1987-88 (50-39-13)

103– Peter Laviolette 2001-02 & 2002-03(50-39-10-4)

106—Steve Stirling 2003-04 & 2005-06 (50-40-11-5)

The Shots

Isles        14-11-10=35

Montreal 5-10-10=25

The Isles are 7-11-4 when they outshoot their opponents, 0-1-0 when the shots are even, and 22-17-3 when they are outshot.  (The club record for wins while being outshot in one season is 25, set by the 1983-84 team)

Offside Challenges

The Isles have challenged four times and been successful three times.  The Isles are 2-1-0 in games they win the challenge and are 0-0-1 in games they lose the challenge.

• 10/10 vs STL Blues – unsuccessful; Isles killed ensuing power play.

• 10/12 @ Ana Ducks – successful

• 1/15 @ Mtl Canadiens – successful 

• 2/16 @ Car Hurricanes - successful

The opponents have not yet challenged an Islander goal due to an offside this season.

Home and Road

The Islanders are 29-29-7 overall; 16-12-4 at home and 13-17-2 on the road.  

Montreal is 25-29-10 overall; 16-10-8 at home and 9-19-2 on the road.  

By Division & Conference

The Isles are 10-9-1 in Division games and 19-20-6 in games versus other divisions.   The Isles are 17-20-2 against the East and 12-9-5 against the West.  

Our House

The Isles are 16-12-4 at home; they are 9-9-0 against the East and 7-3-4 against the West.  All-time the Isles are 28-7-7 all-time at Barclays against the West.

In the Nets

Jaroslav Halak made 19 saves but falls to 18-22-5 on the season and 4-4-0 in his career against Montreal. He is 0-4-0 as an Islander against Montreal.

Charlie Lindgren made 32 saves to improve to 4-4-2 on the season and 1-0-0 in his career against the Isles. 

Power Plays

The Isles were 1-4 on the power play in 5:57 of PP time; Montreal was 0-3 on the power play in 4:49 of PP time.

The Isles are 17-11-2 when they score at least one power play goal and 12-18-5 when they do not.  The Isles are 16-19-2 when they allow at least one power play goal and 13-10-5 when they do not.    

Three is (Usually) a Magic Number

The Isles are 27-9-4 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 2-20-3 when they do not.  

One Goal Games

The Isles are 12-7-7 in games decided by a single goal including 3-7 in regulation. They are 6-5 in games decided in overtime and are 3-2 in shootouts.  The Isles are 4-3 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1 goal game into a 2-goal game.

Back-to-Backs

Including tonight, the Isles are 6-7-0 on the front-end of back-to-backs and 5-7-0 on the back-end. This back-to-back set concludes in Pittsburgh at 5pm Saturday.  The Isles next back-to-back set will be a home-and-home with Washington on March 15th-16th. Overall, the Isles will play four sets of back-to-backs this month. 

Tired vs. Rested

• The Isles are 2-3-0 when both teams played the night before. 

• The Isles are 6-1-0 when they are rested, and their opponents are not. 

• The Isles are 3-4-0 when their opponents are rested, and the Isles are not.

• The Isles are 17-21-7 when both teams are rested. 

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Mathew Barzal (23:05 – career high); Montreal: Karl Alzner (22:41)

Face-offs

Isles 24, Montreal 29 (45%).

John Tavares won 11 of 19 for the Isles; Jonathan Drouin won 6 of 9 for Montreal.

 

Face-offs by period: 1st period 9/18; 2nd period 8/20; 3rd period 7/15.

Face-offs by strength: Even strength: 20/44, Power play 3/5, Penalty kill 1/4.

Hit Count

Isles 34 (Cal Clutterbuck -5)

Montreal 26 (Karl Alzner-4)

Fights

There were no fights. Season total – 11: (Boychuk 2, Johnston 2, Mayfield 1, Cizikas 1, Chimera 1, Prince 1, Bailey 1, Eberle 1, Nelson 1).

Blocked Shots

The Isles blocked 5 shots (Adam Pelech- 2)

For the Corsi Crowd 

All situations: Isles 62, Montreal 42

5-on-5 Isles 47, Montreal 35.

5-on-5 leaders:

Isles: Andrew Ladd +12

Montreal: Mike Reilly +3

Night and Day 

The Isles are 25-28-6 in night games and 4-1-1 in matinees.  All remaining games this season will be played at night.

Ironmen

Nick Leddy 142, Anders Lee 101, Chris Wagner 79 (including 77 for the Ducks), Brock Nelson 78, Eberle/Mathew Barzal/John Tavares 65.

Top 5 Club

Nick Leddy now hold the fifth longest consecutive game streak in Islander history for a defenseman: 

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 12/19/2011- 3/2/2014 164 (**)

5. Nick Leddy 10/23/2016 – CURRENT 142

(*) Start of NHL career.

(**) Entire career with Islanders

Scratches

(Nikolay Kulemin -IR), (Calvin deHaan-IR), (Shane Prince- IR), (Scott Mayfield - IR), (Thomas Greiss-IR), (Alan Quine-IR), Jordan Eberle- injured, Casey Cizikas – paternity, Dennis Seidenberg  

Total games lost: 223

Late Heroes

The Isles have scored four times in the final two minutes of regulation to either tie or take the lead:

10/9 – STL Blues – Anders Lee (19:00); tied game, but Isles lost in shootout

12/7 – PIT Penguins – Brock Nelson (18:50); tied game, but Isles lost in overtime

12/27- BUF Sabres – Josh Bailey (18:51); tied game, and Isles won in overtime

2/9 – DET Red Wings – Josh Bailey (18:11); took lead, Isles allowed tying goal but then won in overtime.

Late Goals Allowed

The Isles have allowed a goal five times in the final two minutes of regulation to either tie or win a game:

12/16 – LA Kings – Anze Kopitar (19:47); tied game, but Isles won in overtime

12/21—ANA Ducks – Rickard Rakell (18:45); tied game and Ducks won in overtime

2/6 – NAS Predators – Ryan Johansen (19:17); tied game and Predators won in overtime

2/9 – DET Red Wings – Mike Green (19:31); tied game but Isles won in overtime.

2/11- CLG Flames – Mathew Tkachuk (18:55); won game

7-11

The Isles have used 7 defensemen four times this season (10/19 @NYR, 10/21 vs SJ, 1/16 vs. NJ, 3/2 vs. MTL) and are 2-2-0 in those games.  Under Doug Weight, the Isles are 6-2-0 when they dress seven natural defensemen.

All-time Islander Leader Boards:

Games Played (skaters)

1. Bryan Trottier 1123 *** 2. Denis Potvin 1060 *** 3. Bob Nystrom 900 

…

7.  Patrick Flatley 712 *** 8. Josh Bailey 700*** 9. Brent Sutter 694 *** 10. John Tavares 652

Goals

1. Mike Bossy 573 *** 2. Bryan Trottier 500 *** 3. Denis Potvin 310 *** 4. Clark Gillies 304***

5. Pat LaFontaine and Brent Sutter 287 *** 7. John Tavares 265

…

18. Jason Blake 127 *** 19. Josh Bailey 121 *** 20. Diane Sutter 120 *** 21 Frans Nielsen and Alexei Yashin 119 *** 23. Mark Parrish, Matt Moulson and Steve Thomas 118 *** 26. Ray Ferraro 116 *** 27. Anders Lee 114

Assists

1. Bryan Trottier 853 *** 2. Denis Potvin 742 *** 3. Mike Bossy 553*** 4. Clark Gillies 359***

5. John Tonelli 338 *** 6. John Tavares 336

…

13. Bobby Nystrom 278 *** 14. Billy Harris 259 *** 15. Tomas Jonsson 249 *** 16. Josh Bailey 247

Points

1. Bryan Trottier 1353 *** 2. Mike Bossy 1126 *** 3. Denis Potvin 1052 *** 4. Clark Gillies 663 ***

5. Brent Sutter 610 *** 6. John Tavares 601

…

13. Billy Harris 443 *** 14. Kyle Okposo & Stefan Persson 369 *** 16. Josh Bailey 368

Games Played (Goalies)

1. Billy Smith 674 *** 2. Rick DiPietro 318 *** 3. Glenn Resch 282

…

6. Glenn Healy 176 *** 7. Jaroslav Halak 169 *** 8. Roland Melanson 136*** 9. Mark Fitzpatrick 129 ***

10. Garth Snow 127 *** 11.  Evgeni Nabokov 123 *** 12. Thomas Greiss 115

Wins (Goalie)

1. Billy Smith 304 *** 2. Glenn Resch 157 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 130***4. Kelly Hrudey 106 ***

5. Jaroslav Halak 86 *** 6.  Rollie Melanson 77*** 7. Glenn Healy 66 *** 8.  Tommy Salo 62 *** 

9. Thomas Greiss 60

Season Series Stats

Montreal wins the season series two games to one (and five points to two). 

This was the third time in the last nine seasons that the teams have played a home-and-home series; Montreal has swept all three home-and home series.

The Isles are 1-6-1 in their last eight home games vs. Montreal.

 

On the Farm

Bridgeport has won three straight games to improve to 27-22-5-3 after their 4-2 win in Laval on Friday.  Kane LaFranchise scored the winner with 7:31 to play. Kristers Gudlevskis made 22 saves for the win.

Tanner Fritz (on recall to the Isles) leads Bridgeport with 37 points (10-27-37); Rookie Scott Eansor leads the team in goals with 16. Christopher Gibson (also on recall to the Isles) is 18-11-3 in the nets with 4 shutouts.

The Sound Tigers now head to Belleville (ONT) for a game on Saturday night. 

Up Next

SATURDAY, MARCH 3rd –ISLANDERS AT PITTSBURGH 5:00PM 

[MSG+ (Islander pre-game at 4:30PM), WFAN 660AM/101.9FM, 88.7 WRHU-FM]

The Isles begin a four-game road trip as they visit the Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Penguins have won the first two meetings.  Pittsburgh overcame an Islander rally for an overtime win on December 7th in Pittsburgh and then blanked the Isles 4-0 in Brooklyn four weeks later.

Overall, the Isles are 2-2-1 in their last five games against the Penguins and are 3-2-2 in their last seven trips to The Steel City.

The season series will conclude in Brooklyn on March 20th.

 

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