The Skinny: Vancouver 6, Isles 5

"The Skinny"      

By Eric Hornick

Game 55

Vancouver 6, Isles 5

Elias Pettersson scored a pair of goals 3:50 apart in the third period but it was Anthony Beauvillier's late power play goal that would eventually be the winner as the Vancouver Canucks rallied from 1-0 and 4-2 deficits for a 6-5 win over the Islanders before a sellout crowd of 17,255 at UBS Arena. 

Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat continued make things happen in their third game together; Barzal had a goal and two assists while Horvat had one of each as the Isles duo each went +3 on the game.  Noah Dobson scored a last-minute goal for the Isles; it was only their second tally in their last 16 third periods and his first goal in 20 games.  Kyle Palmieri and Brock Nelson also scored for the Isles. 

The Isles, who saw their win streak end at four games, fall to 27-23-5 and remain tied with Pittsburgh for the 2nd Wild Card spot; however, the Penguins have played five fewer games. The Islanders head to Montreal for a Saturday matinee against the Canadiens. 

The Scoring:

1st Period

Kyle Palmieri (8) Josh Bailey (15), Adam Pelech (11) 11:05 VAN 0,NYI 1

Oliver Ekman-Larsson (2) Elias Pettersson (39) 11:44 VAN 1,NYI 1

Brock Boeser (10) J.T. Miller (29), Riley Stillman (5) 12:30 VAN 2,NYI 1 

Brock Nelson (20) 14:34 VAN 2,NYI 2

2nd Period

Mathew Barzal (14) Noah Dobson (19), Anders Lee (17) 02:26 VAN 2,NYI 3 PP

Bo Horvat (33) Mathew Barzal (33), Ryan Pulock (15) 15:13 VAN 2,NYI 4

Nils Aman (2) Phillip Di Giuseppe (1), Dakota Joshua (5) 16:04 VAN 3,NYI 4

3rd Period

Elias Pettersson (23) Quinn Hughes (43), J.T. Miller (30) 04:38 VAN 4,NYI 4 PPG

Elias Pettersson (24) Brock Boeser (23), Ethan Bear (8) 08:28 VAN 5,NYI 4

Anthony Beauvillier (10) Brock Boeser (24), Quinn Hughes (44) 16:58 VAN 6,NYI 4 PPG

Noah Dobson (11) Mathew Barzal (34), Bo Horvat (24) 19:11 VAN 6,NYI 5

The Skinny    

Brock Nelson extended his point streak to a career-high nine games; it is the longest point streak by an Islander since Mathew Barzal also had a 9-game streak in December 2021-January 2022…It is the 7th time in his career that Nelson has scored 20 goals… With a post-game scoring change, the Isles went 2-3 on the power play and are 3-7 on the power play since the All-Star Break.  They are 3-32 in their last thirteen games and are 6-71 in the last 26 games …The Isles allowed two power play goals after killing 63-69 (91.3%) at home on the season prior to tonight ...The Isles scored the first goal for the eleventh time in the last thirteen games … The Isles have scored 30 goals in the last fourteen games (5-6-3); 16 of those goals have been scored in the first period…The Isles have been outscored 15-2 in their last sixteen third periods… The Isles' third period differential is now 0; the Isles were +16 in the third period through 23 games but are -16 over the last 32 games… Ilya Sorokin allowed six goals for only the second time in his career (4-24-2022 vs. Washington)…Adam Pelech's assist gave him identical 22-95-117 totals to former teammate Thomas Hickey…The 11 combined goals match the most in UBS Arena history (7-4 loss to St. Louis on December 6th…Mathew Barzal has a point in every game he has played against Vancouver; he is 3-12-15 in nine meetings…The Isles fall to 19-3-2 when leading after two periods; the other losses were to the Rangers (December 22) and Wild (January 12th)…The Isles have scored nine goals in the last two games; it is the first time since December 23-27, 2022 that they have scored four goals in consecutive games…With his two assists in the third period, Quinn Hughes is now second among NHL defensemen in helpers…The loss ended a five-game winning streak on Jon Ledecky's birthday.

First Time in a Long Time

The Isles scored 5 goals and lost for the first time since a 6-5 shootout loss to Anaheim on December 21, 2019, at the Coliseum.  The last time the Isles scored 5 goals and lost in regulation was on March 22, 2018, when the lost 7-6 to Tampa Bay in Brooklyn.

The Shutout Streak Ends

Ilya Sorokin stopped 67 consecutive shots in his 144:00 shutout streak.  It is the 5th-longest in the NHL season (Antti Raanta - 163:54), and the second-longest of his career (146:54 last season). This is the sixth time this season Sorokin has had a shutout streak of at least 90 minutes, four time he has gone at least 100 minutes and the second time he has gone at least 120 minutes.   Sorokin joined Rick DiPietro as the only goalies in club history with three streaks of at least 140:00.

Chasing 50

Bo Horvat has 33 goals in 52 games this season. No Islander has had at least 33 goals through the team's 55th game since Pierre Turgeon had 34 in 1992-93.  (If Horvat plays every game the remainder of the season he would appear in 79 games.)

Last Year vs. This Year

• 2022-23  27-23-5 for 59 points in 55 games

• 2021-22  23-24-8 for 54 points in 55 games; finished 37-35-10 for 84 points.

Offense from Defense

• Today:  1-3-4

• Season: 29-79-108

• Last Season (Final) 32-128-160

The Islander defense have scored 29 goals; they didn't score their 29th goal last season until game 79 April 24th.   

Best of the Best

Ilya Sorokin has 15 shutouts in 111 career starts.  He has recorded a shutout in 13.6% of his starts, which is the best in NHL history (since 1943-44) among goalies with at least 100 starts:

• Ilya Sorokin 13.5%

• Roman Cechmanek 12.2%

• Ken Dryden 11.8%

• Dominik Hasek 11.3%

Zach Attack 

Zach Parise has 422 career goals, good for 9th among actives, and tied with Owen Nolan for 85th place; Steve Shutt is 84th with 424 goals.

Home and Road

The Isles are 27-23-5 overall; they are 16-10-2 at home and 11-13-3 on the road.

Vancouver is 21-27-4 overall; they are 10-13-1 at home and 11-14-3 on the road.

East and West

The Isles are 15-12-3 against the East (10-5-1 vs. Metropolitan and 5-7-2 vs. Atlantic) and 12-11-2 against the West (4-7-2 vs. Central and 8-4-0 vs. Pacific).

Home is Where the Fans Are

The Isles have played 69 games at UBS Arena and recorded 48 sellouts of 17,255. 

Sweet Lou

Lou Lamoriello has the second-highest win total for any general manager in NHL history:

1. David Poile 1,515

2. Lou Lamoriello 1,391

3. Glen Sather 1,319

First Things First

The Isles are 19-8-2 when scoring first and are 8-15-3 when allowing the opening goal. 

The Shots

Isles         7-11-11=29

Vancouver 8-16-10=34

The Isles are 14-9-1 when they outshoot their opponents, 0-0-0 when the shots are even and 12-44 when they are outshot. 

In the Nets

Ilya Sorokin made 28 saves; he is 17-17-4 on the season and 2-1-0 vs Vancouver. 

Colin Delia made 24 saves; he is 7-3-1 on the season and 1-0-1 vs. the Isles.  

Special Teams

The Isles were 2-3 on the power play (5:16), scoring on a 6-on-4 for the first time this season; Vancouver was 2-4 on the power play (6:06).

The Isles are 12-9-1 when they score at least one power play goal and 15-14-4 when they do not. The Isles are 11-11-1 when they allow at least one power play goal and 16-12-4 when they do not.

Three is (Usually) a Magic Number

The Isles are 22-6-2 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 5-17-3 when they do not.

One-Goal Games

The Isles are 10-5-5 in games decided by a single goal including 6-5 in regulation. They are 4-2 in games decided in overtime and are 0-3 in shootouts. The Isles are 4-7 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1-goal game into a 2-goal game.

Back-to-Backs   

The next set of back-to-backs will be on February 17th vs Pittsburgh and on February 18th in Boston. The Isles are 6-5-0 in the front end and 7-3-1 in the back end. 

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Noah Dobson (23:02);  Vancouver: Tyler Myers (25:03)

Bo Horvat led Isles forwards with 21:13 of ice-time. 

Isles record by ice-time leaders: Alexander Romanov (2-1-1), Noah Dobson (4-11-2), Adam Pelech (5-2-0), Ryan Pulock (5-5-0), Scott Mayfield (7-1-2), Brock Nelson (1-0-0), Mathew Barzal (2-1-0), Sebastian Aho (0-1-0), Tied (0-1-0).

Face-offs

Isles 26, Vancouver 23 (53%)

Bo Horvat won 10 of 18 for the Isles; JT Miller won 10 of 19 for Vancouver. 

Hit Count

Isles 26 (Matt Martin -6)

Vancouver 23 (Dakota Joshua -4)

Fights 

None. Season total: 14 (Martin-6, Lee-2, Wahlstrom-2, Johnston-2, Cizikas, Romanov)

 

Blocked Shots

Isles 9 (Zach Parise -4)

Vancouver 15 (JT Miller -3)

For the Analytics Crowd 

Corsi: All situations: Isles 52, Vancouver 56

Corsi: 5-on-5: Isles 39, Vancouver 44

5-on-5 leaders:

Isles:  Mathew Barzal and Adam Pelech +5

Vancouver:  Two with +9

High Danger Scoring Chances (per Natural Stat Trick)

All situations: Isles 17, Vancouver 20

5-on-5: Isles 14, Vancouver 14

Scratches

Oliver Wahlstrom-IR), (Cal Clutterbuck – IR), Ross Johnston, Parker Wotherspoon, Sebastian Aho

Games Lost: 119

The Ironman

Zach Parise played in his 137th consecutive Islander game; he has played in every game since joining the team in October 2021. It is the 20th-longest active streak in the NHL. 

Challenges

Isles: 1 successful, 0 failures – STL goalie interference 11/3

Opponents: 2 successful, 0 failures – PIT offside 12/27, VAN goalie interference 2/9

League reviews: 4 (Isles goal – Salo vs ANA 10/16 – stood; Isles no goal vs NSH 12/2-stood; Isles goal- Martin vs CHI 12/4-awarded; MIN goal (Gaudreau) 1/12 – awarded)

Quickies

The Isles have scored two goals in under a minute six times this season (five times at home and once on road):

• 0:17 10/29 vs. COL (Mayfield and Beauvillier)

• 0:59 11/7 vs. CGY (Lee and Palmieri)

• 0:22 11/26 vs PHI (Nelson and Beauvillier)

• 0:43 12/4 vs CHI (Parise and Nelson)

• 0:21 12/6 vs STL (Fasching and Pageau)

• 0:34 12/9 @ NJD (Cizikas and Wahlstrom)

Multi-Goal 3rd Period Comeback Wins

The Isles have come from two goals behind after two periods to win three times this season and have allowed the opposition to do so once.

For: Trailed 3-1, Won 5-3 vs. COL 10/29

Trailed 3-1, Won 4-3 (OT) vs CGY 11/7

Trailed 3-1, Won 4-3 at NYR 11/8

Vs  Led 4-2, Lost 6-5 vs VAN 2/9

Last Minute Heroes:

The Isles have scored two goal and allowed one goal in the final three minutes of the third period that were either the winning goal or forced overtime. 

For(2): Brock Nelson vs COL 10/29 (18:39;EN/GW)

Josh Bailey @ TOR 11/21 (17:02; Isles won in OT)

Vs (1): Kappo Kaako @NYR  12/22 (17:13: GW)

Overtime Winners

For (4): Noah Dobson vs CGY 11/7 (4:02)

Zach Parise vs CBJ 11/12 (0:39) 

Anthony Beauvillier @ TOR 11/21 (1:56)

Mathew Barzal vs VEG 1/28 (4:28)

Vs. (2): Dimitry Orlov Vs WAS 1/16 (4:27)

Dylan Cozens @ BUF 1/19 (0:12)

Shootout Winners

Vs (3):  David Pastrnak @ BOS 12/13

Evan Rodrigues @ COL 12/19

Jason Robertson Vs DAL 1/10

All-time Islander Leader Boards:

Games Played (skaters)

1. Bryan Trottier 1,123 *** 2. Denis Potvin 1,060 *** 3. Josh Bailey 1,044…

7. Mike Bossy 752 *** 8. Matt Martin 739 *** 9. Brock Nelson 731 *** 10. Casey Cizikas 718… 

13. John Tavares 669 *** 14. Anders Lee 651 *** 15. Derek King 638 *** 16. Billy Harris 623 *** 17. Stefan Persson 622 *** 18. Cal Clutterbuck 621

Goals    

1. Mike Bossy 573 *** 2. Bryan Trottier 500 *** 3. Denis Potvin 310 …

9. Bobby Nystrom 235 *** 10. Anders Lee 231 *** 11. Brock Nelson 225 *** 12. Derek King 211 *** 13. John Tonelli 206  *** 14 Billy Harris 184 *** 15. Josh Bailey 182

Assists

1. Bryan Trottier 853 *** 2. Denis Potvin 742 *** 3. Mike Bossy 553 *** 4. Josh Bailey 393…

15. Billy Harris 259 *** 16. Mathew Barzal 254 *** 17. Tomas Jonsson 249 *** 18. Frans Nielsen and Kyle Okposo 230 *** 20. Brock Nelson 211…

23. Ed Westfall 181 *** 24. Kenny Jonsson 175 *** 25. Alexei Yashin and Duane Sutter 171 *** 27. Anders Lee 170

Points

1. Bryan Trottier 1,353 *** 2. Mike Bossy 1,126 *** 3. Denis Potvin 1,052…

6.  Brent Sutter 610 *** 7. Josh Bailey 575  …

14. Billy Harris 443 *** 15. Brock Nelson 436 ***  16. Anders Lee 401 *** 17. Kyle Okposo and Stefan Persson 369…19. Mathew Barzal 359

+/-

1. Bryan Trottier +467 *** 2. Denis Potvin +456 *** 3. Mike Bossy +380…

15. Bob Lorimer +105 *** 16. Tomas Jonsson +76 *** 17. Garry Howatt +75 *** 18. Adam Pelech +74 *** 19. Pat Price +70 *** 20. JP Parise +67 *** 21. Jude Drouin +58 *** 22. Patrick Flatley +57 *** 23. Greg Gilbert +54

Defense Goals

1. Denis Potvin 310 *** 2. Tomas Jonsson 84 *** Kenny Jonsson 57…

6. Nick Leddy 45 *** 7. Roman Hamrlik 43 **** 8. Mark Streit and Ryan Pulock 40 *** 10. Johnny Boychuk *** 11. Adrian Aucoin 33 *** 12. Bryan Berard 31***13.  Noah Dobson 28

Defense Assists

1. Denis Potvin 742 *** 2. Stefan Persson 317 *** 3. Tomas Jonsson 249…

8. Mark Streit 139 *** 9. Roman Hamrlik 120 *** 10. Ryan Pulock 122…

18.Adam Pelech,  Dave Langevin and Thomas Hickey 95

Defense Points

1. Denis Potvin 1,052 *** 2. Stefan Persson 369 *** 3. Tomas Jonsson 333…

8. Mark Streit 179 *** 9. Ryan Pulock 162…

17. Vladimir Malakhov 125 *** 18. Thomas Hickey and Adam Pelech 117...

23. Scott Lachance and Ken Morrow 105 *** 25. Noah Dobson 102 *** 26. Scott Mayfield 100

Wins

1. Billy Smith 304 *** 2. Glenn Resch 157 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 130…

8. Glenn Healy 66 *** 9. Tommy Salo 62 *** 10. Semyon Varlamov 58 *** 11. Evgeni Nabokov 57 *** 12. Ilya Sorokin 56

Shutouts

1. Glenn Resch 25 *** 2. Billy Smith 22 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 16 …

4. Ilya Sorokin 15 *** 5. Tommy Salo 14 *** 6. Semyon Varlamov and Jaroslav Halak 12 

On the Farm

Bridgeport has spent the AHL-Star Break with a 19-18-7-1 record.  They are one point behind Hartford for the final playoff spot and are even in games with the Wolf Pack.

Andy Andreoff leads the team (and is tied-8th in the AHL) with 20 goals, while Chis Terry continues to lead in assists (30) and points (44). William Dufour has 15 goals and is tied-4th among AHL rookies while All-Star Ruslan Ishakov is tied-2nd among AHL rookies with 22 assists.

The Baby Islanders have only seven games remaining in February; they visit Lehigh Valley Saturday in their only game until February 17th.

Season Series Stats

The teams split the season series, 1 game to 1 (and 2 points to 2).   

Overall, the Isles are 8-2-4 in their last fourteen meetings with Vancouver, but they have lost both meetings with the Canucks that have been played at UBS Arena. 

UP NEXT

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11th  – ISLANDERS AT MONTREAL 12:30pm

[MSGSN (Pre-game at 12:00), WRHU 88.7 FM, WRCN 103.9FM, ESPN Radio]

The Islanders head to Montreal to face the Canadiens on Saturday afternoon. 

It's the middle of three meetings on the season; the Isles earned a 2-1 win on UBS Arena ice on January 14th.  The teams will meet on April 12th at UBS to conclude the 82-game schedule.

The Isles swept a pair of games in Montreal last season; the Isles have never won three consecutive games in Montreal.

Eric Hornick has been the statistician on Islander home game telecasts since January 21, 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: Isles 4, Seattle 0

"The Skinny"      

By Eric Hornick

Game 54

Isles 4, Seattle 0

Bo Horvat scored a career-high 32nd goal in his home debut for the final margin and Ilya Sorokin made 32 saves for his second consecutive shutout as the Islanders blanked the Seattle Kraken 4-0 before a sellout crowd of 17,255 at UBS Arena. 

The Isles grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first period as Samuel Bolduc scored his 1st NHL goal and Simon Holmstrom added his third; Zach Parise and Horvat scored 90 seconds apart in the second period to stretch the lead to 4-0. 

The Isles have won four straight games for the first time since Thanksgiving Week to improve to 27-22-5 and remain tied with Pittsburgh for the 2nd Wild Card spot; the Penguins have played four fewer games. The Islanders can pass both Pittsburgh and Washington with a home-ice win against the Canucks on Thursday. 

The Scoring:

1st Period

Samuel Bolduc (1) Scott Mayfield (8), Brock Nelson (29) 07:59 SEA 0,NYI 1

Simon Holmstrom (3) Jean-Gabriel Pageau (18) 18:29 SEA 0,NYI 2

2nd Period

Zach Parise (14) Jean-Gabriel Pageau (19), Adam Pelech (10) 03:38 SEA 0,NYI 3

Bo Horvat (32) Mathew Barzal (32) 05:08 SEA 0,NYI 4

3rd Period

No Goals 

The Skinny   

Samuel Bolduc is the second Islander whose first NHL goal turned out to be the game-winner; Simon Holmstrom did so in Vegas in December… Brock Nelson extended his point streak to a career-high eight games; it is the longest point streak by an Islander since Mathew Barzal had a 9-game streak in December 2021-January 2022…It was Nelson's 29th assist of the season, setting a new career high…The Isles went 0-1 on the power play.  They are 1-29 in their last twelve games and are 4-68 in the last 25 games …The Isles killed the only Kraken power play; they have killed 32 of their last 35 overall and their top-ranked home PK is 63-69 (91.3%) on the season ...The Isles scored the first goal for the tenth time in the last twelve games … The Isles have scored 25 goals in the last thirteen games (5-5-3); 14 of those goals have been scored in the first period…The Isles have been outscored 12-1 in their last fifteen third periods… The Isles' third period differential remains +2; the Isles were +16 in the third period through 23 games but are -14 over the last 31 games…Scott set-up the winning goal; he became the 26th defenseman in club history to reach 100 points… Both Scott Mayfield and Ryan Pulock played in their 400th game; they are the 51st and 52nd Islanders to play in 400 games…Mayfield and Pulock are the only Islander defenseman to play every game this season.

The Injury

Andre Burakovsky played only 21 seconds before leaving the game with a non-contact lower body injury; he did not return.

The Shutout Streak

Ilya Sorokin has stopped 61 consecutive shots in his 132:16 shutout streak.  It is the longest active streak in the NHL and the 5th-longest this season (Antti Raanta - 163:54). This is the sixth time this season Sorokin has had a shutout streak of at least 90 minutes, four time he has gone at least 100 minutes and the second time he has gone at least 120 minutes.   Sorokin has had two longer streaks in his career (146:54 last season and 143:08 in 2020-21); if he reaches 140 minutes, he will join Rick DiPietro as the only goalies in club history with three streaks of that length.

A Small Club

Ilya Sorokin now has 15 shutouts in his first 113 games; Tony Esposito (22) is the only goalie in the Expansion Era with at least that many.

An Even Smaller Club

Ilya Sorokin is the only goaltender in Islander history to record consecutive shutouts on three separate occasions.  A goaltender has recorded consecutive shutouts only 14 times in club history, with five of those occurring in the last three seasons.

Chasing 50

Bo Horvat has 32 goals in 51 games this season. No Islander has had at least 32 games through the team's 54th game since Pierre Turgeon had 34 in 1992-93.  (If Horvat plays every game the remainder of the season he would appear in 79 games.)

Last Year vs. This Year

• 2022-23  27-22-5 for 59 points in 54 games

• 2021-22  22-24-8 for 52 points in 54 games; finished 37-35-10 for 84 points.

Offense from Defense

• Today:  1-2-3

• Season: 28-75-103

• Last Season (Final) 32-128-160

The Islander defense have scored 28 goals; they didn't score their 28th goal last season until April 23rd.  Bolduc's goal was the first by an Isles defenseman since January 16th (Sebastian Aho vs. Washington).

Sorokin's House

Ilya Sorokin is 24-13-6 all-time at UBS Arena. His goals against average of 1.98 and his save percentage of .934 are the best in the NHL over that span, while his shutouts match Igor Shesterkin for the most on home-ice. Sorokin went 9-1-0 at the Coliseum; he is 33-14-6 in his career at home and his .931 career save percentage is the best on home ice in NHL history (minimum 50 home games).

Best of the Best

Ilya Sorokin has 15 shutouts in 110 career starts.  He has recorded a shutout in 13.6% of his starts, which is the best in NHL history (since 1943-44) among goalies with at least 100 starts:

• Ilya Sorokin 13.6%

• Roman Cechmanek 12.2%

• Ken Dryden 11.8%

• Dominik Hasek 11.3%

Zach Attack 

Zach Parise scored his 422nd career goal, good for 9th among actives, and tying Owen Nolan for 85th place; Steve Shutt is 84th with 424 goals.

Home and Road

The Isles are 27-22-5 overall; they are 16-9-2 at home and 11-13-3 on the road.

Seattle is 29-16-5 overall; they are 13-10-3 at home and 16-6-2 on the road.

East and West

The Isles are 15-12-3 against the East (10-5-1 vs. Metropolitan and 5-7-2 vs. Atlantic) and 12-10-2 against the West (4-7-2 vs. Central and 8-3-0 vs. Pacific).

Home is Where the Fans Are

The Isles have played 68 games at UBS Arena and recorded 47 sellouts of 17,255. 

Sweet Lou

Lou Lamoriello has the second-highest win total for any general manager in NHL history:

1. David Poile 1,515

2. Lou Lamoriello 1,390

3. Glen Sather 1,319

First Things First

The Isles are 19-7-2 when scoring first and are 8-15-3 when allowing the opening goal. 

The Shots

Isles  9-11-8=28

Seattle 8-13-11=32

The Isles are 14-9-1 when they outshoot their opponents, 0-0-0 when the shots are even and 12-13-4 when they are outshot. 

In the Nets

Ilya Sorokin made 32 saves; he is 17-16-4 on the season and 2-1-0 vs Seattle. 

Martin Jones made 24 saves; he is 23-8-3 on the season and 4-5-0 vs. the Isles.  

Special Teams

The Isles were 0-1 on the power play (2:00); Seattle was 0-1 on the power play (2:00).

The Isles are 12-8-1 when they score at least one power play goal and 15-14-4 when they do not. The Isles are 11-10-1 when they allow at least one power play goal and 16-12-4 when they do not.

Three is a Magic Number

The Isles are 22-5-2 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 5-17-3 when they do not.

One-Goal Games

The Isles are 10-4-5 in games decided by a single goal including 6-4 in regulation. They are 4-2 in games decided in overtime and are 0-3 in shootouts. The Isles are 4-7 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1-goal game into a 2-goal game.

Back-to-Backs   

The next set of back-to-backs will be on February 17th vs Pittsburgh and on February 18th in Boston. Including tonight, the Isles are 6-5-0 in the front end and 7-3-1 in the back end. 

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Scott Mayfield (21:16);  Seattle: Vince Dunn (23:17)

Mathew Barzal led Isles forwards with 17:05 of ice-time. 

Isles record by ice-time leaders: Alexander Romanov (2-1-1), Noah Dobson (4-10-2), Adam Pelech (5-2-0), Ryan Pulock (5-5-0), Scott Mayfield (7-1-2), Brock Nelson (1-0-0), Mathew Barzal (2-1-0), Sebastian Aho (0-1-0), Tied (0-1-0).

Face-offs

Isles 33, Seattle 18 (65%)

Bo Horvat won 11 of 15 for the Isles; no Kraken who took more than two draws won more than he lost.

Hit Count

Isles 25 (Anders Lee -5)

Seattle 31 (Three with 4)

Fights 

None. Season total: 14 (Martin-6, Lee-2, Wahlstrom-2, Johnston-2, Cizikas, Romanov)

 

Blocked Shots

Isles 17 (Samuel Bolduc -3)

Seattle 13 (Two with 3)

For the Analytics Crowd 

Corsi: All situations: Isles 50, Seattle 62

Corsi: 5-on-5: Isles 47, Seattle 56

5-on-5 leaders:

Isles:  Kyle Palmieri +5

Seattle:  Yanni Gourde +9

High Danger Scoring Chances (per Natural Stat Trick)

All situations: Isles 16, Seattle 7

5-on-5: Isles 14, Seattle 4

Scratches

Oliver Wahlstrom-IR), (Cal Clutterbuck – IR), Ross Johnston, Parker Wotherspoon, Alexander Romanov - personal

Games Lost: 117

The Ironman

Zach Parise played in his 136th consecutive Islander game; he has played in every game since joining the team in October 2021. It is the 20th-longest active streak in the NHL. 

Challenges

Isles: 1 successful, 0 failures – STL goalie interference 11/3

Opponents: 1 successful, 0 failures – PIT offside 12/27

League reviews: 4 (Isles goal – Salo vs ANA 10/16 – stood; Isles no goal vs NSH 12/2-stood; Isles goal- Martin vs CHI 12/4-awarded; MIN goal (Gaudreau) 1/12 – awarded)

Quickies

The Isles have scored two goals in under a minute six times this season (five times at home and once on road):

• 0:17 10/29 vs. COL (Mayfield and Beauvillier)

• 0:59 11/7 vs. CGY (Lee and Palmieri)

• 0:22 11/26 vs PHI (Nelson and Beauvillier)

• 0:43 12/4 vs CHI (Parise and Nelson)

• 0:21 12/6 vs STL (Fasching and Pageau)

• 0:34 12/9 @ NJD (Cizikas and Wahlstrom)

Multi-Goal 3rd Period Comeback Wins

The Isles have come from two goals behind after two periods to win three times this season and have not allowed the opposition to do so.

For: Trailed 3-1, Won 5-3 vs. COL 10/29

Trailed 3-1, Won 4-3 (OT) vs CGY 11/7

Trailed 3-1, Won 4-3 at NYR 11/8

Last Minute Heroes:

The Isles have scored two goal and allowed one goal in the final three minutes of the third period that were either the winning goal or forced overtime. 

For(2): Brock Nelson vs COL 10/29 (18:39;EN/GW)

Josh Bailey @ TOR 11/21 (17:02; Isles won in OT)

Vs (1): Kappo Kaako @NYR  12/22 (17:13: GW)

Overtime Winners

For (4): Noah Dobson vs CGY 11/7 (4:02)

Zach Parise vs CBJ 11/12 (0:39) 

Anthony Beauvillier @ TOR 11/21 (1:56)

Mathew Barzal vs VEG 1/28 (4:28)

Vs. (2): Dimitry Orlov Vs WAS 1/16 (4:27)

Dylan Cozens @ BUF 1/19 (0:12)

Shootout Winners

Vs (3):  David Pastrnak @ BOS 12/13

Evan Rodrigues @ COL 12/19

Jason Robertson Vs DAL 1/10

All-time Islander Leader Boards:

Games Played (skaters)

1. Bryan Trottier 1,123 *** 2. Denis Potvin 1,060 *** 3. Josh Bailey 1,043…

7. Mike Bossy 752 *** 8. Matt Martin 738 *** 9. Brock Nelson 730 *** 10. Casey Cizikas 717… 

13. John Tavares 669 *** 14. Anders Lee 650 *** 15. Derek King 638 *** 16. Billy Harris 623 *** 17. Stefan Persson 622 *** 18. Cal Clutterbuck 621

Goals    

1. Mike Bossy 573 *** 2. Bryan Trottier 500 *** 3. Denis Potvin 310 …

9. Bobby Nystrom 235 *** 10. Anders Lee 231 *** 11. Brock Nelson 224 *** 12. Derek King 211 *** 13. John Tonelli 206  *** 14 Billy Harris 184 *** 15. Josh Bailey 182

Assists

1. Bryan Trottier 853 *** 2. Denis Potvin 742 *** 3. Mike Bossy 553 *** 4. Josh Bailey 393…

15. Billy Harris 259 *** 16. Mathew Barzal 252 *** 17. Tomas Jonsson 249 *** 18. Frans Nielsen and Kyle Okposo 230 *** 20. Brock Nelson 211…

23. Ed Westfall 181 *** 24. Kenny Jonsson 175 *** 25. Alexei Yashin and Duane Sutter 171 *** 27. Anders Lee 170

Points

1. Bryan Trottier 1,353 *** 2. Mike Bossy 1,126 *** 3. Denis Potvin 1,052…

6.  Brent Sutter 610 *** 7. Josh Bailey 575  …

14. Billy Harris 443 *** 15. Brock Nelson 435 ***  16. Anders Lee 401 *** 17. Kyle Okposo and Stefan Persson 369…19. Mathew Barzal 356

+/-

1. Bryan Trottier +467 *** 2. Denis Potvin +456 *** 3. Mike Bossy +380…

15. Bob Lorimer +105 *** 16. Tomas Jonsson +76 *** 17. Garry Howatt +75 *** 18. Adam Pelech +73 *** 19. Pat Price +70 *** 20. JP Parise +67 *** 21. Jude Drouin +58 *** 22. Patrick Flatley +57 *** 23. Greg Gilbert +54

Defense Goals

1. Denis Potvin 310 *** 2. Tomas Jonsson 84 *** Kenny Jonsson 57…

6. Nick Leddy 45 *** 7. Roman Hamrlik 43 **** 8. Mark Streit and Ryan Pulock 40 *** 10. Johnny Boychuk *** 11. Adrian Aucoin 33 *** 12. Bryan Berard 31***13. Vladimir Malakhov and Noah Dobson 27

Defense Assists

1. Denis Potvin 742 *** 2. Stefan Persson 317 *** 3. Tomas Jonsson 249…

8. Mark Streit 139 *** 9. Roman Hamrlik 120 *** 10. Ryan Pulock 121…

18. Dave Langevin and Thomas Hickey 95 *** 20. Adam Pelech 94

Defense Points

1. Denis Potvin 1,052 *** 2. Stefan Persson 369 *** 3. Tomas Jonsson 333…

8. Mark Streit 179 *** 9. Ryan Pulock 161…

17. Vladimir Malakhov 125 *** 18. Thomas Hickey 117 *** 19. Adam Pelech 116...

23. Scott Lachance and Ken Morrow 105 *** 25. Noah Dobson and Scott Mayfield 100

Wins

1. Billy Smith 304 *** 2. Glenn Resch 157 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 130…

8. Glenn Healy 66 *** 9. Tommy Salo 62 *** 10. Semyon Varlamov 58 *** 11. Evgeni Nabokov 57 *** 12. Ilya Sorokin 56

Shutouts

1. Glenn Resch 25 *** 2. Billy Smith 22 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 16 …

4. Ilya Sorokin 15 *** 5. Tommy Salo 14 *** 6. Semyon Varlamov and Jaroslav Halak 12 

On the Farm

Bridgeport spent the AHL-Star Break with a 19-18-7-1 record.  They are one point behind Hartford for the final playoff spot and are even in games with the Wolf Pack.

Andy Andreoff leads the team (and is tied-8th in the AHL) with 20 goals, while Chis Terry continues to lead in assists (30) and points (44). William Dufour has 15 goals and is tied-4th among AHL rookies while All-Star Ruslan Ishakov is tied-2nd among AHL rookies with 22 assists.

The Baby Islanders have only seven games remaining in February; they visit Lehigh Valley Saturday in their only game until February 17th.

Season Series Stats

The teams split the season series, 1 game to 1 (and 2 points to 2).   

Overall, the Isles are 2-2-0 in four all-time meetings with Seattle, with each team going 1-1-0 at home and 1-1-0 on the road. 

UP NEXT

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9th  –VANCOUVER AT ISLANDERS 7:30pm

[MSGSN (Pre-game at 7:00), WRHU 88.7 FM, WRCN 103.9FM, ESPN Radio]

The Islanders welcome Anthony Beauvillier back to UBS Arena and look to extend their winning streak to five games on Thursday night as they entertain the Vancouver Canucks.

The Isles beat Vancouver 6-2 on January 3rd; Bo Horvat had both Canuck goals in that game. The Isles are 8-1-4 in their last 13 games against the Canucks, with their only regulation defeat coming at UBS Arena last March 3rd.  

Eric Hornick has been the statistician on Islander home game telecasts since January 21, 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: Isles 2, Philadelphia 1

"The Skinny"      

By Eric Hornick

Game 53

Isles 2, Philadelphia 1

Kyle Palmieri and Mathew Barzal beat Carter Hart and that was all the Isles needed for a 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers before a crowd of 18,695 at Wells Fargo Center. 

Semyon Varlamov, starting consecutive Islander games for the first time since March 31-April 1, made 25 saves to earn his second straight victory. Varlamov has stopped 106 of 110 shots in his last three games (1.31, .964).

The Isles have won three straight games for the first time since late December to improve to 26-22-5 and tie Pittsburgh for the 2nd Wild Card spot; the Penguins have played four fewer games. The Islanders head home to face the Kraken on Tuesday and Canucks on Thursday as they begin a stretch where they play 4-of-5 at home. 

The Scoring:

1st Period

Kyle Palmieri (7) Josh Bailey (14), Sebastian Aho (9) 17:07 NYI 1,PHI 0 PPG

2nd Period

Mathew Barzal (13) Noah Dobson (18), Brock Nelson (28) 08:18 NYI 2,PHI 0

Nicolas Deslauriers (3) Tony DeAngelo (22), Nick Seeler (7) 10:39 NYI 2,PHI 1

3rd Period

No Goals

 

The Skinny   

Mathew Barzal scored the winning goal for the second straight game; it was his career-high 5th game-winning goal of the season…Kyle Palmieri extended his point streak to five games, which is one game shy of his personal best… Brock Nelson extended his point streak to seven games, matching a career high; it was his 28th assist of the season, also matching his career high…The Isles went 1-3 on the power play; it was their first power play goal in eleven games (1-28); they are 4-67 in the last 24 games …The Isles killed both Flyer power plays; they have killed 31 of their last 34...The Isles scored the first goal for the ninth time in the last eleven games … The Isles have scored 21 goals in the last twelve games (4-5-3); 12 of the 21 have been scored in the first period…The Isles have been outscored 12-1 in their last fourteen third periods… The Isles' third period differential remains +2; the Isles were +16 in the third period through 23 games but are -14 over the last 30 games…Noah Dobson set-up the winning goal; he became the 25th defenseman in club history to reach 100 points… Matt Martin had four hits, increasing his team-leading total to 202; it is his eleventh 200 hit season…The Isles have won three consecutive games for the first time since December 23rd -29th; they have scored only two goals in each game, marking the second time in club history (April 3rd -8th, 2021) that they have won three straight, scoring twice or less in each. In that 2021 stretch the Isles won two games by a 3-2 score in a shootout…It was the first Islander road win since January 3rd vs Vancouver, ending an 0-4-1 stretch…Both Scott Mayfield and Ryan Pulock played in their 399th game; they will be the 51st and 52nd Islanders to play in 400 games…Zach Parise played in his 1,195th NHL game, passing Islander assistant John MacLean on the all-time list…The Isles had 15 shots in the first period; it was their most shots in a road first period since February 11, 2022 in Edmonton.

 

Bo's Debut

Bo Horvat made his Islander debut, playing 18:44.  He had four shots, six attempts, and won 7 of 13 faceoffs.

Good Company

Noah Dobson reached 100 points in 209 games; he is the fastest Islander defenseman since Bryan Berard in 1998-99 (170 games) to do so.  Dobson joins Rasmus Dahlin and Quinn Hughes as 2018-drafted defensemen with at least 100 points.

Last Year vs. This Year

• 2022-23  26-22-5 for 57 points in 53 games

• 2021-22  22-23-8 for 52 points in 53 games; finished 37-35-10 for 84 points.

Offense from Defense

• Today:  0-2-2

• Season: 27-73-100

• Last Season (Final) 32-128-160

The Islander defense have scored 27 goals; they didn't score their 27th goal last season until April 19th.  The last goal by a defenseman was on January 16th (Sebastian Aho vs. Washington).

Sorokin's House

Ilya Sorokin is 23-13-6 all-time at UBS Arena. His goals against average of 2.03 and his save percentage of .932 is the best in the NHL over that span.  Sorokin went 9-1-0 at the Coliseum; he is 31-14-6 in his career at home and his .930 career save percentage is the best on home ice in NHL history (minimum 50 home games).

Best of the Best

Ilya Sorokin has 14 shutouts in 109 career starts.  He has recorded a shutout in 12.8% of his starts, which is the best in NHL history (since 1943-44) among goalies with at least 100 starts:

• Ilya Sorokin 12.8%

• Roman Cechmanek 12.2%

• Ken Dryden 11.8%

• Dominik Hasek 11.3%

Zach Attack 

Zach Parise has 421 career goals, good for 9th among actives, and tied with Stephane Richer, Vincent Lecavalier and Steve Thomas for 86th place all-time.  Owen Nolan is 85th with 422 goals and Steve Shutt is 84th with 424 goals.

Home and Road

The Isles are 26-22-5 overall; they are 15-9-2 at home and 11-13-3 on the road.

Philadelphia is 21-22-9 overall; they are 10-13-2 at home and 11-9-7 on the road.

East and West

The Isles are 15-12-3 against the East (10-5-1 vs. Metropolitan and 5-7-2 vs. Atlantic) and 11-10-2 against the West (4-7-2 vs. Central and 7-3-0 vs. Pacific).

Home is Where the Fans Are

The Isles have played 67 games at UBS Arena and recorded 46 sellouts of 17,255. 

Sweet Lou

Lou Lamoriello has the second-highest win total for any general manager in NHL history:

1. David Poile 1,515

2. Lou Lamoriello 1,389

3. Glen Sather 1,319

First Things First

The Isles are 18-7-2 when scoring first and are 8-15-3 when allowing the opening goal. 

The Shots

Isles    15-8-7=30

Philadelphia 7-11-8=26

The Isles are 14-9-1 when they outshoot their opponents, 0-0-0 when the shots are even and 11-13-4 when they are outshot. 

In the Nets

Semyon Varlamov made 25 saves; he is 10-6-1 on the season and 10-3-2 vs Philadelphia. 

Carter Hart made 28 saves; he is 15-15-8 on the season and 4-4-3 vs. the Isles.  

Special Teams

The Isles were 1-3 on the power play (5:39); Philadelphia was 0-2 on the power play (4:00).

The Isles are 12-8-1 when they score at least one power play goal and 14-14-4 when they do not. The Isles are 11-10-1 when they allow at least one power play goal and 15-12-4 when they do not.

Three is (Usually) a Magic Number

The Isles are 21-5-2 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 5-17-3 when they do not.

One-Goal Games

The Isles are 10-4-5 in games decided by a single goal including 6-4 in regulation. They are 4-2 in games decided in overtime and are 0-3 in shootouts. The Isles are 4-7 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1-goal game into a 2-goal game.

Back-to-Backs   

This back-to-back set concludes on Tuesday vs. Seattle. The next set of back-to-backs will be on February 17th Vs Pittsburgh and on February 18th in Boston. Including tonight, the Isles are 6-5-0 in the front end and 6-3-1 in the back end. 

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Adam Pelech (22:49);  Philadelphia: Ivan Provorov (22:00)

Mathew Barzal led Isles forwards with 20:27 of ice-time. 

Isles record by ice-time leaders: Alexander Romanov (2-1-1), Noah Dobson (4-10-2), Adam Pelech (5-2-0), Ryan Pulock (5-5-0), Scott Mayfield (6-1-2), Brock Nelson (1-0-0), Mathew Barzal (2-1-0), Sebastian Aho (0-1-0), Tied (0-1-0).

Face-offs

Isles 23, Philadelphia 19 (55%)

Jean-Gabriel Pageau won 8 of 12 for the Isles; Noah Cates won 8 of 14 for Philadelphia.

Hit Count

Isles 27 (Anders Lee -5)

Philadelphia 32 (Patrick Brown -5)

Fights 

None. Season total: 14 (Martin-6, Lee-2, Wahlstrom-2, Johnston-2, Cizikas, Romanov)

 

Blocked Shots

Isles 19 (Adam Pelech -4)

Philadelphia 17 (Nick Seeler -4)

For the Analytics Crowd 

Corsi: All situations: Isles 58, Philadelphia 57

Corsi: 5-on-5: Isles 52, Philadelphia 48

5-on-5 leaders:

Isles:  Hudson Fasching +12

Philadelphia:  James van Riemsdyk +9

High Danger Scoring Chances (per Natural Stat Trick)

All situations: Isles 14, Philadelphia 9

5-on-5: Isles 13, Philadelphia 8

Scratches

Oliver Wahlstrom-IR), (Cal Clutterbuck – IR), Ross Johnston, Parker Wotherspoon, Samuel Bolduc

Games Lost: 115

The Ironman

Zach Parise played in his 135th consecutive Islander game; he has played in every game since joining the team in October 2021. It is the 20th-longest active streak in the NHL. 

Challenges

Isles: 1 successful, 0 failures – STL goalie interference 11/3

Opponents: 1 successful, 0 failures – PIT offside 12/27

League reviews: 4 (Isles goal – Salo vs ANA 10/16 – stood; Isles no goal vs NSH 12/2-stood; Isles goal- Martin vs CHI 12/4-awarded; MIN goal (Gaudreau) 1/12 – awarded)

Quickies

The Isles have scored two goals in under a minute six times this season (five times at home and once on road):

• 0:17 10/29 vs. COL (Mayfield and Beauvillier)

• 0:59 11/7 vs. CGY (Lee and Palmieri)

• 0:22 11/26 vs PHI (Nelson and Beauvillier)

• 0:43 12/4 vs CHI (Parise and Nelson)

• 0:21 12/6 vs STL (Fasching and Pageau)

• 0:34 12/9 @ NJD (Cizikas and Wahlstrom)

Multi-Goal 3rd Period Comeback Wins

The Isles have come from two goals behind after two periods to win three times this season and have not allowed the opposition to do so.

For: Trailed 3-1, Won 5-3 vs. COL 10/29

Trailed 3-1, Won 4-3 (OT) vs CGY 11/7

Trailed 3-1, Won 4-3 at NYR 11/8

Last Minute Heroes:

The Isles have scored two goal and allowed one goal in the final three minutes of the third period that were either the winning goal or forced overtime. 

For(2): Brock Nelson vs COL 10/29 (18:39;EN/GW)

Josh Bailey @ TOR 11/21 (17:02; Isles won in OT)

Vs (1): Kappo Kaako @NYR  12/22 (17:13: GW)

Overtime Winners

For (4): Noah Dobson vs CGY 11/7 (4:02)

Zach Parise vs CBJ 11/12 (0:39) 

Anthony Beauvillier @ TOR 11/21 (1:56)

Mathew Barzal vs VEG 1/28 (4:28)

Vs. (2): Dimitry Orlov Vs WAS 1/16 (4:27)

Dylan Cozens @ BUF 1/19 (0:12)

Shootout Winners

Vs (3):  David Pastrnak @ BOS 12/13

Evan Rodrigues @ COL 12/19

Jason Robertson Vs DAL 1/10

All-time Islander Leader Boards:

Games Played (skaters)

1. Bryan Trottier 1,123 *** 2. Denis Potvin 1,060 *** 3. Josh Bailey 1,042…

7. Mike Bossy 752 *** 8. Matt Martin 737 *** 9. Brock Nelson 729 *** 10. Casey Cizikas 716… 

13. John Tavares 669 *** 14. Anders Lee 649 *** 15. Derek King 638 *** 16. Billy Harris 623 *** 17. Stefan Persson 622 *** 18. Cal Clutterbuck 621

Goals    

1. Mike Bossy 573 *** 2. Bryan Trottier 500 *** 3. Denis Potvin 310 …

9. Bobby Nystrom 235 *** 10. Anders Lee 231 *** 11. Brock Nelson 224 *** 12. Derek King 211 *** 13. John Tonelli 206  *** 14 Billy Harris 184 *** 15. Josh Bailey 182

Assists

1. Bryan Trottier 853 *** 2. Denis Potvin 742 *** 3. Mike Bossy 553 *** 4. Josh Bailey 393…

15. Billy Harris 259*** 16. Mathew Barzal 251 *** 17. Tomas Jonsson 249 *** 18. Frans Nielsen and Kyle Okposo 230 *** 20. Brock Nelson 210…

23. Ed Westfall 181 *** 24. Kenny Jonsson 175 *** 25. Alexei Yashin and Duane Sutter 171 *** 27. Anders Lee 170

Points

1. Bryan Trottier 1,353 *** 2. Mike Bossy 1,126 *** 3. Denis Potvin 1,052…

6.  Brent Sutter 610 *** 7. Josh Bailey 575  …

14. Billy Harris 443 *** 15. Brock Nelson 434 ***  16. Anders Lee 401 *** 17. Kyle Okposo and Stefan Persson 369…19. Mathew Barzal 355

+/-

1. Bryan Trottier +467 *** 2. Denis Potvin +456 *** 3. Mike Bossy +380…

15. Bob Lorimer +105 *** 16. Tomas Jonsson +76 *** 17. Garry Howatt +75 *** 18. Adam Pelech +72 *** 19. Pat Price +70 *** 20. JP Parise +67 *** 21. Jude Drouin +58 *** 22. Patrick Flatley +57 *** 23. Greg Gilbert +54

Defense Goals

1. Denis Potvin 310 *** 2. Tomas Jonsson 84 *** Kenny Jonsson 57…

6. Nick Leddy 45 *** 7. Roman Hamrlik 43 **** 8. Mark Streit and Ryan Pulock 40 *** 10. Johnny Boychuk *** 11. Adrian Aucoin 33 *** 12. Bryan Berard 31***13. Vladimir Malakhov and Noah Dobson 27

Defense Assists

1. Denis Potvin 742 *** 2. Stefan Persson 317 *** 3. Tomas Jonsson 249…

8. Mark Streit 139 *** 9. Roman Hamrlik 120 *** 10. Ryan Pulock 121…

18. Dave Langevin and Thomas Hickey 95 *** 20. Adam Pelech 93

Defense Points

1. Denis Potvin 1,052 *** 2. Stefan Persson 369 *** 3. Tomas Jonsson 333…

8. Mark Streit 179 *** 9. Ryan Pulock 161…

17. Vladimir Malakhov 125 *** 18. Thomas Hickey 117 *** 19. Adam Pelech 115...

23. Scott Lachance and Ken Morrow 105 *** 25. Noah Dobson 100 *** 26. Scott Mayfield 99

Wins

1. Billy Smith 304 *** 2. Glenn Resch 157 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 130…

8. Glenn Healy 66 *** 9. Tommy Salo 62 *** 10. Semyon Varlamov 58 *** 11. Evgeni Nabokov 57 *** 12. Ilya Sorokin 55

Shutouts

1. Glenn Resch 25 *** 2. Billy Smith 22 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 16 …

4. Tommy Salo and Ilya Sorokin 14 *** 6. Semyon Varlamov and Jaroslav Halak 12 

On the Farm

Bridgeport hit the AHL-Star Break with a 19-18-7-1 record.  They are one point behind Hartford for the final playoff spot and are even in games with the Wolf Pack.

Andy Andreoff leads the team (and is tied-8th in the AHL) with 20 goals, while Chis Terry continues to lead in assists (30) and points (44). William Dufour has 15 goals and is tied-4th among AHL rookies while All-Star Ruslan Ishakov is tied-2nd among AHL rookies with 22 assists.

The Baby Islanders have only seven games remaining in February; they visit Lehigh Valley Saturday in their only game until February 17th.

Season Series Stats

The Isles lead the season series, 2 games to 1 (and 4 points to 2).  The teams will meet at UBS Arena on April 8th to complete the season series.

Overall, the Isles are 10-2-0 in their last 12 meetings with Philadelphia. 

UP NEXT

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7th  –SEATTLE AT ISLANDERS 7:30pm

[MSGSN (Pre-game at 7:00), WRHU 88.7 FM, WRCN 103.9FM, ESPN Radio]

Bo Horvat will make his UBS Arena debut as the Isles look for their first four-game winning streak since Thanksgiving week as they face the Pacific Division- leading Seattle Kraken.

The second year Kraken are one of the best road teams in the NHL (16-5-2) and defeated the Isles 4-1 on New Year's Day in Seattle.

Overall, the Isles are 1-2-0 in three all-time meetings with the Kraken. 

Eric Hornick has been the statistician on Islander home game telecasts since January 21, 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: Isles 2, Vegas 1 (OT)

"The Skinny"      

By Eric Hornick

Game 52

Isles 2, Vegas 1

Mathew Barzal beat Logan Thompson with 31.5 seconds left in overtime to send the Islanders into the Bye Week and All-Star Game with a 2-1 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights before a sellout crowd of 17,255 at UBS Arena. 

Anders Lee and William Carrier traded second period goals. Semyon Varlamov made 44 saves to earn his first victory since he was injured on December 17th in Vegas.

The Isles improve to 25-22-5 and find themselves two points out of the 2nd Wild Card spot. Following the Bye Week and the All-Star Game, the Isles will return to action on Monday, February 6th, when they begin a back-to-back set In Philadelphia.

The Scoring:

1st Period

No Goals

2nd Period 

Anders Lee (19) Kyle Palmieri (8), Brock Nelson (27) 03:52 VGK 0,NYI 1

William Carrier (12) Chandler Stephenson (33), Phil Kessel (12) 16:08 VGK 1,NYI 1

3rd Period

No Goals

OT

Mathew Barzal (12) Anthony Beauvillier (11), Adam Pelech (9)  04:28 VGK 1,NYI 2

The Skinny   

Anders Lee opened the scoring for the 7th time this season and the 50th time in his career as he tied Brock Nelson for the club goal lead; it was Lee's fourth goal in the last four games… Nelson extended his point streak to five games with an assist on the Lee goal; it was his 27th assist of the season, just one shy of his career high…The Isles went 0-1 on the power play; they are 0-25 in the last ten games and 3-64 in the last 23 games …The Isles killed both Golden Knight power plays; they have killed 29 of their last 32 and their NHL-leading home penalty-killers are now 62/68 (91.2%)...The Isles scored the first goal for the eighth time in the last ten games … The Isles have scored nineteen goals in the last eleven games (3-5-3); 11 of the 19 have been scored in the first period…The Isles have been outscored 12-1 in their last thirteen third periods… The Isles' third period differential is now +2; the Isles were +16 in the third period through 23 games but are -14 over the last 27 games…Noah Dobson (who did not play for the third straight game) and Scott Mayfield remained at 99 points. They are looking to become the 25th and 26th defenseman in club history to reach 100 points…Mathew Barzal scored his first goal in 11 games…Kyle Palmieri had an assist, giving him five assists in four games since returning from his injury; it was Palmieri's 200th career assist and the first time in his career he has recorded an assist in four consecutive games… Matt Martin had six hits, increasing his team-leading total to 198; he is closing in on his eleventh 200 hit season…The Isles have won consecutive games for the first time since December 27th-29th and sweep a back-to-back set for the fourth time this season… The win snapped a five-game losing streak in games decided in overtime/shootouts…The Isles finish January with a 4-8-3 record as they earn the 1,750th regular season win in their history.

The Penalty Shot

For the second time this week, the Isles faced a penalty shot.  Seymon Varlamov stopped William Carrier :26 into overtime.  Varlamov has now stopped seven of eight penalty shots in his career; his .875 save percentage leads all active NHL goalies who have faced at least seven penalty shots.

First Time in a Really Long Time

The Isles swept a back-to-back set in which they scored two goals or fewer in each game for the first time since December 30-31, 2002, vs. Florida and in Buffalo. Roman Hamrlik and Jason Blake had overtime goals as Chris Osgood earned a pair of 2-1 wins.

Passing Potvin

Anders Lee's goal was his 50th opening goal, passing Denis Potvin for 3rd place in club history:

• Bryan Trottier 81

• Mike Bossy 64

• Anders Lee 50

• Denis Potvin 49

Last Year vs. This Year

• 2022-23  25-22-5 for 55 points in 52 games

• 2021-22  21-23-8 for 50 points in 52 games; finished 37-35-10 for 84 points.

Offense from Defense

• Today:  0-0-0

• Season: 27-71-98

• Last Season (Final) 32-128-160

The Islander defense have scored 27 goals; they didn't score their 27th goal last season until April 19th.  

Sorokin's House

Ilya Sorokin is 23-13-6 all-time at UBS Arena. His goals against average of 2.03 trails only Frederik Andersen (2.02) among goalies who have made more than two home starts over the last two seasons and his save percentage of .932 is the best in the NHL over that span.  Sorokin went 9-1-0 at the Coliseum; he is 31-14-6 in his career at home and his .930 career save percentage is the best on home ice in NHL history (minimum 50 home games).

Best of the Best

Ilya Sorokin has 14 shutouts in 109 career starts.  He has recorded a shutout in 12.8% of his starts, which is the best in NHL history (since 1943-44) among goalies with at least 100 starts:

• Ilya Sorokin 12.8%

• Roman Cechmanek 12.2%

• Ken Dryden 11.8%

• Dominik Hasek 11.3%

Zach Attack 

Zach Parise has 421 career goals, good for 9th among actives, and tied with Stephane Richer, Vincent Lecavalier and Steve Thomas for 86th place all-time.  Owen Nolan is 85th with 422 goals and Steve Shutt is 84th with 424 goals.

Home and Road

The Isles are 25-22-5 overall; they are 15-9-2 at home and 10-13-3 on the road.

Vegas is 29-18-4 overall; they are 14-13-0 at home and 15-5-4 on the road.

East and West

The Isles are 14-12-3 against the East (9-5-1 vs. Metropolitan and 5-7-2 vs. Atlantic) and 11-10-2 against the West (4-7-2 vs. Central and 7-3-0 vs. Pacific).

Home is Where the Fans Are

The Isles have played 67 games at UBS Arena and recorded 46 sellouts of 17,255. 

Sweet Lou

Lou Lamoriello has the second-highest win total for any general manager in NHL history:

1. David Poile 1,515

2. Lou Lamoriello 1,388

3. Glen Sather 1,319

First Things First

The Isles are 17-7-2 when scoring first and are 8-15-3 when allowing the opening goal. 

The Shots

Isles    15-15-6-1=37

Vegas 8-16-17-4=45

The Isles are 13-9-1 when they outshoot their opponents, 0-0-0 when the shots are even and 11-13-4 when they are outshot. 

In the Nets

Semyon Varlamov made a season-high 44 saves; he is 9-6-1 on the season and 5-3-0 vs Vegas. 

Logan Thompson made 35 saves; he is 19-13-3 on the season and 0-1-1 vs. the Isles.  

Special Teams

The Isles were 0-1 on the power play (2:00); Vegas was 0-2 on the power play (4:00).

The Isles are 11-8-1 when they score at least one power play goal and 14-14-4 when they do not. The Isles are 11-10-1 when they allow at least one power play goal and 14-12-4 when they do not.

Three is (Usually) a Magic Number

The Isles are 21-5-2 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 4-17-3 when they do not.

One-Goal Games

The Isles are 9-4-5 in games decided by a single goal including 5-4 in regulation. They are 4-2 in games decided in overtime and are 0-3 in shootouts. The Isles are 4-7 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1-goal game into a 2-goal game.

Back-to-Backs   

The next set of back-to-backs will be on February 6th in Philadelphia and on February 7th vs Seattle. Including tonight, the Isles are 5-5-0 in the front end and 6-3-1 in the back end. 

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Adam Pelech (season-high 26:41);  Vegas: Shea Theodore (25:55)

Mathew Barzal led Isles forwards with 19:59 of ice-time. 

Isles record by ice-time leaders: Alexander Romanov (2-1-1), Noah Dobson (4-10-2), Adam Pelech (4-2-0), Ryan Pulock (5-5-0), Scott Mayfield (6-1-2), Brock Nelson (1-0-0), Mathew Barzal (2-1-0), Sebastian Aho (0-1-0), Tied (0-1-0).

Face-offs

Isles 33, Vegas 26 (55%)

Brock Nelson won 10 of16 for the Isles; Brett Howden won 6 of 8 for Vegas.

Hit Count

Isles 23 (Matt Martin -6)

Vegas 23 (Brayden McNabb -5)

Fights 

None. Season total: 14 (Martin-6, Lee-2, Wahlstrom-2, Johnston-2, Cizikas, Romanov)

 

Blocked Shots

Isles 18 (Scott Mayfield and Alexander Romanov -3)

Vegas 22 (Two with 5)

For the Analytics Crowd 

Corsi: All situations: Isles 68, Vegas 71

Corsi: 5-on-5: Isles 58, Vegas 54

5-on-5 leaders:

Isles:  Ryan Pulock +12

Vegas:  Three with Even

High Danger Scoring Chances (per Natural Stat Trick)

All situations: Isles 8, Vegas 16

5-on-5: Isles 7, Vegas 10

Scratches

Oliver Wahlstrom-IR), (Hudson Fasching- IR), (Cal Clutterbuck – IR), (Noah Dobson -INJ), Ross Johnston, Parker Wotherspoon

Games Lost: 113

The Ironman

Zach Parise played in his 134th consecutive Islander game; he has played in every game since joining the team in October 2021. It is the 20th-longest active streak in the NHL. 

Challenges

Isles: 1 successful, 0 failures – STL goalie interference 11/3

Opponents: 1 successful, 0 failures – PIT offside 12/27

League reviews: 4 (Isles goal – Salo vs ANA 10/16 – stood; Isles no goal vs NSH 12/2-stood; Isles goal- Martin vs CHI 12/4-awarded; MIN goal (Gaudreau) 1/12 – awarded)

Quickies

The Isles have scored two goals in under a minute six times this season (five times at home and once on road):

• 0:17 10/29 vs. COL (Mayfield and Beauvillier)

• 0:59 11/7 vs. CGY (Lee and Palmieri)

• 0:22 11/26 vs PHI (Nelson and Beauvillier)

• 0:43 12/4 vs CHI (Parise and Nelson)

• 0:21 12/6 vs STL (Fasching and Pageau)

• 0:34 12/9 @ NJD (Cizikas and Wahlstrom)

Multi-Goal 3rd Period Comeback Wins

The Isles have come from two goals behind after two periods to win three times this season and have not allowed the opposition to do so.

For: Trailed 3-1, Won 5-3 vs. COL 10/29

Trailed 3-1, Won 4-3 (OT) vs CGY 11/7

Trailed 3-1, Won 4-3 at NYR 11/8

Last Minute Heroes:

The Isles have scored two goal and allowed one goal in the final three minutes of the third period that were either the winning goal or forced overtime. 

For(2): Brock Nelson vs COL 10/29 (18:39;EN/GW)

Josh Bailey @ TOR 11/21 (17:02; Isles won in OT)

Vs (1): Kappo Kaako @NYR  12/22 (17:13: GW)

Overtime Winners

For (4): Noah Dobson vs CGY 11/7 (4:02)

Zach Parise vs CBJ 11/12 (0:39) 

Anthony Beauvillier @ TOR 11/21 (1:56)

Mathew Barzal vs VEG 1/28 (4:28)

Vs. (2): Dimitry Orlov Vs WAS 1/16 (4:27)

Dylan Cozens @ BUF 1/19 (0:12)

Shootout Winners

Vs (3):  David Pastrnak @ BOS 12/13

Evan Rodrigues @ COL 12/19

Jason Robertson Vs DAL 1/10

All-time Islander Leader Boards:

Games Played (skaters)

1. Bryan Trottier 1,123 *** 2. Denis Potvin 1,060 *** 3. Josh Bailey 1,041…

7. Mike Bossy 752 *** 8. Matt Martin 736 *** 9. Brock Nelson 728 *** 10. Casey Cizikas 715… 

13. John Tavares 669 *** 14. Anders Lee 648 *** 15. Derek King 638 *** 16. Billy Harris 623 *** 17. Stefan Persson 622 *** 18. Cal Clutterbuck 621

Goals    

1. Mike Bossy 573 *** 2. Bryan Trottier 500 *** 3. Denis Potvin 310 …

9. Bobby Nystrom 235 *** 10. Anders Lee 231 *** 11. Brock Nelson 224 *** 12. Derek King 211 *** 13. John Tonelli 206  *** 14 Billy Harris 184 *** 15. Josh Bailey 182

Assists

1. Bryan Trottier 853 *** 2. Denis Potvin 742 *** 3. Mike Bossy 553 *** 4. Josh Bailey 392…

15. Billy Harris 259*** 16. Mathew Barzal 251 *** 17. Tomas Jonsson 249 *** 18. Frans Nielsen and Kyle Okposo 230 *** 20. Brock Nelson 209…

23. Ed Westfall 181 *** 24. Kenny Jonsson 175 *** 25. Alexei Yashin and Duane Sutter 171 *** 27. Anders Lee 170

Points

1. Bryan Trottier 1,353 *** 2. Mike Bossy 1,126 *** 3. Denis Potvin 1,052…

6.  Brent Sutter 610 *** 7. Josh Bailey 574  …

14. Billy Harris 443 *** 15. Brock Nelson 433 ***  16. Anders Lee 401 *** 17. Kyle Okposo and Stefan Persson 369…19. Mathew Barzal 354

+/-

1. Bryan Trottier +467 *** 2. Denis Potvin +456 *** 3. Mike Bossy +380…

15. Bob Lorimer +105 *** 16. Tomas Jonsson +76 *** 17. Garry Howatt +75 *** 18. Adam Pelech +72 *** 19. Pat Price +70 *** 20. JP Parise +67 *** 21. Jude Drouin +58 *** 22. Patrick Flatley +57 *** 23. Greg Gilbert +54

Defense Goals

1. Denis Potvin 310 *** 2. Tomas Jonsson 84 *** Kenny Jonsson 57…

6. Nick Leddy 45 *** 7. Roman Hamrlik 43 **** 8. Mark Streit and  Ryan Pulock 40 *** 10. Johnny Boychuk *** 11. Adrian Aucoin 33 *** 12. Bryan Berard 31***13. Vladimir Malakhov and Noah Dobson 27

Defense Assists

1. Denis Potvin 742 *** 2. Stefan Persson 317 *** 3. Tomas Jonsson 249…

8. Mark Streit 139 *** 9. Roman Hamrlik 120 *** 10. Ryan Pulock 121…

18. Dave Langevin and Thomas Hickey 95 *** 20. Adam Pelech 93

Defense Points

1. Denis Potvin 1,052 *** 2. Stefan Persson 369 *** 3. Tomas Jonsson 333…

8. Mark Streit 179 *** 9. Ryan Pulock 161…

17. Vladimir Malakhov 125 *** 18. Thomas Hickey 117 *** 19. Adam Pelech 115...

23. Scott Lachance and Ken Morrow 105 *** 25. Noah Dobson and Scott Mayfield 99

Wins

1. Billy Smith 304 *** 2. Glenn Resch 157 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 130…

10. Evgeni Nabokov 57 *** 11. Semyon Varlamov 57 *** 12. Ilya Sorokin 55

Shutouts

1. Glenn Resch 25 *** 2. Billy Smith 22 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 16 …

4. Tommy Salo and Ilya Sorokin 14 *** 6. Semyon Varlamov and Jaroslav Halak 12 

On the Farm

Bridgeport fell to 18-17-6-1 with 3-1 loss in Wilkes Barre-Scranton on Saturday. Cole Bardreau had the goal for Bridgeport; Jakub Skarek made 18 saves.

Andy Andreoff leads the team (and is tied-5th in the AHL) with 20 goals, while Chis Terry continues to lead in assists (27) and points (39).   William Dufour has 14 goals and is tied-4th among AHL rookies; Dufour has points in 10 of his last 13 games.

The Baby Islanders travel to Hershey on Sunday.

Season Series Stats

The Isles sweep the season series, 2 games to 0 (and 4 points to 1).  

The Isles are 3-0-1 in their last four games vs. the Golden Knights and are 6-3-1 in nine overall meetings with Vegas.

UP NEXT

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6th  –ISLANDERS AT PHILADELPHIA 7:00pm

[MSGSN2 (Pre-game at 6:30), WRHU 88.7 FM, WRCN 103.9FM, ESPN Radio]

Following the bye and all-star break, the Isles resume play next Monday in Philadelphia against the Flyers. The teams split a home-and-home series back in November, with each team winning on home ice: the Isles won 5-2 at UBS Arena but then fell 3-1 at Wells Fargo Center.

Overall, the Isles are 9-2-0 in their last 11 meetings with Philadelphia. 

Eric Hornick has been the statistician on Islander home game telecasts since January 21, 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: Isles 2, Detroit 0

"The Skinny"      

By Eric Hornick

Game 51

Isles 2, Detroit 0

Anders Lee broke a scoreless tie 4:44 into the second period and Ilya Sorokin made 23 saves for his 14th career shutout as the Islanders snapped their six-game losing streak (0-4-2) with a 2-0 victory over the Detroit Red Wings before a sellout crowd of 17,255 at UBS Arena. 

Brock Nelson extended his point streak to five games with an assist on the Lee goal and then raised his team-leading point total to 45 with a third period tally; it ended an Islander 11-game streak of being held scoreless in the third period.

The Isles improve to 24-22-5 and jump ahead of Florida in the wild card race; they are 3-8-3 since the calendar turned to 2023 and find themselves four points behind Pittsburgh for the 2nd Wild Card spot.  The Isles will host Vegas on Saturday to get them to their Bye Week and the All-Star Game. 

The Scoring:

1st Period

No Goals

2nd Period

Anders Lee (18) Kyle Palmieri (6), Brock Nelson (26) 04:44 DET 0,NYI 1

3rd Period

Brock Nelson (19) Kyle Palmieri (7) 04:31 DET 0, NYI 2

The Skinny   

Anders Lee hit 400 career points with his sixth opening goal of the season; he is the 16th player in club history with 400 points… The Isles went 0-4 on the power play; they are 0-24 in the last nine games and 3-63 in the last 22 games …The Isles killed all four Red Wing power plays; they have killed 27 of their last 30 and their NHL-leading home penalty-killers are now 60/66 (90.9%)...The Isles scored the first goal for the seventh time in the last nine games … The Isles have scored seventeen goals in the last ten games (2-5-3); 11 of the 17 have been scored in the first period…The Isles had been outscored 12-0 in their last eleven third periods… The Isles' third period differential is now +2; the Isles were +16 in the third period through 23 games but are -14 over the last 27 games…Noah Dobson (who did not play for the third straight game) and Scott Mayfield remained at 99 points. They are looking to become the 25th and 26th defenseman in club history to reach 100 points…Mathew Barzal has only one point in the last ten games… Kyle Palmieri had two assists, four shots, eight attempts and two hits; he has four assists in three games since returning from his injury… Matt Martin had five hits, increasing his team-leading total to 192; he is closing in on his eleventh 200 hit season…The Isles blanked the Red Wings for the first time since December 23, 2013, when Evgeni Nabokov turned the trick at Joe Louis Arena…The 23 saves are the 4th-fewest Ilya Sorokin has made in a shutout…With their win tonight the Isles are assured of not tying the club record for fewest January wins (2), which was set in January 1973 and equaled in 1994 and 1999.

Game-Opening Goals

Anders Lee's goal was his 49th opening goal, tying Denis Potvin for 3rd place in club history:

• Bryan Trottier 81

• Mike Bossy 64

• Denis Potvin 49

• Anders Lee 49

Lee also recorded his 36th game-winning goal, matching Brock Nelson for 9th place on the club's all-time list.

Best of the Best

Ilya Sorokin recorded his 14th shutout in 109 career starts.  He has recorded a shutout in 12.8% of his starts, which is the best in NHL history (since 1943-44) among goalies with at least 100 starts:

• Ilya Sorokin 12.8%

• Roman Cechmanek 12.2%

• Ken Dryden 11.8%

• Dominik Hasek 11.3%

Last Year vs. This Year

• 2022-23  24-22-5 for 53 points in 51 games

• 2021-22  20-23-8 for 48 points in 51 games; finished 37-35-10 for 84 points.

Offense from Defense

• Today:  0-0-0

• Season: 27-70-97

• Last Season (Final) 32-128-160

The Islander defense have scored 27 goals (Carolina leads with 31); they didn't score their 27th goal last season until April 19th.  

Sorokin's House

Ilya Sorokin is 23-13-6 all-time at UBS Arena.  His goals against average of 2.03 trails only Frederik Andersen (2.02) among goalies who have made more than two home starts over the last two seasons and his save percentage of .932 is the best in the NHL over that span.  Sorokin went 9-1-0 at the Coliseum; he is 31-14-6 in his career at home and his .930 career save percentage is the best on home ice in NHL history (minimum 50 home games).

Zach Attack 

Zach Parise has 421 career goals, good for 9th among actives, and tied with Stephane Richer, Vincent Lecavalier and Steve Thomas for 86th place all-time.  Owen Nolan is 85th with 422 goals and Steve Shutt is 84th with 424 goals.

Home and Road

The Isles are 24-22-5 overall; they are 14-9-2 at home and 10-13-3 on the road.

Detroit  is 21-24-2 overall; they are 13-11-1 at home and 8-13-2 on the road.

East and West

The Isles are 14-12-3 against the East (9-5-1 vs. Metropolitan and 5-7-2 vs. Atlantic) and 10-10-2 against the West (4-7-2 vs. Central and 6-3-0 vs. Pacific).

Home is Where the Fans Are

The Isles have played 66 games at UBS Arena and recorded 45 sellouts of 17,255. 

Sweet Lou

Lou Lamoriello has the second-highest win total for any general manager in NHL history:

1. David Poile 1,515

2. Lou Lamoriello 1,387

3. Glen Sather 1,319

First Things First

The Isles are 16-7-2 when scoring first and are 8-15-3 when allowing the opening goal. 

The Shots

Isles    9-10-9=28

Detroit 5-13-5=23

The Isles are 13-9-1 when they outshoot their opponents, 0-0-0 when the shots are even and 10-13-4 when they are outshot. 

In the Nets

Ilya Sorokin made 23 saves for his 14th career shutout; he is 16-16-4 on the season and 2-1-1 vs Detroit. 

Magnus Hellberg made 21 saves; he is 3-4-1 on the season and 0-1-0 vs. the Isles.  

Special Teams

The Isles were 0-4 on the power play (7:42); Detroit was 0-4 on the power play (7:42).

The Isles are 11-8-1 when they score at least one power play goal and 13-14-4 when they do not. The Isles are 11-10-1 when they allow at least one power play goal and 13-12-4 when they do not.

Three is (Usually) a Magic Number

The Isles are 21-5-2 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 3-17-3 when they do not.

One-Goal Games

The Isles are 8-4-5 in games decided by a single goal including 5-4 in regulation. They are 3-2 in games decided in overtime and are 0-3 in shootouts. The Isles are 4-7 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1-goal game into a 2-goal game.

Back-to-Backs  

This back-to-back set concludes on Saturday vs. Vegas. The next set of back-to-backs will be on February 6th in Philadelphia and on February 7th vs Seattle. Including tonight, the Isles are 5-5-0 in the front end and 5-3-1 in the back end. 

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Adam Pelech (22:59);  Detroit: Moritz Seider (25:18)

Brock Nelson led Isles forwards with 18:58 of ice-time. 

Isles record by ice-time leaders: Alexander Romanov (2-1-1), Noah Dobson (4-10-2), Adam Pelech (3-2-0), Ryan Pulock (5-5-0), Scott Mayfield (6-1-2), Brock Nelson (1-0-0), Mathew Barzal (2-1-0), Sebastian Aho (0-1-0), Tied (0-1-0).

Face-offs

Isles 24, Detroit 26 (48%)

Casey Cizikas won 6 of 8 for the Isles; Andrew Copp won 14 of 20 for Detroit.

Hit Count

Isles 27 (Matt Martin -5)

Detroit 21 (Moritz Seider -6)

Fights 

None. Season total: 14 (Martin-6, Lee-2, Wahlstrom-2, Johnston-2, Cizikas, Romanov)

 

Blocked Shots

Isles 9 (Zach Parise -3)

Detroit 12 (Two with 3)

For the Analytics Crowd 

Corsi: All situations: Isles 56, Detroit 44

Corsi: 5-on-5: Isles 44, Detroit 24

5-on-5 leaders:

Isles:  Ryan Pulock +12

Detroit:  Three with Even

High Danger Scoring Chances (per Natural Stat Trick)

All situations: Isles 20, Detroit 8

5-on-5: Isles 17, Detroit 4

Scratches

Oliver Wahlstrom-IR), (Hudson Fasching- IR), (Cal Clutterbuck – IR), (Noah Dobson -INJ), Ross Johnston, Parker Wotherspoon

Games Lost: 109

The Ironman

Zach Parise played in his 133rd consecutive Islander game; he has played in every game since joining the team in October 2021. It is the 20th-longest active streak in the NHL.  

Challenges

Isles: 1 successful, 0 failures – STL goalie interference 11/3

Opponents: 1 successful, 0 failures – PIT offside 12/27

League reviews: 4 (Isles goal – Salo vs ANA 10/16 – stood; Isles no goal vs NSH 12/2-stood; Isles goal- Martin vs CHI 12/4-awarded; MIN goal (Gaudreau) 1/12 – awarded)

Quickies

The Isles have scored two goals in under a minute six times this season (five times at home and once on road):

• 0:17 10/29 vs. COL (Mayfield and Beauvillier)

• 0:59 11/7 vs. CGY (Lee and Palmieri)

• 0:22 11/26 vs PHI (Nelson and Beauvillier)

• 0:43 12/4 vs CHI (Parise and Nelson)

• 0:21 12/6 vs STL (Fasching and Pageau)

• 0:34 12/9 @ NJD (Cizikas and Wahlstrom)

Multi-Goal 3rd Period Comeback Wins

The Isles have come from two goals behind after two periods to win three times this season and have not allowed the opposition to do so.

For: Trailed 3-1, Won 5-3 vs. COL 10/29

Trailed 3-1, Won 4-3 (OT) vs CGY 11/7

Trailed 3-1, Won 4-3 at NYR 11/8

Last Minute Heroes:

The Isles have scored two goal and allowed one goal in the final three minutes of the third period that were either the winning goal or forced overtime. 

For(2): Brock Nelson vs COL 10/29 (18:39;EN/GW)

Josh Bailey @ TOR 11/21 (17:02; Isles won in OT)

Vs (1): Kappo Kaako @NYR  12/22 (17:13: GW)

Overtime Winners

For (3): Noah Dobson vs CGY 11/7 (4:02)

Zach Parise vs CBJ 11/12 (0:39) 

Anthony Beauvillier @ TOR 11/21 (1:56)

Vs. (2): Dimitry Orlov Vs WAS 1/16 (4:27)

Dylan Cozens @ BUF 1/19 (0:12)

Shootout Winners

Vs (3):  David Pastrnak @ BOS 12/13

Evan Rodrigues @ COL 12/19

Jason Robertson Vs DAL 1/10

All-time Islander Leader Boards:

Games Played (skaters)

1. Bryan Trottier 1,123 *** 2. Denis Potvin 1,060 *** 3. Josh Bailey 1,040…

7. Mike Bossy 752 *** 8. Matt Martin 735 *** 9. Brock Nelson 727*** 10. Casey Cizikas 714… 

13. John Tavares 669 *** 14. Anders Lee 647 *** 15. Derek King 638 *** 16. Billy Harris 623 *** 17. Stefan Persson 622 *** 18. Cal Clutterbuck 621

Goals    

1. Mike Bossy 573 *** 2. Bryan Trottier 500 *** 3. Denis Potvin 310 …

9. Bobby Nystrom 235 *** 10. Anders Lee 230 *** 11. Brock Nelson 224 *** 12. Derek King 211 *** 13. John Tonelli 206  *** 14 Billy Harris 184 *** 15. Josh Bailey 182

Assists

1. Bryan Trottier 853 *** 2. Denis Potvin 742 *** 3. Mike Bossy 553 *** 4. Josh Bailey 392…

15. Billy Harris 259*** 16. Mathew Barzal 251 *** 17. Tomas Jonsson 249 *** 18. Frans Nielsen and Kyle Okposo 230 *** 20. Brock Nelson 208…

23. Ed Westfall 181 *** 24. Kenny Jonsson 175 *** 25. Alexei Yashin and Duane Sutter 171 *** 27. Anders Lee 170

Points

1. Bryan Trottier 1,353 *** 2. Mike Bossy 1,126 *** 3. Denis Potvin 1,052…

6.  Brent Sutter 610 *** 7. Josh Bailey 574  …

14. Billy Harris 443 *** 15. Brock Nelson 432 ***  16. Anders Lee 400 *** 17. Kyle Okposo and Stefan Persson 369…19. Mathew Barzal 353

+/-

1. Bryan Trottier +467 *** 2. Denis Potvin +456 *** 3. Mike Bossy +380…

15. Bob Lorimer +105 *** 16. Tomas Jonsson +76 *** 17. Garry Howatt +75 *** 18. Adam Pelech +72 *** 19. Pat Price +70 *** 20. JP Parise +67 *** 21. Jude Drouin +58 *** 22. Patrick Flatley +57 *** 23. Greg Gilbert +54

Defense Goals

1. Denis Potvin 310 *** 2. Tomas Jonsson 84 *** Kenny Jonsson 57…

6. Nick Leddy 45 *** 7. Roman Hamrlik 43 **** 8. Mark Streit and  Ryan Pulock 40 *** 10. Johnny Boychuk *** 11. Adrian Aucoin 33 *** 12. Bryan Berard 31***13. Vladimir Malakhov and Noah Dobson 27

Defense Assists

1. Denis Potvin 742 *** 2. Stefan Persson 317 *** 3. Tomas Jonsson 249…

8. Mark Streit 139 *** 9. Roman Hamrlik 120 *** 10. Ryan Pulock 121…

18. Dave Langevin and Thomas Hickey 95 *** 20. Adam Pelech 92

Defense Points

1. Denis Potvin 1,052 *** 2. Stefan Persson 369 *** 3. Tomas Jonsson 333…

8. Mark Streit 179 *** 9. Ryan Pulock 161…

17. Vladimir Malakhov 125 *** 18. Thomas Hickey 117 *** 19. Adam Pelech 114...

23. Scott Lachance and Ken Morrow 105 *** 25. Noah Dobson and Scott Mayfield 99

Wins

1. Billy Smith 304 *** 2. Glenn Resch 157 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 130…

10. Evgeni Nabokov 57 *** 11. Semyon Varlamov 56 *** 12. Ilya Sorokin 55

Shutouts

1. Glenn Resch 25 *** 2. Billy Smith 22 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 16 …

4. Tommy Salo and Ilya Sorokin 14 *** 6. Semyon Varlamov and Jaroslav Halak 12 

On the Farm

Bridgeport is 18-16-6-1 heading into a pair of games this weekend in Pennsylvania, facing Wilkes Barre-Scranton on Saturday and Hershey on Sunday.

Andy Andreoff leads the team (and is tied-5th in the AHL) with 20 goals, while Chis Terry continues to lead in assists (27) and points (39).   William Dufour has 14 goals and is tied-4th among AHL rookies; Dufour has points in 10 of his last 13 games.

Season Series Stats

The season series is tied, 1 game to 1 (and 2 points to 2). The teams will meet again at UBS Arena on March 4th to close out the season series.

The Isles have now won six straight home games (in three buildings) against the Wings. 

UP NEXT

SATURDAY, JANUARY 28th  – VEGAS AT ISLANDERS  7:30pm

[MSGSN (Pre-game at 7:00), WRHU 88.7 FM, WRCN 103.9FM, ESPN Radio]

The Isles look the sweep the season series from the Golden Knights as they welcome Vegas to UBS Arena to conclude their only set of home back-to-back games this season.  The Isles beat the Knights 5-2 in December. 

The Isles are 2-0-1 in their last three games vs. Vegas and are 5-3-1 in nine overall meetings with Vegas.

Eric Hornick has been the statistician on Islander home game telecasts since January 21, 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: Ottawa 2, Isles 1

"The Skinny"      

By Eric Hornick

Game 50

Ottawa 2, Isles 1

Claude Giroux had a power play goal and added an assist as the Ottawa Senators built a 2-0 lead and defeated the Isles 2-1 before a crowd of 13,980 at Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata, Ontario. 

Brock Nelson scored the only Islander goal, extending his point streak to four games, and giving him the team point lead with 43.

The Isles fall to 23-22-5; they are 0-4-2 in their last six games and 2-8-3 since the calendar turned to 2023.  The Isles will host Detroit on Friday and Vegas Saturday to get them to their Bye Week and the All-Star Game. 

1st Period

Shane Pinto (12) Claude Giroux (26), Jake Sanderson (15) 15:48 NYI 0,OTT 1

2nd Period

Claude Giroux (16) Ridly Greig (1), Jake Sanderson (16) 03:28 NYI 0,OTT 2 PPG

Brock Nelson (18) Kyle Palmieri (5), Sebastian Aho (8) 16:07 NYI 1,OTT 2

3rd Period

No Goals

The Skinny   

The Isles went 0-3 on the power play; they are 0-20 in the last eight games and 3-59 in the last 22 games …The Isles killed 2 of 3 Senator power plays; they have killed 23 of their last 26...The Isles allowed the first goal for only the second time in the last eight games … The Isles have scored fifteen goals in the last nine games (1-5-3); all but four have been scored in the first period…The Isles have not scored a third period goal in a franchise-record eleven straight games (since scoring three in Vancouver) and have been outscored 12-0 in that stretch… The Isles' third period differential is now just +1; the Isles were +16 in the third period through 23 games but are -15 over the last 26 games…Noah Dobson (who did not play for the second straight game) and Scott Mayfield remained at 99 points. They are looking to become the 25th and 26th defenseman in club history to reach 100 points…Mathew Barzal has only one point in the last nine games; he did win a season-high six faceoffs tonight … Kyle Palmieri had an assist, three shots, eight attempts and three hits…The Isles are one gams over NHL-.500 for the first time since they were 5-4-0 in late October….Anders Lee remains ats 399 career points; he is looking to be the 16th player in club history with 400 points…Matt Martin had five hits, increasing his team-leading total to 187; he is closing in on his eleventh 200 hit season…Ridly Greig made his NHL assist for Ottawa; he assisted on the winning goal and contributed five shots on goal… Casey Cizikas played his 713th game for the Isles, breaking a tie with Patrick Flatley for 10th place on the club's all-time list…The 36 Islander shots were their most in any road game this season...Claude Giroux scored his 25th career goal against the Islanders; Alexander Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are the only other active players with at least 25 goals against New York…Cam Talbot played only 28:05 – the fewest of any goalie to start and win an NHL game since Tristan Jarry played only 20 minutes on March 29, 2021 – also against the Islanders.

The Injury

Cam Talbot removed himself from the game eight minutes into the second period with a lower body injury; he did not return.

Last Year vs. This Year

• 2022-23  23-22-5 for 51 points in 50 games

• 2021-22  20-22-8 for 48 points in 50 games; finished 37-35-10 for 84 points

Offense from Defense

• Today:  0-1-1

• Season: 27-70-97

• Last Season (Final) 32-128-160

The Islander defense have scored 27 goals (Carolina and Florida lead with 30); they didn't score their 27th goal last season until April 19th.  

Sorokin's House

Ilya Sorokin is 22-13-6 all-time at UBS Arena.  His goals against average of 2.08 trails only Frederik Andersen (2.02) among goalies who have made multiple home starts over the last two seasons and his save percentage of .931 is the best in the NHL over that span.  Sorokin went 9-1-0 at the Coliseum; he is 31-14-6 in his career at home and his .929 career save percentage is the best on home ice in NHL history (minimum 40 home games).

Zach Attack 

Zach Parise has 421 career goals, good for 9th among actives, and tied with Stephane Richer, Vincent Lecavalier and Steve Thomas for 86th place all-time.  Owen Nolan is 85th with 422 goals and Steve Shutt is 84th with 424 goals.

Home and Road

The Isles are 23-22-5 overall; they are 13-9-2 at home and 10-13-3 on the road.

Ottawa is 21-23-2 overall; they are 13-11-1 at home and 8-12-2 on the road.

East and West

The Isles are 13-12-3 against the East (9-5-1 vs. Metropolitan and 4-7-2 vs. Atlantic) and 10-10-2 against the West (4-7-2 vs. Central and 6-3-0 vs. Pacific).

Home is Where the Fans Are

The Isles have played 65 games at UBS Arena and recorded 44 sellouts of 17,255. 

Sweet Lou

Lou Lamoriello has the second-highest win total for any general manager in NHL history:

1. David Poile 1,514

2. Lou Lamoriello 1,386

3. Glen Sather 1,319

First Things First

The Isles are 15-7-2 when scoring first and are 8-15-3 when allowing the opening goal. 

The Shots

Isles     10-12-14=36

Ottawa 14-17-7=38

The Isles are 12-9-1 when they outshoot their opponents, 0-0-0 when the shots are even and 10-13-4 when they are outshot. 

In the Nets

Semyon Varlamov made 36 saves; he is 8-6-1 on the season and 6-5-2 vs Ottawa. 

Cam Talbot made 14 saves before leaving the game with the Sens leading 2-0; he is credited with the win and is now 12-13-1 on the season and 8-3-0 vs. the Isles.  Anton Forsberg made 21 saves in relief.

Special Teams

The Isles were 0-3 on the power play (6:00); Ottawa was 1-3 on the power play (4:30).

The Isles are 11-8-1 when they score at least one power play goal and 12-14-4 when they do not. The Isles are 11-10-1 when they allow at least one power play goal and 12-12-4 when they do not.

Three is a Magic Number

The Isles are 21-5-2 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 2-17-3 when they do not.

One-Goal Games

The Isles are 8-4-5 in games decided by a single goal including 5-4 in regulation. They are 3-2 in games decided in overtime and are 0-3 in shootouts. The Isles are 4-7 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1-goal game into a 2-goal game.

Back-to-Backs  

The next set of back-to-backs will be on January 27th vs Detroit and on January 28th vs. Vegas – that will be the only time this season that the Isles will play home games on consecutive days. The Isles are 4-5-0 in the front end and 5-3-1 in the back end. 

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Ryan Pulock (21:27);  Ottawa: Thomas Chabot (23:28)

Mathew Barzal led Isles forwards with 20:41 of ice-time. 

Isles record by ice-time leaders: Alexander Romanov (2-1-1), Noah Dobson (4-10-2), Adam Pelech (3-2-0), Ryan Pulock (5-5-0), Scott Mayfield (6-1-2), Brock Nelson (1-0-0), Mathew Barzal (2-1-0), Sebastian Aho (0-1-0), Tied (0-1-0).

Face-offs

Isles 31, Ottawa 25 (55%)

Mathew Barzal won 6 of 9 for the Isles; Dylan Gambrell won 4 of 6 for Ottawa.

Hit Count

Isles 24 (Matt Martin -5)

Ottawa 17 (Brady Tkachuk-3)

Fights 

Matt Martin fought Austin Watson in the 2nd period. Season total: 14 (Martin-6, Lee-2, Wahlstrom-2, Johnston-2, Cizikas, Romanov)

 

Blocked Shots

Isles 19 (Scott Mayfield -5)

Ottawa 11 (Three with 2)

For the Analytics Crowd 

Corsi: All situations: Isles 63, Ottawa 82

Corsi: 5-on-5: Isles 52, Ottawa 69

5-on-5 leaders:

Isles:  Anders Lee +27

Ottawa:  Rasmus Sandin +9

High Danger Scoring Chances (per Natural Stat Trick)

All situations: Isles 7, Ottawa 21 (including 8-0 in Ottawa's favor in the first period)

5-on-5: Isles 7, Ottawa 18

Scratches

Oliver Wahlstrom-IR), (Hudson Fasching- IR), (Cal Clutterbuck – IR), (Noah Dobson -INJ), Ross Johnston, Parker Wotherspoon

Games Lost: 105

The Ironman

Zach Parise played in his 132nd consecutive Islander game; he has played in every game since joining the team in October 2021. It is the 20th-longest active streak in the NHL.  

Challenges

Isles: 1 successful, 0 failures – STL goalie interference 11/3

Opponents: 1 successful, 0 failures – PIT offside 12/27

League reviews: 4 (Isles goal – Salo vs ANA 10/16 – stood; Isles no goal vs NSH 12/2-stood; Isles goal- Martin vs CHI 12/4-awarded; MIN goal (Gaudreau) 1/12 – awarded)

Quickies

The Isles have scored two goals in under a minute six times this season (five times at home and once on road):

• 0:17 10/29 vs. COL (Mayfield and Beauvillier)

• 0:59 11/7 vs. CGY (Lee and Palmieri)

• 0:22 11/26 vs PHI (Nelson and Beauvillier)

• 0:43 12/4 vs CHI (Parise and Nelson)

• 0:21 12/6 vs STL (Fasching and Pageau)

• 0:34 12/9 @ NJD (Cizikas and Wahlstrom)

Multi-Goal 3rd Period Comeback Wins

The Isles have come from two goals behind after two periods to win three times this season and have not allowed the opposition to do so.

For: Trailed 3-1, Won 5-3 vs. COL 10/29

Trailed 3-1, Won 4-3 (OT) vs CGY 11/7

Trailed 3-1, Won 4-3 at NYR 11/8

Last Minute Heroes:

The Isles have scored two goal and allowed one goal in the final three minutes of the third period that were either the winning goal or forced overtime. 

For(2): Brock Nelson vs COL 10/29 (18:39;EN/GW)

Josh Bailey @ TOR 11/21 (17:02; Isles won in OT)

Vs (1): Kappo Kaako @NYR  12/22 (17:13: GW)

Overtime Winners

For (3): Noah Dobson vs CGY 11/7 (4:02)

Zach Parise vs CBJ 11/12 (0:39) 

Anthony Beauvillier @ TOR 11/21 (1:56)

Vs. (2): Dimitry Orlov Vs WAS 1/16 (4:27)

Dylan Cozens @ BUF 1/19 (0:12)

Shootout Winners

Vs (3):  David Pastrnak @ BOS 12/13

Evan Rodrigues @ COL 12/19

Jason Robertson Vs DAL 1/10

All-time Islander Leader Boards:

Games Played (skaters)

1. Bryan Trottier 1,123 *** 2. Denis Potvin 1,060 *** 3. Josh Bailey 1,039…

7. Mike Bossy 752 *** 8. Matt Martin 734 *** 9. Brock Nelson 726*** 10. Casey Cizikas 713… 

13. John Tavares 669 *** 14. Anders Lee 646 *** 15. Derek King 638 *** 16. Billy Harris 623 *** 17. Stefan Persson 622 *** 18. Cal Clutterbuck 621

Goals    

1. Mike Bossy 573 *** 2. Bryan Trottier 500 *** 3. Denis Potvin 310 …

9. Bobby Nystrom 235 *** 10. Anders Lee 229 *** 11. Brock Nelson 223 *** 12. Derek King 211 *** 13. John Tonelli 206  *** 14 Billy Harris 184 *** 15. Josh Bailey 182

Assists

1. Bryan Trottier 853 *** 2. Denis Potvin 742 *** 3. Mike Bossy 553 *** 4. Josh Bailey 392…

15. Billy Harris 259*** 16. Mathew Barzal 251 *** 17. Tomas Jonsson 249 *** 18. Frans Nielsen and Kyle Okposo 230 *** 20. Brock Nelson 207…

23. Ed Westfall 181 *** 24. Kenny Jonsson 175 *** 25. Alexei Yashin and Duane Sutter 171 *** 27. Anders Lee 170

Points

1. Bryan Trottier 1,353 *** 2. Mike Bossy 1,126 *** 3. Denis Potvin 1,052…

6.  Brent Sutter 610 *** 7. Josh Bailey 574  …

14. Billy Harris 443 *** 15. Brock Nelson 430 ***  16. Anders Lee 399 *** 17. Kyle Okposo and Stefan Persson 369…19. Mathew Barzal 353

+/-

1. Bryan Trottier +467 *** 2. Denis Potvin +456 *** 3. Mike Bossy +380…

15. Bob Lorimer +105 *** 16. Tomas Jonsson +76 *** 17. Garry Howatt +75 *** 18. Adam Pelech +70 *** 19. Pat Price +70 *** 20. JP Parise +67 *** 21. Jude Drouin +58 *** 22. Patrick Flatley +57 *** 23. Greg Gilbert +54

Defense Goals

1. Denis Potvin 310 *** 2. Tomas Jonsson 84 *** Kenny Jonsson 57…

6. Nick Leddy 45 *** 7. Roman Hamrlik 43 **** 8. Mark Streit and  Ryan Pulock 40 *** 10. Johnny Boychuk *** 11. Adrian Aucoin 33 *** 12. Bryan Berard 31***13. Vladimir Malakhov and Noah Dobson 27

Defense Assists

1. Denis Potvin 742 *** 2. Stefan Persson 317 *** 3. Tomas Jonsson 249…

8. Mark Streit 139 *** 9. Roman Hamrlik 120 *** 10. Ryan Pulock 121…

18. Dave Langevin and Thomas Hickey 95 *** 20. Adam Pelech 92

Defense Points

1. Denis Potvin 1,052 *** 2. Stefan Persson 369 *** 3. Tomas Jonsson 333…

8. Mark Streit 179 *** 9. Ryan Pulock 161…

17. Vladimir Malakhov 125 *** 18. Thomas Hickey 117 *** 19. Adam Pelech 114...

23. Scott Lachance and Ken Morrow 105 *** 25. Noah Dobson and Scott Mayfield 99

Wins

1. Billy Smith 304 *** 2. Glenn Resch 157 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 130…

10. Evgeni Nabokov 57 *** 11. Semyon Varlamov 56 *** 12. Ilya Sorokin 54

Shutouts

1. Glenn Resch 25 *** 2. Billy Smith 22 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 16 …

4. Tommy Salo 14 ***5. Ilya Sorokin 13 *** 6. Semyon Varlamov and Jaroslav Halak 12 

On the Farm

Bridgeport improved to 18-16-6-1 with a 6-2 win in Hartford on Wednesday.  Chris Terry scored twice and added an assist while Andy Andreoff scored his 20th goal. 

Andy Andreoff leads the team (and is tied-4th in the AHL) with those 20 goals, while Chis Terry continues to lead in assists (27) and points (39).   William Dufour has 14 goals and is tied-4th among AHL rookies; Dufour has points in 10 of his last 13 games.

Bridgeport will spend the weekend in Pennsylvania, facing Wilkes Barre-Scranton on Friday and Hershey on Saturday.

Season Series Stats

The season series is tied, 1 game to 1 (and 2 points to 2). The teams will meet at UBS Arena on Valentines Day to close out the season series.

The loss broke a four-game Islander win streak against the Sens; they are still 10-2-0 in their last twelve meetings with Ottawa. 

UP NEXT

FRIDAY, JANUARY 27th  – DETROIT AT ISLANDERS  7:00pm

[ESPN, WRHU 88.7 FM, WRCN 103.9FM, ESPN Radio]

The Isles open their only set of home back-to-back games this season as they entertain the Detroit Red Wings on Friday. It is the second meeting of the season between the teams; Ville Husso blanked the  Isles3-0 in Detroit on November 5th.

Perhaps the Red Wings will be the tonic for the recent Islander scoring troubles.  The Isles have won five straight home games (in three buildings) against the Wings and have scored at least four goals in each of them. 

The game will be nationally telecast on ESPN with John Buccigross, AJ Mleczko and Emily Kaplan on the call. 

Eric Hornick has been the statistician on Islander home game telecasts since January 21, 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