Coaching Debuts

Coaching Debuts

Phil Goyette 10/07/72 * L 3-2 Atlanta Earl Ingarfeld 01/31/73 L 5-3 @ Toronto Al Arbour 10/10/73 * T 1-1 @ Atlanta Terry Simpson 10/09/86 * L 3-2 @ Chicago Al Arbour II 12/09/89 L 6-5 @ New Jersey Lorne Henning 01/21/94 * W 2-1 Florida Mike Milbury 10/07/95 * T 4-4 @ Boston Rick Bowness 01/24/97 W 5-2 @ Hartford Mike Milbury II 03/12/98 L 2-1 Washington Bill Stewart 01/21/99 W 5-2 @ Pittsburgh Butch Goring 10/02/99 * L 4-2 @ Tampa Bay Lorne Henning II03/04/01 W 5-2 @ New York Rangers Peter Laviolette10/05/01 * W 3-2 @ Tampa Bay Steve Stirling 10/09/03 * L 6-1 @ Washington Brad Shaw 01/12/06 W 3-2 Vs. Calgary Ted Nolan 10/06/06 * L 6-3 @ Phoenix

* Season Opener Isles are 6-8-2 in coaching debuts, 2-5-2 when the game is a season opener.

Does older equal better?

The Isles enter the season with four players:

Dunham [June 1 1972] Hill [Feb 14 1970] Sillinger [June 29 1971] Simon [January 30 1972]

who were alive when the Isles played their first NHL game on October 7, 1972.

None of these players were with the team last season. The oldest of the players from last season's team is Alexei Zhitnik, who was born three days after the Flames beat the Islanders 2-1 in the first game in their respective franchise's history, making Morris Stefaniw a household name.

Isles/Rangers/Devils

Former Ranger, former Devil goalie Mike Dunham signs with Islanders. He joins these players who have completed the New York-area hat trick: Joel Bouchard, Pat Conacher, Vladimir Malakhov, Sergei Nemchinov, John Vanbiesbrouck.

[from Mark Herrmann]

Offensive offense

The Isles have scored only two goals in their last four games. That ties the club record for fewest goals in a four-game stretch. The record was set in 1972-73: 2-Jan-73 Vs Atlanta 1 6 L 3-Jan-73 @ Buffalo 1 4 L 6-Jan-73 Vs Detroit 0 4 L 7-Jan-73 @ Detroit 0 4 L

and tied -- twice -- in 2003-04: 22-Nov-03 @ Columbus 1 2 L 26-Nov-03 Vs Carolina 0 2 L 28-Nov-03 @ Detroit 0 6 L 29-Nov-03 Vs Philadelphia 1 5 L

26-Nov-03 Vs Carolina 0 2 L 28-Nov-03 @ Detroit 0 6 L 29-Nov-03 Vs Philadelphia 1 5 L 2-Dec-03 Vs Washington1 4 L

The Isles also equalled the club record for fewest goals scored in three consecutive games, all played at home (2): 27-Feb-01 Vs New Jersey 1 4 L 1-Mar-01 Vs Carolina 1 3 L 3-Mar-01 Vs Tampa Bay 0 6 L

Those were the final three games coached by Butch Goring.

Get out the history books

The Isles finish the season 6-1-1 against New Jersey. It's the first time since 1983-84 [7-0-0] that the Isles have won at least six games from New Jersey. The Isles were 3-0-1 at the Meadowlands. It's the first time since 1992-93 that they've won three games in a season in New Jersey and the first since since 1982-83 that they've picked up points in four games in New Jersey. The Isles have beaten Marty Brodeur four straight times; prior to this streak they had never beaten the perennial all-star three straight times. Brad Shaw is the only Islander coach besides Al Arbour to ever win four straight against the Devils franchise. Marty Brodeur has allowed twelve goals in his last two games and was pulled from both. He had never allowed more than ten goals in consecutive games and was last pulled in consecutive games on Dec 31/96 - Jan 2/97. Rick DiPietro has won six straight games - a career high. Di Pietro has won seven straight starts [he was charged with the loss in relief against Montreal], and is 11-1-1 in his last 13 starts. The Isles are 6-1 in their last seven games. The Isles have won four straight games, and have allowed only one goal in each. If the Isles can hold Atlanta to one goal or less on Thursday, they will tie a club record of allowing one goal or fewer in five straight games. The record was set early in the 1974-75 season. At 31-29-4, the Isles are two games over NHL .500 -- one game shy of their season best [15-12-2, 16-13-2, 17-14-2] done three times. The Isles are now .500 on the road 15-15-2, for 32 points. Other than the 2001-02 season, when they had 37 points in 32 games, they haven't had more than 32 points in their first 32 road games since they had 34 in 32 games when they were still defending the Stanley Cup in 1983-84. [Of course, there are more points per game available this season than ever before.]

Penalty Shots

Some things you might not have known...

Martin Straka's goal is the first-ever penalty shot goal in an Islander-Ranger game. There were three previous failures:

Don Murdoch on Chico Resch 1/28/78 Randy Wood on Mike Richter 4/5/90 [playoffs] Claude Lapointe on Mike Richter 10/25/98

[There has never been a penalty shot goal in an Islander-Devil game.]

Straka is now 3/8 on his career in penalty shots [3/7 in regular season and 0/1 in playoffs]

DiPietro had stopped four previous penalty shots: Stopped Michael Nylander [WSH], December 21, 2002 Stopped Erik Cole [CAR], April 2, 2004 Stopped Patrik Stefan [ATL], October 25, 2005 Stopped Dany Heatley [OTT], November 5, 2005

It's the first time in Islander history that they've allowed two penalty shot goals in one season [Vincent Lecavalier scored on January 2nd].

DiPietro has now faced five penalty shots, tying the club record set by Kelly Hrudey. [Resch, Smith and Snow have each faced four in regular season play]

The Isles have allowed five penalty shots this season, which is a new club record. The previous mark of four was set in the 1977-78 season. The Isles faced only three penalty shots in all of the 1990's [779 regular season games]

Leaguewide, there have been 28 penalty shot goals on 73 shots this season. Both are NHL records by wide margins. The shooters are getting more accurate too-- over the prior two seasons combined there were 27 goals on 96 shots. There were only 27 penalty shot goals throughout the league over the first eight seasons of Islander history.

Shaw now 5-3-1 as Isles coach

With Tuesday's win over Washington, Brad Shaw is now 5-3-1 behind the Isles bench and the team has not gone consecutive games without a point at any time during his tenure. Shaw is the only interim coach in Isles history to hold a winning record after nine games; the only other time any Islander coach held a winning record nine games into any tenure was when Peter Laviolette was 7-0-1-1 in his first nine games.