Joey Who?

Joey MacDonald has joined the Islanders and will serve as Wade Dubielewicz' backup tonight.

MacDonald has NHL experience, appearing in 15 games with the Red Wings and Bruins last season. (3-7-2, 3.12, 89.4%) He owns NHL wins over the Senators, Devils and Flames.

Last March 27, MacDonald went into Ottawa and beat the Sens 3-2, making 32 saves. Earlier that week, he had a 1-0 lead over the Rangers late, only to fall 2-1 in a shootout.

He joined the Isles as a UFA on July 5th. This is the first season of a 2-year contract. MacDonald shared the Hap Holmes Memorial Award (lowest goals against) in 2002-03; Dubielewicz shared the same award (with Dieter Kochan) the following season for the Sound Tigers.

He is 6-10-0 with two shutouts this season for Bridgeport. Mike Mole, who spent some time with the Sound Tigers last season, hs been recalled from Utah to replace MacDonald on the Sound Tigers' roster.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of FSN statistician Eric Hornick. Eric, who has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, celebrated his 25th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2007. Often referred to on-air as an actuary, he is one of 3,044 Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is the President of the Casualty Actuaries of Greater NY. You can find him in the "Best Seat in the House", to the left of Howie and Billy, at most Islander home games. For more on the actuarial profession, visit www.beanactuary.org

Bunus Stat Trick: Isles 4, Leafs 3 (OT)

1.The Isles scored three goals in the first period. It was their second multi-goal first period of the season and their first since opening night. The Isles hadn't scored two goals in any first period at home this season -- the list time they did that at home was on March 10 against the Caps. The Isles have scored only 16 first period goals this season (6 of those in two games); every other NHL team has managed at least 20 first period goals.

2.The Isles impoved to 5-2 in OT/SO (4-1 in OT and 5-2 in SO). Only Edmonton (10-3) and Atlanta (8-1) have better records than the Isles. Pittsburgh is also 5-2.

3. After going pointless through (US) Thanksgiving, Hilbert has 4 goals and 4 assists in the last 16 games.

Stat Trick: Isles 4, Leafs 3 (OT)

Not a lot of time this morning but here goes:

1. Wade Dubielewicz's second win comes in his third relief outing of the season. He is 2-0 in relief and 0-2 as a starter this season. He will likely get his first chance for a win as a starter (since Easter Epic II) tonight in Ottawa. (The Sens were the last team to beat the Isles, and Dubie, last season).

2. Before leaving injured, DiPietro earned his third assist on the season, tying former Islanders Chris Osgood and Roberto Luongo for the league lead in that department.

3. Dubie has never allowed a goal in extra time in six NHL appearances. He now has two OT wins, a tie, and three shootout wins to his resume. His other OT win was also in relief -- Garth Snow was injured in the final seconds of regulation on January 4, 2006 and Mark Parrish scored in OT Five of Dubie's nine NHL wins have come in extra time.

and a few more:

4. It's the first time since December 30-31, 2002 that the Isles have won consecutive games, both in OT (Hamrlik vs Florida and Blake vs Buffalo, prompting Howie to exclaim "Happy New Year").

5. It's also the first time since November 7-10, 1987 that the Isles have won consecutive games, both at home, both in OT (LaFontaine vs Washington, Brad Lauer vs. Detroit).

6. Comrie's goal earned Richard Park his third assist -- a career high for Park for one game

7. Comrie's goal came at 4:50 at overtime. The Isles have now won three games this sesaon in the final thirty seconds of OT. (Guerin-NJ 10/20, Sillinger-TB, 12/8)

and finally...

8. With the win, the Isles tie Toronto and Pittsburgh in the standings, and pass Florida, Atlanta and Philadelphia. Hold on folks. It's going to be a wild ride.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of FSN statistician Eric Hornick. Eric, who has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, celebrated his 25th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2007. Often referred to on-air as an actuary, he is one of 3,044 Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is the President of the Casualty Actuaries of Greater NY. You can find him in the "Best Seat in the House", to the left of Howie and Billy, at most Islander home games. For more on the actuarial profession, visit www.beanactuary.org

It's Boxing Day!

If you have good thoughts about the Islanders and Boxing Day, you're right. Particularly when they play at the Coliseum.
The Islanders now have 8 wins, 1 loss, 1 overtime loss and 1 tie in home Boxing Day games. How many did you attend?

26-Dec-78 Vs Toronto 5 1 W
26-Dec-81 Vs Philadelphia 4 2 W
26-Dec-85 Vs Hartford 3 4 L
26-Dec-87 Vs Boston 2 1 W
26-Dec-91 Vs New Jersey 5 5 T
26-Dec-92 Vs New York 6 4 W
26-Dec-93 Vs Buffalo 4 3 Wot
26-Dec-95 Vs Boston 3 3 T
26-Dec-96 Vs New Jersey 4 1 W
26-Dec-98 Vs Boston 4 2 W
26-Dec-06 Vs New York 2 0 W
26-Dec-07 Vs Toronto

The Isles are 3-0 against the Rangers on Boxing Day, winning 2-1 in 1976 at MSG behind Howatt's GWG and 42 saves by Billy Smith, 6-4 in 1992 at the Coliseum behind 2 Steve Thomas goals, and 2-0 last year behind a DiPietro shutout.

According to wikipedia, "Boxing Day is a traditional celebration, dating back to the Middle Ages, and consists of the practice of giving out gifts to employees, the poor, or to people in a lower social class. The name has numerous folk etymologies; the Oxford English Dictionary attributes it to the Christmas box; the verb box meaning: "To give a Christmas-box (colloq.); whence boxing-day." Outside the Commonwealth of Nations (which includes Great Britain and Canada) , the day is celebrated with a different name."

This will be Toronto's second Boxing Day appearance on Long Island. Clark Gillies scored two goals as the Isles routed the Leafs 5-1 in 1978. It was the 17th game of a 23 game home unbeaten streak that opened the 1978-79 and the Leafs' first visit to Long Island since their upset of the Isles the previous spring.

They are 12-7-2 overall on Boxing Day.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of FSN statistician Eric Hornick. Eric, who has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, celebrated his 25th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2007. Often referred to on-air as an actuary, he is one of 3,044 Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is the President of the Casualty Actuaries of Greater NY. You can find him in the "Best Seat in the House", to the left of Howie and Billy, at most Islander home games. For more on the actuarial profession, visit www.beanactuary.org

DiPi

Rick DiPietro recorded his 106th win of his career tonight.

That ties Kelly Hrudey for third on the all-time Islander list. Billy Smith won 304 games for the Isles while Chico Resch won 157.

It's his 16th overtime win, which is a club record (Hrudey won 10 in OT).

DiPietro has 16 of the Islanders' 17 wins this season (Dubie won in relief on Al Arbour night). His 16 wins are two behind Evgeny Nabokov for the league lead. (Several other goalies have either 16 or 17 wins)

DiPietro is now 8-3 against the Caps in his career.

Stat Trick: Isles 3, Washington 2 (OT)

1. Richard Park's game winning goal was the first that the Isles had scored 4-on-4 all season. It's their third overtime win of the season, but the the other two (NJ and Tampa) were won on PP goals. It was Park's first OT goal as an Islander and his second winning goal of the season.

2. Miro Satan extended his point streak to six straight games. He now has 331 goals and 335 assists, giving him 666 career points. Pretty good for a Satan, huh? (I wish that I had thought of this one, but the credit goes to Hockey Night to Canada) BTW, check out this link to Miro's career stats:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/hockey/nhl/players/666/

3. Bill Guerin's goal was his fourth against the Capitals this season and ninth overall. Guerin now has 373 career goals, which is one more than Eric Lindros and two fewer than Butch Goring.

and a few more for the holidays....

4. It's the Isles' first overtime win over the Capitals in over 13 years. Benoit Hogue had the winner for the Isles on April 5, 1994 in Landover. Ray Ferraro had two OT winners at the Coliseum against the Caps in the 1993 playoffs. To find a regular season OT win, you have to go back to November 5, 1988 when Pat LaFontaine ended the shortest OT game in Islander history (:10), just 18 1/2 months after ending the longest (68:47).

5. The Isles improve to 2-4-0 at home this month. They haven't lost five home games in any month since dropping six in March, 2001.

6. Trent Hunter didn't figure in the scoring but he had a strong game, with 7 shots, 4 hits, and three takeaways.

7. Washington had only 16 shots, giving them 28 in their two games at the Coliseum. They haven't had fewer than 23 shots in games in any locale other than Long Island.

8. Goals in last 2.5 seasons: Ovechkin 123, Heatley 122, Kovalchuk 122 (including tonight).

9. Strange but true: 10 of the last 11 Islander wins have been by one goal.

10. In winning consecutive games for the first time since winning at the Rock and the Garden in mid-November, the Isles won on consecutive nights for the second time this season. They are 6-2 on the back-half of back-2-backs and 6-0 if the set did not include a game with the Rangers.

11. The Isles have won their last game before X-mas in 4 of the last five seasons. Ho. Ho. Ho.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of FSN statistician Eric Hornick. Eric, who has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, celebrated his 25th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2007. Often referred to on-air as an actuary, he is one of 3,044 Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is the President of the Casualty Actuaries of Greater NY. You can find him in the "Best Seat in the House", to the left of Howie and Billy, at most Islander home games. For more on the actuarial profession, visit www.beanactuary.org

Stat Trick: Isles 4, Penguins 2

1. The Isles ended a streak of 22 games without scoring 4 goals in a game (11/1/07 vs Tampa, 4-0 was the last). Thas was one shy of the club record of 23 -- set in 1998-99.

2. The Isles won the game by two goals -- their widest margin of victory since 11/1. The last nine Isles wins had all been by one goal. They had only one goal with a multiple goal lead at any point in that stretch -- 2-0 and 3-1 against Phoenix last week.

3. The win evens the season series at 2, and is only the 2nd Isle win in Pittsburgh in their last eight trips (2-5-1).

No goals

The Isles have scored 72 goals in 32 games, which is a pace of 185 goals for the 82-game season. The original Isles scored 170 goals in a 78-game season.

Edmonton had the fewest goals in the NHL last season: 195. The only other team to score fewer than 200 since the lockout was St Louis, who had 197 in 2005-06.

Columbus scored 164 in 2001-02, which is the season lowest total since expansion. The original Oakland Seals scored only 153 in 1967-78, but that was in 74 games.

As noted earlier, the Isles have gone 22 consecutive games without scoring four times.

The 72 goals equals the lowest 32 game total in club history (and remember one of the 72 is a shootout winner). The Isles scored 72 in 2000-01 and 64 in 1972-73.

The Isles have scored 30 fewer goals than last season, while allowing four fewer. (Perhaps amazingly they have only five fewer standings points than they did at this time last season.) The 161 goals (both teams) is the lowest in club history at this point in the season.

Stat Trick: Sabres 2, Isles 1

1. Brendan Witt's goal was his 2nd as an Islander -- he scored in January at MSG -- and is the first goal he has ever scored at the Coliseum. He has 0 career goals against the Isles.

2. Every Islander had at least one shot, but Ryan Miller made a season-high 42 saves for Buffalo.

3. The Isles drop to NHL .500 for the first time since a loss to Philadelphia dropped them to 3-3-0 on October 13th. That game was Chris Simon's season debut. The Isles are 2-7-1 in their last 10 since a shootout win over Ottawa raised their record to 13-8-1.

and one more:

4. The Isles have now been outscored 25-12 in first periods. They have scored 1 goal or less in 31 consecutive first periods --- their only multi-goal first period was against Buffalo on opening night, when they scored three times. They have scored three goals or fewer in 22 straight games -- one shy of the club record (23).

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of FSN statistician Eric Hornick. Eric, who has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, celebrated his 25th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2007. Often referred to on-air as an actuary, he is one of 3,044 Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is the President of the Casualty Actuaries of Greater NY. You can find him in the "Best Seat in the House", to the left of Howie and Billy, at most Islander home games. For more on the actuarial profession, visit www.beanactuary.org

Comeau, not Tambellini recalled

The Islanders recalled Blake Comeau today from Bridgeport, essentially to take Chris Simon's spot on the roster.

The choice is an interesting one in that the Isles recalled the 21-year old Comeau, who has only 3 goals and six assists this season and not Jeff Tambellini, who despite his time with the Islanders leads the Sound Tigers in scoring. Tambellini continues to impress at the AHL level, and he had a hat trick Sunday, scoring at even strength, on the power play and shorthanded.
One has to wonder though how many more chances that the 23 year old Tambellini will get with the Isles.

Tambellini has been a dominant player at the AHL level --he also led the Sound Tigers last season in scoring, but has scored exactly three goals in 56 NHL games. One has to wonder if Tambellini will get it right someday on the NHL level, or will he be the hockey equivalent of a baseball AAAA player.

Time will tell.

First is worst

If the Isles are going to be a competitive team, they'll need to improve their first periods. The Isles have now been outscored 24-12 in the first period this season.

The 12 goals is by far the fewest in the NHL -- St. Louis, who has played two fewer games than the Islanders, have 17 first pd tallies.
The -12 differential is the second worst in the NHL -- Atlanta, who was outscored 3-1 by Ottawa in the first period on Saturday, is -13 in the first period.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of FSN statistician Eric Hornick. Eric, who has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, celebrated his 25th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2007. Often referred to on-air as an actuary, he is one of 3,044 Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is the President of the Casualty Actuaries of Greater NY. You can find him in the "Best Seat in the House", to the left of Howie and Billy, at most Islander home games. For more on the actuarial profession, visit www.beanactuary.org

3 or less streak reaches 21

The Isles have now scored three goals or less in 21 consecutive games, yet have earned points in over half of those games, going 9-10-2. The streak started on Al Arbour night. The last time the Isles scored 4 goals was in a 4-0 win over Tampa on November 1.

The club record for scoring three goals or less is 23 games, set in 1999. The Isles went 4-14-5 during that streak, which ended with a 5-3 win over Florida on March 31, 1999.

Prior to the current streak, the 2nd longest streak was 17 straight games during the 95 lockout season.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of FSN statistician Eric Hornick. Eric, who has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, celebrated his 25th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2007. Often referred to on-air as an actuary, he is one of 3,044 Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is the President of the Casualty Actuaries of Greater NY. You can find him in the "Best Seat in the House", to the left of Howie and Billy, at most Islander home games. For more on the actuarial profession, visit www.beanactuary.org

Stat Trick - Pens 3, Isles 2

1. Power play time: Isles 3:07 - Penguins 14:43. The Isles had six shots on goal while playing shorthanded.

2. Isles out-hit the Pens 31-15, and won 35 of 53 draws.

3. It's the Penguins' first regualtion win in their last seven trips to Long Island. The Isles had gone 5-0-1 in the previous six.

and one more...

4. Rookie Tyler Kennedy, who scored his first NHL goal on Al Arbour night, had a goal and two assists tonight for the first three-point game of his career. Four of Kennedy's ten career points have come at the Coliseum.

and one question...

How many games will Simon get this time? By receiving a match penalty, Simon has been "automatically suspended from further competition until the Commissioner has ruled on the issue".

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of FSN statistician Eric Hornick. Eric, who has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, celebrated his 25th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2007. Often referred to on-air as an actuary, he is one of 3,044 Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is the President of the Casualty Actuaries of Greater NY. You can find him in the "Best Seat in the House", to the left of Howie and Billy, at most Islander home games. For more on the actuarial profession, visit www.beanactuary.org

Fw: Stat trick errata

An eagle eye pointed out that Gillies' # was retired on 12/7/96. The Isles' previous victory over Phoenix was on 12/6/97. The games had one thing in common -- an Islander shutout victory.

Fw: Stat Trick: Sabres 5, Isles 3

1. The Isles have scord only 66 goals in 29 games -- third lowest total in club history at this point in the season (57 in 1999-00 and 58 in 1972-73).

2. The Isles have scored three goals in consecutive games for the first time in over a month -- they haven't scored four goals in any of their last 19 games. It's the second-longest 3 or less streak in club history. In 1999, the Isles went 23 consecutive games without scoring at least three goals.

3. The Isles have gone 2-6-2 in their last 10 games, and haven't beaten anyone in regulation time in that span. Their last win in 60 was on November 25 vs Boston.

Stat Trick: Isles 3, Coyotes 2

1. Three is a magic number. Isles score three goals for the third straight game, and a power play goal for the third straight game as well (both equal season highs). However, it's now 20 straight games that the Isles have scored three goals or less and they haven't scored two pp goals in a game since October 27th.

2. Bill Guerin had his second multi-goal game of the season but fell one goal short of becoming the first Islander captain to record a hat trick at the Coliseum since Flatley did so in February 1994. (Guerin's hat in Washington in October is the only one, home or road, by an Isles captain since Flatley did so -- Yashin had two hats as an Isle, but both were before he became the Captain). Guerin now has 372 goals, passing RIck Kehoe and tying Eric ("the lesser") Lindros on the all-time NHL list. Of course he did so against former Isle GM Don Maloney.

3. It's the Isles first home win against Phoenix since Clark Gillies night (12-6-97), stopping a 4-game home winless streak (2 losses, 2 ties) against the Coyotes. It was also the Isles first home game vs. Phoenix since 2002 -- Radek Martinek was the only Islander to play in both games.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of FSN statistician Eric Hornick. Eric, who has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, celebrated his 25th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2007. Often referred to on-air as an actuary, he is one of 3,044 Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is the President of the Casualty Actuaries of Greater NY. You can find him in the "Best Seat in the House", to the left of Howie and Billy, at most Islander home games. For more on the actuarial profession, visit www.beanactuary.org