Stat Trick

It certainly didn't feel like Islanders-Rangers for most of the night, despite a pretty good game for two periods. On to the trick:

1. The Isles have allowed a goal in the first four minutes of the last 4 home games -- all losses. The 1-4 start is their worst at home since 1989-90. The Isles have not led at any point in any of those games.

2. Kyle Okposo had the first Isles goal and had 7 shots. He leads all NHL rookies with 23 shots on goal.

3. Mark Streit scored the Isles' third shorthanded goal of the season. Only Philadelphia and San Jose (each with 4) have more. The Isles scored 10 SH goals all last season. Streit has three goals on the season -- Mike Green is the only defensemen with more(4); all three of Streit's goals have been special teams goals.

and some more:

4. Yann Danis served as the back-up (and probably thought that he was close to getting in after MacDonald had his bell rung in the third.) Danis has appeared in 6 NHL, all for the Canadiens in October/November 2005.

5. Triple negative is still negative:
Isles are 0-5-0 when allowing the first goal, 0-4-0 when trailing after one period, and 0-6-0 when trailing after two periods.

6. Even more negative:
The Isles will play their final game of the month on Thursday in Philadelphia. If the Isles lose in regulation, they will equal the worst 9 game start in team history and have one fewer point through 9 games than the Original Islanders. They will also become the third Isles team to lose 7 games in October, previously done in 90-91 and 93-94.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Stat Trick: Carolina 4, Isles 3

The Islanders re-wrote the record books, but in the end a goal set up by a Sutter at 7:11 proved to be the difference. On to the trick:

1. Shots. Lots of shots. 60 officially -- smashing the Islander club record of 54, set on 1/1/94 vs Hartford and equaled on 3/17/04 in Florida. (By the way, they lost both of those games also, including 4-3 to the Whalers). The 60 shots are the most the Hurricane franchise has ever allowed.

2. Rick DiPietro left with an apparent injury after the first period. He's allowed 9 goals in 7 periods of work this season (3.86 GAA) and has allowed 6 goals in three first periods in that stretch.

3. The Isles have allowed the first goal 4 times, losing all 4 and have trailed after two periods in all five of their losses.

and a few more:

4. Doug Weight was stopped on a penalty shot in the game's final second (0.7 seconds remained) It's the second failed Islander penalty shot of the season-Okposo was stopped on opening night in New Jersey. The Isles have now scored on only 11 of the 41 penalty shots in their history, including 1 of their last 15.

5. Cam Ward obliterated his career high in saves, stopping 57 shots. (Previous high was 42) He has stopped 5 of 7 career penalty shots. He is now 6-2 in his career against the Isles. Ward btw was born on Feburary 29, 1984--the day Flatley and LaFontaine debuted for the then Stanley Cup champion Islanders.

6. Bill Guerin led the Isles with 10 shots on goal. Every Isle except Bruno Gervais had at least one.

7. The Isles' record drops to 2-5. Four points is their worst 7-game start since going 1-4-2 to open the 1996-97 season. The Isles are 1-3 at home, equaling the fewest points in their first four home games. If the Isles lose in regulation on Monday, it will be their worst home start since the 1989-90 season.

8. Here's hoping that Brandon Sutter is okay, after absorbing a clean open-ice hit from Doug Weight in the third period.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

OK -- people are reading. Stat Trick errata.

"Streit became the first Islander to score a goal this season."

should read

"Streit became the first Islander born in Switzerland to score a goal this season."

(or "Streit became the first Islander defensemen to score a goal this season".)

As always, thanks for reading!

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Stat Trick: Stars 5, Isles 3

Was this the most one-sided 2-goal defeat in Islander history? Just might have been. On to the trick:

1,
Mike Ribiero had a career night, setting highs in assists (4) and
points (5). The four assists was one shy of the franchise record, set
by Murray Oliver and equaled by Larry Murphy (vs the Isles in 1989) and Brad Richards.

2.
The Isles have been outscored 12-4 in their last two home games. (Was
12-2 entering the third.) The 8 goal differential over two games is
the worst since losing 5-1 to the Rangers and 4-0 to Pittsburgh under interim coach Brad Shaw in March 2006. The club record is 12,
set in a pair of 8-2 losses (to Pittsburgh and New Jersey) in March
2000.

3. Attendance up nearly 25%...or so it seems. Announced
attendance was 10,183 -- over 2,000 greater than saw the same two teams
in the least attended game last season. Actual attendance was much
less; just before the anthem there were a grand total of 12 people
sitting in Section 211.

..and a few more

4. Mark Streit and Jon Sim each recorded their first goals as Islanders. For Sim,
it's his first goal since March 8, 2007 when he had a two-goal game
against Montreal as a member of the Thrashers. Streit became the first Islander to score a goal this season.

5.
The Isles are 2-4-0; it's their worst 6-game start since opening 1-3-2
in 2000-01. They've been outscored 21-14; it's their worst goal
differential through 6 games since 1995-96.

6. The Stars scored
5 goals against the Isles for the first time since April 2, 1997 as
they won in regulation at the Coliseum for the first time since
December 21, 2000.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Stat Trick: Dallas 5, Isles 3

Was this the most one-sided 2-goal defeat in Islander history? Just might have been. On to the trick:

1, Mike Ribiero had a career night, setting highs in assists (4) and points (5). The four assists was one shy of the franchise record, set by Murray Oliver and equaled by Larry Murphy (vs the Isles in 1989) and Brad Richards.

2. The Isles have been outscored 12-4 in their last two home games. (Was 12-2 entering the third.) The 8 goal differential over two games is the worst since losing 5-1 to the Rangers and 4-0 to Pittsburgh under interim coach Brad Shaw in March 2006. The club record is 12, set in a pair of 8-2 losses (to Pittsburgh and New Jersey) in March 2000.

3. Attendance up nearly 25%...or so it seems. Announced attendance was 10,183 -- over 2,000 greater than saw the same two teams in the least attended game last season. Actual attendance was much less; just before the anthem there were a grand total of 12 people sitting in Section 211.

..and a few more

4. Mark Streit and Jon Sim each recorded their first goals as Islanders. For Sim, it's his first goal since March 8, 2007 when he had a two-goal game against Montreal as a member of the Thrashers. Streit became the first Islander to score a goal this season.

5. The Isles are 2-4-0; it's their worst 6-game start since opening 1-3-2 in 2000-01. They've been outscored 21-14; it's their worst goal differential through 6 games since 1995-96.

6. The Stars scored 5 goals against the Isles for the first time since April 2, 1997 as they won in regulation at the Coliseum for the first time since December 21, 2000.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Stat Trick: Isles 4, Tampa 3 (OT)

1. Trent Hunter's two goals, including the OT winner, give him 4 in the season's first 4 games -- 1/3 of last season's total of 12. He had four goals in October and November combined last season. It's the 10th two-goal game of his career; he's never had a hat trick and the third time that he's scored in overtime: (2/27/07-Philly and 2/28/08-Atlanta)

2. The Isles had never scored in OT in Tampa before last season (Mike Sillinger on 12/8/07) but have now done so twice in their last three trip to the west coast of Florida.

3. Franz Nielsen's assist on the winning goal was his second of the night (and of the season). It's the first two-assist game of his career; he had a 1-goal, 1-assist game against Montreal in 2007. Nielsen has played at least 14:52 in all four games this season -- the 4 highest ice-times of his NHL career.

and a few more:

4. 10 of the 11 Isles' goals this season have been scored by players 27 or older. (Bergenheim has the 11th goal; he's 24).

5. The Isles have opened 1-1 on the road in 4 of the last 5 seasons. (They opened 0-3 under Nolan two years ago.)

6. Isles will have a chance to sweep a trip to the state of Florida on Saturday when the meet the Panthers in Sunrise. The Isles have swept a 2-game trip to Florida only once in their history -- the first two games of the Laviolette era.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

MacDonald takes a beating

If Coach Gordon truly doesn't believe in changing goalies, it may be a new belief.

Tuukka Rask was his #1 goalie last season in Providence, and he was pulled three times in a four week period:

# 01/11/08: L (23m55s, 8/11) 0-3 defeat vs. Worcester (Patzold) [Replaced by Sigalet].
# 01/25/08: - (28m23s, 7/10) 4-3 SO victory vs. Springfield (Deslauriers) [Replaced by Sigalet].
# 02/08/08: - (24m01s, 10/15) 5-7 defeat vs. Hartford (Montoya) [Replaced by Sigalet].

(The data comes from hockeygoalies.org)

While the Isles are hoping that he Gordon his next Al Arbour, he's on a path to be the next Brad Shaw.

Shaw also won his first home game as an Islander coach, and then was blown out in the second game.

12-Jan-06 Vs Calgary 3 2 W
14-Jan-06 Vs Vancouver 1 8 L

The Isles did not lose a home game by 6 goals under Ted Nolan, and lost only once by 5 goals (10-27-07 to Carolina).

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

10 missing faces

It will be 27 weeks between games for the Isles, dating back to their 4-3 shootout win over the Rangers last April 4. Richard Park had the deciding goal in the shootout.

Ten of the 20 players on the Isles roster that night are not on the current roster.

Who are they?

(I'll answer that, because "Where are they" would take some digging)

Rob Davison
Bryan Berard
Matt Keith
Kip Brennan
Drew Fata
Josef Vasicek
Jeremy Colliton
Miro Satan
Michael Morrison
Wade Dubielewicz

(Sutton and Campoli are both on IR, but neither played that night.)

The 10 who did play (at least 9 expected to play tonight):
Trent Hunter
Richard Park
Bill Guerin
Sean Bergenheim
Kyle Okposo
Radek Martinek
Jack Hillen
Freddy Meyer
Frans Nielsen
Blake Comeau

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

Isles on XM

Here's the October schedule for those who will have trouble hearing WMJC 94.3 or (for day games, such as Monday) WHLI 1100.

10/10/2008 Islanders @ Devils 7:00PMET XM 205
10/11/2008 Blues @ Islanders 7:00PMET XM 206
10/13/2008 Sabres @ Islanders 2:00PMET XM 206
10/16/2008 Islanders @ Lightning 7:30PMET XM 207
10/18/2008 Islanders @ Panthers 7:00PMET XM 209
10/23/2008 Stars @ Islanders 7:00PMET XM 205
10/25/2008 Hurricanes @ Islanders 7:00PMET XM 207
10/27/2008 Rangers @ Islanders 7:00PMET XM 206
10/30/2008 Islanders @ Flyers 7:00PMET XM 206

Note that XM only airs one feed of the game -- usually the home team. So if you dial in XM tonight, expect to hear Matt Loughlin and Sherry Ross and the Devils' broadcast.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

All hopes spring eternal -- it's opening night

Happy New Season.

How happy we shall see, now won't we?

Tonight's game is a 7:00 face-off on MSG +2 (It's channel 79 on Cablevision's LI system -- check your local listings for the channel every where else.) No pre-game shows on TV this season. (Chris Botta has a bunch about that on his blog.)

Speaking of blogs, I've had one for a number of seasons that I use as an archive of my posts.
forever1940.blogspot.com

It's verrrrrrrry low key, but if you're looking for something that I might have noted in the past, it's there (at least for the post-lockout era). My posts used to be archived somewhere else but they mysteriously disappeared... :) :)

Isles dominated the Devils last season, going 6-1-1, earning 13 of their 79 points on the season vs NJ. That includes 3 wins in four tries at the Rock.

Random notes:

Isles are 6-8-2 in coaching debuts; 2-5-2 when the game is a season opener. Laviolette and Henning were the two coaches to win a season opener in their first game as an Isle coach.

The Isles will be looking to win consecutive openers for only the second time in their history. They won the first game of their Cup defenses in both 1980 and 1981.

Friday marks the 10th anniversary of the last Isle opener on home ice (10-10-98 vs Pittsburgh). They are 2-5-1 in openers since, with the 2004 opener being lost to a lockout. Ironically the Isles were supposed to open at home that year.

This is the 3rd time the Isles have opened in NJ and the 4th time the Isles have opened in a road game against the Devil franchise, counting Bryan Trottier's NHL debut in Kansas City in 1975.

The Isles have opened at home only four times in their history (1972, 1980, Jan 1995, 1998). Only Anaheim has opened at home less frequently -- three times. (The Wild will play their 5th opener at home on Saturday.)

The Devils have done well in openers (18-8-7; .652 win pctg is 3rd best among current NHL teams, behind Ottawa and Colorado (Tampa was ahead of them before their loss to the Rangers last week.)

The Devil franchise has never lost a season opener at home, going 11-0-5. This includes two NJ wins and one KC tie against the Islanders.

The Isles are only 9-18-8 in openers, tying Pittsburgh for most losses in openers for any expansion team (Pens are 17-18-6 after their win last week.)

The Isles are opening at home for the 32nd time, keeping pace with the Bruins, who opened for the 32nd time on the road on Thursday. Of course the Bruins were founded in 1924.

The only expansion team that is anywhere close to the Isles in road openers is St. Louis. The Blues have opened the season on the road 25 times. (They open at home Friday before visiting the Island on Saturday)

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.