"The Skinny"
By Eric Hornick
Game 9
San Jose 3, Isles 2 (overtime)
Brett Burns scored a power play goal 1:07 into overtime as the San Jose Sharks took advantage of a disputed delay of game call to defeat the Islanders 3-2 before 11,742 at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The overtime loss extends the Isles' winless streak to five games (0-3-2) but earns them a standings point for the second straight game (0-0-2).
Sharks Start Fast
Following a pre-game ceremony to honor the Islanders' 1992-93 Patrick Division Playoff Championship team, Steve Staios took a cross-checking penalty just 10 seconds into play. Seven seconds later, Joe Pavelski converted a rebound off the goalpost to give the Sharks the advantage.
Powering Up
It was the Isles turn with the power play in the middle session as John Tavares and Michael Grabner scored power play goals eight minutes apart. Tavares' goal was his 7th; he has points on 11 of the Isles' 18 goals. It was also his 4th power play tally, tying him for the league lead with two other players. Grabner deflected home a Kyle Okposo pass for his third goal of the season, as he became the first Isles forward other than Tavares to convert with the extra man. The two goals went a bit against form as the Isles had scored only three 2nd period goals in their first eight games and San Jose had allowed only three 2nd period goals in their first eight games.
Sharks Get Even
The Islander lead lasted only 1:51. Logan Couture tied the game at 13:19 of the second period with his 3rd goal of the season. Neither team scored through the rest of regulation, setting up overtime.
Overtime is not Our Time
With 29 seconds gone in overtime, Travis Hamonic tried to play the puck up the near board to Tavares. Replays indicated that the puck skimmed the boards before going out of play but the officials saw otherwise and awarded San Jose a power play for delay of game. "The play happened pretty quickly on the ice. I chipped the puck off the glass and obviously the call was, what the call was," Hamonic said. "Those are the bounces you have to deal with sometimes." Burns' blast from the top of the slot decided matters. 3-2 (overtime) Final.
Burned by Burns Again
It's Burns' second career overtime goal against the Isles. The first one came on February 9, 2008 in Minnesota.
Home and Road
The Islanders are 3-4-2 overall and 3-2-1 at home. The Isles have earned points in four of their last five home games (3-1-1).
The Sharks win their 5th straight (all on the road) and improve to 6-3-0; they are 5-1-0 on the road.
Against the West
The Isles are now 1-0-1 against the Western Conference this season (1-0-1 at home, 0-0-0 on the road). The Isles were 8-5-5 against the West last season and are 12-0-6 in their last 18 home games against Western foes dating back to a 4-1 loss to Evgeni Nabokov and San Jose on October 17, 2009.
In the Nets
Rick DiPietro, who had made his season debut in the shootout on Thursday, allowed goals on the Sharks' first and last shots but stopped 27 of 28 in between. He is 0-0-2 this season.
Thomas Greiss finished with 35 saves as the Isles fired a season-high 37 shots against him.
Power Plays
The Islanders were 2-4 on the power play while the Sharks were also 2-4. The Isles are now 7-33 on the power play and 31-36 on the penalty kill this season. It's the third time this season that the Isles have scored two power play goals. It's the first time this season that the Isles scored and allowed multiple power play goals. It happened twice last season, both in victories (10/11/10 vs. NYR, 2/11/11 vs. Pittsburgh).
They Tweeted It
@StapeNewsday #Isles introducing 10 members of the 1992-93 team on hand for 20th anniv. Good to see one of the all-time characters, Darius Kasparaitis.
Leading Ice Men
Andrew MacDonald led all players with 24:41. Marc-Edouard Vlasic led the Sharks with 23:50 of ice-time. Vlasic has five shots on goal and five blocked shots as well.
Stuck on 2
The Isles scored twice tonight and are still averaging two goals per game (18 goals in the first nine games). They have scored the fewest goals in the NHL.
Fewest Goals Scored, First 9 Games
· 17 in 1973-74
· 17 in 1998-99
· 18 in 1999-00
· 18 in 2010-11
108 to Go
The Isles have scored 9,892 goals in their history (excluding 39 shootout winners), leaving the club 108 shy of 10,000.
Still Searching
The Isles have two forwards (Josh Bailey and Jay Pandolfo) who have played every game and have yet to record a point.
Best D in a Decade
The Isles have allowed only 22 goals (does not include 1 in a shootout) in nine games (2.44 goals per game). It's the fewest goals that the Isles have allowed in the first nine games since 2001-02 and the 9th time in their history that they have allowed 19 or fewer over the first eight. The club record for Fewest Goals Allowed, First 9 Games is 17, set in 1974-75.
In the Circle
The Islanders rebounded from a 39% face-off night in Pittsburgh to win 34 of 62 (55%) face-offs. Marty Reasoner was dominant in the circle, winning 14 of 17.
Missing Men
Mike Mottau, Trevor Gillies and Evgeni Nabakov were scratched. The Isles have three players on injured reserve: Nino Niederreiter, Rhett Rakhshani and Mark Katic. The Isles have lost 45 man-games to injury so far this season.
Ironmen
Matt Moulson, the Isles' reigning ironman, has played in all 173 games since joining the team. Travis Hamonic has now played 71 NHL games (all consecutive); he has the longest consecutive game streak on defense for the Isles.
More Points for Milan
Milan Jurcina played his second game of the season and the Isles have earned standings points in both of them. Since joining the team last season, the Isles are 24-15-9 when Jurcina plays and 12-28-3 when he does not.
Com(eau)ing Along
Blake Comeau, who had only one shot on goal in his first six games had four shots on goal, as well as four hits.
Martin 7, Sharks 7
Matt Martin had seven hits, equaling the total for the Sharks, who were out-hit 16-7.
Stopping Joe
The Isles held Joe Thornton without a point, ending his five game point streak. Thornton has 1,009 points in his career, more than any other NHL player since he debuted in 1997-98. It's the second straight season that the Isles have held Thornton without a point.
From the Geniuses at Elias
Since expansion, only three power play goals have been scored earlier in a game than Pavelski's tally at 17 seconds:
· 13 seconds 12/09/1995 DAL 1 at TOR 3 Adams, Greg
· 16 seconds 11/17/1985 BUF 3 vs TOR 5 Tucker, John
· 16 seconds 01/10/1977 NYI 8 vs PHI 3 Trottier, Bryan
Out With October
The Isles are 167-157-64 in 388 games played in October.
Season Series Stats
The Sharks win the season series one game to none (two points to one). The Isles are 1-3-2 vs. the Sharks since the lockout, including a 1-1-1 record on home ice.
Happy Anniversary
20 years ago tonight: October 29, 1991. Pierre Turgeon scored his first goal in an Islander uniform as the Isles scored four goals in the third period to pound the Sharks 8-4 at the Coliseum.
Overall the Islanders are now 5-7-3 on this date, including 0-4-2 since defeating Montreal 5-2 on this date in 1997.
On The Farm
Casey Cizikas scored two third period goals, including the winning tally with just 19 seconds to play as Bridgeport edged Connecticut 3-2 at Harbor Yard on Saturday. Justin DiBenedetto scored his team-leading 8th goal and added an assist. Bridgeport is 4-4-1-0 , including 1-0-1-0 on their five-game homestand, which continues on Wednesday morning.
Up Next
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3RD WINNIPEG AT ISLANDERS 7:00PM
[MSG+2 (Islanders pre-game at 6:30pm), WRHU(88.7FM)]
After playing only nine games in the first 28 days of the season, the Isles begin a 13-game November (7 at home and 6 on the road) with their first meeting in 5,717 days with the Winnipeg Jets.
Two Islanders who were honored at the Shark game played in the last Isles –Jets game (3/9/1996): Darius Kasparaitis and Brad Dalgarno. Derek Armstrong scored his first NHL goal as the Isles beat the Jets 4-2. Overall, the Isles were 25-14-8 vs. the original Jets.
The current Jets played last season in Atlanta and swept a pair of one-goal games on Long Island. Overall, the Isles are 1-2-1 vs. Atlanta last season.
This will be the first of four games between the two teams. The Isles will visit Manitoba five days before Christmas and again on Valentine's Day, before hosting Winnipeg in the home finale on April 5th.
Note that this game will be televised on MSG+2.
Eric Hornick has been the statistician on Islander home game telecasts since 1982. Information contained in "The Skinny" has been gathered from various sources. Follow Eric @ehornick on Twitter.
Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick