The Skinny: Bruins 6, Isles 2

"The Skinny"
 By Eric Hornick

Game 12
Boston 6, Isles 2

Nathan Horton scored two goals and added one assist while Tuukka Rask made 24 saves as the Stanley Cup Champion Bruins jumped on the Islanders early and then went on to a 6-2 victory
before a sellout crowd of 17,565 at TD Garden in Boston.

Another Slow Start
For the fourth straight game, the Islanders fell behind early as Benoit Pouliot's first goal in 33
games beat Evgeni Nabakov just 1:32 into play.  It's the third time in that stretch that the opposition has scored on their first shot of the game.  Matt Moulson's third goal of the season evened matters before the first TV timeout, but the Bruins would respond with two goals in a 29 second span later in the session.  Nathan Horton scored on a power play and then Tyler Seguin chased Nabakov to the bench with his 8th goal of the season.  John Tavares and Michael Grabner connected on a nice play with 1:24 left in the session to cut the deficit to 3-2, but that was as close as the Isles would get. The Bruins outshot the Isles 15-8 in the opening session.

Strong 2nd Period for Montoya
Al Montoya had not been in a game for over two weeks, but he relieved Nabakov late in the first period and then was a major factor in the 2nd period, stopping all 16 Bruins shots.  Rask made 12 saves of his own in the scoreless middle period.

All B's in the 3rd
The Bruins scored twice in a 39 second span early in the third period to essentially put the game out of reach.  Horton assisted on a Milan Lucic goal before scoring one of his own.  The goals came shortly after Bruins forward Daniel Paille left the game after taking a Steve Staios slap shot in his face.   David Krejci hit the empty net at 17:12 to remove all doubt.  6-2 Final.

Home and Road
The Islanders are 4-6-2 overall and 0-3-1 on the road.  The Isles are 0-6-1 in their last seven on the road, dating back to a 5-2 win in Tampa last March 22nd.
The Bruins are 6-7-0 overall and 4-5-0 at home. The Champs have won three straight  (their longest regular season win streak since winning seven straight last Feb 17-March 3) and now have four players (Seguin, Lucic, Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara) with point streaks of at least four games.

Pacesetters
With one point in the first four road games, the Isles are 4 points behind last season's pace; with 10
points in 12 games, the Isles are even with last season's pace.

In the Nets
Evgeni Nabakov allowed three goals on 12 shots in his first game action since removing himself before the shootout in Pittsburgh 11 days ago as he falls to 1-3-0.  Al Montoya stopped 22 of 24 in relief.
Tuukka Rask made 24 saves for the Bruins for his first win since April 2nd. He is 1-3-0 this season, and 4-1-0 in his career against the Isles.

Power Plays
The Islanders were 0-4 on the power play while the Bruins were 1-1.   The Isles are now 7-42 on the power play and 32-39 on the penalty kill this season. They are 2-17 in the last five games on the power play and 8-13 in the same stretch on the penalty kill.

They Tweeted It 
@NESN "Tuukka Rask Gets First Win of Season, As Bruins Finally Come Up Big in Front of Young Goaltender"

Head of the Class
Tavares' assist on the Grabner goal is his 134th career point, one more than fellow-2009 draft pick Matt Duchene.  No other player in that draft is anywhere close.   Tavares has scored 8 of the Islanders' 25 goals this season (32.0%), by far the highest percentage of a team's goals of any team in the NHL.

The Hit Leader
Matt Martin fought AdamMcQuaid after the early Bruin goal and then added 4 hits to extend his
NHL-leading total to 56.  Blake Comeau is 2nd on the club in hits; he now has 26.

Hitting the Empty Net
There have been 6 empty-net goals in the first 12 Islander games (2 for and 4 against).

Leading Ice Men
Mark Streit led the Isles with 23:52.  Dennis Seidenberg led all players with 24:30.

101 to Go
The Isles have scored 9,899 goals in their history (excluding 39 shootout winners), leaving the club 101 shy of 10,000.

Still Searching
The Isles have two regular forwards (Blake Comeau and Jay Pandolfo) who have yet to record a point.

25 in 12
The Isles have scored 25 goals in the first 12 games; only Butch Goring's 1999-2000 club (24 goals in 12 games) scored fewer.  The Isles have scored 16 goals in their four wins (4.00 per game) and nine goals in their other eight games (0-6-2; 1.13 per game).

Best D since the Lockout
The Isles have allowed only 34 goals (does not include 1 in a shootout) in 12 games (2.83 goals per
game).  It's the fewest goals that the Isles have allowed in the first 12 games since 2003-04, when they allowed 29.

In the Circle
The Islanders won 20 of 49 (41%) face-offs.  No Islander center won more than he lost; Chris Kelly won 6 of 9 for the Bruins as he played his 500th NHL game.

Missing Men
Mike Mottau and Rick DiPietro were scratched. Nino Niederreiter is in Bridgeport on a conditioning
assignment.  The Isles have two players on injured reserve: Rhett Rakhshani and Mark Katic.  The Isles have lost 50 man-games to injury so far this season.

Ironmen
Matt Moulson, the Isles' reigning ironman, has played in all 176 games since joining the team. Travis Hamonic has now played 74 NHL games (all consecutive); he has the longest consecutive game streak on defense for the Isles.

Season Series Stats
The Bruins lead the season series one game to none (two points to none).   The series will continue at the Coliseum on November 19th when Original Islander Captain (and two-time Bruin Cup-winner) Ed Westfall will be inducted into the Isles Hall of Fame. The other two games of the season series will be played in March.

The Isles have lost three straight in Boston and are 3-11-1 in their last 15 games against the Bruins.

Happy Anniversary
11 years ago tonight: November 7, 2000.  On the night George W. Bush is elected President, the Islanders get two goals from Brad Isbister and defeat Nashville 2-1.   While the game is not
particularly memorable, Howie Rose's call, interspersing election results with the play-by-play certainly was.

Overall the Islanders are now 6-7-2 on this date, including a Rich Kromm overtime winner vs. Detroit in 1987.

On The Farm
Bridgeport dropped a 3-2 decision to St. John's on Sunday, dropping their record to 6-5-1-0.   The Sound Tigers are off until Friday, when they will begin a 3-game in 3-day road trip with a Veterans Day matinee in Worcester.  Justin DiBenedetto (8-4-12) continues to lead Bridgeport in goals and points, while David Ullstrom is second in goals with 7. Casey Cizikas and Tim Wallace share the club lead in assists and are tied for second in points with identical 3-7-10 totals; defenseman Dylan Reese also has seven assists.  Anders Nilsson is off to a solid start in nets with a 4-1 record and a 2.79 GAA; his 4 wins rank 2nd among AHL rookies.

Up Next
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10TH ISLANDERS
AT COLORADO 9:00PM
[MSG+ (Islanders Game Night at 8:30pm), WRHU (88.7FM)]
Perhaps the Mile High City will be the elixir as the Islanders will look for their first road victory on
Thursday as they face the Avs for the only time this season.  Jiggs McDonald will handle the play-by-play as he fills in for Howie Rose.

The Avs are over NHL .500 (7-6-1), but are a league-worst 1-5-0 at home.

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