Something has to give tonight at the Coliseum. The Isles, 1-17-5 in their last 23 against the Flyers, have perhaps the perfect elixir: Evgeni Nabokov -- who will look for career win #300.
Nabokov has 188 career regulation losses as well. They've come against 28 teams -- all but San Jose, who he has never faced -- and the Flyers.
Nabokov is 6-0-2 (6 wins, 2 ties) against Philly -- one of the ties was a scoreless tie. He has won his last 5 starts vs Philly (3 times in regulation, once in overtime and once in a shootout). Nabokov even gave up six goals in that shootout win, but the Flyers have not found a way to pin a defeat on him.
They had a shot in their first ever-meeting with Nabokov, back in December 2000 -- Nabokov was pulled after allowing three goals in 22 minutes, but Steve Shields was charged with the loss in a 4-3 Flyer win.
Nabokov will look to become the 5th goalie who played some portion of his career with the Islanders and became a 300-game winner. Billy Smith won all but one of his 305 wins with the Isles. Roberto Luongo and Chris Osgood played for the Isles on the road to 300; John Vanbiesbrouck had already won 358 games when he joined the Isles.
Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick
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