The Skinny: Nashville 3, Isles 1

"The Skinny"
By Eric Hornick
 
Game 43
Predators 3, Isles 1
Sergei Kostisyn and Matt Halischuk scored on Nashville's first two
shots and Pekka Rinne did the rest, stopping 36 shots as the Nashville
Predators defeated the Islanders 3-1 in front of 10,755 at Nassau Veterans
Memorial Coliseum. 

The Scoring:
1st
Period
02:17NSHSergei Kostitsyn (11) -
ASST: R. Ellis (3)
05:34NSHMatt Halischuk (10) -
ASST: NONE
11:37NSHDavid Legwand (13) -
ASST: M. Erat (20)
AND C. Wilson (16)
 
2nd
Period -NONE
 
3rd
Period
16:02NYIJohn Tavares (16) - ASST: M. Moulson (19) AND K. Okposo (11)
 
The Skinny: 
The Islanders allowed a goal on the opponent's first shot for the 9th time this season. John Tavares extended his point streak to a career-high nine
games. Tavares has three goals and 13 assists in those nine games (including five
multi-point games). Matt Moulson and Kyle Okposo earned assists on the tally,
extending their streaks to four games.  Tavares' goal was the Isles' first in 121:14 against Nashville.

The Shots
The Predators had 12 of the game's first 15 shots and outshot the Isles
12-6 in the opening period. The Isles rebounded to outshoot Nashville 19-10 in
the second period and 12-10 in the third period. For the game, the Isles
outshot the Preds 37-32.

Home and Road
The Islanders are 16-21-6 overall and are 10-11-3 at home.  The Isles are 4-2-0 in the last six on home
ice after going 3-8-3 in their prior 14 at home. 
The Preds are 26-15-4 overall and 12-8-1 on the road.  The Preds have won five straight games for
the second time this season and are 14-4-0 in their last 18 games.

In the Nets
Kevin Poulin made 29 saves, stopping 29 of the final 30 shots, but
drops to 0-2-0 in the NHL this season. Following the game, Poulin was returned
to Bridgeport.
Pekka Rinne made 36 saves for the
Predators as he improves to 24-11-4.  He
has allowed only four goals in three career games against the Islanders.

Power Plays
The Islanders were 0-3 on the power play; the Predators were 0-1.  The Isles, who entered the game 7th in the league with the extra man, are 9-32 on the power play over the last 11
games after going just 1-22 in the previous seven games.  The Isles are also 6-22 in the last eight
games on the power play.
The Isles have killed 22-23 over the last ten games and 26-28 (92.9%)
over the last 14 games.
The Isles had a chance to get back in the game in the second period but
could not convert on a 5-on-3 advantage that lasted 1:10.  The Islanders and Calgary are the only two
teams in the NHL without a 5-on-3 goal.

300 Club
Evgeni Nabokov has become the 26th goalie in NHL history with 300
career wins. Among current NHL goalies, only Martin Brodeur, Nikolai Khabibulin
and Roberto Luongo have more career wins.  He is one win behind Mike Richter (301) on the all-time list. He one of
five goalies who have won 300 goals, including at least one for the Isles: [Chris
Osgood (401 -- 49 with Isles), John Vanbiesbrouck (374 -- 10 with Isles), 
Roberto Luongo (325 -- 7 with Isles), Billy Smith (305 -- 304 with Isles)  and now Evgeni Nabokov (300 -- 7 with Isles)]

They Said It
Mark Streit: "You can't
blame the goalie.  The guys in front of
him just weren't ready to play the first 20 minutes."

They Tweeted
It
@markpherrmann "Goal
by Tavares with 3:59 left extends point streak to nine games. The guy is worth
price of admission..."

The Coach
"We mismanaged the puck. We made soft plays and they capitalized."

Leading Ice
Men
Mark Streit led the Isles with 27:30; Kevin Klein led Nashville with 23:28.

In the Circle
The Islanders won 23 draws; Nashville won 32. John Tavares won 10 of 17
for the Isles; Mike Fisher won 9 of 13 for Nashville.

Heavy Hitters
The Islanders out-hit Nashville 31-21.  Tim Wallace had seven hits while Travis
Hamonic had five. NHL hit leader Matt Martin added four hits.  Martin leads the NHL with 186 hits.

Third Periods
The Isles outscored the Predators 1-0 in the third period; the Isles have
been outscored 48-30 overall in the third period (38-25 excluding empty nets).
In the first two periods, the Isles have been outscored 80-70. 

26 to Go
The Isles have scored 9,974 goals in their history (excluding 42
shootout winners), leaving the club 26 shy of 10,000.

Back to .500
The Islanders fall back to all-time NHL .500 (1329-1329-427 in 3,085
games).  The Isles have twice this season
been one game below .500. Prior to this season, they had not been below NHL
.500 since they were 177-178-83 prior to their victory on January 16, 1978.

Scoring
The Isles have scored 61 goals over the last 22 games (11-9-2) after
scoring only 15 in the previous nine games (1-6-2).  The Isles have scored 53 goals in their 15
wins (3.57 per game) and 43 goals in their other 27 games (0-21-6; 1.59 per
game).  In their 22 regulation losses,
the Isles have scored 27 goals (1.29 per game).

Head of the
Class
John Tavares had the Isles' goal, giving him 16 points over the last nine
games.  He now has 164 career points; he
is 18 points ahead of Matt Duchene for most among 2009 draft picks.  No other player in that draft is anywhere
close. (Duchene, who turned 21 today, suffered a knee injury in late December
and is expected to miss the next month.)   Tavares' 9-game point streak is the longest
by an Islander since Trent Hunter had a nine-game streak (4-5-9) in November,
2009.  No Islander has had a double-digit
streak since the lockout.

Friends,
Friends, Friends
Moulson has 21 goals this season; John Tavares has earned assists on 14
of them.  He has now been on-ice for 45
consecutive Moulson goals, earning assists on 30 of them, dating back to a Moulson
goal on November 17, 2010 against Tampa. 

MOT-ley Crew?
Since being put together nine games ago, Matt Moulson is 5-7-12, Kyle
Okposo is 5-4-9, and John Tavares is 5-11-16. 

Trailing
Early
The Isles allowed a goal on the first shot for the ninth time this
season.  The Isles are 2-5-2 when they allow a goal on the first shot;
however this was this first regulation loss on home-ice (2-1-2 at home and
0-4-0 on the road).  It was also the ninth time that the Isles have allowed
a goal in the first five minutes.  They are 1-6-2 in those situations this
season.

Best v West
The Isles drop to 15-2-7 in their last 24 home games against the
Western Conference (with their only other regulation loss being on December 15th
against Dallas). Kevin Poulin has been in goal for both defeats.  The Islanders are 4-2-2 in home games against
the West this season, with a game remaining against Los Angeles on February 11th.  Overall, this season the Isles are 6-5-4 vs.
the West and 10-16-2 against the East.

Missing Men
Al Montoya (concussion), Marty Reasoner (broken thumb) and Dylan Reese
(healthy) were scratched.  Mike Mottau, Rick
DiPietro, and Mark Katic are on injured reserve.  The Isles have lost 215 man-games to injury
so far this season.  Evegeni Nabokov
dressed as the back-up goalie. 

20-20-20,
30-30-30?
Matt Moulson is the first Islander since Jason Blake (4 seasons:
2002-03 to 2006-07) to have at least three consecutive 20-goal seasons. He is nine
goals away from a third consecutive 30-goal season; no Islander since Ziggy
Palffy has accomplished that feat.  Moulson has 82 goals as an Islander – the most by any Islander since the
lockout.

Ironmen
Matt Moulson, the Isles' reigning ironman, has played in all 207 games
since joining the team. Moulson's streak is the longest for an Islander since
Richard Park played in 221 games from October 2006- February 2009.  Travis Hamonic has now played 105 NHL games
(all consecutive); he has the longest consecutive game streak on defense for
the Isles. 

As Seen on
MSG+
Moulson recently joined an exclusive club; he is one of only five
Islanders in the last thirty years to appear in 200 consecutive games:
·         Matt Moulson 10/3/2009-1/16/2012  207
·         Richard Park 10/5/2006 – 2/18/2009 221
·         Mariusz Czerkawski 12/23/99 – 4/14/2002 215
·         Bryan McCabe 10/7/95-2/4/98 220
·         Bryan Trottier 3/7/81- 1/12/84 219
Billy Harris played in the first 576 games in Islander history; that
figure still stands as the club record.

Century Club
Hamonic is only the 8th defensemen in Islander history to
play in 100 consecutive games and the first since Janne Niinimaa. He currently
has the 7th longest streak by a defenseman in Islander history.
1.     Denis Potvin 11/29/1975-1/17/1979  262
2.     Bryan McCabe 10/7/95-2/4/98 220
3.     Gerry Hart 3/1/75-11/22/77 198
4.     Janne Niinimaa 3/13/2004-1/7/2006 136
5.     Ken Morrow 3/1/1980-12/29/1981 134
6.     Jean Potvin 10/23/75-1/2/77 110
7.     Travis Hamonic 11/24/10 – CURRENT 105
8.     Kenny Jonsson 12/26/96-2/4/98 104
Like Hamonic, McCabe and Morrow's streaks came at the start of their
NHL careers.  Niinimaa's streak included
the only 136 games he played as an Islander.

List Time
Career Wins, Active
Goalies
1. Martin Brodeur638
2. Nikolai Khabibulin327
3. Roberto Luongo326
4. Evgeni Nabokov 300
5. Miikka Kiprusoff296
 
Career Goals,
Active Players
13. Patrik Elias350
14. Brian Rolston339
15. Dany Heatley338
 
Career Games,
Active Players
 
1  Nicklas
Lidstrom 1,539
2  Roman
Hamrlik  1,350
3  Jaromir
Jagr       1,310
4  Teemu
Selanne  1,304
5  Brian Rolston     1,222
 
Rolston's 1,222 career games is tied for 81st place in NHL history with
the late Brad McCrimmon.

Most First Goals of
Game (NHL This Season)
1 Matt Moulson 8
2 Evander Kane 7
2 Loui Eriksson 7
 
Career Goals as an
Islander
32 Butch Goring 87
33 Tomas Jonsson 84
34 Matt Moulson 82
35 Wayne Merrick 81
35 Dave Scatchard 81
 
40 Lorne Henning 73
40 JP Parise 73
42 Alan Kerr 69
42 John Tavares 69
44 Brad Isbister 67
 
Career Games as an
Islander (skaters)
61 Jeff Norton 282  
62 Frans Nielsen 280  
63 Steve Thomas 275  

 
68 Pierre Turgeon 255  
69 Josh Bailey 254  
70 Jude Drouin 250  



77 Adrian Aucoin 235  
78 Darius Kasparaitis 232  
78 Dennis Vaske 232  
78 Kyle Okposo 232  
81 Billy MacMillan 231  
81 Zdeno Chara 231  

 
89 Paul Boutilier 211  
90 Gary Nylund 209  
91 Matt Moulson 207  
92 Tom Fitzgerald 205  
93 John Tavares 204  
94 Billy Carroll 200  
95 Ralph Stewart 199  
95 Mark Streit 199  
97 Tom Kurvers 192  
97 Todd Bertuzzi 192  









 
Career Points as an
Islander
46 Miroslav Satan 166
47 John Tavares 164
48 Oleg Kvasha 156






51 Michael Peca 142
52 Matt Moulson 141
52 Dave Lewis 141
54 Robert Reichel 140
54 Frans Nielsen 140
56 Bryan Smolinski 139
57 Kyle Okposo 138

Season Series
Stats
This was the only meeting of the season between the teams. Since 2003,
the Isles are 1-6-1 vs. Nashville, with their only victory coming in a
shootout.
Happy
Anniversary

22 years ago tonight (1-16-90):  Glenn
Healy made a career-high 51 saves as the Islanders blanked the Vancouver
Canucks 3-0 at the Coliseum.  It was
Healy's first shutout as an Islander and gave the Islanders their seventh
straight win—a total that they have not matched since.
Overall, the Isles are 9-6-2 on this date.

Remembering
Dr. King
This was the sixth straight year and 11th time since 1994 that Isles
have hosted an MLK Matinee.  The Isles are 1-3-2 in the last six, with the
victory coming in 2010 against New Jersey on a Rick DiPietro shutout.
 
On The Farm
Bridgeport is RED HOT.  The Sound
Tigers have won seven straight and improved to 19-17-3-1 with a 3-2 win over Binghamton
on Sunday.  Rhett Rakhshani extended his
point streak to eight straight games and Casey Cizikas had a goal and an assist
to back 34 saves from Anders Nilsson, who won for the third straight day.  The Sound Tigers play only once between now
and January 25th – this Saturday night in Glens Falls, NY against
the Adirondack Phantoms. Bridgeport's winning streak is two shy of the club
record of 9, set in 2002 and equaled in 2003; the hot streak has moved them
within two points of first-place in the AHL Northeast Division.

Up Next
TUESDAY,
JANUARY 17th ISLANDERS AT WASHINGTON 7:00PM
[MSG+ (Islanders Game Night at 6:30pm), WRHU (88.7FM)]
The Islanders begin a two-game road trip in the Nation's Capital as
they face the Capitals for the first time since Dale Hunter replaced Bruce
Boudreau as Washington's head coach.  The
Isles rallied for a 5-3 win on November 5th and will be looking for
back-to-back wins over the Caps for the first time since 2007.

Eric
Hornick has been the statistician on Islander home game telecasts since January
21, 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 January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick