The Skinny: Florida 4, Isles 1

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick

 

Game 55

Panthers 4, Isles 1

Tomas Fleischmann and Kris Versteeg each scored a goal and added an assist in the second period as the Florida Panthers overcame an early Frans Nielsen goal to defeat the Islanders 4-1 in front of 14,179 at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The loss leaves the Isles within eight points behind 8^th place Toronto and ten points behind 7^th place Ottawa.

The Scoring:

First Period

3:35 EV NYI 51 F.NIELSEN(10) 15 P.PARENTEAU(38) 47 A.MACDONALD(6)

14:57 EV FLA 23 T.STRACHAN(1) 57 M.GOC(10)

 

Second Period

4:17 EV FLA 14 T.FLEISCHMANN(18) 32 K.VERSTEEG(26) 9 S.WEISS(27)

11:41 PP FLA 32 K.VERSTEEG(22) 14 T.FLEISCHMANN(24) 51 B.CAMPBELL(35)

18:33 EV FLA 12 J.SKILLE(3) 18 S.MATTHIAS(12)

 

Third Period – None

 

The Skinny: The Isles are 4-2-1 since the All-Star Break, 4-2-2 in their last eight and 7-3-2 in their last 12 games.  The Islanders drop one game under .500.  Tyson Strachan, playing his 75^th NHL game, recorded his first goal. Fleichmann's goal was his 200^th NHL point; Campbell's assist was his 350^th in the NHL.

The Shots

Islanders:  9-7-11=27

Panthers: 9-6-4=19

Home and Road

The Islanders are 23-24-8 overall and are 12-13-5 at home. The Isles are 6-4-2 in their last 12 games at home.

The Panthers are 27-17-11 overall and 13-12-4 on the road.  The Panthers, who were 1-6-4 in the last 11 on the road prior to Saturday, sweep a back-to-back road set against the Devils and Islanders.

In the Nets

Evgeni Nabokov made 11 saves through two periods but falls to 13-14-0 on the season. Nabokov is 7-3-0 in his last ten games. Al Montoya stopped all four shots he faced in the third period.

Jose Theodore stopped the final 26 Islander shots after Nielsen scored on the Isles' first shot.  He records his 18^th victory against the Isles (18-9-2) and the 275^th of his career.

Leaning on #91

John Tavares has 54 points (22-32-54) on 125 Islander goals this season (43%).  No Islander since Zigmund Palffy has recorded points on over 40% of the team's goals in a complete season.

Tavares is 0-1-1 in six games in February after having 22 points on 35 Islander goals in January.

Power Plays

The Islanders went 0-2 on the power play while the Panthers were 0-1. The Isles are 1-13 in their last six games with the extra man.

The Isles have allowed two goals their last 10 times short (80%), covering six games, but have killed 49-54 (90.7%) over the last 25 games, dating back to December 16th. 

They Said It

Evgeni Nabokov: "They probably had seven or eight scoring chances, and they scored four goals. That was the difference right there."

They Tweeted It

@OnGoldenPond "#FlaPanthers RW Kris Versteeg ties career high w/ 22nd goal in win v #Isles. Did it first 3 years ago w/ #Blackhawks in full season

The Coach

"You give up two faceoff goals and a power-play goal, you're not going to win too many games. We had our chances, we didn't bury."

Leading Ice Men

Mark Streit led the Isles with 22:57; Brian Campbell led Florida with 29:13. It's only the 2nd time in last nine games that Andrew MacDonald did not lead the Isles in ice-time. 

In the Circle

The Islanders won 23 draws; Florida won 28 – the Isles lost the majority of draws in all three games on this homestand. Jay Pandolfo won 3 of 4 for the Isles; Marcel Goc won 13 of 22 for Florida, including the one in the first period that Tyson Strachan converted for his first NHL goal.

Heavy Hitters

The Islanders outhit Florida 27-20. NHL hit leader Matt Martin led the Isles with four hits, raising his total to 254.  Martin, who had a club record 299 hits last season (hits have only been recorded since 2005-06) leads the NHL in hits by a wide margin.  He is on a pace to have 379 hits, which would be the highest total of any NHL player since the lockout.  MacDonald led the Isles with 7 hits; Matt Greene had nine hits for LA.

Lots of Blocks

The Isles were credited with 11 blocks.  They lead the NHL with 955.  Florida blocked 22 (19 other Islander shots missed the net).

Third Periods

Neither team scored in the third period. The Isles have been outscored 58-40 overall in the third period (46-33 excluding empty nets). In the first two periods, the Isles have been outscored 93-84. 

All-time Winners

The Islanders drop to four games over all-time NHL .500 (1336-1332-429 in 3,097 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 75 goals in their 23 wins (3.27 per game) and 52 goals in their other 32 games (0-24-8; 1.63 per game).  In their 24 regulation losses, the Isles have scored 30 goals (1.25 per game).

Head of the Class

John Tavares has 175 career points; he is 29 points ahead of Matt Duchene for most among 2009 draft picks.  No other player in that draft is anywhere close. (Duchene suffered a knee injury in late December and has not yet resumed skating.)

Longest Point Streaks in NHL, Last 2 Seasons

·         Sidney Crosby, 25 games (11/5/10-12/28/10)

·         John Tavares, 12 games (12/29/11-1/21/12)

·         Ilya Kovalchuk 12 games (2/1/11-2/25/11)

 

Friends, Friends, Friends

Moulson has 24 goals this season; John Tavares has earned assists on 16 of them.  He has now been on-ice for 48 consecutive Moulson goals, earning assists on 32 of them, dating back to a Moulson goal on November 17, 2010 against Tampa. 

MOT-ley Crew?

Since being put together 21 games ago, Matt Moulson is 8-12-20, Kyle Okposo is 6-10-16, and John Tavares is 10-17-27.  The Isles are 12-7-2 in those games.

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 six goals away from a third consecutive 30-goal season; no Islander since Ziggy Palffy has accomplished that feat. In fact, no Islander since Palffy has had three consecutive 25-goal seasons.  Moulson has 85 goals as an Islander – the most by any Islander since the lockout.

20-20-20 x 2

Moulson and Tavares are the first Islander teammates to record at least twenty goals in three straight seasons since Mark Parrish and Jason Blake did so in 2002-03, 2003-04, and 2005-06.  Tavares, by the way, is the fifth player to score at least 20 goals for the Islanders in each of his first three NHL seasons, joining:

·         Billy Harris (first six seasons: 1972-73 through 1977-78),

·         Clark Gillies (five: 1974-75 through 1978-79),

·         Bryan Trottier (13: 1975-76 through 1987-88) and

·         Mike Bossy (all 10 seasons: 1977-78 through 1986-87).

 

Okposo Stopped

Kyle Okposo's home point streak ended at 14 games.  It's the longest streak on home ice by an Islander since Ziggy Palffy also had a 14-game home streak in 1998.  The last Islander to have a longer streak participated in "Skate with the Greats" tonight: Mike Bossy, who had a 20-game streak in 1983-84.

Ironman

Matt Moulson, the Isles' reigning ironman, has played in all 219 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.  Moulson is one of only five Islanders in the last thirty years to appear in 200 consecutive games:

·         Richard Park 10/5/2006 – 2/18/2009 221

·         Bryan McCabe 10/7/1995-2/4/1998 220

·         Matt Moulson 10/3/2009-CURRENT  219

·         Bryan Trottier 3/7/1981- 1/12/1984 219

·         Mariusz Czerkawski 12/23/1999 – 4/14/2002 215

Billy Harris played in the first 576 games in Islander history; that figure still stands as the club record.

Mark Streit is the only Islander defender to appear in every game this season.

Missing Men

Travis Hamonic (broken nose) and Rhett Rakhshani (healthy) were scratched.  Dylan Reese, Marty Reasoner, Mike Mottau, Rick DiPietro, and Mark Katic are on injured reserve.  The Isles have lost 272 man-games to injury so far this season. 

List Time

Career Wins, Active Goalies

1. Martin Brodeur 643

2. Roberto Luongo 330

3. Nikolai Khabibulin 328

4. Evgeni Nabokov  306

5. Miikka Kiprusoff 301

 

Career Wins

21. Sean Burke 324

22. Evgeni Nabokov 306

23. Billy Smith 305

 

Most First Goals of Game (NHL This Season)

1	Matt Moulson	9
2	Five Players with	7

 

Career Goals as an Islander

32	Butch Goring	87
33	Matt Moulson	85
34	Tomas Jonsson	84
35	Wayne Merrick	81
35	Dave Scatchard	81
37	Marty McInnis	79
38	Miroslav Satan	78
39	Claude Lapointe	76
40	John Tavares	75
41	Lorne Henning	73
41	JP Parise	73

Career Games as an Islander (skaters)

58	Arron Asham	300
58	Roman Hamrlik	300
60	Frans Nielsen	292
61	Gord Dineen	287
62	Jeff Norton	282
63	Steve Thomas	275
64	Josh Bailey	266
65	Blake Comeau	261
65	Andre St. Laurent	261
71	Brad Isbister	247
71	Brendan Witt	247
73	Sean Bergenheim	246
74	Kyle Okposo	244
75	Miro Satan	243
85	Michael Peca	222
86	Bob Lorimer	220
86	Bryan McCabe	220
88	Matt Moulson	219
89	Andy Hilbert	218
90	John Tavares	216
91	Paul Boutilier	211
91	Mark Streit	211
93	Gary Nylund	209

 

Career Points as an Islander

39	Lorne Henning	184
40	John Tavares	175
41	Randy Wood	172
50	Roman Hamrlik	153
51	Matt Moulson	149
52	Kyle Okposo	146
52	Frans Nielsen	146
54	Michael Peca	142

Season Series Stats

The Panthers lead the season series three games to none (6 points to 0).  The Isles will look to avoid a sweep when they visit Sunrise, Florida on March 25^th.

Happy Anniversary

10 years ago tonight (2-12-02):  Michael Peca scored a shorthanded goal in overtime and Garth Snow stopped 25 shots as the Isles blanked the Flyers 1-0 in Philadelphia. The Isles would not shut the Flyers out in Philadelphia again until Evgeni Nabokov did so earlier this week.

All-time, the Isles are 7-10-3 on this date.

On The Farm

The Sound Tigers got an overtime goal from David Ullstrom to defeat Connecticut 2-1 on Sunday after blasting Springfield 8-1 on Saturday. Bridgeport is 13-1-0-1 in their last 15 games and trail the Whale by three points. Bridgeport is off until Saturday, when they host Adirondack.

Up Next

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14^th   ISLANDERS AT WINNIPEG 8:30PM
[MSG+2 (Islanders Game Night at 8:00pm), WRHU (88.7FM)]

The Islanders begin a two-game road trip as they celebrate Valentine's Day in Winnipeg on Tuesday.  Each team owns a road win in the season series, with the Islanders' win coming in a shootout.

And Finally…

Happy Birthday to Islanders voice Howie Rose, who celebrates his birthday on Monday.

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 January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick