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The Skinny: Isles 6, Toronto 3

"The Skinny"  By Eric Hornick Game 34 Isles 6, Toronto 3 The Isles jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first 4:48 and the Maple Leafs ...

Friday, March 02, 2012

The Skinny: Flyers 6, Isles 3

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick
 
Game 64
Philadelphia 6, Isles 3
Jaromir Jagr and Matt Read scored 39 seconds apart in the second period to break a 2-2 tie and the Flyers went on to a 6-3 victory over the Islanders in front of 19,674 at Wells Fargo Center.  The Isles are 0-2-1 on their road trip, despite scoring the first goal in all three games.

The Scoring:

First Period
01:35 NYI Josh Bailey (8) - ASST: C. Cizikas (1) AND M. Streit (29)
09:41 PHI Matt Read (17) - ASST: A. Meszaros (17) AND C. Giroux (50)
19:10 PHI PPG - Andrej Meszaros (7) - ASST: M. Read (20) AND J. Jagr (27)
 
Second Period
00:50 NYI Josh Bailey (9) - ASST: F. Nielsen (18) AND M. Streit (30)
08:58 PHI Jaromir Jagr (17) - ASST: P. Kubina (9) AND K. Timonen (34)
09:37 PHI Matt Read (18) - ASST: W. Simmonds (18)
 
Third Period
01:07 PHI Scott Hartnell (31) - ASST: C. Giroux (51) AND N. Grossman (9)
09:11 NYI Kyle Okposo (14) - ASST: C. Cizikas (2) AND M. Jurcina (6)
19:33 PHI EN - Sean Couturier (11) - ASST: C. Giroux (52) AND A. Meszaros (18)

The Skinny: Josh Bailey scored twice, giving him three goals in the last two games after having only three goals since mid-December.  Casey Cizikas, playing his 4th NHL game, recorded his first two assists. Claude Giroux had three assists for the Flyers, who also got three point games from Matt Read and Andrej Meszaros. Giroux leads the NHL with 33 power play points. Jagr now has 60 career goals against the Isles—most by any opponent (and 10 more than Mario Lemieux, who is 2nd). The Flyers stopped point streaks for both PA Parenteau (4 games) and Matt Moulson (3 games).

The Shots                                                             
Islanders:  8-7-9=24
Flyers:   10-11-9=30
 
Home and Road
The Islanders are 26-29-9 overall and are 12-15-4 on the road.  The Isles are 0-4-1 in their last five road games after winning the prior four games.
The Flyers are 35-21-7 overall and 15-10-5 at home.

In the Nets
Evgeni Nabokov made 25 saves, but drops below NHL-.500, at 15-16-1.  He is 8-2-2 in his career against Philadelphia.
Ilyz Bryzgalov stopped 21 shots as he improves to 23-13-6 on the season.

The Curse of Krupp
Jaromir Jagr is now 60-83-143 in 96 career games against the Isles.  Jagr was drafted 5th overall by Pittsburgh in 1990, one pick ahead of the Islanders.  Pittsburgh ended up with the fifth pick when Uwe Krupp, then with Buffalo, scored an overtime goal against Pittsburgh on the last night of the regular season to knock the Islanders into, and the Penguins out of, the Stanley Cup playoffs.  Jagr has more points against the Islanders than any other NHL team.  His goal tonight was his 1,642nd NHL point, breaking a tie with Joe Sakic for 8th place on the all-time NHL list.

Leaning on #91
John Tavares has 61 points (25-36-61) on 146 Islander goals this season (41.8%).  No Islander since Zigmund Palffy has recorded points on over 40% of the team's goals in a complete season.

Don't Forget PA
With 59 points, Parenteau has points on 40.4% of the Islanders' goals this season.  He has 44 assists – most by any Islander since Travis Green had 45 and Ziggy Palffy had 44 in 1995-96.

Power Plays
The Islanders went 0-2 on the power play while Philadelphia was 1-1. The Isles are 1-15 in their last six games with the extra man and have killed only 12 of 19 in the same span. 

They Said It
PA Parenteau: "It's up to us to work harder. I don't think it was enough tonight, especially on the wall. We lost too many battles."

They Tweeted It
@StapeNewsday: "That's two for Bailey... And two well-timed rushes by Mark Streit. 2-2 just :50 into 2nd."

The Coach
"We knew coming in here that you had to win the walls and that they were physical.  We got outmuscled in a lot of areas."

Leading Ice Men
Mark Streit led the Isles with 25:01; Matt Carle led Philadelphia with 25:04.

In the Circle
The Islanders won 24 draws; Philadelphia won 26 – the Isles lost the majority of draws for the tenth time in 13 games. John Tavares won 12 of 23 for the Isles; Claude Giroux won 10 of 18 for Philadelphia.

Heavy Hitters
The Islanders were out-hit 31-24 as sixteen Flyers were credited with at least one. NHL hit leader Matt Martin had 6 hits, raising his total to 299 to tie his club record, set last season (hits have only been recorded since 2005-06).  Martin leads the NHL in hits by a wide margin.  He is on a pace to have 383 hits, which would be the highest total of any NHL player since the lockout. 

Lots of Blocks
The Isles were credited with 24 blocks.  They lead the NHL with 1,099.  Ten different Islanders had at least one; Steve Staios had 6.

Goals by Period (Season)
Isles:           52-44-47-3 = 146
Opponents: 58-59-67-6 = 190
Third period goals include 8 empty net goals for the Islanders and an NHL-leading 13 empty-net goals against the Isles.

Six Against
The six goals allowed matches a season high, now done five times (twice at home and three times on the road).
 
Bailey Double
Josh Bailey recorded his third career two-goal game.  The others were on 3/21/09 in Ottawa and 12/23/10 in New Jersey.  26 of Bailey's 43 career goals have been scored on the road.
 
As Seen on MSG+
Casey Cizikas recorded his first two NHL points; he is the first Islander rookie to have a multi-point game this season.  Prior to tonight, Islanders rookies had combined for only five points in 74 games this season.  Islander rookies had 104 points in 286 games last season.

All-time Winners
The Islanders drop to 2 games over all-time NHL .500 (1339-1337-430 in 3,106 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 85 goals in their 26 wins (3.27 per game) and 62 goals in their other 38 games (0-29-9; 1.63 per game).  In their 29 regulation losses, the Isles have scored 37 goals (1.28 per game).
This was only the Isles' 4th regulation loss this season when scoring at least three goals (18-4-5). 

Head of the Class
John Tavares has 182 career points; he is 34 points ahead of Matt Duchene for most among 2009 draft picks.  No other player in that draft is anywhere close.
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 27 goals this season; John Tavares has earned assists on 18 of them.  He has now been on-ice for 51 consecutive Moulson goals, earning assists on 34 of them, dating back to a Moulson goal on November 17, 2010 against Tampa. 

Three Different Leaders
Matt Moulson continues to lead the Isles in goals (27); PA Parenteau leads the Isles in assists (44); John Tavares leads the Isles in points (61).

25-25-25, 30-30-30?
Matt Moulson is the first Islander since Ziggy Palffy to have at least three consecutive 25-goal seasons. He is three goals away from a third consecutive 30-goal season; Palffy was the last Islander to accomplish that feat. Moulson has 88 goals as an Islander – the most by any Islander since the lockout. Moulson has opened the scoring ten times this season and the Isles are 9-1-0 when he does so.  He is the first Islander with at least ten opening goals since Alexei Yashin had 12 in 2001-02.

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).

Ironman
Matt Moulson, the Isles' reigning ironman, has played in all 228 games since joining the team. Moulson's streak is the longest for an Islander in the Post-Cup era.  Moulson is one of only five Islanders in the last thirty years to appear in 200 consecutive games:
·         Matt Moulson 10/3/2009-CURRENT  228
·         Richard Park 10/5/2006 – 2/18/2009 221
·         Bryan McCabe 10/7/1995-2/4/1998 220
·         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.
Four other forwards: PA Parenteau, Matt Martin, Frans Nielsen and John Tavares have also played in every game this season while Mark Streit is the only Islander defender to do so.

Missing Men
Nino Niederreiter and Dylan Reese were scratched as was Al Montoya (upper body injury). Rick DiPietro is on injured reserve.  The Isles have lost 306 man-games to injury so far this season.  AHL Goalie of the Month Anders Nilsson served as the back-up.

Career Years
·         Matt Moulson: 27 assists and 54 points are new career highs. He has 27 goals, four shy of his career best.
·         PA Parenteau: 44 assists and 59 points are new career highs. He has 15 goals, five shy of his career best.
·         John Tavares is 25-36-51; he is four goals, two assists and six points shy of career highs, all set last season.
·         Frans Nielsen has 13 goals, matching a career-high set last year.
·         Kyle Okposo has 14 goals, five shy of his career-high set in 2009-10.

List Time
Career Wins, Active Goalies
 
Career Wins
21. Sean Burke 324
23. Billy Smith 305
 
Most First Goals of Game (NHL This Season)
1
Matt Moulson
10
2
Evander Kane
9
3
Steven Stamkos
8
3
Johan Franzen
8
3
Ilya Kovalchuk
8
 
Career Goals as an Islander
31
Travis Green
92
32
Matt Moulson
88
33
Butch Goring
87
34
Tomas Jonsson
84
35
Wayne Merrick
81
35
Dave Scatchard
81
37  
Marty McInnis
79
38
Miroslav Satan
78
38
John Tavares
78
40
Claude Lapointe
76













Career Games as an Islander (skaters)
56
Mikko Makela
307
 
57
Gord Lane
304
 
58
Frans Nielsen
301
 
59
Arron Asham
300
 
59
Roman Hamrlik
300
 
61
Gord Dineen
287
 
62
Jeff Norton
282
 
63
Steve Thomas
275
 
64
Josh Bailey
273
65
Blake Comeau
261
 
65
Andre St. Laurent
261
 



 
69
Pierre Turgeon
255
 
70
Kyle Okposo
253
 
71
Jude Drouin
250
 



 
83
Chris Campoli
228
 
83
Matt Moulson
228
 
85
Bryan Smolinski
227
 
86
John Tavares
225
 
87
Michael Peca
222
 
88
Bob Lorimer
220
 
88
Bryan McCabe
220
 
88
Mark Streit
220
 
91
Andy Hilbert
218
 





 
Career Points as an Islander
38
Jeff Norton
188
39
Lorne Henning
184
40
John Tavares
182
41
Randy Wood
172



47
Miro Satan
166
48
Oleg Kvasha
158
49
Matt Moulson
155
50
Alan Kerr
154
51
Roman Hamrlik
153
52
Frans Nielsen
151
53
Kyle Okposo
148
54
Michael Peca
142



Season Series Stats
The Islanders lead the season series three games to two (and seven points to 5). The teams will finish the season series on March 15th at the Coliseum, which will mark the third time this season the Isles will face Philadelphia immediately after playing Washington.  The Isles won the Wells Fargo portion of the series 2 games to 1 (4 points to 3) but are 2-12-2 in their last 16 trips to Philadelphia.

Happy Anniversary
9 years ago tonight (3-1-03):  Jason Blake tallied the winning goal in overtime as the Islanders defeat Buffalo 2-1.  Garth Snow made 36 saves in the victory, which is the Islanders' only win on this date since 1994 (1-6-2 including tonight) .
All-time, the Isles are 5-10-3 on this date, including a 4-3 loss to Detroit in 1980 in Ken Morrow's NHL debut.
On The Farm
The Sound Tigers are off until Friday, when they visit Albany. Bridgeport is 30-18-3-3 overall, having earned points in 20 of their last 21 games.  Defenseman Aaron Ness was the hero in the team's last game (Sunday), tallying twice in the period as the Sound Tigers rallied for a 3-2 win over Albany.

Up Next
SATURDAY, MARCH 3rd   ISLANDERS AT BOSTON 1:00PM
[MSG+ (Islanders Game Night at 12:30pm), WRHU (88.7FM)]
The road trip concludes on Saturday afternoon as the Islanders face the Stanley Cup Champions in Boston.  The Bruins beat the Islanders 6-2 and 6-0 in November; the series will conclude on March 31st at the Coliseum.  The Isles may face former teammates Brian Rolston and Mike Mottau, who were traded to Boston on Monday.  Rolston is 0-0-0 in two games for Boston while Mottau was a healthy scratch on Thursday.

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

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