The Skinny: Rangers 4, Isles 1

"The Skinny"

 By Eric Hornick

Game 10

Rangers 4, Isles 1

JT Miller scored his first two career goals and Henrik Lundqvist made 27 saves as the New York Rangers handed the Islanders their third straight loss, defeating the Islanders 4-1 before a sellout crowd of 17,200 at Madison Square Garden.

The Scoring:

1st Period

01:29 NYR J. Miller (1) Snap - ASST: C. Kreider (1) AND M. Staal (4) 1 - 0 NYR

14:04 NYR M. Gaborik (6) Wrist - ASST: M. Staal (5) AND B. Richards (7) 2 - 0 NYR

2nd Period

11:13 NYI J. Tavares (5) Snap - ASST: M. Moulson (6) AND J. Finley (1) 2 - 1 NYR

18:11 NYR PPG - J. Miller (2) Snap - ASST: R. McDonagh (1) 3 - 1 NYR

3rd Period

17:52 NYR EN - R. McDonagh (1) Wrist - ASST: NONE   4 - 1 NYR

The Skinny:  The Rangers have won eight straight over the Islanders at Madison Square Garden for the first time in the long rivalry between the teams, outscoring the Isles 35-11; the Isles' 8-game winless streak at MSG matches the club mark set in the team's first eight visits to Manhattan… Miller became the first Ranger since Don Murdoch (1976 Chris Kontos (a 6-2 win against Detroit on Jan. 3, 1983) to score two goals in his first game on Garden ice. … The Isles went 0-5 on the power play, dropping to 0-19 over the last three games; it's the first time since October 17-22, 2002 (also 19 times) that the Isles have failed on at least 19 power plays in three consecutive games without scoring a power play goal… Joe Finley recorded his first NHL point; Chris Kreider recorded his first regular season assist. … John Tavares tied Michael Grabner for the team lead in goals (5).  It was his 214^th career point, breaking a tie with Jean Potvin and Garry Howatt and allowing him to match Mark Parrish for 31^st place on the all-time club point list… The Rangers had scored only four goals in the first period of their first nine games.

The Shots:

Isles          8-9-11=28

Rangers    10-8-7=25

Home and Road

The Islanders are 4-5-1 overall, 1-3-0 at home and 3-2-1 on the road.  It's the first time since the Isles lost the season opener that they fell under .500.

The Rangers are 5-5-0 overall, 4-2-0 at home and 1-3-0 on the road. 

In the Nets

Evgeni Nabokov made 21 saves but falls to 4-4-1 on the season.  Nabokov is now 6-7-1 in his career against the Rangers.

Henrik Lundqvist made 27 saves as he improves to 4-5-0 on the season and 25-11-5 against the Islanders.

Power Plays

The Isles went 0-5 on the power play while the Rangers were 1-2.  The Isles have allowed a power play goal in each of their last three games.

They Said It

Evgeni Nabokov: "It seems like sometimes we are satisfied to be in close games, but there's enough talent in here to work hard and win games.  We need to start better, and that starts with me and it goes along the line with everybody. That's the bottom line."

They Tweeted It

@JesseSpector: Rick Nash has a potential goal wiped out because the whistle blew. For once, may have been the right call. Looked like Nabokov had control.

The Coach

"We bailed on a few plays along the wall--nothing bothers me more than that"

Head of the Class

John Tavares has 214 career points; he is 55 points ahead of Matt Duchene for most among 2009 draft picks.  No other player in that draft is anywhere close.  Tavares also has more goals and more assists than any other player in that draft.

Friends, Friends, Friends

Matt Moulson has four goals this season; John Tavares has earned an assist on two of them.  Tavares has now been on-ice for 64 consecutive Moulson goals, earning assists on 42 of them, dating back to a Moulson goal on November 17, 2010 against Tampa. 

107 NHL Goals

Moulson has 107 career goals (101 as an Islander).  While 262 players were selected before the Penguins chose Moulson in the 2003 entry draft, only 17 have more goals.

Road Warrior

All four of Matt Moulson's goals this season have come on the road. Scoring on the road is nothing new for Moulson; 23 of his 36 goals last season also came on the road.  Only Steven Stamkos (24) had more.

Leading Ice Men

Marc Streit led the Isles with 25:51.  Anton Stralman led the Rangers with 26:41 (one second less than his career high, set last March 2^nd in Tampa).

In the Circle

The Islanders won 23 draws; the Rangers won 25.  Frans Nielsen won 4 of 7 for the Isles; Derek Stepan won 12 of 20 for the Rangers.

Heavy Hitters

The Islanders were out-hit 34-23; Colin McDonald led the Isles with seven hits.  There were no fights, leaving the season total at six.

All-time Winners

The Islanders fall to one games over all-time NHL .500 (1351-1350-433 in 3,134 games).  The Isles twice last season fell one game below .500. Prior to that, they had not been below NHL .500 since they were 177-178-83 prior to their victory on January 16, 1978.

4 is a Magic Number

The Isles are 4-0-1 when scoring at least four goals and 0-5-0 when scoring two or less.  (The Isles have not scored exactly three goals in any game so far this season.)

Local Yokels

The Isles are in the midst of a stretch in which they will play nine consecutive games in the New York area (six at home, two at MSG, and one in New Jersey).  The Isles are 1-3-0 so far in this stretch, with one game at MSG, and home games against Buffalo, Carolina, New Jersey and Philadelphia remaining.

Ironmen

Matt Moulson, the Isles' reigning ironman, has played in all 256 games since joining the team.  Moulson's streak is the longest for an Islander in the Post-Cup era and the 4^th longest in club history.  Billy Harris played in the first 576 games in Islander history; that figure still stands as the club record.

Three other Islanders, Frans Nielsen, John Tavares and Mark Streit, also played in every game last season.  Tavares extended his streak to 169 consecutive games, while Nielsen and Streit have each played in 92.

Longest Consecutive Game Streaks, Islander History 

1. Billy Harris 576 

2. Bob Nystrom 301

3. Denis Potvin 262

4. Matt Moulson 256

Missing Men

Lubomir Visnovsky passed his physical, was added to the active roster, but was scratched as was Casey Cizikas and Matt Carkner; Radek Martinek is on injured reserve. Josh Bailey and Jesse Joensuu remain suspended after suffering injuries in Europe; however Bailey is skating with the team.

List Time

Career Wins, Active Goalies

1. Martin Brodeur 661

2. Roberto Luongo 341

3. Nikolai Khabibulin 328

4. Evgeni Nabokov 316

5. Miikka Kiprusoff 313

Career Wins

21. Sean Burke 324

22. Evgeni Nabokov 316

23. Miikka Kiprusoff 313

Career Goals as an Islander

	22		Benoit Hogue		105
	22		Ed Westfall		105
	24		Matt Moulson		101
	24		Anders Kallur		101
	26		Trent Hunter		99
	32		Travis Green		92
	33		John Tavares		89
	34		Butch Goring		87
Career Assists as an Islander – active players
1		John Tavares		125
2		Frans Nielsen		121
3		Mark Streit		120
4		Kyle Okposo		95

Career Games as an Islander (skaters)

48	Shawn Bates	330
49	Frans Nielsen	329
50	Eric Cairns	327
51	Alan Kerr	326
59	Arron Asham	300
59	Roman Hamrlik	300
61	Josh Bailey	292
62	Gord Dineen	287
63	Jeff Norton	282
64	Kyle Okposo	281
65	Steve Thomas	275
70	Matt Moulson	256
71	Pierre Turgeon	255
72	John Tavares	253
73	Jude Drouin	250
74	Mark Streit	248
75	Brad Isbister	247
75	Brendan Witt	247
77	Sean Bergenheim	246

Career Points as an Islander

31	Mark Parrish	214
31	John Tavares	214
33	Jean Potvin	213
33	Garry Howatt	213
35	Anders Kallur	211
36	Marty McInnis	198
40	Lorne Henning	184
41	Matt Moulson	180
42	Frans Nielsen	175
43	Randy Wood	172
44	Claude Lapointe	171
44	JP Parise	171
46	Shawn Bates	170
47	Jude Drouin	169
48	Dave Scatchard	168
49	Miroslav Satan	166
50	Kyle Okposo	165
51	Oleg Kvasha	158
52	Mark Streit	156
53	Alan Kerr	154

Season Series Stats

The Rangers lead the season series one game to 0 (2 points to zero).  The teams will meet again on February 14 at the Garden and March 7 and April 13 at the Coliseum.

Happy Anniversary

1 year ago today (2-7-12):  The Islanders didn't score, but they still won, as Evgeni Nabokov made 45 saves and the Islanders defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 1-0 in a shootout.

All-time, the Isles are 7-9-3 on this date, although they have lost three of the last four.

On The Farm

Bridgeport is 20-19-2-3.  The Sound Tigers will host Portland on Saturday night and Worcester in Sunday afternoon.

Up Next

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9^th BUFFALO AT ISLANDERS (7:00PM)
[MSG+ (Pre-game show at 6:30PM), WRHU (88.7FM)]

The Islanders and Sabres meet for the first of three times this season at the Coliseum on Saturday night. 

The Sabres won the season series 2 games to 1 (and four points to three) last season.  Each team won once in regulation and the Sabres also defeated the Isles in a shootout.

And Finally…

With bad weather headed our way, you might be interested to know that the last Islander game postponed due to weather was on March 13, 1993 when snow prevented the Isles from hosting the Pittsburgh Penguins.  That game was played the next day, which was the day the Rangers' JT Miller was born.  (The storm caused the rescheduling of several other Islander games as well.)

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