The Skinny on the Road Losing Streak

The Isles will bring a 9-game losing streak into Monday's game in Anaheim and that has a bit of history tied to it:

Longest Road Losing Streaks (Isles earning 0 points throughout the streak)

• 15 games 1/20/1973-3/31/1973 -- streak ended with 4-4 tie in Atlanta on April 1, 1973
• 13 games 11/26/1972-1/13/1973 -- streak ended with 9-7 win in Boston on January 18, 1973  (The Boston win was the only one in a 1-28-0 stretch)
  
• 9 games 11/16/1988-12/20/1988 (included 1 OT loss, but no loser points in those days) -- streak ended with 4-3 win in Toronto on December 26, 1988
• 9 games  2/18/1990-3/22/1990 (included 1 OT loss, but no loser points in those days) -- streak ended with 5-5 tie in Edmonton on March 24, 1990
• 9 games 12/20/1998-1/16/1999 (included 1 OT loss, but no loser points in those days) --streak ended with 5-2 win in Pittsburgh on January 21, 1999
• 9 games  11/5/2013- CURRENT  -- streak will end ... someday.
  

So the current streak marks the first time in nearly 15 years that the Isles have lost 9 straight on road -- and a regulation loss would give the Isles their longest losing streak since the Inaugural 1972-73 campaign. 

To be accurate, the current streak is already the 1st time in 40 years that the Isles have been beaten in a 60-minute game nine straight times on the road (as all three streaks since then included an overtime loss prior to the days of awarding loser points).

The Isles will bring an all-time record of 1379-1379-444 into Monday's game as well.  The Isles have been one game under NHL-.500 a handful of times in the past few seasons (most recently in March 2013, right before their big run that got them into the playoffs) but have not been two games under .500 since January 1978.

 

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