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The Skinny: Los Angeles 3, Isles 1

"The Skinny"  By Eric Hornick Game 30 Los Angeles 3, Isles 1 Adrian Kempe and Kevin Fiala scored to give Los Angeles a 2-0 lead an...

Friday, December 13, 2013

The Skinny: Phoenix 6, Isles 3

"The Skinny"

 By Eric Hornick
 
Game 33
Phoenix 6, Isles 3
Rob Klinkhammer and Mikkel Boedker each scored two goals and the Phoenix Coyotes rode a four-goal second period to a 6-3 victory over the Islanders before a crowd of 10,996 at Jobing.com Arena. The Islanders end their five-game Western swing with a 1-4-0 record.

The Scoring:
1st Period
13:06 NYI Eric Boulton (2) Tip-in - ASST: Andrew MacDonald (9), Brian Strait (2)   1 - 0 NYI          
14:34 PHX PPG - Keith Yandle (4) Wrist - ASST: Oliver Ekman-Larsson (17), Radim Vrbata (16) 1 - 1 Tie  
 
2nd Period
02:34 PHX Rob Klinkhammer (6) Wrist shot - ASST: Mike Ribeiro (16), Connor Murphy (1) 2 - 1 PHX        
04:31 PHX Mikkel Boedker (8) Wrist shot - ASST: Antoine Vermette (10), Keith Yandle (18) 3 - 1 PHX       
06:15 PHX Mike Ribeiro (9) Wrist shot - ASST: Tim Kennedy (6)   4 - 1 PHX         
11:42 NYI John Tavares (13) Wrist shot - ASST: Thomas Vanek (12), Aaron Ness (2)         4 - 2 PHX         
13:05 NYI Kyle Okposo (10) Tip-in - ASST: Brian Strait (3), Frans Nielsen (15)       4 - 3 PHX         
18:59 PHX Mikkel Boedker (9) Wrist shot - ASST: Mike Ribeiro (17)         5 - 3 PHX
 
3rd Period
14:13    PHX     Rob Klinkhammer (7) Wrist shot - ASST: NONE 6 - 3 PHX

The Injury:
Casey Cizikas suffered a jaw injury in the first period and did not return.
 
The Skinny:  
Eric Boulton's goal was the first for an Islander forward other than Vanek, Tavares or Okposo at even-strength since Boulton scored vs. Philadelphia on November 23…. Connor Murphy recorded his first NHL assist on the 1st Rob Klinkhammer goal…Klinkhammer recorded the second two-goal game of his career.…Frans Nielsen played in his 400th NHL games, all with the Islanders…John Tavares and Thomas Vanek each extended their point streak to three games; Tavares has a point on eight of the last twelve Isles goals… Tavares' goal was his 286th point; tying Ed Westfall for 20th place in club history…The Isles scored three goals (in the regulation game) for the first time in ten games…. Kyle Okposo now has goals in consecutive games and 10 goals on the season after tallying only four times last season…The Isles have allowed an NHL-leading 50 goals in the second period; they allowed only 43 second period goals last season (48 games)… The Isles are now 1-10 in games deciding by three or more goals; the win was against Phoenix on October 8th.  Phoenix' only regulation loss vs. the East this season (8-1-1) came in October at the Coliseum.

The Shots:
Isles       6-11-7=24
Coyotes 17-10-9=36

Home and Road
The Islanders are 9-19-5 overall, 5-6-5 at home and 4-13-0 on the road.   The Isles are 1-11-0 in their last 12 road games and 1-9-2 in their last 12 games overall.
The Coyotes are 18-8-5 overall; they are 10-2-2 at home and 8-6-3 on the road.

In the Nets
Kevin Poulin made 30 saves but falls to 4-12-0 on the season. 
Mike Smith made 21 saves; he is 14-6-5 on the season.

Power Plays
The Islanders were 0-3 while the Coyotes were 1-4.
The Isles are 5-5-3 when they score at least one power play goal and 4-14-2 when they do not.  The Isles are 3-14-3 when they allow at least one power play goal and 6-5-2 when they do not. 
Over the last 23 games, the Isles power play is 7-76 (9.2%) while the penalty kill is 27-76 (64.5%). During the last 12 games, the power play is 3-35 (8.6%)  (and has allowed three shorthanded goals) while the penalty kill is 12-40 (70.0%). 

Three is a Magic Number
The Isles are 9-3-2 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 0-16-3 when they do not. 

Helps to Score First
The Isles are 6-4-4 when they score first and are 3-15-1 when they allow the opening goal.  The Isles have scored first in three of the last six games after yielding the opening goal in the previous seven games.

Second to The One
Jack Capuano is now 2nd on the all-time Islander list in both games coached (228) and wins (93).

Most games coached (Islanders):
1.     Al Arbour 1,500
2.     Jack Capuano 228
3.     Mike Milbury 191
4.     Terry Simpson 187
5.     Scott Gordon 181
 
Most wins by Islander coaches:
1.     Al Arbour 740
2.     Jack Capuano 93
3.     Terry Simpson 81
4.     Peter Laviolette 77
5.     Ted Nolan 74

They Said It
Thomas Hickey:  "We look forward to getting home.  Safe to say: it's an opportunity missed."

They Tweeted It
@BBourne14 (Islander Hall of Famer Bob Bourne): Nice to see the #Isles still have some fight in them! Would have been really easy at the end of a long trip to just let this game get out of hand, so good for them for answering back so quickly (sent late in the 2nd period)

The Coach
"It was our defense that went south.  That's the worst that they have played all year."

Back-to-Backs
The Isles are 3-5-0 in the front-end and 2-4-2 on the back end of back-to-backs this season.
On the eight sets of back-to-backs, they have earned 4 points once, 3 points once, 2 points twice, 1 point once and no points on three occasions.
The next back-to-back set will be December 20th (at Rangers) and December 21st (vs. Anaheim).

Head of the Class
John Tavares has 286 career points; he is 72 points ahead of Matt Duchene for most among 2009 draft picks.  No other player from that draft is anywhere close.  Tavares also has more goals and more assists than any other player from that draft.

Leading Ice Men
Andrew MacDonald played 24:45 to lead the Isles for the 23rd time this season.  Keith Yandle led Phoenix with 25:14 of ice-time.
The Isles are 7-12-4 when MacDonald leads them in ice-time and 2-7-1 when Hamonic leads them.

In the Circle
The Islanders won 31 of 53 draws. John Tavares won 13 of 19 for the Isles while Mike Ribiero won 5 of 8 for Phoenix.
The Isles have done much better in the face-off circle over the last seven games, winning 197 draws and losing 178.

Heavy Hitters
The Isles out-hit the Coyotes 27-16. Matt Martin had five hits, extending his NHL-leading total to 163.
There were no fights, leaving the season total at 10: Martin (4), Boulton (3), and Carkner (3).

Giving Up the Body
The Isles were credited with 21 blocked shots. Three Islanders each had four blocks; Andrew MacDonald had two blocks and leads the NHL with 110 blocks.

Back Under All-Time .500
The Islanders fall 1 game under all-time NHL .500 (1380-1381-444 in 3,205 games) for the second time this season.  The Isles have finished every season since 1977-78 above all-time NHL .500 and have not been more than 1 game under NHL-.500 since January 11, 1978.

Ironmen
John Tavares is the reigning Islanders' ironman. Tavares has now played in 240 consecutive games, which is the second-longest streak for an Islander in the Post Cup era.
Frans Nielsen (163) and Kyle Okposo (146) also have streaks of at least 100 consecutive games.

Longest Consecutive Game Streaks, Post Cup Era 
·         Matt Moulson 10/3/2009- 4/4/2013  284
·         John Tavares 10/16/10 – CURRENT  240
·         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
 
Missing Men
Lubomir Visnovsky remains on injured reserve and was joined by Radek Martinek. Brian Strait returned to the lineup for the first time since being injured on October 22nd against Vancouver. Peter Regin and Ryan Strome were scratched. Evgeni Nabokov was activated from injured reserve and served as the back-up goalie. The Isles have lost 77 games this season due to injury.
With Nabokov healthy, Anders Nilsson (0-2-2 3.63 GAA) was loaned to Bridgeport.

Nobody Beats the Viz
The Isles were 19-12-4 last season and are 3-3-2 this season with Lubomir Visnovsky in the lineup.  They were 5-5-3 last season and are 6-16-3 this season without him in the lineup.

Career Goals as an Islander
15
Mariusz Czerkawski
145
 
16
Jason Blake
127
 
17
John Tavares
125
 
18
Duane Sutter
121
 



 
Career Assists as an Islander
 
22
Zigmund Palffy
163
23
John Tavares
161
24
David Volek
154
25
Frans Nielsen
151
26
Mariusz Czerkawski
150

 






Career Games as an Islander (skaters)
24
Eddie Westfall
493
25
Radek Martinek
476
25
Gerry Hart
476
27
Mariusz Czerkawski
470
 
 
 
34
Jean Potvin
402
35
Frans Nielsen
400
36
David Volek
396
37
Bert Marshall
392
38
Travis Green
388
39
Anders Kallur
383
40
Randy Wood
381
41
Josh Bailey
360
42
Kyle Okposo
352
43
Dave Scatchard
347
 
 
 
52
Eric Cairns
327
53
Alan Kerr
326
54
John Tavares
324
55
Brad Dalgarno
321
 



 







Career Points as an Islander
17
Mariusz Czerkawski
295
18
Duane Sutter
292
19
Alexei Yashin
290
20
Ed Westfall
286
20
John Tavares
286
22
Jason Blake
258
22
Steve Thomas
258
 
 
 
29
Benoit Hogue
229
29
Trent Hunter
229
31
Matt Moulson
223
32
Frans Nielsen
221
33
Mikko Makela
219
34
Kyle Okposo
214
34
Mark Parrish
214
36
Garry Howatt
213
36
Jean Potvin
213



Season Series Stats
The teams split the season series one game to one (and two points to two).  The Isles are 1-4-0 in their last five games in the Desert.

Happy Anniversary
4 years ago tonight: December 12, 2009.  Frans Nielsen scored just 24 seconds into overtime as the Islanders defeated Boston 3-2 at the Coliseum. Dwayne Roloson made 30 saves; Rob Schremp and Matt Moulson had the other Islander goals.
Overall, the Isles are 3-8-6 on this date.  Happy birthday to Islander legend Billy Smith, who turned 63 today.

On The Farm
The Sound Tigers are now 9-11-1-3 on the season.  Bridgeport visits Albany on Friday to begin a 3 game in 3 day weekend.
Anders Lee leads Bridgeport with ten goals and also leads current Sound Tigers in both assists (11) and points (21).  Ryan Strome leads both the team and the AHL in both assists (24) and points (33). 

Up Next
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14th —MONTREAL AT ISLANDERS 7:00PM
[MSG+2 (Islanders pre-game at 6:30pm), 88.7 WRHU-FM, 103.9 WRCN-FM]
The Islanders return home on Saturday as they begin a 4-game stretch of games in the New York area by hosting the Canadiens.
It's the second meeting of the season between the squads; the Isles dropped a 4-2 decision in Montreal on November 10th.
The Isles have gone 6-4-0 in their last 10 games against Montreal.

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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