By Eric Hornick
Game 55
Boston 6, Isles 3
Brad Marchand scored a goal and added three assists as the Boston
Bruins broke a 3-3 tie with three unanswered goals as they defeated the
Islanders 6-3 before a crowd of 13,819 at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Overall
six different Bruins scored goals and twelve players recorded points. Kyle
Okposo had a goal and two assists for the Isles, who fall to 0-2-1 on their
three-game homestand (all against potential division champions) and to 8-11-8
at the Coliseum this season.
The Scoring:
1st Period
07:47 BOS Loui Eriksson (6)
Wrist shot - ASST: Daniel Paille (5), Torey Krug (17) 1 - 0 BOS
15:29 NYI Frans Nielsen (18) Wrist shot - ASST: Kyle
Okposo (33) 1 - 1 Tie
2nd Period
04:50 BOS Brad Marchand (17)
Snap shot - ASST: Patrice Bergeron (21), Reilly Smith (22) 2 - 1 BOS
08:20 NYI Michael Grabner (9)
Wrist shot - ASST: Kyle Okposo (34), Thomas Hickey (12) 2 - 2 Tie
12:21 BOS Reilly Smith (17)
Wrist shot - ASST: Shawn Thornton (1), Brad Marchand (14) 3 - 2 BOS
15:08 NYI Kyle Okposo (23)
Wrist shot - ASST: Michael Grabner (11) 3
- 3 Tie
19:27 BOS Carl Soderberg (7)
Wrist shot - ASST: Milan Lucic (21), Jarome Iginla (19) 4 - 3 BOS
3rd Period
02:17 BOS Patrice Bergeron (14)
Snap shot - ASST: Brad Marchand (15) 5
- 3 BOS
08:12 BOS Zdeno Chara (12)
Wrist shot - ASST: Brad Marchand (16), Dougie Hamilton (7) 6 - 3 BOS
The Skinny:
Frans Nielsen set a career high with his 18th goal; the Islanders
are the only NHL team to have four players with at least 18 goals…Kyle Okposo's
two assists give him 34, which is a new career high; his previous high of 33
was set in 2009-10; his 23rd goal ties John Tavares for the team
lead….The Isles are 8-5-1 in 2014 and are 12-7-1 in their last 20… …Okposo
extended his point streak six games but John Tavares' point streak ended at 6
games…Brad Marchand recorded his third career game with at least four points
(and first this season). ..Former Islander Zdeno Chara's third period goal was
his 500th NHL point…Casey Cizikas was -4 for the Isles while Colin
McDonald and Matt Martin both went -3…Brad Marchand and Torey Krug each went +3
for Boston….Each team scored in a delayed penalty situation in the second
period…The Isles have allowed six goals in each of their last three regulation
losses; the six goals allowed matches a season high, now done five times…The
Isles are 1-17-0 when they allow three goals in a period…The Isles have been
outscored 76-67 in the second period; more goals have been scored in second period
of Islander games than any other teams…There were 14 second period goals scored
in the three Islander-Bruin games this season; only 73 goals have been scored
in the second period of the Bruins' other 48 games…Marchand, Patrice Bergeron
and Reilly Smith all extended point streaks to six straight games.
Le Magnifique
If the Bruins had gotten a vote, Kyle Okposo would have been heading to
Socchi. The Isles scored eleven goals
against Boston this season, and Okposo earned points on nine of them (2-7-9). Okposo is the first opponent to record three
games with at least three points against the Bruins in the same season since
Mario Lemieux did it for Pittsburgh in 1995-96.
Okposo now has four three-point games this season; he had never had had
more than two in a season prior to this year.
Eight's Not
Enough!
The Isles are 8-5-1 in January, with two games to play. However, the
Isles are 0-2-1 in the last three
It's the first time since 2003 that the Isles have earned 8 wins in
January and matches their most January wins since they earned 9 in January
1990. The Isles have earned ten
victories in January only once in franchise history, going 10-4-1 in 1980
(April and May were pretty good that year, too!)
TheShots:
Isles 18-9-10=37
Bruins 12-17-8=37
It's the third time this month and the fifth time this
season that the shots in an Islander game have been exactly even.
Home and Road
The Islanders are 21-26-8 overall, 8-11-8 at home and 13-15-0 on the road. The
Isles are 7-4-1 in their last 12, 12-7-1 in their last 20 and are 13-8-3 in
their last 24 games overall.
The Bruins are 33-15-3 overall; they are 19-5-2 at home and 14-10-1 on
the road. The Bruins have won three straight and are 4-0-1 in their last five.
By Division
The Isles are 5-12-3 in Division games and are 16-14-5 in games against
other divisions. They are 7-5-3 vs. the Atlantic Division, 6-4-1 vs. Central
Division, and 3-5-1 vs. the Pacific Division.
In the Nets
Kevin Poulin made 30 saves but was
pulled after the last Bruins goal as he falls to 11-16-1 on the season.
Evgeni Nabokov returned to action for
the first time in three weeks and stopped the only shot he faced.
Chad Johnson made 34 saves for the Bruins
and improves to 9-3-0 on the season as he evens his career mark to 1-1 against
the Isles.
Power Plays
The Islanders were 0-5 while the Bruins were 0-2.
The Isles are 13-6-4 when they score at least one power play goal and 8-20-4
when they do not. The Isles are 10-15-3
when they allow at least one power play goal and 11-11-5 when they do not.
The Islander power play went 0-13 in the three game homestand. The Isles have killed 24 of 27 (88.9%) over
the last ten games.
Tale of Four
Seasons
The Isles PP went 10-33 in the first 10 games, before going 7-79 in the
next 24 games. They rebounded to go 10-32 in the following 11 games but are
only 4-38 in their 11 games.
Three is a
Magic Number
The Isles are 19-7-3 when they score at least three goals (including
shootout winners) and are 2-19-5 when they do not.
Comeback Kids
The Isles are 9-7-6 when they score first and are 12-19-2 when they
allow the opening goal. The Isles have
allowed the first goal in 13 of their last 17 games. The Isles have scored
first in 15 of their 27 home games but are 6-3-6 in those games.
Second to The
One
Jack Capuano became the 2nd coach in Islander history to win
100 games in Toronto on January 7th and tonight became the 2nd coach in Islander history to coach 250 games. He is 2nd on the
all-time Islander list in both games coached (250) and wins (105).
Most games coached (Islanders):
1. Al Arbour 1,500
2. Jack
Capuano 250
3. Mike Milbury 191
4. Terry Simpson 187
5. Scott Gordon 181
Most wins by Islander coaches:
1. Al Arbour 740
2. Jack
Capuano 105
3. Terry Simpson 81
4. Peter Laviolette 77
5. Ted Nolan 74
They Said It
Kyle Okposo: ""We came out sluggish, but I think we had a real
good second period. But at the end of the day, we have to bear down, bury our
chances, and clean up a few things in the D-zone."
They Tweeted
It
@tsnscottcullen Islanders RW Kyle Okposo 11 G, 12 A in past 15 GP
@munzy24 Leaving Bobby Ryan off the U.S. roster for the Olympics was
crazy, but even crazier to me is they left Okposo off. That's insane to me.
#NHL
The Coach
"There's a few guys that are struggling, no question. There's a
few guys trying to play through [struggles]. It's a grind."
Back-to-Backs
The Isles are 6-6-0 in the front-end and 5-5-2 on the back end of
back-to-backs this season. The Isles
have swept three back-to-backs: November
1st/2nd vs. Ottawa and Boston; January 6th/7th vs. Dallas and Toronto and January 20th/21st vs.
Philadelphia and the Rangers.
In the twelve sets of back-to-backs, they have earned 4 points three
times, 3 points once, 2 points four times, 1 point once and no points on three
occasions.
The Islanders do not play back-to-back again until they host New Jersey
and Florida on March 1st and 2nd.
Leading Ice
Men
John Tavares led the Isles with 23:03 of ice-time; it's the second time
in three games that a forward has led the Isles in ice-time. Zdeno Chara led
the Bruins with 22:50 of ice-time.
The Isles are 14-14-6 when MacDonald leads in ice-time, are 7-10-2 when
Hamonic leads, are 0-1-0 when Okposo leads and are 0-1-0 when Tavares leads.
In the Circle
The Islanders won 43 of 70 draws. Casey Cizikas won 7 of 10 draws for the Isles;
no Bruin won more draws than he lost.
It was the second-best night in the circle for Isles, who won 45 of 72
from Dallas on January 6th.
Heavy Hitters
The Isles out-hit Boston 32-18. Cal Clutterbuck and Matt Martin led the
Isles with six hits each; Martin's 263 hits lead the NHL by a wide margin. He had now recorded at least 200 hits in four
straight seasons.
There were no fights. The Isles
have been involved in 20 fights this season: Martin (7), Boulton (5), Carkner (5),
McDonald (2), and Okposo (1).
Giving Up the
Body
The Isles were credited with 19 blocked shots. Matt Carkner and Brian
Strait led the way with three blocks; Andrew MacDonald added two, as he extended
his NHL-leading total to 180.
Four Over All-Time
.500
The Islanders fall to four games over all-time NHL .500 (1392-1388-447 in
3,227 games). The Isles have been 1-under all-time .500 after six games this
season and have gone 4-0-2 in the following game.
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
Frans Nielsen is the Islanders' reigning ironman. He has played 185 consecutive games, and is
one of four Islanders to have played in every game this season. Other ironman streaks: Andrew Mac Donald (156),
Matt Martin (116), and Thomas Hickey (56).
Century Club
Andrew MacDonald has the 4th longest consecutive game streak
for a defenseman in Islander history:
1. Denis Potvin 11/29/1975-1/17/1979 262
2. Bryan McCabe 10/7/1995-2/4/1998 220 (*)(**)
3. Gerry Hart 3/1/1975-11/22/1977 198
4. Andrew
MacDonald 12/19/11- CURRENT 156
5. Janne Niinimaa 3/13/2004-1/7/2006 136 (**)
6. Ken Morrow 3/1/1980-12/29/1981 134 (*)
7. Mark Streit 10/8/2011-4/26/2013 130
8. Travis Hamonic 2/24/2012-1/12/2014 117
9. Travis Hamonic 11/24/2011– 2/4/2012 113 (*)
10. Jean Potvin 10/23/1975-1/2/1977 110
11. Kenny Jonsson 12/26/1996-2/4/1998 104
(*)
Start of NHL career.
(**)
Entire career with Islanders
Missing Men
Lubomir Visnovsky and Evgeni Nabokov were activated from injured reserve;
both players dressed as Matt Donovan and Anders Nilsson were both returned to
Bridgeport. Travis Hamonic missed his eighth game with an upper body
injury. Radek Martinek was scratched for
the second straight game while Eric Boulton was scratched for the fourth
straight game.
The Isles have lost 145 games this season due to injury, including 46
from Visnovsky, who made his first appearance since being injured on October 19th.
Career Goals as an Islander
15 Mariusz Czerkawski 145
16 John Tavares 135
17 Jason Blake 127
28 Mikko Makela 95
28 Kyle Okposo 95
28 David Volek 95
31 Randy Wood 94
32 Greg Gilbert 93
32 Garry Howatt 93
34 Travis Green 92
35 Butch Goring 87
36 Tomas Jonsson 84
37 Wayne Merrick 81
37 Dave Scatchard 81
39 Michael Grabner 79
39 Marty McInnis 79
41 Miroslav Satan 78
41 Frans Nielsen 78
43 Claude Lapointe 76
Career Assists as an Islander
16 Ed Westfall 181
17 John Tavares 178
18 Kenny Jonsson175
19 Alexei Yashin 171
20 Duane Sutter 171
21 Jean Potvin 167
22 Jeff Norton 166
23 Zigmund Palffy163
24 Frans Nielsen 161
25 David Volek 154
26 Mariusz Czerkawski 150
27 Kyle Okposo 147
28 Travis Green 145
Career Games as an Islander (skaters)
24 Eddie Westfall 493
25 Radek Martinek 479
26 Gerry Hart 476
32 Dave Langevin 422
33 Frans Nielsen 422
34 Wayne Merrick 411
35 Jean Potvin 402
36 David Volek 396
37 Bert Marshall 392
38 Travis Green 388
39 Anders Kallur 383
40 Randy Wood 381
41 Josh Bailey 379
42 Kyle Okposo 373
43 Dave Scatchard 347
44 Alexei Yashin 346
45 Mark
Parrish 345
45 John Tavares 345
47 Marty McInnis 337
Career Points as an Islander
16 Ziggy Palffy 331
17 John Tavares 313
18 Mariusz Czerkawski 295
24 David Volek 249
25 Kyle Okposo 241
26 Frans Nielsen 239
27 Ray Ferraro 238
Season Series
Stats
The Islanders win the season series 2 games to 1 (and 4 points to 2). The
loss breaks a three game winning streak against Boston.
The Islanders fail to sweep the season series against
Boston for the first time since winning all four games in 2005-2006
Happy
Anniversary
24 years ago today (1-27-90): Patrick
Flatley matched a career high with five points as the Isles pounded Pittsburgh
9-3 at the Coliseum. Pat Lafontaine had
two goals for the Isles, giving him 42 goals on the season.
All-time, the Isles are 6-10-3 on this date.
On The Farm
Bridgeport completed a great weekend with a 6-5 win over Syracuse on
Sunday, giving them three wins in three days and four straight wins overall. John
Persson recorded his first pro hat trick as Bridgeport improves to 18-22-1-4 on
the season.
Anders Lee leads Bridgeport (and is tied for the AHL rookie lead) with 17
goals. Ryan Strome leads the team (and all AHL rookies) in assists (30); he
also leads the Sound Tigers in points (40). Strome's 40 points place him 7th in league scoring despite
playing at least eight fewer games than anyone ahead of him in AHL scoring.
Bridgeport is off until Friday when they visit Albany.
Up Next
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY
29th -- RANGERS VS. ISLANDERS AT YANKEE STADIUM 7:30PM
[NBCSN (pre-game at 6:30pm), 88.7 WRHU-FM, 103.9 WRCN-FM, 880 WCBS-AM]
After 3,227 regular season games indoors, the Islanders
head outdoors to face the Rangers at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. The game will be nationally televised in both
the United States and Canada.
This is technically an Islander home game, only the
third that the Isles have ever played away from Nassau Coliseum. Back in 1992-93 and 1993-94 each team played
two neutral-site games and the Islander home games were played in Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma and Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The Bronx will be the 4th New York county
that the Isles have played in this season, having played in Nassau County,
Manhattan County and a pre-season game in Kings County (Brooklyn). The Isles will play in a fifth New York
county in April, when they visit the Sabres in Buffalo, Erie County.
This is the first of a most unusual home-and-home
series between the teams, who will complete their season series on Friday at
Madison Square Garden.
Note the additional radio outlet for Wednesday's
game: WCBS 880.
Eric Hornick has
been the statistician on Islander home game telecasts since January 21, 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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