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Wednesday, February 26, 2014

The Skinny: Nielsen and Martin both to have game streaks snapped

Jack Capuano noted at practice today that NHL hit leader Matt Martin (lower body) will not play when the Isles resume the season on Thursday.  Martin joins Frans Nielsen (injured in the final game before the break by a slash from Colorado's Erik Johnson that cost Johnson a 2-game suspension) as Islanders with long consecutive game streaks that will come to an end tomorrow.

Nielsen had played 190 consecutive (regular season) games (every game since the beginning of the 2011-12 season) while Martin had played 121 consecutive games since missing back-to-back games due to illness on March 10-11, 2012.  Other than those two games, the only previous NHL games Martin missed were when he was suspended for four games for his role in the February 2011 brawl game with the Penguins.

Andrew MacDonald is slated to become the Isles' reigning ironman as he plays (ball) for the 162nd consecutive game. Thomas Hickey is the only other Islander to appear in every game this season;  counting last year's regular season finale he has played in 62 consecutive games.

This will be the first time since 2008-09 that the Isles do not have a forward who appeared in all 82 games. (In that season, no Islander appeared in more than 74 of the team's 82 games.)

The Islanders, who started the last game before the break without a player on injured reserve for the first since October, are also of course missing John Tavares.

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 161
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
 

 
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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