"The Skinny"
By Eric Hornick
Game 68
San Jose 4, Isles 3
Rookies Anders Lee and Brock Nelson each scored goals, but a late Islander rally fell short as the San Jose Sharks held on for a 4-3 victory over the Islanders before a crowd of 13,218 at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The Isles are 1-8-1 in their last ten home games (including 1-7-1 in their last nine games at the Coliseum).
The Scoring:
1st Period
13:27 SJS Matt Nieto (10) Wrist shot - ASST: Logan Couture (26), Patrick Marleau (32) 1 - 0 SJS
14:46 SJS Jason Demers (4) Wrist shot - ASST: Marty Havlat (7), James Sheppard (12) 2 - 0 SJS
2nd Period
00:32 NYI Anders Lee (6) Backhand shot - ASST: Frans Nielsen (27), Kyle Okposo (40) 2 - 1 SJS
09:32 SJS Joe Thornton (10) Wrist shot - ASST: Brent Burns (17) 3 - 1 SJS
17:02 NYI Brock Nelson (12) Tip-in - ASST: Matt Donovan (9), Josh Bailey (21) 3 - 2 SJS
18:15 SJS Marty Havlat (7) Wrist shot - ASST: James Sheppard (13) 4 - 2 SJS
3rd Period
19:38 NYI Frans Nielsen (21) Backhand shot - ASST: Kyle Okposo (41), Anders Lee (3) 4 - 3 SJS
The Skinny:
Kyle Okposo had two assists, giving him five helpers in the last two games; he now has a team-leading 67 points on the season (which is tied-6th in the NHL)…Colin McDonald's point streak ended at four games; McDonald, along with Matt Martin and Ryan Strome, went -3 on the night…San Jose's win gave them temporary possession of the Pacific Division lead, but Anaheim recaptured the Division lead with a win over Colorado…There was only one penalty called in the game; the Isles did not have a power play opportunity for the first time since March 16, 2013 at Florida…It's the 9th time this season that the opponent has had only one power play…Anders Lee now has 7 goals in his first 10 NHL games; he is 4-3-7 in his last five games; he has four multi-point games in eight games this season and has at least one point in 7 of 10 career games. Only 24 NHL rookies have more goals than Lee, who made his season debut on February 27th.…Antii Niemi improves to 153-73-32 in his NHL career; he has the best winning percentage of any active NHL goalie…Frans Nielsen's 6th attacker goal was his 21st goal of the season; he is now 21-27-48 on the season with both his goals and points representing new career highs. Nielsen also had a career-high 8 shots on goal (matching Michael Grabner on 10/15/13 vs. Buffalo for the season-high by an Islander)…The Sharks are 8-1-1 in the first 10 games of a 12-game stretch in which they are facing only Eastern Conference opponents; San Jose is 20-6-3 this season against the Eastern Conference… The Isles are 4-13-5 in their last 22 home games… It is only the third time in franchise history that they have won as few as 9 of their first 34 home games (7-23-4 in 1972-73 and 8-21-4-1 in 1999-2000)…The Isles are eight games under NHL-.500 at home for the first time since ending the 2000-2001 season with a 12-27-1-1 Coliseum record.
The Shots:
Isles 11-11-16=38
Sharks 12-7-7=26
The Isles have been outshot only twice in the last 12 games.
Home and Road
The Islanders are 25-34-9 overall, 9-17-8 at home (including 0-1-0 at Yankee Stadium) and 16-17-1 on the road. The Isles are 4-10-2 in their last 16 games.
San Jose is 44-17-7 overall; they are 25-4-4 at home and 19-13-3 on the road. The Sharks have won 5 straight games and will be looking for their fourth 6-game win streak of the season on Sunday at Madison Square Garden.
By Division
The Isles are 6-15-3 in Division games and are 19-19-6 in games against other divisions. They are 8-6-3 vs. the Atlantic Division, 7-5-1 vs. Central Division, and 4-8-2 vs. the Pacific Division.
The Isles have losing records against every division opponent except Washington (1-1-1 with one to play). They are 0-3-0 against Carolina, 0-1-1 against Columbus, 1-2-0 against New Jersey, 2-3-0 against New York, 1-3-0 against Philadelphia, and 1-2-1 against Pittsburgh.
This was the sixth of eight consecutive games against non-divisional opponents. The Isles are 2-3-1 in this stretch.
In the Nets
Evgeni Nabokov made 22 saves in his first career appearance against the Sharks. Nabokov is 12-14-6 on the season.
Antii Niemi made 33 saves for San Jose as he improves to 33-13-6 on the season.
Power Plays
The Islanders did not have a power play opportunity while San Jose was 0-1.
The Isles are 16-8-4 when they score at least one power play goal and 9-26-5 when they do not. The Isles are 14-18-4 when they allow at least one power play goal and 14-16-5 when they do not.
The Isles were 7-65 in the last 16 games on the power play and have allowed eight power play goals in 27 times short over the last seven games.
Feast or Famine
The Isles PP went 10-33 in the first 10 games, before going 7-79 in the next 24 games. They rebounded to go 11-32 in the following 11 games but are only 11-90 in their last 23 games.
Three is a Magic Number
The Isles are 22-10-3 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 3-24-6 when they do not.
Comeback Kids
The Isles are 10-9-7 when they score first and are 15-25-2 when they allow the opening goal. The Isles have allowed the first goal in 23 of their last 30 games.
Second to The One
Jack Capuano became the 2nd coach in Islander history to win 100 games in Toronto on January 7th and became the 2nd coach in Islander history to coach 250 games on January 27th against Boston. He is 2nd on the all-time Islander list in both games coached (263) and wins (109).
Most games coached (Islanders):
1. Al Arbour 1,500
2. Jack Capuano 263
3. Mike Milbury 191
4. Terry Simpson 187
5. Scott Gordon 181
Most wins by Islander coaches:
1. Al Arbour 740
2. Jack Capuano 109
3. Terry Simpson 81
4. Peter Laviolette 77
5. Ted Nolan 74
They Said It
Kyle Okposo: "I thought we played a pretty good game….Anders is on a tear and playing pretty well for us…Right back at it tomorrow; we'll try to get two points."
Evgeni Nabokov: "They're experienced and they're disciplined, that's the bottom line. I thought we played well, but they're not an easy team to play against."
Joe Thornton: "Nabby was a great teammate and one of the best goalies in Sharks history. He's a great teammate and a great friend, but I was glad to score on him"
They Tweeted It
@kupkrazy Anders Lee and Brock Nelson make me feel good for the future. #Isles
@tsnscottcullen Islanders LW Anders Lee 6 G, 3 A in 8 GP; C Frans Nielsen 3 G, 2 A in past 4 GP; RW Kyle Okposo 2 G, 6 A in past 7 GP
@_legohead_ Kyle Okposo is joint 5th in NHL points, and has 8 points in 8 since Tavares was injured #isles
The Coach
"Great effort from our guys tonight…(San Jose) is one helluva hockey team. We worked hard tonight as a group."
Back-to-Backs
The Isles are now 6-8-1 in the front-end and 5-7-2 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 14 previous sets of back-to-backs, they have earned 4 points three times, 3 points once, 2 points four times, 1 point twice and no points on four occasions.
This back-to-back set concludes on Saturday vs. Buffalo.
Leading Ice Men
Travis Hamonic led the Isles with 23:36 of ice-time; Jason Demers led San Jose with 22:26.
The Isles are 15-17-6 when MacDonald leads in ice-time, are 10-12-3 when Hamonic leads, are 0-1-0 when Okposo leads, are 0-1-0 when Strait leads, are 0-2-0 when Tavares leads and are 0-1-0 when Vanek leads.
In the Circle
The Islanders won 29 of 54 draws (54%). Casey Cizikas won 8 of 11 for the Isles; James Sheppard won 8 of 15 for San Jose.
Heavy Hitters
The Isles out-hit San Jose 32-19; Colin McDonald led the Isles with seven hits while Mike Halmo added six. Matt Martin had 5 hits his 297 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 received 28 fighting penalties this season: Martin (10), Boulton (8), Carkner (5), McDonald (2), Hamonic (2) and Okposo (1).
Giving Up the Body
The Isles were credited with 10 blocked shots. Frans Nielsen and Calvin deHaan each had two blocks.
Back To All-Time .500
The Islanders fall back to all-time NHL .500 (1396-1396-448 in 3,240 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
Thomas Hickey is the Islanders' reigning ironman. He has played 69 consecutive regular season games, and is the only Islander to have played in every game this season.
Missing Men
John Tavares is on injured reserve. Michael Grabner missed the game with a concussion. Eric Boulton missed his 4th straight game. Matt Carkner and Radek Martinek were scratched for the 4th straight and 15th straight game. Newly-signed Kevin Czuczman was also scratched.
The Isles have lost 166 games this season due to injury.
Career Wins, Active Goalies
Career Wins
17. Rogie Vachon 355
19. Gump Worsley 335
20. Nikolai Khabibulin 333
Career Shutouts, Active Goalies
Career Shutouts
17 John Ross Roach 58
18 Clint Benedict 57
18 Evgeni Nabokov 57
20 Bernie Parent 54
20 Ed Giacomin 54
| Career Goals as an Islander |
15 Mariusz Czerkawski 145
16 John Tavares 136
17 Jason Blake 127
27 Trent Hunter 99
28 Kyle Okposo 98
29 Mikko Makela 95
29 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 Michael Grabner 82
38 Frans Nielsen 81
38 Wayne Merrick 81
38 Dave Scatchard 81
41 Marty McInnis 79
| Career Assists as an Islander |
16 Ed Westfall 181
17 John Tavares 179
18 Kenny Jonsson 175
19 Alexei Yashin 171
20 Duane Sutter 171
21 Jean Potvin 167
22 Jeff Norton 166
23 Frans Nielsen 164
24 Zigmund Palffy 163
25 David Volek 154
26 Kyle Okposo 154
27 Mariusz Czerkawski 150
| Career Games as an Islander (skaters) |
24 Eddie Westfall 493
25 Radek Martinek 479
26 Gerry Hart 476
29 Scott Lachance 450
30 Frans Nielsen 433
31 Jason Blake 426
34 Wayne Merrick 411
35 Jean Potvin 402
36 David Volek 396
37 Josh Bailey 392
37 Bert Marshall 392
39 Travis Green 388
40 Kyle Okposo 386
41 Anders Kallur 383
42 Randy Wood 381
43 John Tavares 350
44 Dave Scatchard 347
| Career Points as an Islander |
16 Ziggy Palffy 331
17 John Tavares 315
18 Mariusz Czerkawski 295
22 Jason Blake 258
22 Steve Thomas 258
24 Kyle Okposo 252
25 David Volek 249
26 Frans Nielsen 244
27 Ray Ferraro 238
Season Series Stats
The teams split the season series 1 game to 1 (The Sharks earned three points to the Isles' two).
The Isles rallied from a 2-0 deficit for a 3-2 shootout win on December 10th at the SAP Center. That win breaks Islander four game winless streaks vs. the Sharks both overall (0-2-2 since a comeback victory on President's Day 2008) and in San Jose (0-3-1 since Garth Snow blanked the Sharks 3-0 on February 19, 2003).
This was the Sharks' first trip to Long Island since October 29, 2011, when the Sharks got an overtime goal by Brent Burns to defeat the Isles 3-2. The Isles are 1-5-2-2 in their last 10 home games against the Sharks.
Happy Anniversary
8 years ago tonight (March 14, 2006): Rick DiPietro set a career high win his sixth straight win, as the Isles pounded the Devils 6-1.
All-time, the Isles are 7-9-2 on March 14, although they are 4-2-0 in their last six.
On The Farm
Bridgeport is 26-28-2-4 on the season after a 7-0 loss to Manchester on Friday night.
The 3-game in 3-day weekend continues with home games on Saturday vs. Worcester and Sunday vs. Adirondack.
Up Next
SATURDAY, MARCH 15th – BUFFALO AT ISLANDERS 7:00PM
[MSG-Plus (Isles Pre-game at 6:30), 88.7 WRHU-FM, 103.9 WRCN-FM]
[MSG-Plus (Isles Pre-game at 6:30), 88.7 WRHU-FM, 103.9 WRCN-FM]
Former Islander coach Ted Nolan leads the Buffalo Sabres to the Coliseum on Saturday night. It is the first meeting of the teams since Nolan became the interim Sabres coach on November 13th.
The teams met on October 15th at the Coliseum; then-Sabre Thomas Vanek scored the deciding goal in a shootout victory for Buffalo. Overall the Isles are 1-2-3 in their last six games against the Sabres, including three shootout losses. However, Ryan Miller, now with St. Louis, was in nets for all five Sabre wins. No other Sabre has been in a goal for a win over the Isles since Patrick Lalime was between the pipes for a Columbus Day win in 2008.
The Sabres have dressed 38 skaters and used three goalies so far this season. This is the middle of three meetings between the teams this season; they will also face each other in the season finale.
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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