"The Skinny"
By Eric Hornick
Game 78
Columbus 4, Isles 0
The Columbus Blue Jackets scored three power play goals and Sergei Bobrovsky made 31 saves for his 9th career shutout as Columbus defeated the Islanders 4-0 before 15,667 at Nationwide Arena. The loss ends the Isles' season-high point streak at seven games (5-0-2).
The Scoring:
1st Period
04:26 CBJ PPG - Boone Jenner (14) Tip-in - ASST: Mark Letestu (22), Ryan Johansen (26) 1 - 0 CBJ
13:10 CBJ PPG - Jack Johnson (5) Slapshot - James Wisniewski (41), Brandon Dubinsky (32) 2 - 0 CBJ
2nd Period
10:11 CBJ Mark Letestu (9) Wrist shot - ASST: Boone Jenner (11), Matt Frattin (5) 3 - 0 CBJ
18:53 CBJ PPG - Ryan Murray (4) Slapshot - Cam Atkinson (19), Brandon Dubinsky (33) 4 - 0 CBJ
3rd Period
None
The Skinny:
Sergei Bobrovsky now has five shutouts on the season; it's his career-best 29th win of the season…This was the first time the Jackets have ever shutout the Islanders; they were the only current NHL franchise that had not done so… The Isles have now allowed an NHL-high 100 second period goals this season... Playing without John Tavares, the Isles are 9-6-3 since the Olympic break… The Isles are 18-10-5 with Ryan Strome in the lineup…Frans Nielsen remains tied with David Volek on the all-time point list (249). With his next point he will become the 25th player in Islander history to record 250 points…Josh Bailey's point streak ended at 4 games…It's the fourth time this season the Isles have allowed at least three power play goals (0-4-0)...This was Columbus' final division game of the season (16-13-1); the Isles have one divisional game to play (Friday in New Jersey)…The win gives Columbus 87 points; they are three points ahead of New Jersey and Toronto for the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference…The loss assures that the Isles will finish below NHL-.500 for the sixth consecutive full season; the Isles earned 55 points in 48 games last season…Scott Mayfield wore number 42 in his NHL debut; he is the fifth Islander to wear that number.
The Shots:
Isles 10-10-11=31
Columbus 13-9-11=33
Youth Movement
Scott Mayfield made his NHL debut (playing 17:04, with 2 shots and 4 hits) and Johan Sundstrom returned to the lineup. Overall, the Isles dressed ten rookies: Kevin Czuczman, Calvin de Haan, Matt Donovan, Mike Halmo, Anders Lee, Brock Nelson, Anders Nilsson, Ryan Strome, and John Persson.
The 20 Isles dressed today average 25.26 years old, and the nineteen that played (excluding Nabokov) averaged 24.56. Matt Donovan is the 10th oldest of the 20 who dressed; Anders Lee is the 11th.
Young D
The six Islander defensemen who dressed in this game had only 653 games of NHL experience:
· Travis Hamonic - 247
· Matt Carkner - 232
· Thomas Hickey - 116
· Matt Donovan - 50
· Kevin Czuczman - 8
· Scott Mayfield - 0
By comparison, Lubomir Visnovsky has played in 830 NHL games -- The Blue Jackets used two players with more experience than the entire Isles defense: RJ Umberger and Fedor Tyutin.
Home and Road
The Islanders are 31-36-11 overall, 13-18-9 at home (including 0-1-0 at Yankee Stadium) and 18-18-2 on the road. The Isles are 7-3-2 in their last 12 games.
Over the last two seasons, the Isles are 23-29-12 (58 points in 64 games) at home and 32-24-6 (70 points in 62 games) on the road. This will be the Isles' worst record at home for a full season since 2000-01, when they finished with 26 points.
Columbus is 40-31-7 overall; they are 21-15-4 at home and 19-16-3 on the road.
By Division
The Isles are 9-16-4 in Division games and are 22-20-7 in games against other divisions. They are 11-6-4 vs. the Atlantic Division, 7-6-1 vs. Central Division, and 4-8-2 vs. the Pacific Division.
The Isles do not have a winning record against every division opponent. They are 1-3-0 against Carolina, 1-2-1 against Columbus, 2-2-0 (with one to play) against New Jersey, 2-3-0 against New York, 1-3-0 against Philadelphia, 1-2-1 against Pittsburgh, and 1-1-2 against Washington.
This was the eighth of 12 consecutive games against Eastern Conference opponents to end the regular season. The Isles have started this stretch 5-1-2.
In the Nets
Anders Nilsson made 29 saves but falls to 6-6-2 on the season. Nilsson had won three straight games.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 31 saves for Columbus and improves to 29-20-5 on the season with his 5th shutout.
Power Plays
The Islanders were 0-2 on the power play while Columbus was 3-6.
The Isles are 18-8-5 when they score at least one power play goal and 13-28-6 when they do not. The Isles are 14-20-4 when they allow at least one power play goal and 17-16-7 when they do not.
The Isles are 13-96 in the last 26 games on the power play and have allowed 17 power play goals in 71 times short over the last 17 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 17-121 in their last 33 games.
Three is a Magic Number
The Isles are 25-10-4 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 6-26-7 when they do not.
Comeback Kids
The Isles are 15-9-8 when they score first and are 16-27-3 when they allow the opening goal. The Isles have allowed the first goal in 27 of their last 40 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 (273) and wins (115).
Most games coached (Islanders):
1. Al Arbour 1,500
2. Jack Capuano 273
3. Mike Milbury 191
4. Terry Simpson 187
5. Scott Gordon 181
Most wins by Islander coaches:
1. Al Arbour 740
2. Jack Capuano 115
3. Terry Simpson 81
4. Peter Laviolette 77
5. Ted Nolan 74
They Said It
Matt Martin: "Guys mentally weren't there tonight."
Casey Cizikas: "The PK let us down…we just didn't do it tonight."
They Tweeted It
@LINYIsles I have to applaud @CarknerMatt Ya have to watch your teams back #isles
@Aportzline #CBJ RW Jared Boll w two mice upon his visage ... one above / one below his right eye. Carkner provided them when Boll stood up for Calvert.
The Coach
"It's tough when you're in the box all night…The penalty kill] wasn't very good… For whatever reason they picked us apart a little bit."
Back-to-Backs
The Isles are now 7-8-2 in the front-end and 7-8-2 on the back end of back-to-backs this season. The Isles have swept four back-to-backs: November 1st/2nd vs. Ottawa and Boston, January 6th/7th vs. Dallas and Toronto, January 20th/21st vs. Philadelphia and the Rangers and April 1st/2nd vs. Florida and Ottawa.
In the 17 sets of back-to-backs, they have earned 4 points four times, 3 points once, 2 points five times, 1 point three times and no points on four occasions.
The Isles have one back-to-back set remaining: Thursday in Montreal and Friday in New Jersey.
Leading Ice Men
Travis Hamonic led the Isles with 23:29 of ice-time while Jack Johnson led Columbus with 22:18.
The Isles are 15-17-6 when MacDonald leads in ice-time, are 15-14-5 when Hamonic leads, are 1-0-0 when deHaan 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 20 of 57 draws (35%), including only 9 of 32 in the first two periods. Ryan Strome won 8 of 15 but his teammates won only 12 of 42; Mark Letestu won 8 of 11 for Columbus.
Heavy Hitters
The Isles out-hit Columbus 48-40. Cal Clutterbuck led the Isles with nine hits while Matt Martin added eight hits. Martin now has 349 hits on the season and leads the NHL in hits by a wide margin; it is the second time in his career that he has recorded 300 hits. Clutterbuck now has 268 hits this season and is now in the top 5 in hits.
Matt Carkner fought Jared Boll in the third period. The Isles have received 34 fighting penalties this season: Martin (10), Carkner (9), Boulton (8), McDonald (2), Halmo (2), Hamonic (2) and Okposo (1).
Giving Up the Body
The Isles were credited with 6 blocked shots, including a team-high two blocks for Travis Hamonic.
All-time Winners
The Islanders fall to four games over all-time NHL .500 (1402-1398-450 in 3,250 games), with four games remaining in the current regular season. 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 not been more than 1 game under NHL-.500 since January 11, 1978 and have finished every season since 1977-78 over all-time NHL .500.
Ironman
Thomas Hickey is the Islanders' reigning ironman. He has played 79 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. Eric Boulton (hand), Brian Strait (broken hand), and Lubomir Visnovsky (upper body injury) are also injured. Kyle Okposo missed his sixth straight game with a lower body injury while Michael Grabner and Calvin deHaan are also out injured. Radek Martinek was scratched.
The Isles have lost 219 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
5. Henrik Lundqvist 50
Career Shutouts
16 Turk Broda 62
17 John Ross Roach 58
17 Evgeni Nabokov 58
19 Clint Benedict 57
| Career Goals as an Islander |
15 Mariusz Czerkawski 145
16 John Tavares 136
17 Jason Blake 127
27 Trent Hunter 99
28 Kyle Okposo 99
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
36 Frans Nielsen 84
38 Michael Grabner 82
39 Wayne Merrick 81
39 Dave Scatchard 81
| 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 165
24 Zigmund Palffy 163
25 Kyle Okposo 155
26 David Volek 154
| 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 443
31 Jason Blake 426
34 Wayne Merrick 411
35 Jean Potvin 402
35 Josh Bailey 402
37 David Volek 396
38 Bert Marshall 392
39 Kyle Okposo 390
40 Travis Green 388
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 254
25 David Volek 249
25 Frans Nielsen 249
27 Ray Ferraro 238
Season Series Stats
Columbus wins the season series 3 games to 1 (and 6 points to 3).
The Isles are only 5-9-4 all-time against the Jackets, and Columbus has earned at least a point in 16 of 18 meetings.
The Isles have never beaten Columbus in regulation at Nationwide Arena, winning only by a Josh Bailey overtime goal in 2010. Otherwise, they have one shootout loss and one tie in ten visits to Columbus.
The Isles did not win in their final two visits to Cleveland, either (a loss there on January 11, 1978 left them two games under all-time .500; a place they have not fallen since). The Isles' last regulation win in the state of Ohio came on the afternoon of March 27, 1977, when they defeated the Cleveland Barons 6-3.
Happy Anniversary
12 years ago tonight (4-6-02): The Islanders built a 5-1 lead, and then had to hang on in the third period for a 5-4 win over Washington before a sellout crowd at the Coliseum. The win clinched a playoff berth for the Islanders for the first time since 1994.
Also on this date: The Islanders defeat the Rangers 6-4 for their first-ever win at MSG in the regular season finale (1975), the Isles begin the run for the 4th championship with a 5-2 win over the Capitals
(1983).
(1983).
All-time, the Isles are 10-6-2 in regular season play and 3-0 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs on this date.
On The Farm
Bridgeport lost to Hershey 5-4 on Sunday afternoon. The Sound Tigers are 1-12-1-2 in their last 16 games and 27-36-2-6 on the season. Bridgeport is off until Friday, when they visit Albany.
Up Next
TUESDAY, APRIL 8th –OTTAWA 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]
The Isles return to the Nassau Coliseum for the final time this season as they face the Ottawa Senators. It's the Sens' only trip to Long Island this season; the Isles won both games that were played in Ottawa.
The Isles are 23-11-6 in their regular season home finale, including wins in the last two seasons and points in the last 4 (2-0-2).
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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