"The Skinny"
By Eric Hornick
Game 10
Colorado 5, Isles 0
Nathan McKinnon scored a pair of second period goals, and Semyon Varlamov made 40 saves for his 14th career shutout as the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Islanders 5-0 before a crowd of 12,892 at Pepsi Center in Denver. The Isles have lost four of their last six games (2-4-0).
The Scoring:
1ST PERIOD
02:34 COL Cody McLeod (1) Wrist shot - ASST: Matt Duchene (5), Maxime Talbot (1) 1 - 0 COL
2ND PERIOD
03:25 COL PPG - N MacKinnon (1) Wrist - Erik Johnson (4), Gabriel Landeskog (1) 2 - 0 COL
08:59 COL Marc-Andre Cliche (1) Wrist Maxime Talbot (2), Cody McLeod (1) 3 - 0 COL
10:14 COL Nathan MacKinnon (2) Tip-in - ASST: Jarome Iginla (6), Jamie McGinn (2) 4 - 0 COL
3RD PERIOD
13:40 COL Erik Johnson (2) Slapshot - ASST: Matt Duchene (6) 5 - 0 COL
The Skinny:
Kyle Okposo played in his 400th NHL game …The loss knocked the Isles out of first place in the Metropolitan Division….Despite the loss, the Isles 6-4-0 record matches their best through ten games since 2001-02 (8-0-1-1)…The Isles have outscored the opposition 12-7 in the first period but have been outscored 29-22 in the 2nd/3rd period … The Isles have allowed at least three goals in 9 of their first ten games, and have allowed at least three goals in a period five times…The Isles have allowed three goals in the second period of each of the last three games… It's the first time this season that the Isles have been shutout and the second time in history that a Colorado goalie has blanked the Isles…The Avs have killed 17 straight and 41/45 this season.
End of the Month
This was the final October game of the season. The Isles are 177-166-67 all-time in October, including 6-4-0 this season.
Streakers
The Isles won their first four games, lost their next two games, won the two games after that, and lost the last two games.
The Shots:
Isles 9-17-14=40
Colorado 5-14-4=23
Home and Road
The Islanders are 6-4-0 overall, 3-2-0 at home and 3-2-0 on the road.
Colorado is 3-4-4 overall; 2-1-2 at home and 1-3-2 on the road.
By Division
The Isles are 3-1-0 in Division games and are 3-3-0 in games against other divisions. They are 1-1-0 vs. the Atlantic Division, 1-2-0 vs. Central Division, and 1-0-0 vs. the Pacific Division.
The Isles won only three of their first 17 division games (3-11-3) last season.
Western Run
This was the third of eight consecutive games against the Western Conference. The Isles are 1-2-0 in this stretch.
In the Nets
Chad Johnson made 18 saves and suffers his first loss as an Islander (3-1-0).
Semyon Varlamov made 40 saves for Colorado and improves to 2-2-3 on the season. (Elias later noted that it was the first time since 2000 (Patrick Roy vs Anaheim) that a Colorado goalie had recorded at least 40 saves in a shutout.
Power Plays
The Islanders were 0-6 on the power play while Colorado was 1-2.
The Isles have now allowed 11 power play goals on 33 times short (66.7% penalty killing efficiency). The power play is 3-27 (11.1%) over the last six games.
The Isles are 4-2-0 when they score at least one power play goal and 2-2-0 when they do not. The Isles are 3-3-0 when they allow at least one power play goal and 3-1-0 when they do not.
Three is a Magic Number
The Isles are 6-1-0 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 0-3-0 when they do not.
One Goal Games
The Isles are 3-1-0 in games decided by a single goal including 2-0-0 in regulation. They are 0-0 in games decided in overtime and are 1-0 in shootouts. Two games have been decided by two goals in which the second goal was an empty-netter. The Isles are 1-1 in those games.
First Goal
The Isles are 4-3-0 when they score first and are 2-1-0 when they allow the opening goal.
Second to The One
Jack Capuano is the 2nd winningest coach in Islander history. Capuano is 124-124-39 behind the Islander bench.
Most games coached (Islanders):
1. Al Arbour 1,500
2. Jack Capuano 287
3. Mike Milbury 191
4. Terry Simpson 187
5. Scott Gordon 181
Most wins by Islander coaches:
1. Al Arbour 740
2. Jack Capuano 124
3. Terry Simpson 81
4. Peter Laviolette 77
5. Ted Nolan 74
They Said It
John Tavares: "We didn't score on our (PP) but we generated a lot of movement…we didn't get as many second opportunities as we like."
Matt Martin: "The bottom line is we didn't do enough to win the game. Bottom line, it wasn't good enough. We need to get back to the basics. Get some ugly ones and get back on track."
They Tweeted It
@ketchb Not to step on @ehornick statistical toes, but compared to 2013-14...#Isles have 6 more goals against in 2014-15 thru 10 gms. (It was 6 when he wrote it and 7 at game's end)
The Coach
"We just have to get back to basics and try to find a way to score a goal 5 on 5…. I thought we played pretty well…we had some chances… Even-strength, we may have to look at some different combinations."
Back-to-Backs
The Isles are 1-0-0 in the front-end and 1-0-0 on the back end of back-to-backs this season.
The next set of back-to-backs is on November 5th (at Anaheim) and November 6th (at Los Angeles).
Leading Ice Men
Lubomir Visnovsky led the Isles with 23:04 of ice-time while Brad Stuart led Colorado with 23:38.
Isles record by ice-time leaders: Johnny Boychuk (4-1-0), Travis Hamonic (1-1-0), Lubomir Visnovsky (0-1-0) and John Tavares (1-1-0).
John Tavares played 20:10 to lead the forwards. Isles record by Forward ice-time leaders: John Tavares (3-4-0), Kyle Okposo (1-0-0), Brock Nelson (1-0-0), and Casey Cizikas (1-0-0).
In the Circle
The Islanders won 30 of 65 draws (46%). Brock Nelson won 6 of 9 for the Isles; Marc-Andre Clichet won 12 of 16 for Colorado.
Heavy Hitters
The Isles outhit Colorado 34-26. Cal Clutterbuck, Matt Martin and Johnny Boychuk each had five shots to lead the Isles. Nate Guenin, John Mitchell and Cody McLeod had four hits for Colorado.
There were no fights, leaving the season total at two: Martin (1), Hamonic (1).
Giving Up the Body
The Isles were credited with 4 blocked shots; Calvin deHaan led the Isles with two.
For the Corsi Crowd
Nick Leddy (+18) led the Isles in even-strength Corsi, which measures shots attempted for and against (including blocks). Lubomir Visnovsky had a team-leading 80% of Corsi For events.
Head of the Class
Islander Captain John Tavares has 327 career points; he is 55 points ahead of Matt Duchene for most among 2009 draft picks. No other player in that draft is anywhere close. Tavares also has more goals and more assists than any other player in that draft.
All-time Winners
The Islanders fall to eight games over all-time NHL .500 (1411-1403-450 in 3,264 games).
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.
Ironmen
Nick Leddy and Thomas Hickey are the Islanders' reigning ironmen. Leddy has played 262 consecutive regular season games, while Hickey has played 93 consecutive regular season Islander games.
Missing Men
Josh Bailey, Michael Grabner and Matt Carkner are on injured reserve while Travis Hamonic missed his fourth game with an upper body injury. Eric Boulton and Matt Donovan were scratched for the tenth straight game.
The Isles have lost 39 games this season due to injury and have had at least four injured players at the start of 9 of their 10 games this season.
All-time Islander Leader Board:
John Tavares has:
· 140 goals (16th all-time, 5 behind Mariusz Czerkawski and 7 behind Pierre Turgeon)
· 187 assists (16th all-time, 6 behind Pierre Turgeon and 62 behind Tomas Jonsson)
· 327 points (17th all-time, 4 behind Ziggy Palffy, 6 behind Tomas Jonsson and 13 behind Pierre Turgeon
· 360 games played (43rd among Islander skaters all-time, 21 behind Randy Wood)
Frans Nielsen has:
· 89 goals (35th all-time, 3 behind Travis Green)
· 173 assists (19th all-time, 2 behind Kenny Jonsson and 8 behind Ed Westfall)
· 262 points (23rd all-time and 3 behind Kyle Okposo)
· 457 games played (29th among Islander skaters all-time and 2 behind Trent Hunter)
Kyle Okposo has:
· 102 goals (26th all-time and 3 behind Ed Westfall & Benoit Hogue)
· 163 assists (tied-24th all-time with Ziggy Palffy, 3 behind Jeff Norton and 4 behind Jean Potvin)
· 265 points (22nd all-time, 23 behind Ed Westfall)
· 400 games played (37th among Islander skaters all-time, 2 behind Jean Potvin and 11 behind Wayne Merrick)
Michael Grabner has:
· 82 goals (38th all-time, 2 behind Tomas Jonsson, 3 behind Frans Nielsen and 5 behind Butch Goring)
Josh Bailey has:
· 413 games played (34th among Islander skaters all-time and 9 behind Dave Langevin)
Season Series Stats
Colorado leads the season series 1 game to 0 (and 2 points to 0).
Each of the seven prior meetings between the teams in Denver, dating back to a 1-0 shutout by Patrick Roy on November 16, 2001, had been decided by a single goal. Tonight's loss ended a six-game Isles point streak in Denver, consisting of a regulation win, two overtime wins, two overtime losses and a tie.
The 5-goal margin matches the largest against the Isles in a game against the Avs franchise. On November 17, 1981, the Isles lost in Quebec City by a score of 7-2.
The teams will meet again on Veterans Day at the Coliseum.
It Happened at the Coliseum … on OCTOBER 30th
13 years ago tonight (2001) – Mark Parrish scored his 11th goal of the month as the Islanders ended the month without a regulation loss for the only time in their history with a 3-2 win over the Florida Panthers.
Roman Hamrlik and Mariusz Czerkawski also scored for the Islanders, who had 37 shots on former mate Roberto Luongo. Chris Osgood allowed a pair of goals to Kristian Huselius but finished with 26 saves as the Isles improved to 9-0-1-1.
In the "this is too trivial to be Skinny" department, Garth Snow was away from the team due to a family illness, so Dusan Salficky served as the back-up. Salficky actually did so in five games that season, but never appeared in an NHL game.
Also on this date: (1997) – Travis Green and Brian Berard scored PP goals 35 seconds apart as the Isles beat the Rangers 5-3.
All-time, the Isles have played seven October 30th games at the Coliseum and finish with a 4-2-1 record on this date at 1255 Hempstead Turnpike in Uniondale.
On The Farm
The Sound Tigers are 4-2-0-1 after earning three points in two games last weekend in Newfoundland against the Ice Caps. Bridgeport is off until Saturday, when they visit Albany.
Up Next
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1st—ISLANDERS AT SAN JOSE 10:30PM
[MSG+ (Hockey Night Live at 9:30pm), 88.7 WRHU-FM, 103.9 WRCN] Game also on NBCSN nationally, but not in local area
The Isles and Sharks will conclude their season series in the Tank on Saturday night. The teams met two weeks ago at the Coliseum and the Isles rallied from a 2-1 third period deficit and a 1-0 shootout deficit for a 4-3 win.
Four of the last five meetings of the teams have gone to overtime or a shootout, with the Isles holding a 2-2-1 record in those five games.
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 & on his blog www.nyiskinny.com.
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
