It Happened at the Coliseum … on OCTOBER 31st

5 years ago tonight (2009) – Jeff Tambellini recorded his only NHL hat trick and Marty Biron shut out his old team as the Isles blanked the Buffalo Sabres 5-0.  Tambellini scored only 15 other goals for the Islanders but completed his hat trick with a third period power play goal when he poked in a puck just before it crossed the goal line.

Tambellini's father Steve played on the 1980 championship squad and was in attendance to see his son's three-goal game.

Howie and Billy have the calls:

Biron made 38 saves in recording his only shutout as an Islander.  The win, the Isles’ third straight, raised the team’s record to 4-4-5.

Also on this date: (1987) – Marcel Dionne recorded his 700^th NHL goal at 19:27 of the third period but the Isles trounced the Rangers 8-2. Derek King scored his first NHL goal for the Isles.

Here's Dionne's 700th, as called by Jiggs & Eddie

All-time, the Isles have played nine October 31st games at the Coliseum and finish with a 6-3-0 record on this date at 1255 Hempstead Turnpike in Uniondale.

The Skinny: Colorado 5, Isles 0

"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 14^th 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 400^th 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 2^nd/3^rd 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 2^nd 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 5^th (at Anaheim) and November 6^th (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 (16^th all-time, 5 behind Mariusz Czerkawski and 7 behind Pierre Turgeon)

·         187 assists (16^th all-time, 6 behind Pierre Turgeon and 62 behind Tomas Jonsson)

·         327 points (17^th all-time, 4 behind Ziggy Palffy, 6 behind Tomas Jonsson and 13 behind Pierre Turgeon

·         360 games played (43^rd among Islander skaters all-time, 21 behind Randy Wood)

Frans Nielsen has:

·         89 goals (35^th 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 (26^th all-time and 3 behind Ed Westfall & Benoit Hogue)

·         163 assists (tied-24^th 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 (37^th 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 (34^th 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

It Happened at the Coliseum … on OCTOBER 30th

13 years ago tonight (2001) – Mark Parrish scored his 11^th 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. 

It may look like Dusan Salficky played in the NHL, but he never did.

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.

Germain Gagnon (Original Islander) passes away

Germain Gagnon, an original Islander, passed away on Sunday.  He was 71.

It was Gagnon's goal, with just 69 seconds to play on October 12, 1972, that allowed the Islanders to reach .500 for the first time in their history (1-1-0).  That game Happened At The Coliseum and was celebrated earlier this month, both here: NYISkinny: Eric Hornick's Blog: It Happened at the Coliseum … on OCTOBER 12th and on a commemorative ticket stub issued by the Isles.

Gagnon also scored the first hat trick in Islander history (November 1, 1972 vs California) - which ironically was part of a pre-game feature that ran on MSG+ last night.

An obituary (in French) appears here: Avis de décès - GAGNON, Germain | La Corporation des thanatologues du Québec

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Gagnon was the "future considerations" of an important early trade in Islander history.

	Traded to NY Islanders by Montreal to complete transaction that sent Denis DeJordy, Glenn Resch and Alex Campbell to NY Islanders for cash and NY Islanders' 2nd round choice (Glenn Goldup)  in 1973 Amateur Draft (June 6, 1972) , June 26, 1972.  The deal became a steal for the Islanders  as Goldup played only 18 games for Montreal, before achieving some success with the Los Angeles Kings.

He was traded to Chicago in March 1974 for future considerations, which eventually became Walt Ledingham.

Gagnon played 259 NHL games, going 40-101-141 for Montreal, the Islanders, Chicago and Kansas City.  For the Isles, he played 125 games, tallying 20 goals and 43 assists.

By my records, Gagnon is the 6th member of the 1972-73 squad to pass away, preceded by:

Craig Cameron, Robert Cook, Bryan Lefley, Brian Spencer and Ronald Stewart.

The only other former Islander players who I am aware of having passed away are Alexander Karpovtsev and Josef Vasicek, both of whom were killed in the Lokomotiv plane crash in 2011.

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

It Happened at the Coliseum … on OCTOBER 29th

23 years ago tonight (1991) – In the second game following two large trades that would eventually form the backbone of the 1993 playoff team, the Islanders got goals from five different newcomers as they broke open a tie game to defeat the San Jose Sharks 8-4 in the first-ever meeting of the squads.

Dave McLlwain, Adam Creighton, Benoit Hogue, Steve Thomas and Pierre Turgeon all scored their first goals in Islander uniforms; Derek King scored twice while Dave Chyzowski had the other Islander tally.  It was the 14^th of 15 career goals for Chyzowski, who was selected with the second pick overall in 1989.

Here's the NY Times story on the big deals for the Islanders:

NY Times story on the trades 

Also on this date: (1983) – Mike Bossy had the second of his three career hat tricks against the Devils in a 5-3 Isles win.

All-time, the Isles have played ten October 29th games at the Coliseum and finish with a 3-6-1  record on this date at 1255 Hempstead Turnpike in Uniondale.