The Skinny: Isles 4, Florida 3 (SO)

"The Skinny"  

By Eric Hornick

Game 16

Isles 4, Florida 3 (SO)

The Isles got points from nine different players, including goaltender Jaroslav Halak as they built a 3-1 lead, but then needed shootout goals from Frans Nielsen and Kyle Okposo to extend their winning streak to five games as they defeated the Florida Panthers 4-3 before a crowd of 10,010 at BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida. The Isles move six games over NHL-.500 (11-5-0) for the first time this season and remain in sole possession of 2^nd place in the Metropolitan Division, remaining one point behind Pittsburgh.  It's the first time that the Isles have won five straight games (in a single season) since a 6-game winning streak from February 12-21, 2008.

It's the first time that the Isles are 6 games over NHL .500 this late in a FULL season for first time since they ended the 2006-07 season with a 40-30-12 record (finished 24-17-7 in lockout season).

The Scoring:

1st Period

12:37    FLA Jimmy Hayes (3) Wrist shot - ASST: Vincent Trocheck (3), Jussi Jokinen (7) 1 - 0 FLA          

2nd Period

13:09    NYI John Tavares (7) Snap shot - ASST: Kyle Okposo (10), Josh Bailey (3)          1 - 1 Tie           

15:08    NYI Ryan Strome (2) Wrist shot - ASST: Thomas Hickey (3), Jaroslav Halak (1) 2 - 1 NYI  

3rd Period

03:57    NYI Nikolay Kulemin (3) Wrist shot - ASST: Johnny Boychuk (9), Mikhail Grabovski (5) 3 - 1 NYI  

09:58    FLA PPG - Brian Campbell (1) Snap shot -: Jussi Jokinen (8), Aleksander Barkov (1) 3 - 2 NYI     

17:25    FLA Aaron Ekblad (2) Slapshot - ASST: Vincent Trocheck (4), Jimmy Hayes (3)   3 - 3 Tie

Overtime

No Scoring

The Shootout:

RND     NYI                                                       FLA

1          F. Nielsen (Goal)                                   J. Huberdeau    (Goal)

2          K. Okposo (Goal/Game Deciding Goal)  J. Jokinen (No Goal)

3          J. Tavares (No Goal)                              B. Boyes (No Goal)

           

Frans Nielsen is now 35/63 in all-time shootout attempts.  His 55.6% success rate is the best among active NHLers with at least 20 attempts.  Nielsen passed St. Louis' TJ Oshie with his goal tonight.

Kyle Okposo improves to 3/3 in the shootout this season, including two game deciding goals.

Jaroslav Halak's stop of Brad Boyes to clinch the shootout also meant that Boyes remained tied with Zach Parise and Mikko Koivu for the all-time record of 37 shootout goals.

The Isles improve to 60-41 all-time in shootouts.  Only Pittsburgh (62-33) has more shootout wins.

The Isles have won five consecutive shootouts; the franchise record of seven was set in 2006.

The Shutout Streak Ends:  

Jimmy Hayes' first period goal ends the Islanders' shutout streak at 193:48 (just 5:26 shy of the franchise record) and ends Jaroslav Halak's personal streak at 156:04 (22:25 shy of Chico Resch's club record and 8:34 shy of his personal high).

The Skinny:

The Isles have outscored the opposition 17-10 in the first period…This was only the second time this season that the Isles have trailed after 1 period…Jimmy Hayes now has a three-game goal-scoring streak and a four-game point streak… Ryan Strome scored for the second straight game … Tavares' goal tied him for the team lead with Brock Nelson (7); Kyle Okposo's assist on that goal enabled him to tie Tavares for the club lead with 10… This was Nikolay Kulemin's first even-strength goal as an Islander; both of his prior goals had come with the Isles shorthanded …The Isles are 5-0-0 when leading after two periods…The Isles have the longest current winning streak in the NHL (5).

Sweet 16

With his goal tonight, John Tavares passed Ziggy Palffy for 16^th in points on the all-time Isles list.  Tavares also is currently 16^th in Isles history in both goals and assists.

Comparable Records

The Isles are 11-5-0 thru 16 games, matching the franchise record for most wins thru 16 games (done four times previously).  The Isles were 6-7-3 through 16 games and 6-8-3 through 17 games last season, when they won only 11 of their first 39 games (11-21-7).

This is only the 2^nd time since the 1987-88 season that the Isles have won their 11^th game by November 14^th.  The Isles improved to 11-1-1-1 with a win on November 6, 2001.

November to Remember?

The Isles are 5-1-0 this November, which still includes home-and-home series with Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh and Washington.  The Isles have eight games remaining in November.

Streakers

The Isles won their first four games, lost their next two games, won the two games after that, lost the next three games before winning the last five.

The Shots:

Isles      11-13-8-2=34

Florida    8-10-11-9=38

Home and Road

The Islanders are 11-5-0 overall, 4-2-0 at home and 7-3-0 on the road.

The Isles are 25-9-2 in their last 36 road games.  Since the start of the 2013 (shortened) season, the Isles are 42-27-6 on the road.

The Isles are 7-3-0 on the road this season, with the seven wins in their first ten road games matching the club record done four times previously.

Florida is 5-4-5 overall; 3-3-1 at home and 2-1-4 on the road.

By Division

The Isles are 3-1-0 in Division games and are 8-4-0 in games against other divisions. They are 2-1-0 vs. the Atlantic Division, 2-2-0 vs. Central Division, and 4-1-0 vs. the Pacific Division.

The Isles won only three of their first 17 division games (3-11-3) last season.

Playing the East

This was the first of 11 consecutive games against the Eastern Conference.  The Isles are 1-0-0 in this stretch, which includes upcoming including home/home series with Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, Washington, and Ottawa.

In the Nets

Jaroslav Halak made 35 saves (including 9 in overtime) and improves to 7-4-0. Halak is 9-1-0 in his career against Florida.

Roberto Luongo made 31 saves for Florida but falls to 5-3-4 on the season.  Luongo is 8-10-3 in his career against the Isles.  Along the way, he passed John Vanbiesbrouck for 5^th place on the career saves list.

Power Plays

The Islanders were 0-3 on the power play while Florida was 1-6.

The Isles have killed 17 of 18 over the last four games after they allowed 6 power play goals in 14 times short over the previous five games.

The power play is 4-20 (20.0%) over the last five games.

The Isles are 7-3-0 when they score at least one power play goal and 4-2-0 when they do not.  The Isles are 5-4-0 when they allow at least one power play goal and 6-1-0 when they do not. 

Three is a Magic Number

The Isles are 9-1-0 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 2-4-0 when they do not. 

One Goal Games

The Isles are 7-1-0 in games decided by a single goal including 3-1-0 in regulation. They are 1-0 in games decided in overtime and are 3-0 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 7-4-0 when they score first and are 4-1-0 when they allow the opening goal. 

Second to The One

Jack Capuano is the 2^nd winningest coach in Islander history. Capuano is 129-125-39 behind the Islander bench.

Most games coached (Islanders):

1.     Al Arbour 1,500

2.     Jack Capuano 293

3.     Mike Milbury 191

4.     Terry Simpson 187

5.     Scott Gordon 181

Most wins by Islander coaches:

1.     Al Arbour 740

2.     Jack Capuano 129

3.     Terry Simpson 81

4.     Peter Laviolette 77

5.     Ted Nolan 74

They Said It

John Tavares:  "We didn't finish the game the way we wanted to, but Jaro made some really big saves."

Josh Bailey: "Whatever position (line) I'm in, (I'm) just going to do my best and contribute to the team."

They Tweeted It

@Bk1491 Dear @NYIslanders try to make these wins a little bit easier...too stressful

@mrdougellin I know it's early but the @NYIslanders are making me feel like it's 1980

@THENATUREBOY1  Nielson maybe greatest shootout player of all time.

@FullMetalJack3d Becoming very confident when games get to shootouts. Have G who can stop the puck and numerous highly skilled shooters. #isles

@yanzlow The Halakness monster comes through! #Isles

The Coach

"We made a little tweak in the third (moving Bailey)…both lines played extremely well…. (Kulemin) is all business…he does things the right way…takes shorts shifts and goes to work…

Back-to-Backs

The Isles are 3-0-0 in the front-end and 2-0-0 on the back end of back-to-backs this season.  This is only the third time in franchise history that the Isles have swept their first two back-to-backs (1981-82 & 2001-02); in both those seasons they also swept the third set, which they can do with a win in Tampa Bay on Saturday.

Leading Ice Men

Travis Hamonic led the Isles with 23:35 of ice-time while Brian Campbell led Florida with 30:01.

Isles record by ice-time leaders: Johnny Boychuk (5-1-0), Travis Hamonic (3-1-0), Lubomir Visnovsky (2-1-0) and John Tavares (1-2-0).

Kyle Okposo led the forwards with 21:05 of ice-time. Isles record by Forward ice-time leaders: John Tavares (6-5-0), Kyle Okposo (3-0-0), Brock Nelson (1-0-0), and Casey Cizikas (1-0-0).

In the Circle

The Islanders won 26 of 65 draws (40%). Kyle Okposo won 5 of 6 for the Isles but his teammates won only 21 of 59; Vincent Trochek won 9 of 11 for Florida.

The Isles won only 9 of 26 draws in the third period and overtime.

The Isles have lost at least 50% of the draws in every game this season.

Heavy Hitters

The Isles outhit Florida 32-26.  Matt Martin had six hits to lead the Isles.  Derek MacKenzie had five hits for Florida.

There were no fights, leaving the season total at two: Martin (1), Hamonic (1).

Giving Up the Body

The Isles were credited with 17 blocked shots; Travis Hamonic, Calvin de Haan and Johnny Boychuk led the Isles with three each.

For the Corsi Crowd

Nick Leddy (+13) led the Isles in even-strength Corsi, which measures shots attempted for and against (including blocks).  Leddy, Kyle Okposo and Nikolay Kulemin each had a team-leading 67% of Corsi For events.

Head of the Class

Islander Captain John Tavares has 332 career points; he is 59 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 improve to 12 games over all-time NHL .500 (1416-1404-450 in 3,270 games).  It's the first time since November 3, 2010 that the Isles have been 12 games over all-time NHL .500.

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 268 consecutive regular season games, while Hickey has played 99 consecutive regular season Islander games.

Century Club

Thomas Hickey is on the verge of joining a select group of Islander defensemen who have played in 100 consecutive regular season games:

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 12/19/2011- 3/2/2014 164 (**)

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 11/24/2010– 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

Missing Men

Eric Boulton, Michael Grabner and Matt Carkner are on injured reserve. Matt Donovan was scratched for the 16th straight game. Josh Bailey returned to the lineup after missing eight games, replacing Cory Conacher in the lineup.

The Isles have lost 59 games this season due to injury, and have had four injured players for 11 of their 16 games. 

Good Company for Halak

Jaroslav Halak became the 110th goalie in NHL history to record 150 wins with his shutout of Colorado on November 11th.  It was his 32nd career shutout, tying Eddie Johnson and Felix Potvin for 50th on the all-time list.

Halak's 32 shutouts also rank sixth among active goalies:

1.     Roberto Luongo 67

2.     Evgeni Nabokov 59

3.     Henrik Lundqvist 53

4.     Pekka Rinne      33

5.     Jonathan Quick 33

6.     Jaroslav Halak 32

7.     Marc-Andre Fleury 31

8.     Ryan Miller        30

All-time Islander Leader Board:

John Tavares has:

·         143 goals (16^th all-time, 2 behind Mariusz Czerkawski, 4 behind Pierre Turgeon and 17 behind Pat Flatley)

·         189 assists (16^th all-time, 4 behind Pierre Turgeon and 60 behind Tomas Jonsson)

·         332 points (16^th all-time, 1 behind Tomas Jonsson, 8 behind Pierre Turgeon and 37 behind Stefan Persson)

·         366 games played (43^rd among Islander skaters all-time, 15 behind Randy Wood and 17 behind Anders Kallur)

Frans Nielsen has:

·         90 goals (35^th all-time, 2 behind Travis Green and 3 behind Greg Gilbert & Garry Howatt)

·         174 assists (19th all-time, 1 behind Kenny Jonsson and 7 behind Ed Westfall)

·         264 points (23rd all-time and 5 behind Kyle Okposo and 22 behind Ed Westfall)

·         463 games played (28th among Islander skaters all-time, 7 behind Mariusz Czerkawski and 13 behind Gerry Hart)

Kyle Okposo has:

·         104 goals (26^th all-time and 1 behind Ed Westfall & Benoit Hogue and 12 behind Ray Ferraro)

·         165 assists (24^th all-time, 1 behind Jeff Norton, 2 behind Jean Potvin and 6 behind Duane Sutter & Alexei Yashin)

·         269 points (22nd all-time, 17 behind Ed Westfall and 21 behind Alexei Yashin)

·         406 games played (36^th among Islander skaters all-time, 5 behind Wayne Merrick and 8 behind Josh Bailey)

Michael Grabner has:

·         82 goals (38th all-time, 2 behind Tomas Jonsson and 5 behind Butch Goring)

Josh Bailey has:

·         414 games played (34^th among Islander skaters all-time, 8 behind Dave Langevin and 11 behind Greg Gilbert)

Season Series Stats

The Isles lead the season series 1 game to none (and 2 points to 1).

The Isles have won six of the last eight against the Cats, and are 4-2-0 in their last six trips to South Florida.

It Happened at the Coliseum … on NOVEMBER 14th

27 years ago tonight (1987) – Bryan Trottier having four assists in a game wasn't anything new, but this was the fall of 1987 so it was not Mike Bossy (out injured but not yet officially retired) scoring the goals – it was Mikko Makela (twice), Tomas Jonsson and Brad Lauer with the tallies as the Isles pounded Winnipeg 7-3. 

Kelly Hrudey made 23 saves as the Isles won their fourth straight game.  It was the first of three four-point games that season for Trottier – the final times in his career that he recorded at least four points.

Also on this date: (1992) – Benoit Hogue scored two goals and added an assist as the Isles broke a five-game losing streak with a 7-5 win over Buffalo.  Glenn Healy made 33 saves.

All-time, the Isles have played eight November 14th games at the Coliseum and finish with a 2-4-2 record on this date at 1255 Hempstead Turnpike in Uniondale.

On The Farm

Colin McDonald scored two goal, added two assists, and was a +4 as the Sound Tigers moved into sole possession of first place in the Northeast and improved to an AHL Eastern Conference-best  9-3-0-1 on Friday with a 6-1 win against the Rangers' top farm club, the Hartford Wolf Pack, at the XL Center in Hartford.

Kevin Poulin improved to 7-1-1 (2.04, .939) as he earned at least a point in his eighth straight game.  Alan Quine extended his goal scoring streak to four games, and also went +4.

Bridgeport hosts Hartford in the back-end of the home-and-home on Saturday and then hosts Springfield on Sunday afternoon (3pm).

Up Next

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15th—ISLANDERS AT TAMPA BAY 7:00PM
[MSG+2 (Isles Pre-game at 6:30pm), 88.7 WRHU-FM, 103.9 WRCN]

The road trip, and back-to-back set, concludes with the front-end of consecutive games with Steven Stamkos and the Tampa Bay Lightning as the newly-renamed Amalie Arena in Tampa. (Tampa will play at Madison Square Garden on Monday, before Tuesday's Coliseum rematch.)

The teams met three times last season, and all three games were decided in shootouts, with the Lightning winning twice.

The Isles have earned points in six straight games against Tampa Bay (4-0-2) and are also 4-2-1 in their last seven matchups with the Lightning in Tampa.

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