The Skinny on November

At the stroke of midnight, not only did Halloween end but the month that Isles fans feared most began: November.

It's not totally without reason, because several times in recent years decent starts have been destroyed by disastrous Novembers.

All-time, the Isles find themselves 22 games under NHL-.500 in November:

1972-1973	2-10-1		1993-1994	6-6-1
1973-1974	3-5-3		1995-1996	3-9-1
1974-1975	3-7-5		1996-1997	5-5-4
1975-1976	6-7-1		1997-1998	6-6-2
1976-1977	8-4-1		1998-1999	5-8-0
1977-1978	7-4-4		1999-2000	4-6-2
1978-1979	9-1-2		2000-2001	3-9-2
1979-1980	2-8-2		2001-2002	6-5-3
1980-1981	12-1-2		2002-2003	5-7-2
1981-1982	6-5-2		2003-2004	5-8-0
1982-1983	4-7-5		2005-2006	7-6-1
1983-1984	10-2-1		2006-2007	7-5-1
1984-1985	8-5-1		2007-2008	8-5-1
1985-1986	6-5-4		2008-2009	8-6-1
1986-1987	9-5-0		2009-2010	6-6-2
1987-1988	9-4-0		2010-2011	1-7-3
1988-1989	3-10-1		2011-2012	4-7-2
1989-1990	3-12-0		2013-2014	4-10-1
1990-1991	6-5-2			218-240-69
1991-1992	6-6-1
1992-1993	3-6-2

However, to be fair, 14 of those "under-.500's" came in the first three seasons of their history (8-22-9).

The schedule plays a bit of a role as November traditionally features a lengthy road trip.

• All time, Isles are 93-144-43 on the road and 125-96-26 at home in November.
• In the Tavares era, Isles are 15-30-8 in November, 6-19-5 on the road and 9-11-3 at home.

There have actually been some very memorable positive moments in November, including: 

• Isles franchise awarded (1971)
• Germain Gagnon records 1st Isles hat trick (1972)
• Bryan Trottier is first Isle to score 4 goals in a game (1977)
• Double Chili (1979)
• Billy Smith credited with a goal (1979)
• Mike Bossy credited with 9 goals in a three-game span (1980)
• Isles scored 10 goals for most recent time (1984)
• Pierre Turgeon's first Isles hat trick (1991)
• Robert Reichel hat trick leads Isles to win over Rangers (1997)
• Mark Parrish hat trick keeps Isles red-hot in win over Ducks (2001)
• Al Arbour 1500 (2007)
• Dwayne Roloson's 58 save game (2009)
• John Tavares' first GW goal in comeback win over Pens (2009)

Of course, November is also the month that the Isles debuted three third jerseys: (Orange, Royal Blue and Black)

This November starts with the final 4-games of a 5-game Western trip and also includes home-home series with Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh and Washington.  There are also home games with Colorado, Philadelphia and New Jersey as well as a game against the Panthers in Florida.

By the time November finishes, 24 of the 82 games will have been played and we may have better sense of where this final Coliseum edition of the Isles is heading.