The Skinny: Isles 3, St. Louis 2 (OT)

"The Skinny"  

By Eric Hornick

 

Game 8

Isles 3, St. Louis 2 (OT)

Mikhail Grabovski scored his first goal of the season at 4:00 of overtime as the Islanders defeated the St. Louis Blues 3-2 before a crowd of 19,186 at Scotttrade Center.  The Isles are 5-1-0 in their last six games and record their first win in Missouri since 2005.

The Scoring:

1ST PERIOD

16:52    NYI       PPG - Kyle Okposo (3) Wrist shot - ASST: Nick Leddy (1), Frans Nielsen (3) 1 - 0 NYI     

2ND PERIOD

18:41    NYI       John Tavares (5) Wrist shot - ASST: Nikolay Kulemin (3), Josh Bailey (2)  2 - 0 NYI

3RD PERIOD

02:26    STL      Colton Parayko (3) Wrist shot - ASST: Steve Ott (1)        2 - 1 NYI          

10:51    STL      Alexander Steen (4) Tip-in - ASST: Colton Parayko (2), Jori Lehtera (5)     2 - 2 Tie           

OT PERIOD

04:00    NYI       Mikhail Grabovski (1) Tip-in - ASST: Frans Nielsen (4)      3 - 2 NYI          

The Skinny:

 

John Tavares extended his point streak to six games... The Isles did not score a goal in the third period for the third time this season… Mikhail Grabovski recorded his 5^th career overtime goal (and 1^st as an Islander); it was his 1^st goal in his last 14 games, dating back to February 8th…The Isles' penalty killers are 18-18 over the last five games and have now killed 90.3% of opponents' opportunities.

The Shots:

Isles        9-7-2-4=22

St. Louis 8-14-15-3=40

The Isles have been held to 26 shots or fewer in three consecutive games for the first time since December 3-5-7, 2013.

Home and Road

The Islanders are 5-2-1 overall; 3-1-1 at home and 2-1-0 on the road.  It's only the third time since 1987-88 that the Isles have earned at least 11 points in their first eight games (14 in 2001-02 and 12 last season)

 

St. Louis is 5-2-1 overall; 1-0-1 at home and 4-2-0 on the road. 

By Division

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

The Isles finished last season 21-6-3 against the Met and 26-22-4 against other Divisions. 

In the Nets

Thomas Greiss made 38 saves to improve to 2-0-1; he has faced at least 40 shots in each of his two starts, both wins.  He is 3-1-0 in his career against St. Louis.

Brian Elliot made 19 saves; he is now 4-0-1.  He is 4-1-2 in his career against the Isles.

Power Plays

The Islanders were 1-3 on the power play, while St. Louis was 0-5. 

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

Three is (Usually) a Magic Number

The Isles are 5-1-0 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 0-1-1 when they do not.  The Isles were 40-8-4 when they scored at least goals (including SO winners) last season.

One Goal Games

The Isles are 2-0-1 in games decided by a single goal including 1-0-0 in regulation. They are 1-1 in games decided in overtime and are 0-0 in shootouts.  The Isles are 1-0 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1 goal game into a 2-goal game.

First Goal

The Isles are 3-0-0 when they score first and are 2-2-1 when they allow the opening goal.   

Second to The One

Jack Capuano is the 2^nd winningest coach in Islander history. Capuano is 170-150-47 behind the Islander bench. Among the 9 New York teams, only the Giants' Tom Coughlin and the Yankees' Joe Girardi have led their respective teams longer than Capuano.

Most games coached (Islanders):

1.     Al Arbour 1,500

2.     Jack Capuano 367

3.     Mike Milbury 191

4.     Terry Simpson 187

5.     Scott Gordon 181

 

Most wins by Islander coaches:

1.     Al Arbour 740

2.     Jack Capuano 170

3.     Terry Simpson 81

4.     Peter Laviolette 77

5.     Ted Nolan 74

They Tweeted It

@YankeeJosh Tonight, New York beat Missouri. Omen of things to come? #isles #Mets

@HolyMakela Thomas Greiss has been a godsend so far as backup. Can't remember last time #Isles had a solid 1-2 punch in net

@631life First win in St. Louis in a decade!! YES YES YES YES YES #Isles instagram.com/p/9PpaLEind5/

Back-to-Backs

The Isles are 0-1-1 in the front-end and 1-1-0 on the back end of back-to-backs this season.  Their next back-to-back set will be next weekend, when they visit New Jersey on Saturday and host Buffalo on Sunday.

Tired vs. Rested

·         The Isles are 0-1-0 when both teams played the night before.

·         The Isles are 1-0-0 when they are rested and their opponents are not.

·         The Isles are 1-0-0 when their opponents are rested and the Isles are not.

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Johnny Boychuk (25:42); St. Louis: Alex Pietrangelo (29:00).

Isles record by ice-time leaders: Travis Hamonic (3-1-1), Johnny Boychuk (2-1-0).

John Tavares led Isles forwards with 19:19 of ice-time. Isles record by Forward ice-time leaders: John Tavares (2-1-1), Ryan Strome (2-0-0), Frans Nielsen (1-0-0), Tied (0-1-0). 

Face-offs

Isles 29, St. Louis 26 (53%)

Frans Nielsen won 10 of 17 for the Isles; Kyle Brodziak won 7 of 10 for St. Louis.

The Isles won 15 of 20 in the first period but only 14 of 35 the rest of the way. The Isles won 3 of 3 on the power play and 7 of 12 on the penalty kill.

Heavy Hitters

Isles 27, St. Louis 20.  Matt Martin led the Isles with 6 hits.

Fights

There were no fights.  Season total – 2 (Boychuk, Martin).  

Blocked Shots

The Isles were credited with 19 blocked shots; Calvin deHaan led the team with six.

For the Corsi Crowd

All situations:  Isles 46 St. Louis 79 (including 33-7 St. Louis in the third period).

Even-Strength: Isles 33, St. Louis 62. The Corsi stat measures shots attempted, both for and against (including blocks). 

Steve Bernier was the only Islander with a positive even-strength Corsi rating (+1); Bernier had a team-leading 52% of Corsi For events. Alex Pietrangelo led St. Louis with a +23 rating.

Ironmen

·         Nikolay Kulemin -158 (68 for Toronto and 90 for the Isles)

·         Brock Nelson  -143 (all for Isles)

Missing Men

Eric Boulton is on injured reserve; Jean-Francois Berube, Marek Zidlicky and Ryan Strome were scratched; Zidlicky's scratch ended his consecutive game streak at 142.  Brian Strait returned to the lineup, while Steve Bernier made his Islander debut.

The Isles have lost 12 games this season due to injury/illness.

All-time Islander Leader Board:

John Tavares has:

·         180 goals (12^th all-time, 4 behind Billy Harris and 26 behind John Tonelli)

·         232 assists (15th all-time, 17 behind Tomas Jonsson and 27 behind Billy Harris)

·         412 points (13^th all-time and 31 behind Billy Harris)

·         440 games played (33rd among Islander skaters all-time, and 10 behind Scott Lachance)

Kyle Okposo has:

·         120 goals (19th all-time and 2 behind Duane Sutter)

·         192 assists (18^th all-time, 1 behind Pierre Turgeon and 10 behind Frans Nielsen)

·         312 points (18^th all-time, 19 behind Ziggy Palffy and 21 behind Tomas Jonsson)

·         457 games played (31^st among Islander skaters all-time, 2 behind Trent Hunter and 11 behind Mariusz Czerkawski)

Frans Nielsen has:

·         100 goals (28th all-time, 1 behind Anders Kallur and 5 behind Ed Westfall)

·         202 assists (16th all-time and 30 behind John Tavares)

·         302 points (19th all-time and 10 behind Kyle Okposo)

·         531 games played (tied-19^th among Islander skaters all-time with Tomas Jonsson and 3 behind Claude Lapointe)

 Josh Bailey has:

·         139 assists (tied-30^th all-time with Mark Streit, 1 behind Steve Thomas and 6 behind Travis Green)

·         223 points (tied-33^rd all-time with Matt Moulson and 6 behind Trent Hunter and Benoit Hogue)

·         484 games played (26^th among Islander skaters, 9 behind Ed Westfall and 25 behind Mick Vukota and Rich Pilon)

Season Series Stats

The Isles lead the season series 1 game to 0 and 2 points to 1.  The season series will conclude in Brooklyn on December 4^th.

The Isles win broke a five-game winless streak against St. Louis (0-4-1) and was their first in St. Louis since they defeated the Blues, 6-3, behind Rick DiPietro  (and five points from Mike York) on December 6, 2005.

On The Farm

The Sound Tigers dropped a 5-4 decision on Saturday in St. John's, Newfoundland to fall to 5-2-0-0 on the season.  Bracken Kearns and Joe Whitney scored PP goals for Bridgeport.

The teams will meet again in St. John's on Sunday at 2:30pm.

Up Next

MONDAY, OCTOBER 26th – CALGARY AT ISLANDERS 7:00PM
[MSG+ (Pre-game at 7:00), 91.5 WNYE-FM. 88.7 WRHU-FM, 103.9 WRCN]

The Isles return home to begin a stretch of 5-games in the Metro area (4 at home and one in New Jersey) as they entertain the Calgary Flames.

Both the Isles and Flames will be playing their third game in four nights; the Flames won at home on Friday and will be at Madison Square Garden on Monday.

The Isles swept a pair of 2-1 games from Calgary last season and are 5-2-0 in their last seven games against the Flames.

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