The Skinny: Isles 4, San Jose 2

"The Skinny"  

By Eric Hornick

Game 16

Isles 4, San Jose 2

The Isles have had some slow starts through most of the early season, but not tonight as they scored twice in the first 3:30 to get their three-game California trip off to a good start as they defeated the San Jose 4-2, before a crowd of 16,558 at SAP Center.  It's only the second win for the Isles in their last seven games (2-3-2).  John Tavares scored early (:36 of the first) and late (19:56 of the third) to retake the team lead in goals with 7.

The Scoring:

1ST PERIOD

00:36    NYI       John Tavares (6) ASST: Brock Nelson (4), Nick Leddy (5)            1 - 0 NYI          

03:30    NYI       Mikhail Grabovski (3) ASST: Nikolay Kulemin (6), Steve Bernier (1)          2 - 0 NYI          

2ND PERIOD

10:14    SJS      Joel Ward (8) ASST: Tomas Hertl (5), Justin Braun (4)     2 - 1 NYI          

3RD PERIOD

00:45    NYI       Johnny Boychuk (3) ASST: Calvin de Haan (2), Mikhail Grabovski (4)       3 - 1 NYI          

14:49    SJS      Brent Burns (5) ASST: Tomas Hertl (6), Joel Ward (6)      3 - 2 NYI          

19:55    NYI       EN - John Tavares (7) ASST: Brock Nelson (5), Travis Hamonic (3)          4 - 2 NYI

The Skinny:

It's the first time in 7 games that the Isles have scored at least three goals…Johnny Boychuk scored a goal for the second straight game for the first time since March 8-10, 2012; he is the second Islander defenseman  to score in consecutive games this season (Thomas Hickey 10/20-10/23)…John Tavares' early goal ended a personal 4-game pointless streak…The Isles had scored only 7 first period goals this season before scoring twice tonight…Joe Thornton became the fourth 1^st-overall draft pick to appear in 1300 NHL games…Boychuk scored in both games against San Jose this year…Joel Ward has two points for San Jose…This was the first of four straight games against the West; the Isles are 6-1-1 against the West this season… Mikhail Grabovski scored his first goal in 7 games; Steve Bernier earned his first point as an Islander on the play.  Grabovski would later add an assist…The Isles scored in the first minute of two different periods for the first time since 11/18/2014 vs. Tampa (Clutterbuck and Nelson)…Joel Ward is 6-3-9 in 20 career games against the Isles.

First Time in a Ridiculously Long Time

Martin Jones became the first goaltender to be pulled in the first four minutes against the Islanders since at least the 1980s.  Shawn Hunwick (2:33 of relief in his only NHL appearance for Columbus in 2012) is the only goalie to play less than Jones did against the Isles in that span.  Only two other goalies had been pulled in the first 10 minutes vs the Islanders:  Peter Sidorkiewicz of Ottawa (1/17/93) and Cam Ward of Carolina (3/25/14). 

The Shots:

Isles           11-6-8=25

San Jose   11-14-11=36

Home and Road

The Islanders are 8-5-3 overall; 5-3-2 at home and 3-2-1 on the road.  The 7 points in the first six road games matches their best total in 13 years (also in 2012-13).

San Jose is 7-8-0 overall; 3-5-0 at home and 4-3-0 on the road.  The Sharks are 3-8-0 after a 4-0-0 start.

By Division

The Isles are 2-0-2 in Division games and are 6-5-1 in games against other divisions. They are 0-4-0 vs. the Atlantic Division, 3-1-1 vs. Central Division, and 3-0-0 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 34 saves to improve to 4-1-2 this season; it was his first career appearance against San Jose, who drafted him 94^th overall in 2004.

 Martin Jones stopped only 1 of 3 shots and was pulled after 3:30.  Alex Stalock made 20 saves the rest of way but is charged with the loss. He is 1-3-0 on the season and 0-2-1 in his career against the Isles.

Power Plays

The Islanders were 0-2 on the power play, while San Jose was 0-2.   

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

Three is a Magic Number

The Isles are 7-1-0 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 1-4-3 when they do not.  The Isles were 40-8-4 when they scored at least three goals (including SO winners) last season.

One Goal Games

The Isles are 3-2-3 in games decided by a single goal including 2-2-0 in regulation. They are 1-2 in games decided in overtime and are 0-1 in shootouts.  The Isles are 2-0 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1 goal game into a 2-goal game.

First Goal

The Isles are 6-1-1 when they score first and are 2-4-2 when they allow the opening goal.   

Second to The One

Jack Capuano is the 2^nd winningest coach in Islander history. Capuano is 173-153-49 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 375

3.     Mike Milbury 191

4.     Terry Simpson 187

5.     Scott Gordon 181

Most wins by Islander coaches:

1.     Al Arbour 740

2.     Jack Capuano 173

3.     Terry Simpson 81

4.     Peter Laviolette 77

5.     Ted Nolan 74

They Tweeted It

·         @jdisneypt8 #Isles back to winning ways!! Just as I'm getting up to go to work!

·         @Matt_Taub Can't remember the last time the #isles swept the #sharks. Usually an automatic loss in SJ in past years. @ehornick ?  (It's in The Skinny!)

·         @ivanaspade @NYIslanders you guys make late night hockey worth my while #blessed

Back-to-Backs

The Isles are 0-1-2 on the front-end and 1-2-0 on the back end of back-to-backs this season.  The next back-to-back set will be November 12-13 in Los Angeles and Anaheim.

Tired vs. Rested

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

·         The Isles are 2-1-0 when they are rested and their opponents are not.

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

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Travis Hamonic (23:40); San Jose: Marc-Edouard Vlasic (25:47).

Isles record by ice-time leaders: Travis Hamonic (4-2-1), Johnny Boychuk (4-2-0), Calvin deHaan (0-0-1), Nick Leddy (0-0-1), Tied (0-1-0)

John Tavares led Isles forwards with 18:56 of ice-time. Isles record by Forward ice-time leaders: John Tavares (4-3-2), Ryan Strome (2-0-0), Frans Nielsen (1-0-0), Josh Bailey (1-0-0), Kyle Okposo (0-1-1), Tied (0-1-0). 

Face-offs

Isles 29, San Jose 30 (49%)

Mikhail Grabovski won 9 of 14 for the Isles; Tomas Hertl won 7 of 11 for San Jose.

The Isles won 24 of 48 draws at even strength, 2 of 4 on the power play and 3 of 7 on the penalty kill.

Heavy Hitters

Isles 38, San Jose 33.  Cal Clutterbuck led the Isles with 7 hits.

Fights

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

Blocked Shots

The Isles were credited with 17 blocked shots; Johnny Boychuk led the team with four.

For the Corsi Crowd

All situations:  Isles 49, San Jose 59

Even-Strength: Isles 41, San Jose 46. The Corsi stat measures shots attempted, both for and against (including blocks). 

Cal Clutterbuck led the Isles with a +5even-strength Corsi rating and a team-leading 73% of Corsi For events. Patrick Marleau led San Jose with a +14 rating.

Ironmen

·         Nikolay Kulemin -166 (68 for Toronto and 98 for the Isles)

·         Brock Nelson  -151 (all for Isles)

Missing Men

Eric Boulton and Thomas Hickey are on injured reserve; Taylor Beck and Jaroslav Halak were scratched as Jean-Francois Berube served as the backup goalie.

The Isles have lost 33 games this season due to injury/illness.

All-time Islander Leader Board:

John Tavares has:

·         182 goals (12^th all-time, 2 behind Billy Harris and 24 behind John Tonelli)

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

·         414 points (13^th all-time and 29 behind Billy Harris)

·         445 games played (33rd among Islander skaters all-time, and 6 behind Scott Lachance)

Kyle Okposo has:

·         121 goals (19th all-time and 1 behind Duane Sutter)

·         195 assists (17^th all-time and 8 behind Frans Nielsen)

·         316 points (18^th all-time, 15 behind Ziggy Palffy and 17 behind Tomas Jonsson)

·         466 games played (30^th among Islander skaters all-time, 4 behind Mariusz Czerkawski, 10 behind Gerry Hart and 13 behind Radek Martinek)

Frans Nielsen has:

·         104 goals (27th all-time, and 1 behind Ed Westfall)

·         203 assists (16th all-time and 29 behind John Tavares)

·         307 points (19th all-time and 9 behind Kyle Okposo)

·         541 games played (18^th among Islander skaters all-time, 2 behind Lorne Henning, 7 behind Duane Sutter and 9 behind Ken Morrow.)

 Josh Bailey has:

·         140 assists (tied-29^th all-time with Steve Thomas and 5 behind Travis Green)

·         224 points (tied-33^rd all-time with Matt Moulson and 5 behind Trent Hunter and Benoit Hogue)

·         491 games played (26^th among Islander skaters, 2 behind Ed Westfall and 18 behind Mick Vukota and Rich Pilon)

Season Series Stats

The Isles win the season series 2 games to 0 and 4 points to 0.  The Isles sweep the season from San Jose (and win consecutive games from the Sharks) for the first time since the 1995-96 season.  The Isles are 2-1-1 in their last four games in San Jose but this was only their second win in the Tank since 2003.

On The Farm

The Sound Tigers are 10-4-0-0 after a pair of shutout wins last weekend (4-0 over Springfield and 1-0 over Hartford).  Stephon Williams stopped 26 shots on Saturday while Christopher Gibson handled all 30 that he saw on Sunday.

Bridgeport continues their homestand, hosting Providence on Wednesday.

Up Next

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12th –ISLANDERS AT LOS ANGELES 10:30PM

[MSG, 91.5 WNYE-FM. 88.7 WRHU-FM, 103.9 WRCN]

The road trip continues in Los Angeles on Thursday.  The Isles defeated the Kings in a shootout in Los Angeles last season for their first win in LA since 2003 before the Kings won the rematch at the Coliseum.

The Isles will be looking to do something they haven't done since 1998 – score at least 4 goals vs. Los Angeles.  The Isles are 5-12-2 in their last 19 games against LA, scoring 3 or less in each of them.

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