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The Skinny: Los Angeles 3, Isles 1

"The Skinny"  By Eric Hornick Game 30 Los Angeles 3, Isles 1 Adrian Kempe and Kevin Fiala scored to give Los Angeles a 2-0 lead an...

Friday, December 18, 2015

The Skinny: Colorado 2, Isles 1

"The Skinny"  

 By Eric Hornick
 
Game 33
Colorado 2, Isles 1
Francois Beauchemin recorded his fifth career two-goal game, the second coming off a deflection off of Mikhail Grabovski with just 3:48 to play as the Colorado Avalanche earned a split of the season series with the Islanders with a 2-1 victory before a crowd of 15,811 at Pepsi Center.  The Isles have lost two straight games in regulation for only the third time this season and remain in third place in the Metropolitan Division, one point behind the New York Rangers.
The Scoring:
 
1ST PERIOD
03:48 COL Francois Beauchemin (4) Snap - ASST: Andreas Martinsen (3) 1 - 0 COL         
 
2ND PERIOD
04:55 NYI PPG - Brock Nelson (11) Snap - ASST: Marek Zidlicky (9), Mikhail Grabovski (11) 1 - 1 Tie       
 
3RD PERIOD
16:12 COL Francois Beauchemin (5) Wrist - ASST: Carl Soderberg (16), Blake Comeau (9) 2 - 1 COL

The Skinny:
Brock Nelson is 3-1-4 in the last five games…Marek Zidlicky is now tied for the team lead among defenders with Johnny Boychuk in goals, assists and points (3-9-12) …The loss break an Isles 5-game win streak against Central Division opponents…Francois Beauchemin is the first Avs' defender to score two goals in a game this season; the Avs are 18-0-1 in the last 19 games in which a defender scores twice…The Isles also allowed two goals to Montreal's Jeff Petry and have won only once in regulation in the last 31 games an opposing defender scores twice, dating back to 1998…John Tavares has now gone 11 games without an assist; it's the second-longest streak of his career (13 games, 12-14-09 to 1-8-10)…Semyon Varlamov recorded his 5th straight win; Thomas Greiss saw his 4-game win streak stopped…Greiss has allowed only three goals in his last 3 games.

Christmas Rush
This was the third game of a stretch in which the Isles will play 6 games in 10 days that will get the team to the Christmas break. The Isles are 2-2-0 in this stretch.
 
12-Dec-15         @         Blue Jackets  (Win 3-2 OT)
13-Dec-15         Vs        Devils (Win 4-0)
15-Dec-15         Vs        Panthers (Loss 5-1)
17-Dec-15         @         Avalanche (Loss 2-1)
19-Dec-15         @         Coyotes           
21-Dec-15         Vs        Ducks
 
The Shots:
Isles      14-11-9=34
Colorado  7-11-12=30
 
Home and Road
The Islanders are 18-9-5 overall; 11-5-2 at home and 7-4-3 on the road. 
 
Colorado is 15-12-4 overall; 7-6-2 at home and 8-6-2 on the road.  

By Division
The Isles are 7-0-2 in Division games and are 11-8-2 in games against other divisions. They are 1-7-2 vs. the Atlantic Division, 5-2-1 vs. Central Division, and 5-1-0 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 28 saves but falls to 9-4-2.  Greiss is 5-2-0 in his career against Colorado.
Semyon Varlamov made 33 saves as he improves to 11-8-1. Varlamov is 3-2-1 against the Isles.

Power Plays
The Islanders were 1-5 on the power play while Colorado was 0-2.
The Isles have killed all 26 opponent power plays in their last eleven games; it's the second time this season (October 15- November 1) that the Isles killed all opposing power plays in at least nine consecutive games.  Since March, the Isles have had streaks of 12 games, 9 games and 11 games without allowing a power play goal – with the 12-game stretch in March establishing a club record.
The Isles are 10-3-3 when they score at least one power play goal and 7-8-2 when they do not.  The Isles are 5-5-1 when they allow at least one power play goal and 13-5-4 when they do not. 

Three is a Magic Number
The Isles are 15-2-0 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 3-8-5 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 8-4-5 in games decided by a single goal including 3-4-0 in regulation. They are 2-3 in games decided in overtime and are 3-2 in shootouts.  The Isles are 4-2 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1 goal game into a 2-goal game.

First Goal
The Isles are 12-3-2 when they score first and are 6-7-3 when they allow the opening goal.   

Second to The One
Jack Capuano is the 2nd winningest coach in Islander history. Capuano is 183-158-51 behind the Islander bench. Among the 9 New York area 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 392
3.     Mike Milbury 191
4.     Terry Simpson 187
5.     Scott Gordon 181
 
Most wins by Islander coaches:
1.     Al Arbour 740
2.     Jack Capuano 183
3.     Terry Simpson 81
4.     Peter Laviolette 77
5.     Ted Nolan 74

They Tweeted It
@Shwax So tough to watch your team lose a tight, well-played, evenly-matched game to a fluke goal in the final minutes. #isles #noluck
@Enrico056 #Varly & #Greiss are both playing well @PepsiCenterCO tonight. @Avalanche #NYI. #StrongGoaltending.
@Gregasus14 Brock Nelson has one of the filthiest wrist shots in the NHL and no one even knows about it #isles

Back-to-Backs
The Isles are 2-2-3 on the front-end and 4-2-1 on the back end of back-to-backs this season.  The next back-to-back set will be January 2nd in Pittsburgh and January 3rd vs. Dallas.

Tired vs. Rested
·         The Isles are 1-1-0 when both teams played the night before.
·         The Isles are 2-2-0 when they are rested and their opponents are not.
·         The Isles are 3-1-1 when their opponents are rested and the Isles are not.

Ice-time Leaders
Isles: John Tavares (25:33); Colorado: Erik Johnson (26:51)
Isles record by ice-time leaders: Travis Hamonic (10-2-3), Johnny Boychuk (4-3-0), Calvin deHaan (0-0-1), Nick Leddy (3-3-1),  John Tavares (0-1-0), Tied (0-1-0)
John Tavares led the Isles forwards with 22:21 of ice-time. Isles record by Forward ice-time leaders: John Tavares (12-8-4), Ryan Strome (2-0-0), Kyle Okposo (0-1-1), Brock Nelson (1-0-0), Frans Nielsen (1-0-0), Josh Bailey (1-0-0), Tied (0-1-0). 

Face-offs
Isles 27, Colorado 32 (46%).
Frans Nielsen won 7 of 12 for the Isles; Nathan MacKinnon won 10 of 15 for Colorado.
The Isles won only 14 of 39 draws over the first two periods but won 13 of 20 in the third period.
The Isles won 23 of 49 draws at even strength, 3 of 7 on the power play and 1 of 3 on the penalty kill.

Heavy Hitters
Isles 15, Colorado 17.  Cal Clutterbuck had four hits to lead the Isles.

Fights
There were no fights.  Season total – 8 (Martin-4, Boychuk, Bernier, Leddy, Okposo).  

Blocked Shots
The Isles were credited with 17 blocked shots; Calvin deHaan led the team with 5.

For the Corsi Crowd
All situations:  Isles 62, Colorado 60. Even-Strength: Isles 48, Colorado 53.
The Corsi stat measures shots attempted, both for and against (including blocks). 
 
Anders Lee led the Isles with a +8 even-strength Corsi rating; he also had a club-leading 64% Corsi For percentage. Former Islander Blake Comeau led Colorado with a +11 rating.

Ironmen
·         Nikolay Kulemin -183 (68 for Toronto and 115 for the Isles)
·         Brock Nelson  -168 (all for Isles)

Missing Men
Jean-Francois Berube is on injured reserve; Steve Bernier, Eric Boulton and Brian Strait were scratched.
The Isles have lost 65 games this season due to injury/illness.

All-time Islander Leader Board:
John Tavares has:
·         187 goals (11th all-time, 19 behind John Tonelli and 24 behind Derek King)
·         237 assists (15th all-time, 12 behind Tomas Jonsson and 22 behind Billy Harris)
·         424 points (13th all-time and 19 behind Billy Harris)
·         462 games played (30th among Islander skaters all-time and 8 behind Mariusz Czerkawski)
Kyle Okposo has:
·         125 goals (18th all-time and 2 behind Jason Blake)
·         206 assists (17th all-time and 2 behind Frans Nielsen)
·         331 points (tied-17th all-time with Ziggy Palffy and 2 behind Tomas Jonsson)
·         483 games played (27th among Islander skaters all-time and 10 behind Ed Westfall)
Frans Nielsen has:
·         111 goals (25th all-time, and 5 behind Ray Ferraro)
·         208 assists (16th all-time and 29 behind John Tavares)
·         319 points (19th all-time, 12 behind Ziggy Palffy and 12 behind Kyle Okposo)
·         558 games played (15th among Islander skaters all-time and 36 behind John Tonelli)
 Josh Bailey has:
·         147 assists (27th all-time and 3 behind Mariusz Czerkawski)
·         234 points (28th all-time, 3 behind Travis Green and 4 behind Ray Ferraro)
·         508 games played (25th among Islander skaters, 1 behind Rich Pilon, 2 behind Mick Vukota and 6 behind Dave Lewis)

Season Series Stats
The teams split the season series 1 game to 1 and 2 points to 2.
The Isles have lost two straight in Denver for the first time since 2001.

On The Farm
The Sound Tigers are 16-10-1-1 on the season as they head to Providence on Friday before hosting Portland on both Saturday and Sunday.

Up Next
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19th—ISLANDERS AT ARIZONA 9:00PM
[MSG+2 (Isles Pre-game at 8:30), 91.5 WNYE-FM. 88.7 WRHU-FM, 103.9 WRCN]
 
The Isles complete their two game road trip in Glendale as they look to sweep the season series from the Coyotes for the second straight season.  The Isles defeated Arizona 5-2 in Brooklyn on November 16th by scoring four third period goals.
 
The Isles have won three straight against the Coyotes for the first time since the team relocated to the desert and will be looking to match their longest winning streak against the franchise, done twice when the team was still in Winnipeg.
 
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

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