The Skinny: Isles 3, San Jose 1

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick

Game 5

Isles 3, San Jose 1

Thomas Greiss made 40 saves to record his first victory of the season and Brock Nelson's third goal in two games was the winner as the Isles defeated the San Jose Sharks before a crowd of 17,562 at SAP Center.of San Jose.

The Scoring:

1ST PERIOD

04:16 San Jose PPG - Kevin LA banc (3) ASST: Mikkel Baedeker (2), Marc-Edouard Vlasic (1) 0-1

17:02 New York Anders Lee (2) ASST: Jordan Eberle (3), Adam Pelech (1) 1-1

2ND PERIOD

06:27 New York Brock Nelson (3) ASST: Joshua Ho-Sang (4), Calvin de Haan (2) 2-1

3RD PERIOD

18:10 New York EN - Cal Clutterbuck (1) ASST: Nikolay Kulemin (1), Casey Cizikas (2) 3-1

The Skinny:

Brock Nelson has scored 15 goals in 42 career October games. …Joshua Ho-Sang has assisted on all three of Nelson's goals and leads the team with four assists…Andrew Ladd was held pointless; he still has 499 career points… he Isles are off to a good start in third periods, outscoring opponents 6-2 ... The Isles have gone five games into the season without a power play goal for the first time since the 1977-78 season… Scott Mayfield celebrated his 25th birthday...After having at least 29 shots in each of the first four games, the Isles only had 23 shots…Anders Lee's goal was his 86th, one shy of Butch Goring on the all-time Isles list.  Lee has scored 7 goals since the start of last season against California teams (3 vs. San Jose and 4 vs. Los Angeles) …Adam Pelech and Calvin deHaan both matched career highs by going +3….Thomas Greiss is 5-0-1 in his career when making at least 40 saves.

Most Assists, First Five Isles Games of a Season by a Rookie (since 1987-88)

• Josh Ho-Sang 4 (2017-18)

• Rich Pilon 4 (1988-89)

• Derek King 4 (1987-88)

Most Games Without Isles Scoring a Power Play Goal (Start of Season)

• 7 - 1973-74

• 6 - 1977-78

• 5 -  2017-18

The Shots

Isles               9-10-4=23

San Jose     12-13-16=41

The Isles are 1-1-1 when they outshoot their opponents, 0-0-0 when the shots are even, and 1-1-0 when they are outshot.

Last season, the Isles were 19-10-5 when they outshoot their opponents, 3-3-0 when the shots are even and are 19-17-6 when they were outshot.

Offside Challenges

The Isles have challenged twice and been successful once.

10/10 vs STL Blues – unsuccessful; Isles killed ensuing power play.

10/12 @ Ana Ducks -- successful

The opponents have not challenged so far this season.

Go West, Young Men

This was the third game of a stretch in which the Isles will play 13 of 15 games against Western Conference opponents.  The Isles are 1-1-1 in this stretch; the only Eastern Conference opponents they will face during this stretch are the Rangers (10/19 at MSG) and Capitals (11/2 in DC).

Chasing Bourne

John Tavares is 237-303=540 in his Islander career, leaving him one goal, one assist and two points behind Bob Bourne on the all-time Islander lists.

Career goals as an Islander:

7. Bob Bourne 238

8. John Tavares 237

9. Bobby Nystrom 235

Home and Road

The Islanders are 2-2-1 overall; 1-0-1 at home and 1-2-0 on the road.  

San Jose is 1-3-0 overall; 1-3-0 at home and 0-0-0 on the road.  

By Division & Conference

The Isles are 0-1-0 in Division games and 2-1-1 in games versus other divisions.   The Isles are 1-1-0 against the East and 1-1-1 against the West.

The Isles went 15-10-5 in Division games and 26-19-7 in games versus other divisions last season.

In the Nets

Thomas Greiss made 40 saves to improve to 1-1-1 on the season and 2-1-0 in his career against San Jose. 

Aaron Dell made 20 saves in his first start of the season; he is 2-1-0 in his career against the Isles.  

Power Plays

The Isles were 0-3 on the power play; San Jose was 1-1.  

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

Three is a Magic Number

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

One Goal Games

The Isles are 0-1-1 in games decided by a single goal including 0-1 in regulation. They are 0-0 in games decided in overtime and are 0-1 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.

The Isles were 15-10-12 in one-goal games last season.

First Goal 

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

Back-to-Backs

Including tonight, the Isles are 1-1-0 on the front-end of back-to-backs and 1-0-0 on the back-end.  This set of back-to-backs concludes Sunday in Los Angeles).

Tired vs. Rested

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

• The Isles are 0-0-0 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.

• The Isles are 1-2-1 when both teams are rested. 

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Nick Leddy (22:23); San Jose: Brent Burns (26:38)

Isles record by ice-time leaders: Johnny Boychuk (1-0-1), Nick Leddy (1-1-0), John Tavares (0-1-0)

John Tavares led the Isles forwards with 20:36. Isles record by Forward ice-time leaders: John Tavares (2-2-1)

Face-offs

Isles 18, San Jose 34 (35%).  

Matthew Barzal won 3 of 5 for the Isles but his teammates won only 15 of 47; Ryan Carpenter won 10 of 12 for San Jose.

Face-offs by period: 1st period 5/17; 2nd period 6/19; 3rd period 7/16

Face-offs by strength: Even strength: 15/45; Power play 3/6; Penalty kill 0/1.

Hit Count

Isles 27 (Cal Clutterbuck and Scott Mayfield 4)

San Jose 16 (Ryan Carpenter and Melkar Karlsson 3) 

Fights

None.  Season total – 1: (Boychuk 1).

Blocked Shots

The Isles blocked 24 shots; Johnny Boychuk led the Isles with 4.

For the Corsi Crowd 

All situations: Isles 51, San Jose 77 

5-on-5 Isles 41, San Jose 68

5-on-5 leaders:

Isles: 3 with -1

San Jose Brent Burns +18

Day and Night

The Isles are 2-2-0 in night games and 0-0-1 in matinees.  The Isles, who went 2-3-1 in matinees last season, will play six matinees this season.

Ironmen

Jason Chimera – 193 (including 106 for the Capitals); Jordan Eberle 156 (including 151 for the Oilers), Josh Bailey 154, Calvin deHaan 90 

Scratches

(Alan Quine-IR, Shane Prince-IR), Anthony Beauvillier, Dennis Seidenberg, Ryan Pulock

Total games lost: 13

Late Hero

The Isles have scored once in the final minute of regulation to either tie or win a game:

10/9 – STL Blues – Anders Lee (19:00); tied game, but Isles lost in shootout

All-time Islander Leader Boards:

Games Played (skaters)

1. Bryan Trottier 1123 *** 2. Denis Potvin 1060 *** 3. Bob Nystrom 900

….

8. Brent Sutter 694 *** 9. Josh Bailey 644

…

15 Garry Howatt 596 *** 16. John Tonelli 594 *** 17. John Tavares 592

Goals

1. Mike Bossy 573 *** 2. Bryan Trottier 500 *** 3. Denis Potvin 310 *** 4. Clark Gillies 304***

5. Pat LaFontaine and Brent Sutter 287 *** 7. Bob Bourne 238 *** 8. John Tavares 237

…

22.  Mark Parrish, Matt Moulson and Steve Thomas 118 *** 25. Ray Ferraro 116 *** 26. Josh Bailey 107

…

36. Travis Green 92 *** 37. Michael Grabner 90 *** 38. Butch Goring 87 *** 39. Anders Lee 86

Assists

1. Bryan Trottier 853 *** 2. Denis Potvin 742 *** 3. Mike Bossy 553 

…

7. Brent Sutter 323 *** 8. Stefan Persson 317 *** 9. Bob Bourne 304 *** 10. John Tavares 303

…

15. Tomas Jonsson 249 *** 16. Frans Nielsen and Kyle Okposo 230 ***18. Josh Bailey 201

Points

1. Bryan Trottier 1353 *** 2. Mike Bossy 1126 *** 3. Denis Potvin 1052

…

6. Pat LaFontaine 566 *** 7. John Tonelli 544 *** 8. Bob Bourne 542 *** 9.  John Tavares 540

…

17. Pierre Turgeon 340 *** 18. Tomas Jonsson 333 *** 19. Ziggy Palffy 331 *** 20. Josh Bailey 308

Season Series Stats

The Isles lead the season series one game to none (and 2 points to 0).  The teams will conclude their season series on October 21st in Brooklyn. 

The teams have alternated wins in each of the last five matchups in The Tank; the Isles will look to sweep the season series from San Jose for the second time in three seasons next week.

On the Farm

Bridgeport 1-2-0 after splitting a pair of games in Charlotte this weekend. Bridgeport won 5-3 on Friday in Kristers Gudlevkis' Sound Tiger debut as Scott Eansor scored twice; the Checkers earned a split with a 3-2 win despite power play goals by Eansor and by Steve Bernier.

The Sound Tigers are off until Friday when they visit Lehigh Valley; they host Laval in the home opener on Saturday. 

Up Next

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15th— ISLANDERS AT LOS ANGELES  10:30PM 

[MSG+ (Islanders pre-game at 10:00PM), WNYM 970AM, 88.7 WRHU-FM, 103.9 WRCN]

The California portion of the road trip concludes as the Isles return to So Cal to face the Kings at STAPLES Center.  

STAPLES has been a tough spot for the Isles since the building opened in 1999.  The Isles are 3-8-0 all-time in that building, including just a shootout win and six losses in their last seven trips.  The only Islander goalie to win a game in regulation in that building is Garth Snow, who did so twice.

However, the Kings have had similar trouble in recent years in New York, so the Isles are 5-5-0 in the last 10 against LA.

No Islander has ever scored in all three games of a California trip; Brock Nelson, who will celebrate his 26th birthday on Sunday will have the opportunity to do so.

This will be the first of two meetings between the teams; the Kings will be in Brooklyn on December 16th.

Eric Hornick has been the statistician on Islander home game telecasts since January 21, 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