The Skinny: Calgary 3, Isles 2

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick

Game 57

Calgary 3, Isles 2

Matthew Tkachuk scored two goals in the third period, including the winner with 65 seconds to play as the Calgary Flames rallied for a 3-2 victory over the Islanders before a crowd of 11,192 at Barclays Center.

The loss is the Isles' first in regulation (54-1-6) that they led in the second intermission since February 28, 2016 in Edmonton (led 1-0, lost 3-1); and the first time it has happened at home since November 1, 2015 vs. Buffalo (37-1-2) (led 1-0, lost 2-1).

 

The Scoring: 

1ST PERIOD

03:08 New York Casey Cizikas (7) 1-0

2ND PERIOD

02:59 New York Anthony Beauvillier (13) ASST: Mathew Barzal (43), Nick Leddy (25) 2-0

10:35 Calgary PPG - Mark Jankowski (9) ASST: Sam Bennett (12), Johnny Gaudreau (48) 2-1

3RD PERIOD

09:38 Calgary Matthew Tkachuk (19) ASST: Michael Frolik (10), Brett Kulak (5) 2-2

18:55 Calgary Matthew Tkachuk (20) ASST: Travis Hamonic (7), Michael Frolik (11) 2-3

The Skinny 

The Isles are 12-17-4 in their last 33 games … Including shootout winners, the Isles have scored 193 goals in the first 57 games (first time since 1992-93 when they had 237) and allowed 210 goals (highest since 1995-96, when they allowed 220) … The Isles have allowed at least 35 shots in thirteen straight home games and Jaroslav Halak has faced at least 35 shots in 12 straight home starts…The Isles had gone 10-0-0 this season and 22-0-1 in the last 23 games that they scored the first two goals.…Nick Leddy extended his point streak to five straight games; John Tavares, Brock Nelson, and Josh Bailey all saw  their point streaks end at four games… Tavares still has 599 career points…Mike Smith played in his 47th game, tying Frederik Andersen for the NHL lead…Johnny Gaudreau extended his point streak to six games (3-6-9)..Travis Hamonic assisted on the winning goal in his first game against his former team…The Flames are 11-3-4 in their last 18 games…With the Isles' loss tonight, Boston and New Jersey are the only NHL teams to have not lost a game in regulation that they led after two periods over the last two seasons...John Tavares won a season-high 19 face-offs.

Third Period Lead Changes

This was the fourth game played in Brooklyn in February.  The team that trailed after the second period has won all four games:

• 2/3 – Isles trailed CBJ 3-2, won 4-3

• 2/5- Isles led Nashville 4-3, lost 5-4 (OT)

• 2/9- Isles trailed Detroit 3-1, won 7-6 (OT)

• 2/11- Isles led Calgary 2-1, lost 3-2

The Injuries

Ryan Lomberg left the game for Calgary after a first period fight with Ross Johnston; he did not return. Cal Clutterbuck left the game in the third period; he did not return.  Mike Smith left the game with 1.1 seconds to play due to a lower body injury but was walking normally after the game.

Tka-Chip off the Old Block

Matthew Tkachuk scored twice to reach 20 goals for the first time as a professional; he also drew three Islander penalties, raising his total of penalties drawn to an NHL-leading 36.  Matt's father Keith scored 20 or more goals 15 times in his NHL career.

Lots of Rubber for Jaro

Jaroslav Halak faced 42 shots and stopped 39; since December 1st, Halak has faced 915 shots.  This is 85 more than any other goaltender in that span (Henrik Lundqvist has faced 830). 

Barzal Rising Fast on All-time Isles Rookie Scoring

Mathew Barzal now needs only 1 point to become the third highest-scoring rookie in Islander history.

Most Assists by an Islander Rookie

1. Bryan Trottier 63 1975-76

2. Stefan Persson 50 1977-78

3. MATHEW BARZAL 43 2017-18 

Most Points by an Islander Rookie

1. Bryan Trottier 95 1975-76

2. Mike Bossy 91 1977-78

3. David Volek 59 1988-89

  MATHEW BARZAL 59 2017-18 

Over the last 10 seasons, Artemi Panarin (then with Chicago) is the only rookie with more assists than Barzal's 43.  Panarin finished his campaign with 47.

Countdown to 50

Josh Bailey has 46 assists and Mathew Barzal has 43. No Islander has had 50 assists since John Tavares reached the mark in 2011-12; Pierre Turgeon is the only Islander to exceed 50 assists in the last 28 seasons (74 in 1992-93 and 56 in 1993-94).

One and (Usually) Done

The Isles are 15-1-1 this season when leading after one period.  Their February 5th overtime loss to the Predators ended a 19-game winning streak when scoring first and their February 11th regulation loss to the Flames ended a 22-0-2 streak dating back to last season in which they have earned points.

 

Five's Alive

The Isles have scored at least five goals ten times at home (9-1-0) and seventeen times overall (16-1-0). The Isles have also scored two shootout winners for a fifth goal of the game (not included above). The Isles scored five goals (including shootout winners) in only 10 games all last season.

Five's Trouble

The Isles have allowed at least five goals eight times at home (1-5-2) and sixteen times overall (1-13-2).  

Chili

The Isles have scored at least six goals eight times this season.  The Isles have won 45 straight games, dating back to 2005, when they score at least six times. 

Seventh Heaven

The Isles have scored seven goals three times this season. The Isles have won 44 straight games, dating back to a 1991 tie in St. Louis, when they score at least seven times.

First Things First

The Isles have scored first 22 times this season (17-4-1). The Isles won the first eleven times they scored first this season and had won a franchise-record 16 straight dating back to last season.

First Goal 

The Isles are 17-4-1 when they score first and are 10-20-5 when they allow the opening goal. 

This Year vs. Last Year

The Isles are 27-24-6 (60 points) this season; they were 26-21-10 (62 points) through 57 games last season.

Lots of Wins

Jaroslav Halak has 229 career wins; he is once again tied with Antti Niemi for 64th on the all-time NHL win list.  Corey Crawford and Martin Biron each have 230 NHL wins while Chico Resch owns 231.

Fastest to 50

Doug Weight is now 51-36-10 as an NHL coach. On February 3rd vs. the Blue Jackets, he reached 50 wins faster than any coach in Islander history:

Fewest Games to 50 Wins by an Islander Coach:

93 – Doug Weight (50-34-9)

98 – Ted Nolan 2006-07 & 2007-08 (50-36-12)

102- Terry Simpson 1986-87 & 1987-88 (50-39-13)

103– Peter Laviolette 2001-02 & 2002-03(50-39-10-4)

106—Steve Stirling 2003-04 & 2005-06 (50-40-11-5)

The Shots

Isles     11-7-7=25

Calgary 9-14-19=42

The Isles are 7-8-3 when they outshoot their opponents, 0-1-0 when the shots are even, and 20-15-3 when they are outshot.  (The club record for wins while being outshot in one season is 25, set by the 1983-84 team)

Offside Challenges

The Isles have challenged three times and been successful twice.

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

10/12 @ Ana Ducks – successful

1/15 @ Mtl Canadiens – successful 

The opponents have not yet challenged an Islander goal due to an offside this season.

Home and Road

The Islanders are 27-24-6 overall; 15-9-4 at home and 12-15-2 on the road.  

Calgary is 29-19-8 overall; 13-13-3 at home and 16-6-5 on the road.  

By Division & Conference

The Isles are 8-7-1 in Division games and 19-17-5 in games versus other divisions.   The Isles are 15-16-1 against the East and 12-8-5 against the West.  

Our House

The Isles are 15-9-4 at home; they are 8-7-0 against the East and 7-2-4 against the West.  All-time the Isles are 28-6-7 all-time at Barclays against the West.

In the Nets

Jaroslav Halak made 39 saves but falls to 17-17-4 on the season and 8-6-1 in his career against Calgary. 

Mike Smith made 23 saves to improve to 23-16-6 on the season and 5-3-0 in his career against the Isles. He was replaced by David Rittich for the final 1.1 seconds after suffering an injury.

Power Plays

The Isles were 0-5 on the power play in 8:02 of PP time; Calgary was 1-4 on the power play in 7:59 of PP time.

The Isles are 16-9-2 when they score at least one power play goal and 11-15-4 when they do not.  The Isles are 16-17-2 when they allow at least one power play goal and 11-7-4 when they do not.    

Three is a Magic Number

The Isles are 25-7-3 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 2-17-3 when they do not.  

One Goal Games

The Isles are 12-6-6 in games decided by a single goal including 3-6 in regulation. They are 6-5 in games decided in overtime and are 3-1 in shootouts.  The Isles are 4-3 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1 goal game into a 2-goal game.

Back-to-Backs

The Isles are 5-6-0 on the front-end of back-to-backs and 4-7-0 on the back-end. The Isles will play only one other set of back-to-backs in February (February 15 vs Rangers – February 16 in Carolina)

Tired vs. Rested

• The Isles are 1-3-0 when both teams played the night before. 

• The Isles are 6-1-0 when they are rested, and their opponents are not. 

• The Isles are 3-4-0 when their opponents are rested, and the Isles are not.

• The Isles are 16-16-6 when both teams are rested. 

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Nick Leddy (23:05); Calgary: Mark Giordano (27:17).

John Tavares led Isles forwards in ice-time (22:43). 

Face-offs

Isles 37, Calgary 22 (63%).

John Tavares won 19 of 24 for the Isles (giving him 29 of 41 over the last two games); Mark Jankowski won 7 of 12 for Calgary.

 

Face-offs by period: 1st period 12/22; 2nd period 11/18; 3rd period 14/19.

Face-offs by strength: Even strength: 27/40, Power play 5/9, Penalty kill 5/10.

Hit Count

Isles 19 (Mathew Barzal and Ross Johnston -3)

Calgary 20 (Mark Giordano and Micheal Ferland -3)

Fights

Ross Johnston fought Ryan Lomberg late in the 1st period. Season total – 11: (Boychuk 2, Johnston 2, Mayfield 1, Cizikas 1, Chimera 1, Prince 1, Bailey 1, Eberle 1, Nelson 1).

Blocked Shots

The Isles blocked 19 shots (Johnny Boychuk and Andrew Ladd-3)

For the Corsi Crowd 

All situations: Isles 51, Calgary 77 (Including 13-1 in Calgary's favor to end the game).

5-on-5 Isles 37, Calgary 58.

5-on-5 leaders:

Isles: Ross Johnston and Jason Chimera +4

Calgary: Dougie Hamilton +126

Night and Day 

The Isles are 23-24-5 in night games and 4-0-1 in matinees.  The Isles, who went 2-3-1 in matinees last season have only one matinee remaining this season: February 19th vs Minnesota (1pm).

Ironmen

Overall: Jason Chimera 245 (including 106 for the Capitals), Jordan Eberle 208 (including 151 for the Oilers: 

As Isles: Jason Chimera 139, Nick Leddy 134

Century Club

Nick Leddy is only the 8th defenseman in Islander history to have played at least 130 consecutive regular season games:

1. Denis Potvin 11/29/1975-1/17/1979 262

2. Bryan McCabe 10/7/1995-2/4/1998 220 (*) (**)

3. Gerry Hart 3/1/1975-11/22/1977 198

4. Andrew MacDonald 12/19/2011- 3/2/2014 164 (**)

5. Janne Niinimaa 3/13/2004-1/7/2006 136 (**)

6. Ken Morrow 3/1/1980-12/29/1981 134 (*)

    Nick Leddy 10/23/2016 – CURRENT 134

8. Mark Streit 10/8/2011-4/26/2013 130

9. Calvin deHaan 4/7/2016- 12/16/2017 118

10. Travis Hamonic 2/24/2012-1/12/2014 117

11. Travis Hamonic 11/24/2010– 2/4/2012 113 (*)

12. Jean Potvin 10/23/1975-1/2/1977 110

13. Kenny Jonsson 12/26/1996-2/4/1998 104

14. Thomas Hickey 4/26/2013- 11/22/2014 103

 (*) Start of NHL career.

(**) Entire career with Islanders

Scratches

(Nikolay Kulemin -IR), (Calvin deHaan-IR), (Shane Prince- IR), (Scott Mayfield - IR), Alan Quine, Tanner Fritz, Dennis Seidenberg

Total games lost: 184

Late Heroes

The Isles have scored four times in the final two minutes of regulation to either tie or take the lead:

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

12/7 – PIT Penguins – Brock Nelson (18:50); tied game, but Isles lost in overtime

12/27- BUF Sabres – Josh Bailey (18:51); tied game, and Isles won in overtime

2/9 – DET Red Wings – Josh Bailey (18:11); took lead, Isles allowed tying goal but then won in overtime.

Late Goals Allowed

The Isles have allowed a goal five times in the final two minutes of regulation to either tie or win a game:

12/16 – LA Kings – Anze Kopitar (19:47); tied game, but Isles won in overtime

12/21—ANA Ducks – Rickard Rakell (18:45); tied game and Ducks won in overtime

2/6 – NAS Predators – Ryan Johansen (19:17); tied game and Predators won in overtime

2/9 – DET Red Wings – Mike Green (19:31); tied game but Isles won in overtime.

2/11- CLG Flames – Mathew Tkachuk (18:55); won game

7-11

The Isles have used 7 defensemen three times this season (10/19 @NYR, 10/21 vs SJ, 1/16 vs. NJ) and are 2-1-0 in those games.  Under Doug Weight, the Isles are 6-1-0 when they dress seven natural defensemen.

All-time Islander Leader Boards:

Games Played (skaters)

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

…

7.  Patrick Flatley 712 *** 8. Brent Sutter 694 *** 9. Josh Bailey 692** 10. John Tavares 644

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. John Tavares 263

…

18. Jason Blake 127 *** 19. Duane Sutter 121 *** 20. Josh Bailey 120, *** 21 Frans Nielsen and Alexei Yashin 119 *** 23. Mark Parrish, Matt Moulson and Steve Thomas 118 *** 26. Ray Ferraro 116 *** 27. Anders Lee 113

Assists

1. Bryan Trottier 853 *** 2. Denis Potvin 742 *** 3. Mike Bossy 553*** 4. Clark Gillies 359***

5. John Tonelli 338 *** 6. John Tavares 336

…

13. Bobby Nystrom 278 *** 14. Billy Harris 259 *** 15. Tomas Jonsson 249 *** 16. Josh Bailey 246

Points

1. Bryan Trottier 1353 *** 2. Mike Bossy 1126 *** 3. Denis Potvin 1052 *** 4. Clark Gillies 663 ***

5. Brent Sutter 610 *** 6. John Tavares 599

…

13. Billy Harris 443 *** 14. Kyle Okposo & Stefan Persson 369 *** 16. Josh Bailey 366

Games Played (Goalies)

1. Billy Smith 674 *** 2. Rick DiPietro 318 *** 3. Glenn Resch 282

…

6. Glenn Healy 176 *** 7. Jaroslav Halak 162 *** 8. Roland Melanson 136*** 9. Mark Fitzpatrick 129 ***

10. Garth Snow 127 *** 11.  Evgeni Nabokov 123 *** 12. Thomas Greiss 114

Wins (Goalie)

1. Billy Smith 304 *** 2. Glenn Resch 157 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 130***4. Kelly Hrudey 106 ***

5. Jaroslav Halak 85 *** 6.  Rollie Melanson 77*** 7. Glenn Healy 66 *** 8.  Tommy Salo 62 *** 

9. Thomas Greiss 59

Season Series Stats

Calgary leads the season series one game to none (and two points to zero).  The teams will meet in Alberta on March 11th.

This was only the Flames' third 3-2 win in New York against the Isles; the first came on October 7, 1972 when Atlanta defeated the Isles 3-2 in the first NHL game for each franchise.

The Isles are 10-5-0 in their last 15 games against Calgary.

On the Farm

Bridgeport fell to 23-19-5-2 with a pair of home ice defeats this weekend, losing 3-1 to Providence and 3-2 to Syracuse.  Casey Bailey had the only goal for Bridgeport on Saturday as the Sound Tigers fell despite outshooting the Bruins 37-16; Syracuse scored twice in the third period to erase a 2-1 Bridgeport advantage on Sunday.

 

Tanner Fritz (on recall to the Isles) leads Bridgeport with 37 points (10-27-37); Rookie Scott Eansor leads the team in goals with 16. Christopher Gibson is 17-11-2 in the nets with 2 shutouts.

Bridgeport hosts Lehigh Valley on Tuesday before visiting Providence on Friday.  The week concludes with a Sunday afternoon home game against Hartford.

Up Next

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13th –COLUMBUS AT ISLANDERS 7:00PM 

[MSG+ (Islander pre-game at 6:30PM), WNYM 970AM, 88.7 WRHU-FM, WRCN 103.9FM]

The Isles begin a stretch of three divisional games in four days as they welcome the Columbus Blue Jackets to Brooklyn for the second time this month.  This has been a homer series this season, as the home team has taken each of the first three games (all in regulation).

The Isles are 9-0-4 on home-ice in their last 13 home games against the Jackets.  Columbus hasn't won a regulation game in New York since November 29, 2002; current Islander assistant coach Luke Richardson played 23:46 in that game for the Jackets.

The teams will come into the game tied with 60 points; the second tie-breaker (after ROWs) is points earned head-to-head and the Isles will need a regulation victory to earn a split of that tie-breaker.

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