The Skinny: Isles 4, New Jersey 1

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick

Game 46

Isles 4, New Jersey 1

Michael Dal Colle's 1st career goal is a game-winner. Dal Colle scored the second of three first period Islander goals as the Isles recorded the 1,600th win in franchise history: a 4-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils before a crowd of 12,088 at the Nassau Coliseum. 

The Isles are now 4-1-1 in six games at their long-time home. 

Robin Lehner made 16 saves to improve to 10-1-0 in his last eleven games as the Isles moved twelve games over NHL-.500 for the first time since the final day of the 2016-17 season.  

Anders Lee scored the game's first and last goals; it was his first multi-goal game and first empty-net goal this season.  With the win, the Isles move within one point of Columbus and Washington for the Division lead; the Isles can move into first place on Friday with a win in DC and a Columbus regulation loss.

 

The Scoring:  

1st Period

Anders Lee (17) Nick Leddy, Jordan Eberle 05:48 NJD 0,NYI 1

Michael Dal Colle (1) Scott Mayfield, Leo Komarov 09:19 NJD 0,NYI 2

Jordan Eberle (11) Nick Leddy, Brock Nelson 15:12 NJD 0,NYI 3 PPG

2nd Period

No Goals

3rd Period

Andy Greene (3) Damon Severson 07:07 NJD 1,NYI 3

Anders Lee (18)EN Josh Bailey 17:51 NJD 1,NYI 4 

The Skinny      

The Isles are 10-2-0 since Devon Toews joined the lineup and are 13-3-0 in their last 16 games…Michael Dal Colle is the 373rd player in Islander history to score a goal...Anders Lee, Nick Leddy and Jordan Eberle all had two points… Josh Bailey assisted on the empty-netter; it was his 278th assist, matching Bobby Nystrom's total for 13th place on the Isles list…All eighteen skaters played at least 11:44…The Isles are now eight points ahead of last season's pace through 46 games; including shootout winners they have scored 19 fewer goals and allowed 49 fewer goals than last year's first 45 games…With the win the Isles move within one point of Columbus and Washington for the division lead, with the Jackets now holding the top spot via a tie-breaker.  Only four points separate the teams ranked 2nd-8th in the Eastern Conference …The Isles have won 58% of the games they scored first (15-7-4); they have won 60% of the games they allowed the opening goal (12-8-0)… The Isles have 29 points on the road and 29 points at home. … The Isles killed both Devils PP's and have killed 12 straight over the last four games.  It's the first time since February 15-24, 2018 (five games) that the Isles have gone four games without allowing a power play goal…The Isles have outscored the opposition 7-0 in the first period during their current three game win streak…The Isles have the best record in the East over the last 10 games (8-2-0); Vegas and San Jose are also 8-2-0 in their last 10 games…The Isles have now had four distinct win streaks of at least three games this season (5, 3, 6, and the current 3)…The Isles are 12 games over NHL-.500 for the first time since they ended the 2016-17 season with a 41-29-12 record.  They last were 13 games over .500 at the end of the 2015-16 season (when they finished 45-27-10)…Robin Lehner now has 14 of the Isles' 27 wins; it's the first time since he had 4 of the first 7 Isles wins that he has more wins than Thomas Greiss (13)…The Isles are 6-2-0 in January with three games to play; they are assured of a fourth straight month over NHL -.500…The Isles have allowed 1 goal in each of the last three games; they now have allowed 0 or 1 goal fourteen times this season…The Isles allowed only 17 shots, matching a season-low (17 vs. Vegas on December 12th); it's the first time the Isles have won a game allowing 17 or fewer shots since allowing only 10 in a 3-2 win in Buffalo on February 8, 2015.

Sweet 16

The Isles are 13-3-0 in their last 16 games, giving them the most wins and the best record in the entire NHL since December 15.

• ISLES 13-3-0

• San Jose 11-3-2

• Tampa Bay 11-3-1

• Columbus 11-3-1

• Calgary 10-3-3

Strength in the Nets

Robin Lehner has allowed only 20 goals in his last 14 games (9-2-2, 1.45 GAA, .947 save percentage). In his four non-wins in that stretch he has allowed only seven goals. Lehner is 10-1-0 in his last 11 decisions.

Lehner lowered his NHL-leading goals against average to 2.11; he also has the best save percentage among all goalies who have played in at more than 1/3rd of their team's games: .928.

Most Multi-Goal Games, Last 3 Seasons

• 20 – Alex Ovechkin

• 18-  Anders Lee

• 18- Auston Mathews

• 18- Patrik Laine

Most Points Thru 46 Games (Post-Cup Era)

• 63: 2014-15

• 58: 2018-19

Most Points Thru 23 Road Games (Post-Cup Era)

• 31: 2013

• 29: 2018-19

Road Warriors

The Isles have won five straight games on the road; it's their longest road winning streak since a 7-game streak in the 2013-14 season.

The Isles are 8-1-0 in their last nine road games; the 16 points match the most ever for the club in a 9-game stretch of road games (done also in 1980-81, 1981-82 and 2013-14).

Worst to First

The Isles allowed the most goals in the NHL last season.  Here's where they are this season:  

Fewest Goals Allowed This Season (Including SO goals)

1. ISLES 119

2. Boston 125

3. Dallas 126

Fewest Goals Allowed This Season (excluding SO goals)

1. ISLES 116

2. Boston 125

3. Dallas 126

Last 30 Seasons: Most Goals by an Islander Before 22nd Birthday:

1. John Tavares 84

2. Anthony Beauvillier 42

Beauvillier's 22nd birthday is not until June.

Last 30 Seasons: Most Assists and Points by an Islander Before 22nd Birthday:

1. John Tavares 118 assists, 202 points

2. Mathew Barzal 93 assists, 128 points

Barzal's 22nd birthday is not until May.

Most 3+ Point Games by an Islander Before Age 22

• 34 Bryan Trottier

• 18 John Tavares

• 16 Denis Potvin

• 14 Mike Bossy

• 12 Mathew Barzal

• 12 Pat LaFontaine

 

Coach Trotz

Among active coaches, Barry Trotz has coached the most games and is 2nd to Ken Hitchcock in wins. Trotz' NHL record is 789-583-60-138 in 1,570 games. 

Most Coaching Wins

1. Scotty Bowman  1,244

2. Joel Quenneville  890

3. Ken Hitchcock    837 

4. Barry Trotz   789

5. Al Arbour   782

Most Games Coached

1. Scotty Bowman   2,141

2. Joel Quenneville 1,636

3. Al Arbour   1,607

4. Barry Trotz   1,570

5. Ken Hitchcock   1,563

Trotz will catch Al Arbour in games coached on Opening Night next season. If Quenneville doesn't return to coaching Trotz would pass him sometime in December 2019.

This Season vs. Last Season

This Season: 27-15-4 (58 points), with 140 goals scored and 119 goals allowed (includes SO winners)

Last Season: 23-19-4 (50 points), with 159 goals scored and 168 goals allowed (includes SO winners)

First Things First

The Isles are 15-7-4 when scoring first and are 12-8-0 when allowing the opening goal. The Isles won 12 games all last season (12-27-5) when allowing the opening goal.

The Shots

Isles       5-12-9=26

New Jersey 6-4-7=17

The Isles are 6-9-1 when they outshoot their opponents, 0-1-0 when the shots are even and 21-5-3 when they are outshot. [The club record for wins when being outshot is 25, set in 1983-84 and equaled last season.]

Home and Road

The Islanders are 27-15-4 overall; 13-7-3 at home (4-1-1 on Long Island and 9-6-2 in Brooklyn) and 14-8-1 on the road.  The Isles will play 21 games in Uniondale and 20 games in Brooklyn this season.

New Jersey is 18-22-7 overall; 13-5-4 at home and 5-17-3 on the road.  

By Division & Conference

The Isles are 12-5-1 in Division games and 15-10-3 in games versus other divisions.  The Isles are 18-7-4 against the East and 9-8-0 against the West.  

In the Nets

Robin Lehner made 16 saves and improves to 14-7-3 on the season and 3-6-1 in his career against New Jersey.   

Mackenzie Blackwood made 22 saves; he is 5-3-0 on the season and 0-1-0 in his career against the Isles.

 

Power Plays

The Isles were 1-3 on the power play in 4:44 of PP time; New Jersey was 0-2 on the power play in 4:00 of PP time.

The Isles are 18-1-1 when they score at least one power play goal and 9-14-3 when they do not.  The Isles are 10-10-3 when they allow at least one power play goal and 16-5-1 when they do not.    

Three is a Magic Number

The Isles are 24-2-1 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 3-13-3 when they do not.  

One Goal Games

The Isles are 11-4-4 in games decided by a single goal including 5-4 in regulation. They are 4-1 in games decided in overtime and are 2-3 in shootouts.  The Isles are 3-4 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1-goal game into a 2-goal game.

Back-to-Backs 

Including tonight, the Isles are 5-2-0 in the front half and 6-0-0 in the back half.  This back-to-back concludes on Friday in Washington. The next back-to-back is February 1-2 vs. Tampa Bay and Los Angeles, with both games being played at the Coliseum.

Back Ends

The Isles are 6-0-0 in back-ends of back-to-backs this season.  It's the first time that the Isles have won six straight back-ends in a single season since  2006-07, when the Isles won the first six back-ends.  Like this season, the Isles had a new Jack Adams Award-winning coach behind their bench: Ted Nolan.

This matches the longest streak since 1981, when the Isles won seven straight back-ends (over two seasons).

The club record for consecutive back-end wins is 8, and that has been done twice:

• January 22-March 14, 1976

• March 26- November 22, 1978 (over two seasons)

 

Tired vs. Rested 

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

• The Isles are 4-0-1 when they are rested, and their opponents are not. 

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

• The Isles are 17-15-3 when both teams are rested. 

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Ryan Pulock (21:19); New Jersey: Andy Greene (23:30)

Brock Nelson led Isles forwards with 17:36 of ice-time.

Isles record by ice-time leader: Ryan Pulock (15-7-3), Nick Leddy (7-7-1), Scott Mayfield (4-1-0).

Face-offs

Isles 26, New Jersey 26 (50%).  

Josh Bailey won 7 of 10 for the Isles; Travis Zajac won 9 of 15 for New Jersey.

Face-offs by period: 1st period  10/22; 2nd period 11/13; 3rd period 5/17.

Face-offs by strength: Even strength: 22/42, Power play 2/5, Penalty kill 2/5.

Hit Count

Isles 29 (Scott Mayfield and Johnny Boychuk -4)  

New Jersey 31 (Sami Vatanen -4)

   

Fights

There were no fights. Season total –12 (Scott Mayfield -4, Ross Johnston-3, Matt Martin -2, Josh Bailey, Johnny Boychuk, Anders Lee).  

Blocked Shots

The Isles blocked 13 shots (Adam Pelech-3) 

For the Corsi Crowd 

All situations: Isles 60, New Jersey 39

5-on-5 Isles 50, New Jersey 34

5-on-5 leaders:

Isles: Ryan Pulock +11

New Jersey: Blake Coleman +3

 

Night and Day

The Isles are 24-13-4 in night games and 3-2-0 in matinees. The next matinee is on January 20th  vs. Anaheim. 

Ironmen

Anders Lee 164, Brock Nelson 141, Mathew Barzal 128

Scratches

(Andrew Ladd – IR), (Thomas Hickey- IR),Tom Kuhnhackl, Luca Sbisa, Ross Johnston

Total games lost: 93

Late Heroes

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

1/10- NY Rangers-Josh Bailey scored the winning goal (18:34)

Late Goals Allowed

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

10/4 – CAR Hurricanes – Jordan Staal tied game (18:25), but Isles won in overtime.

11/8 – TB Lightning – Tyler Johnson scored the winning goal (18:34)

11/23 – NJ Devils – Marcus Johansson tied game (19:49), but Isles won in overtime.

12/15- DET Red Wings – Thomas Vanek tied game (18:57), but Isles won in a shootout.

Offside Challenges

12/8 vs DET Red Wings – Red Wings goal overturned after successful Isles challenge.

12/20 vs VEG Golden Knights – Golden Knights goal overturned after successful Isles challenge.

1/8 vs CAR Hurricanes – Isles goal overturned after successful Hurricane challenge

Comeback Kids

The Isles are 5-3-0 when trailing in a game by a 2-0 score, defeating NYR (11/15), CBJ (12/1), DET (12/8),OTT (12/28) and STL (1/5);  all five wins have been in regulation.

The Isles are 10-1-1 when scoring the game's first two goals.

All-time Islander Leader Boards:

Games Played (skaters)

1. Bryan Trottier 1123 *** 2. Denis Potvin 1060 *** 3. Bob Nystrom 900 *** 4. Clark Gillies 872 *** 

5. Bob Bourne 814***6. Josh Bailey 761

Goals

1. Mike Bossy 573 *** 2. Bryan Trottier 500 *** 3. Denis Potvin 310 …

16. Mariusz Czerkawski 145 *** 17. Anders Lee 142 *** 18. Kyle Okposo 139 ***19. Josh Bailey 134…

24. Mark Parrish, Matt Moulson and Steve Thomas 118 *** 27. Ray Ferraro 116 *** 28. Brock Nelson 115

Assists

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

11. Derek King 288 ***12. Pat LaFontaine 279 *** 13. Bobby Nystrom and Josh Bailey 278 …

25. David Volek 154 *** 26. Mariusz Czerkawski 150 *** 27. Nick Leddy 146

Points

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

12. Patrick Flatley 488 *** 13. Billy Harris 443 *** 14. Josh Bailey 412…

23. Ed Westfall 286 *** 24. Jason Blake 258 *** 25. David Volek 249 *** 26. Anders Lee 243

Games Played (Goalies)

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

7. Glenn Healy 176 *** 8. Thomas Greiss 144

Wins (Goalie)

1. Billy Smith 304 *** 2. Glenn Resch 157 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 130*** 4. Kelly Hrudey 108***

5. Jaroslav Halak 88 *** 6.  Rollie Melanson 77*** 7. Thomas Greiss 75

Season Series Stats

The Isles lead the season series three games to none (and 6 points to 1). The final meeting of the season series will be on February 7th in Newark.

The Isles have dominated the Devils on home ice in recent years, winning 10 out of the last 11 (4-0-0 at the Coliseum and 6-1-0 in Brooklyn).  

On the Farm 

Charlotte completed a sweep of back-to-back games with the Sound Tigers, defeating Bridgeport 6-4 on Wednesday. Bridgeport has won only once in 2019 (1-5-0-1) and has fallen to 22-14-4-2 on the season.  The Sound Tigers head home to begin a 5-game homestand on Saturday night as they face Providence. 

Leaders:  Goals: Michael Dal Colle 16 ; Assists: Josh Ho-Sang 24; Points: Dal Colle 28.  Goalies: Jeremy Smith 12-7-2 (2.92 GAA); Christopher Gibson 10-7-4 (2.96 GAA)

Up Next

FRIDAY, JANUARY 18th –  ISLANDERS AT WASHINGTON 7:00PM 

[MSG+(Pre-game at 6:30pm), 88.7 WRHU-FM,WRCN 103.9FM, Radio.com] 

The Isles will look to improve to 7-0-0 in back-ends of back-to-backs as they head to DC to face the Stanley Cup Champion Washington Capitals. It will be Barry Trotz (and Lane Lambert)'s first game in DC since last year's Stanley Cup Final.  

It's the second meeting of the season between the squads this season; Tom Wilson had a pair of goals in Washington's 4-1 victory at Barclays on November 25th.   

The Isles lost both games in DC last season and are 5-6-3 in their last 14 regular season games in the Nation's Capital.

The teams will face-off at the Coliseum on March 1st (also the back-end of a back-to-back for the Isles) and then conclude the regular season in Washington on April 6th. 

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