The Skinny: Isles 4, Detroit 1

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick

(Updated to reflect post-game scoring change)

Game 25

Isles 4, Detroit 1

Jordan Eberle scored his first two goals of the season to put the game away and Semyon Varlamov stopped thirty shots as the Isles defeated the Detroit Red Wings 4-1 before a crowd of 17,510 at Little Caesars Arena.

Ryan Pulock added three two assists for the Isles, who have won two straight games and are 17-2-2 in their last 21 games.  Their 18 wins in the first 25 games matches the club record, set in 1978-79.

The Scoring: 

1st Period

Anders Lee (7) Mathew Barzal, Ryan Pulock Josh Bailey 08:46 NYI 1,DET 0

Anthony Beauvillier (9) Josh Bailey, Ryan Pulock 13:17 NYI 2,DET 0

2nd Period

Dylan Larkin (7) Tyler Bertuzzi, Filip Zadina 10:36 NYI 2,DET 1 PPG

Jordan Eberle (1) Anders Lee, Nick Leddy 16:34 NYI 3,DET 1 PPG

3rd Period

Jordan Eberle (2) Ryan Pulock, Leo Komarov 13:24 NYI 4,DET 1 

The Skinny     

The Isles led for only 1:04 in three games in California but led for 51:14 tonight…The Isles were shorthanded six times; it's only the second time this season they have been shorthanded that often…. The Isles have points in eight straight games against the Atlantic (8-0-0) and 15 straight conference games (14-0-1)… Anders Lee has goals in two straight, after being blanked in 11 straight. …Barzal now leads the team in goals (10), assists (13) and points (23)…The Red Wings have lost 10 straight games and suffer their 20th regulation loss of the season…Jordan Eberle hadn't scored in the regular season since April 1st; he records his 28th multi-goal game (5th as an Isle)…Ryan Pulock had at least three assists for the 5th time in his career and also went +3…Anthony Beauvillier was credited with the game-winner; an NHL-leading twelve Islanders have score GW Goals this season…Semyon Varlamov has stopped 60 of 61 in 105:54 over his last two appearances.

It's Good to be Home(s)

The Isles are 7-2-0 on Coliseum ice, where they have won six straight games.  The Isles will play 28 of their 41 home games this season at the Coliseum.   The Isles are 4-0-1 at Barclays Center this season and have not lost in Brooklyn (regular season) since January 12th (9-0-1); their next Brooklyn game is on January 11, 2020 vs. Boston.

Coach Trotz

Barry Trotz is second among active coaches, trailing only Joel Quenneville, in both wins and games. Trotz' NHL record is 828-600-60-143 in 1,631 games.

Most Coaching Wins

1. Scotty Bowman  1,244

2. Joel Quenneville  903

3. Ken Hitchcock    849

4. Barry Trotz    828

5. Al Arbour    782

Most Games Coached

1. Scotty Bowman   2,141

2. Joel Quenneville 1,661

3. Barry Trotz        1,631

4. Al Arbour 1,607

The Rotation

The Islanders are first team since the Sharks in 2006-07 to alternate starting goalies for each of the first 25 games of the season. (The Sharks used Vesa Toskala in the odd games and Evgeni Nabokov in the even games before Nabokov started games 36 and 37 around the Christmas break)

This is the longest streak in Isles history:

• 25 games (Varlamov/Greiss) in 2019-20; CURRENT

• 24 games (Hrudey/Smith) in 1985-86; Smith played games 24 and 25.

• 23 games (Smith/Melanson) in 1982-83; Smith played games 23 and 24.

The NHL record of 76 was set by the Rangers in 1990-91 (John Vanbiesbrouck/Mike Richter). 

   

First Things First

The Isles are 9-2-1 when scoring first and are 9-3-1 when allowing the opening goal.

The Shots

Isles      9 -6-10=25

Detroit  11-13-7=31

The Isles are 6-1-1 when they outshoot their opponents, 0-1-0 when the shots are even and 12-3-1 when they are outshot.

Home and Road

The Islanders are 18-5-2 overall; 11-2-1 at home (7-2-0 on Long Island and 4-0-1 in Brooklyn) and 7-3-1 on the road.  

Detroit is 7-20-3 overall; 4-10-1 at home and 3-10-2 on the road.  

By Division & Conference

The Isles are 6-2-1 in Division games and 12-3-1 in games versus other divisions.  The Isles are 14-2-1 against the East and 4-3-1 against the West.  

In the Nets

Semyon Varlamov made 30 saves to improve to 8-3-2 this season and 11-7-3 against Detroit.

Jonathan Bernier made 21 saves but falls to 5-8-2 on the season and 5-6-4 in his career against the Isles.

Power Plays

The Isles were 1-5 on the power play in 7:22 of power play time, with the goal coming 8 seconds after a 1:28 5-on-3 expired; Detroit was 1-6 on the power play in 10:10 of PP time.

The Isles are 7-1-0 when they score at least one power play goal and 11-4-2 when they do not.  The Isles are 7-3-0 when they allow at least one power play goal and 11-2-2 when they do not.

The Isles are 2-1-1 when they have more power plays than the opposition, 2-1-0 when the power plays are even, and 14-3-1 when the opposition has more power plays.

Three is a Magic Number

The Isles are 15-0-1 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 3-5-1 when they do not.  Under Barry Trotz, the Isles are 53-2-3 when scoring three or more.

One Goal Games

The Isles are 9-1-2 in games decided by a single goal including 3-1 in regulation. They are 4-2 in games decided in overtime and are 2-0 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.

Tired vs. Rested 

• The Isles are 2-0-0 when both teams played the night before. 

• The Isles are 5-0-0 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 10-5-2 when both teams are rested. 

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Ryan Pulock (22:21); Detroit: Filip Hronek (24:29)

Mathew Barzal led Isles forwards with 19:49 of ice-time.

Isles record by ice-time leader: Adam Pelech (7-1-0), Ryan Pulock (8-1-2), Nick Leddy (0-1-0), Devon Toews (1-1-0), Scott Mayfield (1-1-0), Brock Nelson (1-0-0).

Face-offs

Isles 27, Detroit 22 (55%).  

Brock Nelson won 8 of 11 for the Isles; Valtteri Filppula won 8 of 13 for Detroit.  

Hit Count

Isles 19 (Cal Clutterbuck -4). 

Detroit 14 (Robby Fabbri -3)

   

Fights

There were no fights.  Season total: 6 – Johnston-3 (vs. FLA, vs PHL, vs TB), Cizikas-2 (vs. OTT, vs SJ), Mayfield (vs ANA).

Blocked Shots

Isles 14 (Johnny Boychuk -3)

Detroit 10 (Filip Hronek-3)

For the Corsi Crowd 

All situations: Isles 45, Detroit 56

5-on-5 Isles 34, Detroit 39

5-on-5 leaders:

Isles: Anders Lee +9

Detroit:  Robby Fabbri +10

Back-to-Backs

Including tonight, the Isles are 3-1-0 in the front-half and 3-0-0 in the back-half. This back-to-back concludes in Montreal on Tuesday. The next back-to-back will be January 6th vs Colorado and January 7th  in New Jersey. Under Barry Trotz, the Isles are 14-1-1 in back-ends.

Night and Day

The Isles are 16-5-2 in night games and 2-0-0 in matinees. The next matinee will be on December 14th vs. Buffalo.

Ironmen

Anders Lee 225, Brock Nelson 202, Mathew Barzal 189, Ryan Pulock 152 and Josh Bailey 110. 

Iron D

Ryan Pulock is only the 6th defenseman in Islander history to play at least 152 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. Nick Leddy 10/23/2016 – 3/26/2018 153

6. Ryan Pulock 12/29/2017 – CURRENT 152

 (*) Start of NHL career.

(**) Entire career with Islanders

Scratches

(Tom Kuhnhackl-INJ), Noah Dobson, Michael Dal Colle, Ross Johnston.

Total games lost: 71.

Late Heroes

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

10/14 vs. STL – Mathew Barzal scored at 19:33 and the Isles won in OT.

11/19 @ PIT – Ryan Pulock scored at 18:38 and the Isles won in OT.

Late Goals Allowed

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

11/21 vs. STL – Patric Hornqvist scored at 19:30, but the Isles won in OT.

Challenges

Isles: 1 successful, 0 failures (offside-11/19 vs PIT)

Opponents: 1 successful, 2 failures (Nelson-kick 10/8 vs EDM), (Lee- no high stick 11/1 vs. TB), Cizikas- no goalie interference 11/23 vs SJ)

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.  Josh Bailey 822…

23.*** Pat LaFontaine 530 *** 24. Kyle Okposo 529 *** 25. Matt Martin 518 *** 26. Dave Lewis 514 *** 27. Rich Pilon and Mick Vukota 509 *** 29. Casey Cizikas 506 *** 30. Brock Nelson 505

Goals

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

14. Patrick Flatley 160 *** 15. Anders Lee 159 *** 16. Pierre Turgeon and Josh Bailey 147

18. Mariusz Czerkawski 145 *** 19. Kyle Okposo 139 *** 20. Brock Nelson 132

Assists

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

9. Stefan Persson 317 *** 10. Bob Bourne 304 *** 11.  Josh Bailey 302 303 …

25. Jeff Norton 166 *** 26. Ziggy Palffy 163 *** 27. Nick Leddy 159

Points

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

12. Patrick Flatley 488 *** 13. Josh Bailey 449 450…

24. Ed Westfall 286 *** 25. Anders Lee 270 *** 26. Brock Nelson 261

Games Played (Goalies)

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

6. Jaroslav Halak 177 *** 7. Glenn Healy 176 *** 8. Thomas Greiss 175

Wins (Goalie)

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

5.   Thomas Greiss 95

Shutouts (Goalie)

1. Glenn Resch 25 ***2. Billy Smith 22 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 16 *** 4. Tommy Salo 14***

5. Jaroslav Halak 12 *** 6.  Thomas Greiss 10

Games Coached 

1. Al Arbour 1,500 *** 2. Jack Capuano 483 *** 3. Mike Milbury 192 …

9. Steve Stirling 124 *** 10. Doug Weight 122 *** 11. Barry Trotz 107

Coaching Wins

1. Al Arbour 740 *** 2. Jack Capuano 227 *** 3. Terry Simpson 81 *** 4. Peter Laviolette 77 ***

5. Ted Nolan 74 *** 6. Barry Trotz 66

Season Series Stats

The Isles lead the season series 1 game to 0 (and 2 points to 0).  The teams will next meet at the Coliseum on January 14th.

The Isles have won six of the last six meetings, but this was the first to be decided by more than a single goal.

On the Farm   

Bridgeport is 8-12-3-1 on the season.  They are off until Friday, when they visit Utica. 

Up Next

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3rd  —  ISLANDERS AT MONTREAL – 7:00 PM

[MSG+ (Islanders pre-game at 6:30pm), 88.7 WRHU-FM, WRCN 103.9FM, ESPN 1050] 

The back-to-back set, and the two-game road trip, concludes in Montreal on Tuesday.

Montreal has traditionally been a difficult stop for the Isles and New York is just 1-3-1 in their last five games overall vs. the Canadiens.   The Isles have lost two straight in Montreal; their last win at Bell Centre came on January 15, 2018 as Thomas Greiss made 52 saves and John Tavares scored the winner in overtime

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