The Skinny: Isles 1, Colorado 0

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick

Game 41

Isles 1, Colorado 0

Semyon Varlamov made 32 saves for his 2nd shutout as an Islander and Anders Lee scored the game's only goal at 6:54 of the third period as the Islanders defeated the Colorado Avalanche 1-0 before a crowd of 13,241 at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Both of Varlamov's shutouts this season have been by a 1-0 score (November 2nd in Buffalo); this one comes in his first career appearance against the Avs.  Varlamov now holds shutouts against 15 different teams and has recorded 27 clean sheet in his career.

The victory snaps a two-game Isles losing streak and a four-game home winless streak (0-3-1); the Isles hit the midpoint of the campaign with a 26-12-3 record; their 55 points are good for a share of 4th place in the entire NHL.

The Scoring:

1st Period

No Goals

2nd Period

No Goals

3rd Period

Anders Lee (12) Devon Toews, Michael Dal Colle 6:54  COL 0, NYI 1 

The Skinny      

The Isles had gone 129:21 without a goal before Lee's tally; they have scored only twice in the last three games and have scored only 13 goals in their last seven games… The Isles killed both Avs power plays (without allowing a shot) as they are now a perfect 13-13 over the last six games...The Isles failed on their only power play; they are 0-12 in the last seven games. It's only the 2nd time in club history that neither team has scored a power play goal in six straight games (the club record of 7 was set in March 2019) ….  The Isles have had two power play attempts or fewer in a club record-tying seven straight games.  League records on attempts date to the late 70's, and the league record is 12 straight games, set by the 1979-80 Hartford Whalers….The Isles blocked 33 shots, tying the club record (set October 19, 2019 vs. Columbus). Brock Nelson had four of them (all in the first period) to tie a career high …Barry Trotz coached his 123rd  Isles game, passing Doug Weight for 10th place on the all-time list and recorded his 74th win, matching Ted Nolan's total for 5th place… The Isles now own wins against the top two teams (besides themselves) in all four divisions….The Isles improve to 14-3-3 in one-goal games while the Avs fall to 5-3-4…While Colorado is the highest-scoring team in the league, the Isles now hold a better goal differential in the third period (+3 to +1)…The Isles have won three games by shutout this season and Anders Lee has scored the winning goal in two of them (November 30 vs. Columbus – combined shutout)…While Semyon Varlamov is only 3-2-0 in the last four games, he has stopped 142 of 150 shots for a 1.62 GAA and a 94.7 save percentage.

It's Good to be Home(s)

The Isles are 10-5-1 on Coliseum ice.  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 12, 2019 (9-0-1); their next Brooklyn game is on Saturday vs. Boston.

Half-way Home

The Isles have hit the midway point of the 2019-20 season.  Their 55 points in 41 games matches the most that they have accumulated in the first half of the season in the Post-Cup era.

What's Good for The Goose Is Good for The Gander

Semyon Varlamov is the 4th goalie to be involved in a shutout both for and against the Isles with the same team, having blanked the Isles with Colorado in 2014.  Martin Biron (Buffalo) and Garth Snow (Philadelphia) also did so, with both also earning the latter shutout(s) for the Isles.  The only goalie to shutout an opponent for the Isles and then do so against the Isles while playing for the Isles is Kevin Weekes.  Weekes blanked the Isles for Tampa Bay on March 3, 2001 in Butch Goring's final game behind the Isles' bench.

Just the One

This was only the 16th 1-0 win in regulation time in Isles history.  Only Tommy Salo (3) has more 1-0 regulation wins for the Isles than Semyon Varlamov, who recorded his second of the season.  Rick DiPietro and Jaroslav Halak also have two.

Metro Men

The Isles are in a stretch where they are playing 11 out of 12 games in the NY-Metro Area. The Isles are 1-0-0 in this stretch:

• 1/6 – Avs W 1-0

• 1/7 -  @ Devils 

• 1/11 – Bruins (Barclays)

• 1/13 - @ NYRangers

• 1/14 – Red Wings (Coliseum)

• 1/16 – NYRangers (Coliseum)

• 1/18 – Washington (Coliseum)

• 1/19 - @ Hurricanes

• 1/21 - @ NYRangers

• 2/1 – Canucks (Barclays)

• 2/4 – Stars (Barclays)

• 2/6 - Kings (Barclays)

Following this stretch the Isles will play 17 of their next 27 (and 17 of their final 30) games on the road.

Coach Trotz

Barry Trotz is second among active coaches, trailing only Joel Quenneville, in both wins and games. Trotz' NHL record is 836-607-60-144 in 1,647 games.

Most Coaching Wins

1. Scotty Bowman  1,244

2. Joel Quenneville  912

3. Ken Hitchcock    849

4. Barry Trotz    836

5. Al Arbour    782

Most Games Coached

1. Scotty Bowman   2,141

2. Joel Quenneville 1,678

3. Barry Trotz        1,647

4. Al Arbour 1,607

First Things First

The Isles are 15-5-2 when scoring first and are 11-7-1 when allowing the opening goal.

The Shots

Isles      15-9-9=33

Colorado 5-15-12=32

The Isles are 8-5-2 when they outshoot their opponents, 0-1-0 when the shots are even and 18-6-1 when they are outshot.

Home and Road

The Islanders are 26-11-3 overall; 14-5-2 at home (10-5-1 on Long Island and 4-0-1 in Brooklyn) and 12-7-1 on the road.  

Colorado is 25-14-4 overall; 11-7-2 at home and 14-7-2 on the road.  

By Division & Conference

The Isles are 7-4-1 in Division games and 19-8-2 in games versus other divisions.  The Isles are 19-6-1 against the East and 7-6-2 against the West.  

In the Nets

Semyon Varlamov made 32 saves for his 27th career shutout as he improves to 15-5-3 on the season and 1-0-0 in his career against Colorado. 

 

Pavel Francouz made 32 saves but falls to 11-4-1 on the season and 0-1-0 in his career against the Isles. 

Power Plays

The Isles were 0-1 on the power play in 2:00 of power play time; Colorado was 0-2 on the power play in 4:00 of power play time.

The Isles are 10-2-1 when they score at least one power play goal and 16-10-2 when they do not.  The Isles are 9-6-1 when they allow at least one power play goal and 17-6-2 when they do not.

The Isles are 4-3-1 when they have more power plays than the opposition, 4-3-0 when the power plays are even, and 18-6-2 when the opposition has more power plays.

Three is (Usually) a Magic Number

The Isles are 22-1-2 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 4-11-1 when they do not.  Under Barry Trotz, the Isles are 60-3-4 when scoring three or more, with two of the three regulation losses coming against Nashville.

One-Goal Games

The Isles are 14-3-3 in games decided by a single goal including 5-3 in regulation. They are 6-2 in games decided in overtime and are 3-1 in shootouts.  The Isles are 3-1 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 5-1-0 when they are rested, and their opponents are not. 

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

• The Isles are 18-10-3 when both teams are rested. 

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Ryan Pulock (24:37); Colorado: Samuel Girard (23:07)

Brock Nelson led Isles forwards with 21:16 of ice-time.

Isles record by ice-time leader: Adam Pelech (9-2-0), Ryan Pulock (11-3-3), Devon Toews (3-4-0), Scott Mayfield (1-1-0), Nick Leddy (0-2-0), Brock Nelson (1-0-0), Mathew Barzal (1-0-0).

Face-offs

Isles 21, Colorado 32 (40%)  

Josh Bailey won 5 of 9 for the Isles but his teammates won only 16 of 44; Nazem Kadri won 8 of 12 for Colorado.

Hit Count

Isles 18 (Three with 3)

Colorado 19 (Ryan Graves -3)

   

Fights

There were no fights.  Season total: 7 – Johnston-3 (vs. FLA, vs PHL, vs TB), Cizikas-2 (vs. OTT, vs SJ), Mayfield (vs ANA), Lee (vs FLA).

 

Blocked Shots

Isles 33 (Johnny Boychuk -5)  TIES CLUB RECORD

Colorado 10 (Ryan Graves -3)

For the Analytics Crowd 

Corsi: All situations: Isles 51, Colorado 83

Corsi: 5-on-5 Isles 48, Colorado 73

5-on-5 leaders:

Isles:  Anthony Beauvillier and Devon Toews +2

Colorado: Gabriel Landeskog +19

High Danger Scoring Chances (per Natural Stat Trick)

All situations: Isles 6, Colorado 10

5-on-5: Isles 6, Colorado 10

Back-to-Backs

Including tonight, the Isles are 4-1-0 in the front-half and 3-1-0 in the back-half. This back-to-back concludes Tuesday in New Jersey. The next back-to-back will be January 13th at the Rangers and January 14th vs. Detroit. Under Barry Trotz, the Isles are 14-2-1 in back-ends.

Night and Day

The Isles are 22-12-2 in night games and 4-0-1 in matinees. The next matinee will be January 18th, also against Washington.

200 Game Club

The Isles have three players who have consecutive game streaks of at least 200 games.  It's the first time since November 25, 1978 that the Isles have had three players with streaks of at least 200 games.

Ironman Streaks: Anders Lee 241, Brock Nelson 218, Mathew Barzal 205, Ryan Pulock 168, Josh Bailey 126, Anthony Beauvillier 116, and Devon Toews 89. 

Iron Man

Anders Lee now holds the sixth-longest consecutive game streak in Isles history, while Brock Nelson is closing in on the top 10:

1. Billy Harris 10/7/1972 -11/30/1979 576 (*)

2. Bobby Nystrom 1/7/1975 - 11/25/1978 301

3. Matt Moulson 10/3/2009 - 4/4/2013 284

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

5. John Tavares 10/16/2010 - 12/23/2013 246

6. Anders Lee 1/26/2017 – CURRENT 241

7. J.P. Parise 1/7/1975 – 1/7/1978 240 (**)

8. Richard Park 10/5/2006 - 2/18/2009 221

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

10. Bryan Trottier 3/7/1981 - 1/12/1984 219

11. Brock Nelson 3/16/2017 – CURRENT 218

Lorne Henning 12/28/1974 - 11/6/1977 218

 (*) Start of NHL career.

(**) Entire career with Islanders

Iron D

Ryan Pulock has the fourth-longest consecutive game streak of any defenseman in Islander history: 

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. Ryan Pulock 12/29/2017 – CURRENT 168

 (*) Start of NHL career.

(**) Entire career with Islanders

Scratches

(Adam Pelech-INJ), (Cal Clutterbuck-INJ), Ross Johnston, Sebastian Aho.

Total games lost: 100.

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 two goals in the final two minutes of regulation to either tie or win a game:

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

12/14 vs. BUF -Jack Eichel scored at 18:14, but the Isles won in OT. 

Challenges

Isles: 3 successful, 1 failure (offside-11/19 vs. PIT), (offside-12/9 vs. TBL), (no goalie Interference 12/21 vs, ANA), (offside-1/6 vs. NJ)

The Isles are 3-0-0 in games that they are successful and 0-0-1 in games that they are unsuccessful.

Opponents: 2 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), (Komarov--goalie interference 1/2 vs. NJ)

The Isles are 1-0-1 in games where opponents' challenges go their way and 0-2-0 in games that go the opponent's way.

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 838…

20. Lorne Henning 543 *** 21. Claude Lapointe 535 *** 22.  Matt Martin 534 *** 23. Tomas Jonsson 532 *** 24. Pat LaFontaine 530 *** 25. Kyle Okposo 529 *** 26. Casey Cizikas 522 *** 27. Brock Nelson 521

Goals

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

13. Ziggy Palffy 168 *** 14. Anders Lee 164 *** 15. Patrick Flatley 160 *** 16. Josh Bailey 148 *** 17. Pierre Turgeon 147 ***18. Mariusz Czerkawski 145 *** 19. Kyle Okposo and Brock Nelson 139

Assists

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

7.    Pat Flatley 328 *** 8.   Brent Sutter 323 *** 9. Stefan Persson 317 *** 10. Josh Bailey 308 …

22. Duane Sutter and Alexei Yashin 171*** 24. Jean Potvin 167 *** 25. Jeff Norton 166 *** 26. Nick Leddy 165

Points

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

12. Patrick Flatley 488 *** 13. Josh Bailey 456…

23. Alexei Yashin 290 *** 24. Ed Westfall 286 *** 25. Anders Lee 282 *** 26. Brock Nelson 272

Games Played (Goalies)

1. Billy Smith 674 *** 2. Rick DiPietro 318 *** 3. Glenn Resch 282 *** 4. Kelly Hrudey 241 ***

5. Tommy Salo 187 *** 6. Thomas Greiss 181

Wins (Goalie)

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

5.   Thomas Greiss 96

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 …

6. Peter Laviolette 164 *** 7. Ted Nolan 163 *** 8. Butch Goring 154 *** 9. Steve Stirling 124 *** 10. Barry Trotz 123

 

Coaching Wins

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

5. Ted Nolan 74 and Barry Trotz 74

Season Series Stats

The Isles lead the season series 1 game to 0 (and 2 points to 0).  The teams will meet again in Colorado on February 19th.

The Isles have won five of the last six games between the teams. 

The Isles are 6-0-0 in their last six home games against the Avs and have won 12 out of the last 13 games in New York  between the teams (a stretch that began with Butch Goring's first home game behind the Isles' bench on October 10, 1999). 

On the Farm   

The Sound Tigers were beaten again in Hershey on Sunday, 4-2.  Kieffer Bellows scored his team-leading 14th goal; he has tallied 13 goals in the last 17 games. 

Bridgeport is off until Friday, when they visit Springfield to begin another 3-in-3 weekend.

Up Next

TUESDAY, JANUARY 76th   —  ISLANDERS AT NEW JERSEY –7:00 PM

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

The Isles head to New Jersey to face the Devils for the second time in six days; the Devils edged the Isles 2-1 on Thursday to open 2020.

The Isles won both games in New Jersey last year, winning once in overtime and once in a shootout on their way to sweeping the season series.   However, the Isles are only 3-3-0 in their last six games at The Rock.

 

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