The Skinny: New Jersey 2, Isles 1

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick

Game 39

New Jersey 2, Isles 1

PK Subban and Nico Hischier scored 2:36 apart beginning late in the second period and ending early in the third as the New Jersey Devils rallied for a 2-1 victory over the Isles before a sellout crowd of 13,917 at the Nassau Coliseum.

Brock Nelson scored the first goal of 2020 for the Isles; he also led the club with 26 goals in 2019.

The Isles 0-3-1 in their last four home games (all at the Coliseum) as they fall to 25-11-3 on the season.  It's the first time under Barry Trotz that the Isles have gone winless in four straight home games.

 

The Scoring:

1st Period

No Goals

2nd Period

Brock Nelson (15) Ryan Pulock, Derick Brassard 07:33 NJD 0,NYI 1

P.K. Subban (4) Nikita Gusev, Travis Zajac 18:33 NJD 1,NYI 1

3rd Period

Nico Hischier (9)  Kyle Palmieri 01:09 NJD 2,NYI 1

 

The Skinny      

Leo Komarov had a goal waved off for goalie interference in the second period.  It would have been his first goal since January 20th…The Isles killed both Devil power plays and are a perfect 11-11 over the last four games...The Isles are 7-2-1 in their last ten division games and are 19-3-1 in their last 23 games against the East… The Isles falls to 13-3-3 in one-goal games; all three regulation losses (WASH, CBJ, NJ) have been at the Coliseum to divisional opponents… The Isles failed to move 16 games over NHL-.500 for the first time this season….Adam Pelech missed the game with an upper body injury; he had played 77 straight games…The Devils are 6-2-1 in their last nine games, and have won three straight for the first time in a year…Pavel Zacha lost all nine face-offs he took…Brock Nelson's goal was his 139th, tying Kyle Okposo for 19th place…Matt Martin played in his 532nd Isles game, tying Tomas Jonsson for 22nd place…First overall pick Jack Hughes, whose father grew up in Hicksville, did not play for New Jersey (upper body)…Long Islander Kyle Palmieri was credited with an assist on the winning goal.

It's Good to be Home(s)

The Isles are 9-5-1 on Coliseum ice, including 0-3-1 in the last four 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 835-606-60-144 in 1,645 games.

Most Coaching Wins

1. Scotty Bowman  1,244

2. Joel Quenneville  911 

3. Ken Hitchcock    849

4. Barry Trotz    835

5. Al Arbour    782

Most Games Coached

1. Scotty Bowman   2,141

2. Joel Quenneville 1,676

3. Barry Trotz        1,645

4. Al Arbour 1,607

First Things First

The Isles are 14-5-2 when scoring first and are 11-6-1 when allowing the opening goal.

The Shots

Isles             11-9-10=30

New Jersey 9-13-9=31

The Isles are 7-4-2 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 25-11-3 overall; 13-5-2 at home (9-5-1 on Long Island and 4-0-1 in Brooklyn) and 12-6-1 on the road.  

New Jersey is 15-19-6 overall; 6-8-6 at home and 9-11-0 on the road.  

By Division & Conference

The Isles are 7-4-1 in Division games and 18-7-2 in games versus other divisions.  The Isles are 19-5-1 against the East and 6-6-2 against the West.  

In the Nets

Semyon Varlamov made 29 saves but falls to 14-4-3 on the season and 4-3-0 in his career against New Jersey. 

 

Mackenzie Blackwood made 29 saves and improves to 14-10-5 on the season and 1-1-0 in his career against the Isles. 

Power Plays

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

The Isles are 10-2-1 when they score at least one power play goal and 15-9-2 when they do not.  The Isles are 9-6-1 when they allow at least one power play goal and 16-5-2 when they do not.

The Isles are 4-2-1 when they have more power plays than the opposition, 4-3-0 when the power plays are even, and 17-6-2 when the opposition has more power plays.

Three is a Magic Number

The Isles are 22-1-2 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 3-10-1 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 13-3-3 in games decided by a single goal including 4-3 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 17-9-3 when both teams are rested. 

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Devon Toews (23:24); New Jersey: Damon Severson (24:03)

Mathew Barzal led Isles forwards with 23:11 of ice-time.

Isles record by ice-time leader: Adam Pelech (9-2-0), Ryan Pulock (10-3-3), Devon Toews (3-3-0), Scott Mayfield (1-1-0), Nick Leddy (0-2-0), Brock Nelson (1-0-0), Mathew Barzal (1-0-0).

Face-offs

Isles 31, New Jersey 27 (53%)  

Brock Nelson won 12 of 21 for the Isles; Nico Hischier won 13 of 23 for New Jersey.

Hit Count

Isles 30 (Matt Martin and Ross Johnston -5)

New Jersey 25 (Blake Coleman -5)

   

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 20 (Nick Leddy -5)

New Jersey 23 (Andy Greene and Mirco Mueller -3)

For the Analytics Crowd 

Corsi: All situations: Isles 65, New Jersey 81

Corsi: 5-on-5 Isles 50, New Jersey 64

5-on-5 leaders:

Isles:  Anders Lee +6

New Jersey: Nikita Gusev +11

High Danger Scoring Chances (per Natural Stat Trick)

All situations: Isles 14, New Jersey 9

5-on-5: Isles 12, New Jersey 7

Back-to-Backs

The Isles are 3-1-0 in the front-half and 3-1-0 in the back-half. The next back-to-back will be January 6th vs Colorado and January 7th  in New Jersey. Under Barry Trotz, the Isles are 14-2-1 in back-ends.

Night and Day

The Isles are 21-11-2 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 239, Brock Nelson 216, Mathew Barzal 203, Ryan Pulock 166, Josh Bailey 124, Anthony Beauvillier 114, and Devon Toews 87. 

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 166

 (*) Start of NHL career.

(**) Entire career with Islanders

Scratches

Michael Dal Colle, (Adam Pelech-INJ), (Cal Clutterbuck-INJ).

Total games lost: 94.

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

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)

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 836…

22. Tomas Jonsson and Matt Martin 532*** 24. Pat LaFontaine 530 *** 25. Kyle Okposo 529 *** 26. Casey Cizikas 520 *** 27. Brock Nelson 519

Goals

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

13. Ziggy Palffy 168 *** 14. Anders Lee 163 *** 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…

9. Stefan Persson 317 *** 10. Josh Bailey 308 …

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…

24. Ed Westfall 286 *** 25. Anders Lee 280 *** 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 …

9. Steve Stirling 124 *** 10. Doug Weight 122 *** 11. Barry Trotz 120

 

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 73

Season Series Stats

New Jersey leads the season series 1 game to 0 (and 2 points to 0).  The teams will next meet in New Jersey on January 7th.

The loss was only the 2nd for the Isles in the last 12 home games with New Jersey (10-2-0); they are 11-5-0 in the last 16 games overall

On the Farm   

Kieffer Bellows was named AHL Player of the Month; he is the first Sound Tiger to be so honored since Casey Cizikas.

The Sound Tigers are 9-6-1-0 in their last 16 games; they begin a 3-in-3 weekend on Friday in Binghamton.   

Up Next

SATURDAY, JANUARY 4th   —  ISLANDERS AT TORONTO –7:00 PM

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

The Isles head to Toronto to face the Maple Leafs for the second time this season; the Isles won the only Coliseum meeting, 5-4 on November 13th as the Isles held on for the win.

The Leafs are hot, having gone 8-0-1 in their last nine games. It's the first time since 2011 (6-0-3) that the Leafs have had a point in at least nine straight games.  Good starts have been part of the Leafs' story; they have outscored the opposition 28-10 in the first period since Sheldon Keefe replaced Mike Babcock as the Leafs' coach.

This is the Isles' first trip to Toronto in 53 weeks; Mathew Barzal had a natural hat trick in a 4-0 win in December 2018.  It was the Isles' first victory in their last five games in Toronto (1-2-2).

Overall, the Isles are 3-1-0 against the Leafs in the post-Tavares era.

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