The Skinny: Isles 4, Chicago 1

"The Skinny"      

By Eric Hornick

Game 3

Isles 4, Chicago 1

Ilya Sorokin made 39 saves while Oliver Wahlstrom scored twice as the Isles earned their first win of the season and spoiled the Blackhawks' home opener with a 4-1 victory before 20,279 at the United Center.

Wahlstrom, who leads the team with three goals, has scored two of the three goals unassisted.  The win means the Isles will not open 0-3 for only the second time in their history (0-3-0 in 2006-07). 

The Scoring:

1st Period

No Goals

2nd Period

Anthony Beauvillier (1) 04:08 NYI 1,CHI 0

3rd Period

Oliver Wahlstrom (2) 00:48 NYI 2, CHI 0

Oliver Wahlstrom (3) Jean-Gabriel Pageau (1) 08:51 NYI 3, CHI 0

Cal Clutterbuck (1) 11:06  NYI 4, CHI 0

MacKenzie Entwistle (1) Kirby Dach (1), Erik Gustafsson (1) 19:34 NYI 4,CHI 1

The Skinny         

Oliver Wahlstrom recorded his first career two-goal game…Wahlstrom finished with a career-high eight shots on goal…Four of Wahlstrom's fifteen career goals have been unassisted…MacKenzie Entwistle broke Ilya Sorokin's shutout with 26 seconds to play; the goal was upheld following a league-requested review for offsides…Chicago has not led at any point in their first four games…Adam Pelech went +2, but was on-ice for the Blackhawk goal. It was the first time this season that he has been on-ice for an even strength goal….Ilya Sorokin made 39 saves to improve to 14-8-3 in his career…The Isles had been outscored 4-1 in the third period of the first two games but scored three of the four goals in the third period tonight…The Isles played without Anders Lee, who was ill.

First Times in a Long Time

• The Isles scored three unassisted goals for the first time since the final game of the 1998-99 season, when Trevor Linden (2) and Ziggy Palffy (2) combined for four unassisted tallies.

• The Isles scored two unassisted goals in a period for the first time since February 16, 2018 [Beauvillier – Tavares (EN)]

Islanders with 2+ Goals and 8+ Shots in a Game, before 22nd Birthday

• Mike Bossy (4x)

• Mathew Barzal (1-3-2019 vs Chicago)

• Oliver Wahlstrom (10-19-2021 vs Chicago)

Most Unassisted Goals by an Islander Among First 15 Career Goals

• 5 Ralph Stewart (all in 1973)

• 4 Dale Henry  (1985 to 1988)

• 4 Oliver Wahlstrom (all in 2021)

Most Islander Goals in October (2000's)

1. John Tavares 45

2. Brock Nelson 28

3. Alexei Yashin 26

4. Josh Bailey 25

Only 15 players in club history (led by Mike Bossy's 80) have scored at least 25 October goals.

The Long Road (to the New) Home

The Isles are 1-2-0 on their franchise-record 13-game road trip:

• Thu Oct 14 at Carolina L 3-6

• Sat Oct 16 at Florida     L 1-5

• Tue Oct 19 at Chicago     W 4-1

• Thu Oct 21 at Columbus 7:00 PM

• Sat Oct 23 at Arizona         9:00 PM

• Sun Oct 24 at Vegas         10:00 PM

• Sat Oct 30 at Nashville 1:30 PM

• Thu Nov 04 at Montréal 7:00 PM

• Sat Nov 06 at Winnipeg 7:00 PM

• Sun Nov 07 at Minnesota 8:00 PM

• Thu Nov 11 at New Jersey 7:00 PM

• Mon Nov 15 at Tampa Bay 7:00 PM

• Tue Nov 16 at Florida         7:00 PM

Home and Road

The Isles are 1-2-0 overall; they are 0-0-0 at home and 1-2-0 on the road.

Chicago is 0-3-1 overall; they are 0-1-0 at home and 0-2-1 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 878-637-60-158 in 1,733 games. 

Most Coaching Wins

1. Scotty Bowman  1,244

2. Joel Quenneville  965

3. Barry Trotz    878

Most Games Coached

1. Scotty Bowman   2,141

2. Joel Quenneville 1,764

3. Barry Trotz        1,733

Sweet Lou

Lou Lamoriello has the second-highest win total for any general manager in NHL history:

1. David Poile 1,449

2. Lou Lamoriello 1,327

3. Glen Sather 1,319

It All Starts at the Top

Lou Lamoriello and Barry Trotz have 2,205 wins between them.  They start each game with more than any other pair in NHL history (David Poile and Peter Laviolette had 2,036 after their last game together).   Bill Torrey and Al Arbour had a then-record 1,462 at the end of the 1991-92 season, which was their last season together.  

First Things First

The Isles are 1-1-0 when scoring first and are 0-1-0 when allowing the opening goal. 

The Shots

Isles    9-12-8=29

Chicago    18-13-9=40

The Isles are 0-1-0 when they outshoot their opponents, 0-0-0 when the shots are even and 1-1-0 when they are outshot.  Under Barry Trotz, the Isles are 65-37-13 when outshot.

In the Nets

Ilya Sorokin made 39 saves to improve to 1-2-0 on the season and 1-0-0 vs. Chicago. 

Marc-Andre Fleury made 25 saves but falls to 0-3-0 on the season and 26-12-5 vs. the Isles. 

Special Teams

The Isles were 0-2 on the power play (4:00); Chicago was 0-3 on the power play (6:00). 

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

Three is a Magic Number

The Isles are 1-1-0 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 0-1-0 when they do not.  Under Barry Trotz, the Isles are 90-10-11 when scoring three or more.

One-Goal Games

The Isles are 0-0-0 in games decided by a single goal including 0-0 in regulation. They are 0-0 in games decided in overtime and are 0-0 in shootouts.  The Isles are 0-0 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1-goal game into a 2-goal game.

Back-to-Backs

The Isles will play nineteen back-to-backs this season; the first will be on October 23-24 in Arizona and Vegas. 

 

Under Barry Trotz, the Isles are 21-4-4 (.793) in back-ends. This is by far the best record of any NHL team in back-ends during this stretch.  Tampa Bay has the next best record: 20-9-3 (.672).

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Ryan Pulock (21:57); Chicago: Jake McCabe (23:29)

JG Pageau led Isles forwards with 18:03 of ice-time. 

Isles record by ice-time leaders: Ryan Pulock (1-1-0), Anthony Beauvillier (0-1-0)

Face-offs

Isles 28, Chicago 21 (57%)

JG Pageau won 13 of 19 for the Isles; no Blackhawk who took at least four face-offs won more than he lost.

The Isles are 1-1-0 when they win more face-offs than the opposition, 0-0-0 when they are tied, and 0-1-0 when they win fewer.

Hit Count

Isles 44 (Casey Cizikas -6)

Chicago 34 (Mike Hardman -6)

Fights 

Matt Martin fought Jujhar Khaira in the third period.  Season total: 1 (Martin)

 

Blocked Shots

Isles 19 (Adam Pelech-4)

Chicago 12 (Calvin deHaan-3)

For the Analytics Crowd 

Corsi: All situations: Isles 49, Chicago 69

Corsi: 5-on-5: Isles 41, Chicago 55

5-on-5 leaders:

Isles:  Cal Clutterbuck & Casey Cizikas +2

Chicago: Calvin deHaan+20

High Danger Scoring Chances (per Natural Stat Trick)

All situations: Isles 4, Chicago 13

5-on-5: Isles 2, Chicago 10

Scratches

(Anders Lee), (Semyon Varlomov), Sebastian Aho, Ross Johnston

Games Lost: 6

Iron Man Club

Brock Nelson has played in 304 consecutive games and Ryan Pulock in 254; both have appeared in every game since Barry Trotz became the Isles' coach.  

Iron Man

Brock Nelson has passed Bobby Nystrom for the 2nd-longest streak while Ryan Pulock is 8th:

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

2. Brock Nelson 3/16/2017 – CURRENT 304

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

4. Anders Lee 1/26/2017 – 3/13/2021 295

5. Mathew Barzal 10/6/2017- 5/3/2021 284

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

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

8. Ryan Pulock 12/29/2017 – CURRENT 254

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

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

 (*) Start of NHL career.

(**) Entire career with Islanders

Pulock's streak is the 2nd-longest by an Islander defenseman, trailing only Denis Potvin's 262-game streak.

Challenges

Isles: 0 successful, 1 failure

The Isles are 0-0-0 in games that they are successful and 0-1-0 in games that they are unsuccessful.(no goalie interference 10/14 @CAR)

Opponents: 1 successful, 0 failures  

The Isles are 0-1-0 in games where opponents' challenges go their way and 0-0-0 in games that go the opponents' way. (goalie interference 10/16 @FLA)

Last Minute Heroes:

The Isles have scored no goals and allowed no goals in the final three minutes of the third period that were either the winning goal or forced overtime:

For: 0  

Vs:  0  

All-time Islander Leader Boards:

Games Played (skaters)

1. Bryan Trottier 1,123 *** 2. Denis Potvin 1,060 *** 3. Josh Bailey 922…

13. Stefan Persson 622 *** 14. Matt Martin 615 *** 15. Brock Nelson 607 *** 16. Frans Nielsen 606 *** 17. Kenny Jonsson 597 *** 18. Garry Howatt 596 *** 19. John Tonelli 594 *** 20. Casey Cizikas 593 … 

27. Cal Clutterbuck 531 *** 28. Kyle Okposo 529 *** 29. Anders Lee 522

Goals

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

11. John Tonelli 206 *** 12. Anders Lee 185 *** 13. Billy Harris 184 *** 14. Brock Nelson 169 *** 15. Ziggy Palffy 168 *** 16. Josh Bailey 162

Assists

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

4. Clark Gillies 359 *** 5. Josh Bailey 350…

20. Pierre Turgeon 193 *** 21. Ed Westfall 181 *** 22. Mathew Barzal 176…

26. Jean Potvin 167 *** 27. Jeff Norton 166 *** 28. Ziggy Palffy 163 *** 29. Brock Nelson 160

Points

1. Bryan Trottier 1,353 *** 2. Mike Bossy 1,126 *** 3. Denis Potvin 1,052…

9. Bob Bourne 542 *** 10. Bob Nystrom 513 *** 11. Josh Bailey 512…

20. Ziggy Palffy 331 *** 21. Brock Nelson 328 ***  22. Anders Lee 321

Games Coached 

1. Al Arbour 1,500 *** 2. Jack Capuano 483 *** 3. Barry Trotz 209

 

Coaching Wins

1. Al Arbour 740 *** 2. Jack Capuano 227 *** 3. Barry Trotz 116

On the Farm

Bridgeport is now 0-1-0-2, following a shootout loss in Springfield on Sunday.  It was their second consecutive defeat in a shootout.

Bridgeport plays again Friday in Springfield before hosting the Thunderbirds in their home opener on Saturday.

Season Series Stats

The Isles lead the season series 1 games to 0 (and 2 points to 0).  The teams will complete the season series at UBS Arena on December 5th.

This was only the second win for the Isles in their last ten trips to Chicago (2-5-3).

UP NEXT

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21st –ISLANDERS AT COLUMBUS 7:00pm

[MSG+2 (Pre-game at 6:30, WRHU 88.7 FM, WRCN 103.9FM, ESPN1050]

Game 4 of this 13-game road trip will be on Thursday as the Isles renew their rivalry with the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Blue Jackets, who lost 4-1 to Detroit on Tuesday, are 2-1-0 on the young season.

The Isles are 5-2-0 in the last seven games against Columbus; they went 2-1-0 against the Jackets before the 2019-2020 season was suspended.  This will be the first meeting of the teams since December 23, 2019.

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