The Skinny: Isles 5, Florida 1

"The Skinny"      

By Eric Hornick

Game 35

Isles 5, Florida 1

Anthony Beauvillier scored twice and Aatu Raty scored in his NHL debut as the Isles rallied from an early deficit for a 5-1 victory over the Florida Panthers before a sellout crowd of 17,255 at UBS Arena.

Matthew Tkachuk scored on a 4-on-4 in the first period to give Florida a 1-0 lead before Beauvillier, scoring his 100th NHL goal, and Ryan Pulock turned the tables with second period goals.  Aatu Raty and Zach Parise are separated by over 18 years in age, but they scored within 71 seconds of each other in the third before Beauvillier hit the empty net following an early goalie pull to cement the win. 

The Isles improve to 19-14-2 and remain two points behind Washington for the second wild card.   The NHL will now shut down for three days before the Isles play their final two games of 2022 on Tuesday against Pittsburgh and Thursday against Columbus. 

The Scoring:

1st Period

Matthew Tkachuk (15) Brandon Montour (21) 08:09 FLA 1,NYI 0

2nd Period

Anthony Beauvillier (7) Noah Dobson (13), Brock Nelson (19) 05:20 FLA 1,NYI 1

Ryan Pulock (2) Jean-Gabriel Pageau (12) 19:15 FLA 1,NYI 2

3rd Period

Aatu Raty (1) Anders Lee (14), Anthony Beauvillier (8) 07:10 FLA 1,NYI 3

Zach Parise (11) Alexander Romanov (10) 08:21 FLA 1,NYI 4

Anthony Beauvillier (8)EN Anders Lee (15) 15:50 FLA 1,NYI 5

The Skinny  

Aatu Raty is the 391st player in club history (including Billy Smith) to score a goal for the Isles; he is the second to score his first Islander goal in as many nights, and the fourth to do this month…Raty is the first Islander since Alan Quine (4-9-16 vs Buffalo) to score in his NHL debut…The Isles did not reach 19 wins last season until February 22nd (19-20-7)... After allowing all three goals in the third period last night, the Isles scored all three goals in the third period in this game…The Isles have outscored the opposition 47-36 in the third period… Before leaving with an injury, Brock Nelson took over the team scoring lead with his 34th point, one more than Mathew Barzal…The Isles held Florida is a season-low 24 shots; midway through the third period the Cats had only 17 shots on goal – Florida has had at least 20 shots in every game they have played since December 15, 2017, vs. Vegas…Ilya Sorokin won for the first time in eight starts; his last win was on Black Friday in Columbus…It was Sorokin's 50th career win – he is the 13th goalie in club history to record 50 wins…Anthony Beauvillier is the 32nd player in club history to score 100 goals; his empty-netter tied Anders Kallur for 31st place with 101 goals…Beauvillier also assisted on Raty's goal for his first three-point game of the season…Anders Lee is third on the team with his 15 assists; he had a career-high 23 assists in 2018-2019 and then evened that total in the COVID-shortened 2019-2020 season…The Isles out-attempted Florida 80-45; the difference of +35 is their highest since JG Pageau's Islander debut on February 25, 2020 (+36 in OT loss to the Rangers)…The Isles out-scored Florida 4-0 at 5-on-5; they are +16 (76-60) at 5-on-5 this season…There were nine power plays (six for the Isles) with no goals—the Isles are 0-22 in their last seven games on the power play and are only 7-47 at home (14.9%) on the season; however their NHL-best home penalty killers are now 38-43 (88.4%).

The Injuries

• Aaron Ekblad left the game in the first period after a post-whistle incident with Oliver Wahlstrom.

• Brock Nelson left the game in the second period when he was hit on or near the ear.

• Simon Holmstrom left the game with two seconds left in the second period following a knee-on-knee collision with Sam Bennett. 

None of the players returned to the game.

The New Guys

Both Aatu Raty and Parker Wotherspoon made their NHL debut. 

Raty is the 10th-youngest player to appear in an NHL game this season; he is the first Islander born in 2002 (Simon Holmstrom is the only player born in 2001).  While Raty was a slightly older 20-year-old than Noah Dobson was when Noah scored his first NHL goal, he is the youngest Islander forward to do so since Anthony Beauvillier scored as a 19-year-old on October 18, 2016.

Wotherspoon, who was selected in the fourth round of the same 2015 draft that netted the Islanders Mathew Barzal and Anthony Beauvillier, had played 293 AHL games (and taken one NHL warmup- last March 5th vs. St. Louis) prior to his NHL debut. Parker's older brother Tyler has played 30 NHL game and is currently with the Utica Comets.

Grant Hutton and Robin Salo debuted together on November 21, 2021, in the first game in UBS history.  Prior to that, the Isles had not had a double debut since Cole Jarrett and Masi Marjamaki played their first (and only) NHL game on April 18, 2006.

Making a Good First Impression

Aatu Raty is the 21st player to score for the Islanders in his NHL debut.  Alan Quine was the most recent, and Anders Lee is the only other current Islander to have done so as an Islander.  The list is full of famous names (such as Billy Harris, Mike Bossy, Duane Sutter, Patrick Flatley and John Tavares) and some much less so (Greg Parks, Rod Dallman, Neil Coulter and current AHL President Scott Howson).  Howson and Duane Sutter are the only players to score twice for the Isles in their NHL debut; Sutter scored 119 more times for Isles while Howson finished his Islander/NHL career with five goals.

Last Year vs. This Year

• 2022-23  19-14-2 for 40 points in 35 games

• 2021-22  15-14-6 for 36 points in 35 games

• 2021-22 at Christmas Break:  8-12-6 for 22 points in 26 games

Offense from Defense

• Today:  1-2-3

• Season: 25-52-77

• Last Season (Final) 32-128-160

The Islander defense have scored an NHL-leading 25 goals; they didn't score their 25th goal last season until April 14th.  

Zach Attack 

Zach Parise now has 419 career goals, good for 9th among actives and 90th all-time. Bill Barber is 89th with 420 career goals.

Most Goals and Points by an Islander Defenseman before 23rd Birthday

• Denis Potvin (72-168-240) 

• Noah Dobson (27-67-94)

• Bryan Berard (26-83-109)

• Tomas Jonsson (22-60-82)

• Paul Boutilier (20-69-89) 

Dobson is now 2nd in goals and is 3rd in points. Dobson turns 23 on January 7, 2023.

Home and Road

The Isles are 19-14-2 overall; they are 10-6-0 at home and 9-8-2 on the road.

Florida is 15-16-4 overall; they are 8-5-3 at home and 7-11-1 on the road.

East and West

The Isles are 10-8-1 against the East (7-4-0 vs. Metropolitan and 3-4-1 vs. Atlantic) and 9-6-1 against the West (4-6-1 vs. Central and 5-0-0 vs. Pacific).

Home is Where the Fans Are

The Isles have played 57 games at UBS Arena and recorded 38 sellouts. The sellout crowds of 17,255 are the largest indoor crowds to ever see the Islanders play at home. 

Sweet Lou

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

1. David Poile 1,505

2. Lou Lamoriello 1,381

3. Glen Sather 1,319

First Things First

The Isles are 12-4-0 when scoring first and are 7-10-2 when allowing the opening goal.  

The Shots

Isles   12-16-15=43

Florida  8-6-10=24

The Isles are 8-6-0 when they outshoot their opponents, 0-0-0 when the shots are even and 10-8-2 when they are outshot. 

In the Nets

Ilya Sorokin made 23 saves; he is 11-11-1 on the season and 3-2-0 vs the Florida. 

Sergei Bobrovsky made 38 saves; he is 7-11-1 on the season and 20-11-0 vs. the Isles.

Special Teams

The Isles were 0-6 on the power play (9:35); Florida was 0-3 on the power play (4:28).

The Isles are 9-8-0 when they score at least one power play goal and 10-6-2 when they do not. The Isles are 10-5-1 when they allow at least one power play goal and 9-9-1 when they do not.

Three is a Magic Number

The Isles are 19-5-1 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 0-9-1 when they do not.

One-Goal Games

The Isles are 6-3-2 in games decided by a single goal including 3-3 in regulation. They are 3-0 in games decided in overtime and are 0-2 in shootouts. The Isles are 4-6 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1-goal game into a 2-goal game.

Back-to-Backs  

The next set of back-to-backs will be at Edmonton on January 5th and Calgary on January 6th.  Including tonight, the Isles are 4-3-0 in the front end and 5-2-0 in the back end. 

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Noah Dobson (21:38);  Florida: Brandon Montour (29:41)

Mathew Barzal led Isles forwards with 21:32 of ice-time. 

Isles record by ice-time leaders: Alexander Romanov (2-1-1), Noah Dobson (3-7-1), Adam Pelech (3-2-0), Ryan Pulock (4-2-0), Scott Mayfield (4-0-0), Brock Nelson (1-0-0), Mathew Barzal (2-1-0), Sebastian Aho (0-1-0).

Face-offs

Isles 22, Florida 25 (47%)

Mathew Barzal won 2 of 3 for the Isles;  Zac Dalpe won 6 of 8 for Florida. 

Hit Count

Isles 16 (Matt Martin -5)

Florida 15 (Givani Smith -4)

Fights 

Matt Martin fought Givani Smith in the first period.  Season total: 13 (Martin-5, Lee-2, Wahlstrom-2, Johnston-2, Cizikas, Romanov)

 

Blocked Shots

Isles 14 (Scott Mayfield -4)

Florida 19 (Marc Staal -5)

For the Analytics Crowd 

Corsi: All situations: Isles 80, Florida 45 

Corsi: 5-on-5: Isles 59, Florida 25

5-on-5 leaders:

Isles: Parker Wotherspoon +21

Florida: none were positive

High Danger Scoring Chances (per Natural Stat Trick)

All situations: Isles 22, Florida 10

5-on-5: Isles 17, Florida 5

Scratches

(Adam Pelech – upper body-IR), (Kyle Palmieri- upper body-IR), (Cal Clutterbuck- upper body-IR), (Semyon Varlamov-IR), (Casey Cizikas-INJ), Ross Johnston, Robin Salo

Games Lost: 43

The Ironman

Zach Parise played in his 117th consecutive Islander game; he has played in every game since joining the team in October 2021.  It is the 24th-longest active streak in the NHL.

Challenges

Isles: 1 successful, 0 failures – STL goalie interference 11/3

Opponents: 0 successful, 0 failures

League reviews: 3 (Isles goal – Salo vs ANA 10/16 – stood; Isles no goal vs NSH 12/2-stood; Isles goal- Martin vs CHI 12/4-awarded)

Quickies

The Isles have scored two goals in under a minute six times this season (five times at home and once on road):

• 0:17 10/29 vs. COL (Mayfield and Beauvillier)

• 0:59 11/7 vs. CGY (Lee and Palmieri)

• 0:22 11/26 vs PHI (Nelson and Beauvillier)

• 0:43 12/4 vs CHI (Parise and Nelson)

• 0:21 12/6 vs STL (Fasching and Pageau)

• 0:34 12/9 @ NJD (Cizikas and Wahlstrom)

Multi-Goal 3rd Period Comeback Wins

The Isles have come from two goals behind after two periods to win three times this season and have not allowed the opposition to do so.

For: Trailed 3-1, Won 5-3 vs. COL 10/29

Trailed 3-1, Won 4-3 (OT) vs CGY 11/7

Trailed 3-1, Won 4-3 at NYR 11/8

Last Minute Heroes:

The Isles have scored two goal and allowed one goal in the final three minutes of the third period that were either the winning goal or forced overtime. 

For(2): Brock Nelson vs COL 10/29 (18:39;EN/GW)

Josh Bailey @ TOR 11/21 (17:02; Isles won in OT)

Vs (1): Kappo Kaako @NYR  12/22 (17:13: GW)

Overtime Winners

For (3): Noah Dobson vs CGY 11/7 (4:02)

Zach Parise vs CBJ 11/12 (0:39) 

Anthony Beauvillier @ TOR 11/21 (1:56)

Shootout Winners

Vs (2):  David Pastrnak vs BOS 12/13

Evan Rodrigues @COL 12/19

All-time Islander Leader Boards:

Games Played (skaters)

1. Bryan Trottier 1,123 *** 2. Denis Potvin 1,060 *** 3. Josh Bailey 1,0243…

7. Mike Bossy 752 *** 8. Matt Martin 719 *** 9. Patrick Flatley 712 *** 10. Brock Nelson 711 *** 11. Casey Cizikas 698… 

14. Derek King 638 *** 15. Anders Lee 631 *** 16. Billy Harris 623 *** 17. Stefan Persson 622 *** 18. Cal Clutterbuck 613

Goals    

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

9. Bobby Nystrom 235 *** 10. Anders Lee 223 *** 11. Brock Nelson 220 *** 12. Derek King 211 *** 13. John Tonelli 206  *** 14 Billy Harris 184 *** 15. Josh Bailey 181

Assists

1. Bryan Trottier 853 *** 2. Denis Potvin 742 *** 3. Mike Bossy 553 *** 4. Josh Bailey 387…

15. Billy Harris 259*** 16. Tomas Jonsson 249 *** 17. Mathew Barzal 248 *** 18. Frans Nielsen and Kyle Okposo 230 *** 20. Brock Nelson 201…

25. Alexei Yashin and Duane Sutter 171 *** 27. Anders Lee 169

Points

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

6.  Brent Sutter 610 *** 7. Josh Bailey 568  …

14. Billy Harris 443 *** 15. Brock Nelson 421 ***  16. Anders Lee 392…

19. Frans Nielsen 349 *** 20. Mathew Barzal 344

+/-

1. Bryan Trottier +467 *** 2. Denis Potvin +456 *** 3. Mike Bossy +380…

15. Bob Lorimer +105 *** 16. Tomas Jonsson +76 *** 17. Garry Howatt +75 *** 18. Adam Pelech +74 *** 19. Pat Price +70 *** 20. JP Parise +67 *** 21. Jude Drouin +58 *** 22. Patrick Flatley +57 *** 23. Greg Gilbert +54   

Defense Goals

1. Denis Potvin 310 *** 2. Tomas Jonsson 84 *** Kenny Jonsson 57…

6. Nick Leddy 45 *** 7. Roman Hamrlik 43 **** 8. Mark Streit and  Ryan Pulock 40 *** 10. Johnny Boychuk *** 11. Adrian Aucoin 33 *** 12. Bryan Berard 31***13. Vladimir Malakhov and Noah Dobson 27

Defense Assists

1. Denis Potvin 742 *** 2. Stefan Persson 317 *** 3. Tomas Jonsson 249…

8. Mark Streit 139 *** 9. Roman Hamrlik 120 *** 10. Ryan Pulock 119…

18. Dave Langevin and Thomas Hickey 95 *** 20. Adam Pelech 92

Defense Points

1. Denis Potvin 1,052 *** 2. Stefan Persson 369 *** 3. Tomas Jonsson 333…

8. Mark Streit 179 *** 9. Ryan Pulock 159…

17. Vladimir Malakhov 125 *** 18. Thomas Hickey 117 *** 19. Adam Pelech 114

Wins

1. Billy Smith 304 *** 2. Glenn Resch 157 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 130…

10. Evgeni Nabokov 57 *** 11. Semyon Varlamov 56 *** 12. Mark Fitzpatrick 51 *** 13. Ilya Sorokin 50

Shutouts

1. Glenn Resch 25 *** 2. Billy Smith 22 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 16 …

4. Tommy Salo 14 ***5. Ilya Sorokin 13 *** 6. Semyon Varlamov and Jaroslav Halak 12 

On the Farm

Bridgeport dropped a 4-3 decision Friday in Hartford in their final game before Christmas.  The Islanders are 14-9-5-0 on the season despite going 1-5-1-0 in the last seven.

Andy Andreoff scored his team-leading 15th goal  while Chis Terry padded his left in both assists (20) and points (26) with a pair of helpers.

Bridgeport hosts Hartford on Tuesday in their final home game of 2022; road games on Wednesday in Lehigh Valley and Springfield on Friday wrap up the calendar year. 

Season Series Stats

Florida wins the season series, 2 games to 1 (and 4 points to 2).   

This was the Isles' first win in their last six games with Florida (1-4-1).

UP NEXT

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 27th  – PITTSBURGH AT ISLANDERS 7:30pm

[MSGSN (pre-game at 7:00), WRHU 88.7 FM, WRCN 103.9FM, ESPN Radio]

After finishing their season series with Colorado, the Rangers and Florida in the last three games, the Isles and Penguins will meet for the first time this season on Tuesday.   The Penguins are one of two division rivals (Washington is the other) that the Isles have not played this season.

Last season the teams split a pair of one-goal games on Long Island, with the Penguins blanking the COVID-laden Isles 1-0 on Black Friday and the Isles earning a 5-4 shootout win in April.  The Isles are 10-5-3 in their last 18 home games with Pittsburgh, while the Penguins have gone 8-8-2 in those same 18 games. 

The Isles hit the Christmas break three points behind the Penguins, although Pittsburgh has two games-in-hand.

And Finally…

As the NHL hits the holiday break, Happy Holidays to all the loyal readers of The Skinny all season long.  Rest up – the next 47 are shaping up to be very interesting!

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