The Skinny: Isles 2, Detroit 0

"The Skinny"      

By Eric Hornick

Game 51

Isles 2, Detroit 0

Anders Lee broke a scoreless tie 4:44 into the second period and Ilya Sorokin made 23 saves for his 14th career shutout as the Islanders snapped their six-game losing streak (0-4-2) with a 2-0 victory over the Detroit Red Wings before a sellout crowd of 17,255 at UBS Arena. 

Brock Nelson extended his point streak to five games with an assist on the Lee goal and then raised his team-leading point total to 45 with a third period tally; it ended an Islander 11-game streak of being held scoreless in the third period.

The Isles improve to 24-22-5 and jump ahead of Florida in the wild card race; they are 3-8-3 since the calendar turned to 2023 and find themselves four points behind Pittsburgh for the 2nd Wild Card spot.  The Isles will host Vegas on Saturday to get them to their Bye Week and the All-Star Game. 

The Scoring:

1st Period

No Goals

2nd Period

Anders Lee (18) Kyle Palmieri (6), Brock Nelson (26) 04:44 DET 0,NYI 1

3rd Period

Brock Nelson (19) Kyle Palmieri (7) 04:31 DET 0, NYI 2

The Skinny   

Anders Lee hit 400 career points with his sixth opening goal of the season; he is the 16th player in club history with 400 points… The Isles went 0-4 on the power play; they are 0-24 in the last nine games and 3-63 in the last 22 games …The Isles killed all four Red Wing power plays; they have killed 27 of their last 30 and their NHL-leading home penalty-killers are now 60/66 (90.9%)...The Isles scored the first goal for the seventh time in the last nine games … The Isles have scored seventeen goals in the last ten games (2-5-3); 11 of the 17 have been scored in the first period…The Isles had been outscored 12-0 in their last eleven third periods… The Isles' third period differential is now +2; the Isles were +16 in the third period through 23 games but are -14 over the last 27 games…Noah Dobson (who did not play for the third straight game) and Scott Mayfield remained at 99 points. They are looking to become the 25th and 26th defenseman in club history to reach 100 points…Mathew Barzal has only one point in the last ten games… Kyle Palmieri had two assists, four shots, eight attempts and two hits; he has four assists in three games since returning from his injury… Matt Martin had five hits, increasing his team-leading total to 192; he is closing in on his eleventh 200 hit season…The Isles blanked the Red Wings for the first time since December 23, 2013, when Evgeni Nabokov turned the trick at Joe Louis Arena…The 23 saves are the 4th-fewest Ilya Sorokin has made in a shutout…With their win tonight the Isles are assured of not tying the club record for fewest January wins (2), which was set in January 1973 and equaled in 1994 and 1999.

Game-Opening Goals

Anders Lee's goal was his 49th opening goal, tying Denis Potvin for 3rd place in club history:

• Bryan Trottier 81

• Mike Bossy 64

• Denis Potvin 49

• Anders Lee 49

Lee also recorded his 36th game-winning goal, matching Brock Nelson for 9th place on the club's all-time list.

Best of the Best

Ilya Sorokin recorded his 14th shutout in 109 career starts.  He has recorded a shutout in 12.8% of his starts, which is the best in NHL history (since 1943-44) among goalies with at least 100 starts:

• Ilya Sorokin 12.8%

• Roman Cechmanek 12.2%

• Ken Dryden 11.8%

• Dominik Hasek 11.3%

Last Year vs. This Year

• 2022-23  24-22-5 for 53 points in 51 games

• 2021-22  20-23-8 for 48 points in 51 games; finished 37-35-10 for 84 points.

Offense from Defense

• Today:  0-0-0

• Season: 27-70-97

• Last Season (Final) 32-128-160

The Islander defense have scored 27 goals (Carolina leads with 31); they didn't score their 27th goal last season until April 19th.  

Sorokin's House

Ilya Sorokin is 23-13-6 all-time at UBS Arena.  His goals against average of 2.03 trails only Frederik Andersen (2.02) among goalies who have made more than two home starts over the last two seasons and his save percentage of .932 is the best in the NHL over that span.  Sorokin went 9-1-0 at the Coliseum; he is 31-14-6 in his career at home and his .930 career save percentage is the best on home ice in NHL history (minimum 50 home games).

Zach Attack 

Zach Parise has 421 career goals, good for 9th among actives, and tied with Stephane Richer, Vincent Lecavalier and Steve Thomas for 86th place all-time.  Owen Nolan is 85th with 422 goals and Steve Shutt is 84th with 424 goals.

Home and Road

The Isles are 24-22-5 overall; they are 14-9-2 at home and 10-13-3 on the road.

Detroit  is 21-24-2 overall; they are 13-11-1 at home and 8-13-2 on the road.

East and West

The Isles are 14-12-3 against the East (9-5-1 vs. Metropolitan and 5-7-2 vs. Atlantic) and 10-10-2 against the West (4-7-2 vs. Central and 6-3-0 vs. Pacific).

Home is Where the Fans Are

The Isles have played 66 games at UBS Arena and recorded 45 sellouts of 17,255. 

Sweet Lou

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

1. David Poile 1,515

2. Lou Lamoriello 1,387

3. Glen Sather 1,319

First Things First

The Isles are 16-7-2 when scoring first and are 8-15-3 when allowing the opening goal. 

The Shots

Isles    9-10-9=28

Detroit 5-13-5=23

The Isles are 13-9-1 when they outshoot their opponents, 0-0-0 when the shots are even and 10-13-4 when they are outshot. 

In the Nets

Ilya Sorokin made 23 saves for his 14th career shutout; he is 16-16-4 on the season and 2-1-1 vs Detroit. 

Magnus Hellberg made 21 saves; he is 3-4-1 on the season and 0-1-0 vs. the Isles.  

Special Teams

The Isles were 0-4 on the power play (7:42); Detroit was 0-4 on the power play (7:42).

The Isles are 11-8-1 when they score at least one power play goal and 13-14-4 when they do not. The Isles are 11-10-1 when they allow at least one power play goal and 13-12-4 when they do not.

Three is (Usually) a Magic Number

The Isles are 21-5-2 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 3-17-3 when they do not.

One-Goal Games

The Isles are 8-4-5 in games decided by a single goal including 5-4 in regulation. They are 3-2 in games decided in overtime and are 0-3 in shootouts. The Isles are 4-7 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1-goal game into a 2-goal game.

Back-to-Backs  

This back-to-back set concludes on Saturday vs. Vegas. The next set of back-to-backs will be on February 6th in Philadelphia and on February 7th vs Seattle. Including tonight, the Isles are 5-5-0 in the front end and 5-3-1 in the back end. 

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Adam Pelech (22:59);  Detroit: Moritz Seider (25:18)

Brock Nelson led Isles forwards with 18:58 of ice-time. 

Isles record by ice-time leaders: Alexander Romanov (2-1-1), Noah Dobson (4-10-2), Adam Pelech (3-2-0), Ryan Pulock (5-5-0), Scott Mayfield (6-1-2), Brock Nelson (1-0-0), Mathew Barzal (2-1-0), Sebastian Aho (0-1-0), Tied (0-1-0).

Face-offs

Isles 24, Detroit 26 (48%)

Casey Cizikas won 6 of 8 for the Isles; Andrew Copp won 14 of 20 for Detroit.

Hit Count

Isles 27 (Matt Martin -5)

Detroit 21 (Moritz Seider -6)

Fights 

None. Season total: 14 (Martin-6, Lee-2, Wahlstrom-2, Johnston-2, Cizikas, Romanov)

 

Blocked Shots

Isles 9 (Zach Parise -3)

Detroit 12 (Two with 3)

For the Analytics Crowd 

Corsi: All situations: Isles 56, Detroit 44

Corsi: 5-on-5: Isles 44, Detroit 24

5-on-5 leaders:

Isles:  Ryan Pulock +12

Detroit:  Three with Even

High Danger Scoring Chances (per Natural Stat Trick)

All situations: Isles 20, Detroit 8

5-on-5: Isles 17, Detroit 4

Scratches

Oliver Wahlstrom-IR), (Hudson Fasching- IR), (Cal Clutterbuck – IR), (Noah Dobson -INJ), Ross Johnston, Parker Wotherspoon

Games Lost: 109

The Ironman

Zach Parise played in his 133rd consecutive Islander game; he has played in every game since joining the team in October 2021. It is the 20th-longest active streak in the NHL.  

Challenges

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

Opponents: 1 successful, 0 failures – PIT offside 12/27

League reviews: 4 (Isles goal – Salo vs ANA 10/16 – stood; Isles no goal vs NSH 12/2-stood; Isles goal- Martin vs CHI 12/4-awarded; MIN goal (Gaudreau) 1/12 – 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)

Vs. (2): Dimitry Orlov Vs WAS 1/16 (4:27)

Dylan Cozens @ BUF 1/19 (0:12)

Shootout Winners

Vs (3):  David Pastrnak @ BOS 12/13

Evan Rodrigues @ COL 12/19

Jason Robertson Vs DAL 1/10

All-time Islander Leader Boards:

Games Played (skaters)

1. Bryan Trottier 1,123 *** 2. Denis Potvin 1,060 *** 3. Josh Bailey 1,040…

7. Mike Bossy 752 *** 8. Matt Martin 735 *** 9. Brock Nelson 727*** 10. Casey Cizikas 714… 

13. John Tavares 669 *** 14. Anders Lee 647 *** 15. Derek King 638 *** 16. Billy Harris 623 *** 17. Stefan Persson 622 *** 18. Cal Clutterbuck 621

Goals    

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

9. Bobby Nystrom 235 *** 10. Anders Lee 230 *** 11. Brock Nelson 224 *** 12. Derek King 211 *** 13. John Tonelli 206  *** 14 Billy Harris 184 *** 15. Josh Bailey 182

Assists

1. Bryan Trottier 853 *** 2. Denis Potvin 742 *** 3. Mike Bossy 553 *** 4. Josh Bailey 392…

15. Billy Harris 259*** 16. Mathew Barzal 251 *** 17. Tomas Jonsson 249 *** 18. Frans Nielsen and Kyle Okposo 230 *** 20. Brock Nelson 208…

23. Ed Westfall 181 *** 24. Kenny Jonsson 175 *** 25. Alexei Yashin and Duane Sutter 171 *** 27. Anders Lee 170

Points

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

6.  Brent Sutter 610 *** 7. Josh Bailey 574  …

14. Billy Harris 443 *** 15. Brock Nelson 432 ***  16. Anders Lee 400 *** 17. Kyle Okposo and Stefan Persson 369…19. Mathew Barzal 353

+/-

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 +72 *** 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 121…

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 161…

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

23. Scott Lachance and Ken Morrow 105 *** 25. Noah Dobson and Scott Mayfield 99

Wins

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

10. Evgeni Nabokov 57 *** 11. Semyon Varlamov 56 *** 12. Ilya Sorokin 55

Shutouts

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

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

On the Farm

Bridgeport is 18-16-6-1 heading into a pair of games this weekend in Pennsylvania, facing Wilkes Barre-Scranton on Saturday and Hershey on Sunday.

Andy Andreoff leads the team (and is tied-5th in the AHL) with 20 goals, while Chis Terry continues to lead in assists (27) and points (39).   William Dufour has 14 goals and is tied-4th among AHL rookies; Dufour has points in 10 of his last 13 games.

Season Series Stats

The season series is tied, 1 game to 1 (and 2 points to 2). The teams will meet again at UBS Arena on March 4th to close out the season series.

The Isles have now won six straight home games (in three buildings) against the Wings. 

UP NEXT

SATURDAY, JANUARY 28th  – VEGAS AT ISLANDERS  7:30pm

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

The Isles look the sweep the season series from the Golden Knights as they welcome Vegas to UBS Arena to conclude their only set of home back-to-back games this season.  The Isles beat the Knights 5-2 in December. 

The Isles are 2-0-1 in their last three games vs. Vegas and are 5-3-1 in nine overall meetings with Vegas.

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