The Skinny: Ottawa 2, Isles 1

"The Skinny"      

By Eric Hornick

Game 50

Ottawa 2, Isles 1

Claude Giroux had a power play goal and added an assist as the Ottawa Senators built a 2-0 lead and defeated the Isles 2-1 before a crowd of 13,980 at Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata, Ontario. 

Brock Nelson scored the only Islander goal, extending his point streak to four games, and giving him the team point lead with 43.

The Isles fall to 23-22-5; they are 0-4-2 in their last six games and 2-8-3 since the calendar turned to 2023.  The Isles will host Detroit on Friday and Vegas Saturday to get them to their Bye Week and the All-Star Game. 

1st Period

Shane Pinto (12) Claude Giroux (26), Jake Sanderson (15) 15:48 NYI 0,OTT 1

2nd Period

Claude Giroux (16) Ridly Greig (1), Jake Sanderson (16) 03:28 NYI 0,OTT 2 PPG

Brock Nelson (18) Kyle Palmieri (5), Sebastian Aho (8) 16:07 NYI 1,OTT 2

3rd Period

No Goals

The Skinny   

The Isles went 0-3 on the power play; they are 0-20 in the last eight games and 3-59 in the last 22 games …The Isles killed 2 of 3 Senator power plays; they have killed 23 of their last 26...The Isles allowed the first goal for only the second time in the last eight games … The Isles have scored fifteen goals in the last nine games (1-5-3); all but four have been scored in the first period…The Isles have not scored a third period goal in a franchise-record eleven straight games (since scoring three in Vancouver) and have been outscored 12-0 in that stretch… The Isles' third period differential is now just +1; the Isles were +16 in the third period through 23 games but are -15 over the last 26 games…Noah Dobson (who did not play for the second 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 nine games; he did win a season-high six faceoffs tonight … Kyle Palmieri had an assist, three shots, eight attempts and three hits…The Isles are one gams over NHL-.500 for the first time since they were 5-4-0 in late October….Anders Lee remains ats 399 career points; he is looking to be the 16th player in club history with 400 points…Matt Martin had five hits, increasing his team-leading total to 187; he is closing in on his eleventh 200 hit season…Ridly Greig made his NHL assist for Ottawa; he assisted on the winning goal and contributed five shots on goal… Casey Cizikas played his 713th game for the Isles, breaking a tie with Patrick Flatley for 10th place on the club's all-time list…The 36 Islander shots were their most in any road game this season...Claude Giroux scored his 25th career goal against the Islanders; Alexander Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are the only other active players with at least 25 goals against New York…Cam Talbot played only 28:05 – the fewest of any goalie to start and win an NHL game since Tristan Jarry played only 20 minutes on March 29, 2021 – also against the Islanders.

The Injury

Cam Talbot removed himself from the game eight minutes into the second period with a lower body injury; he did not return.

Last Year vs. This Year

• 2022-23  23-22-5 for 51 points in 50 games

• 2021-22  20-22-8 for 48 points in 50 games; finished 37-35-10 for 84 points

Offense from Defense

• Today:  0-1-1

• Season: 27-70-97

• Last Season (Final) 32-128-160

The Islander defense have scored 27 goals (Carolina and Florida lead with 30); they didn't score their 27th goal last season until April 19th.  

Sorokin's House

Ilya Sorokin is 22-13-6 all-time at UBS Arena.  His goals against average of 2.08 trails only Frederik Andersen (2.02) among goalies who have made multiple home starts over the last two seasons and his save percentage of .931 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 .929 career save percentage is the best on home ice in NHL history (minimum 40 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 23-22-5 overall; they are 13-9-2 at home and 10-13-3 on the road.

Ottawa is 21-23-2 overall; they are 13-11-1 at home and 8-12-2 on the road.

East and West

The Isles are 13-12-3 against the East (9-5-1 vs. Metropolitan and 4-7-2 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 65 games at UBS Arena and recorded 44 sellouts of 17,255. 

Sweet Lou

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

1. David Poile 1,514

2. Lou Lamoriello 1,386

3. Glen Sather 1,319

First Things First

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

The Shots

Isles     10-12-14=36

Ottawa 14-17-7=38

The Isles are 12-9-1 when they outshoot their opponents, 0-0-0 when the shots are even and 10-13-4 when they are outshot. 

In the Nets

Semyon Varlamov made 36 saves; he is 8-6-1 on the season and 6-5-2 vs Ottawa. 

Cam Talbot made 14 saves before leaving the game with the Sens leading 2-0; he is credited with the win and is now 12-13-1 on the season and 8-3-0 vs. the Isles.  Anton Forsberg made 21 saves in relief.

Special Teams

The Isles were 0-3 on the power play (6:00); Ottawa was 1-3 on the power play (4:30).

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

Three is a Magic Number

The Isles are 21-5-2 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 2-17-3 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  

The next set of back-to-backs will be on January 27th vs Detroit and on January 28th vs. Vegas – that will be the only time this season that the Isles will play home games on consecutive days. The Isles are 4-5-0 in the front end and 5-3-1 in the back end. 

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Ryan Pulock (21:27);  Ottawa: Thomas Chabot (23:28)

Mathew Barzal led Isles forwards with 20:41 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 31, Ottawa 25 (55%)

Mathew Barzal won 6 of 9 for the Isles; Dylan Gambrell won 4 of 6 for Ottawa.

Hit Count

Isles 24 (Matt Martin -5)

Ottawa 17 (Brady Tkachuk-3)

Fights 

Matt Martin fought Austin Watson in the 2nd period. Season total: 14 (Martin-6, Lee-2, Wahlstrom-2, Johnston-2, Cizikas, Romanov)

 

Blocked Shots

Isles 19 (Scott Mayfield -5)

Ottawa 11 (Three with 2)

For the Analytics Crowd 

Corsi: All situations: Isles 63, Ottawa 82

Corsi: 5-on-5: Isles 52, Ottawa 69

5-on-5 leaders:

Isles:  Anders Lee +27

Ottawa:  Rasmus Sandin +9

High Danger Scoring Chances (per Natural Stat Trick)

All situations: Isles 7, Ottawa 21 (including 8-0 in Ottawa's favor in the first period)

5-on-5: Isles 7, Ottawa 18

Scratches

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

Games Lost: 105

The Ironman

Zach Parise played in his 132nd 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 1,039…

7. Mike Bossy 752 *** 8. Matt Martin 734 *** 9. Brock Nelson 726*** 10. Casey Cizikas 713… 

13. John Tavares 669 *** 14. Anders Lee 646 *** 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 229 *** 11. Brock Nelson 223 *** 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 207…

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 430 ***  16. Anders Lee 399 *** 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 +70 *** 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 54

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 improved to 18-16-6-1 with a 6-2 win in Hartford on Wednesday.  Chris Terry scored twice and added an assist while Andy Andreoff scored his 20th goal. 

Andy Andreoff leads the team (and is tied-4th in the AHL) with those 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.

Bridgeport will spend the weekend in Pennsylvania, facing Wilkes Barre-Scranton on Friday and Hershey on Saturday.

Season Series Stats

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

The loss broke a four-game Islander win streak against the Sens; they are still 10-2-0 in their last twelve meetings with Ottawa. 

UP NEXT

FRIDAY, JANUARY 27th  – DETROIT AT ISLANDERS  7:00pm

[ESPN, WRHU 88.7 FM, WRCN 103.9FM, ESPN Radio]

The Isles open their only set of home back-to-back games this season as they entertain the Detroit Red Wings on Friday. It is the second meeting of the season between the teams; Ville Husso blanked the  Isles3-0 in Detroit on November 5th.

Perhaps the Red Wings will be the tonic for the recent Islander scoring troubles.  The Isles have won five straight home games (in three buildings) against the Wings and have scored at least four goals in each of them. 

The game will be nationally telecast on ESPN with John Buccigross, AJ Mleczko and Emily Kaplan on the call. 

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