“The Skinny”
By Eric Hornick
Game 10
Rangers 4, Isles 1
JT Miller scored his first two career goals and Henrik Lundqvist made 27 saves as the New York Rangers handed the Islanders their third straight loss, defeating the Islanders 4-1 before a sellout crowd of 17,200 at Madison Square Garden.
The Scoring:
1st Period
01:29 NYR J. Miller (1) Snap - ASST: C. Kreider (1) AND M. Staal (4) 1 - 0 NYR
14:04 NYR M. Gaborik (6) Wrist - ASST: M. Staal (5) AND B. Richards (7) 2 - 0 NYR
2nd Period
11:13 NYI J. Tavares (5) Snap - ASST: M. Moulson (6) AND J. Finley (1) 2 - 1 NYR
18:11 NYR PPG - J. Miller (2) Snap - ASST: R. McDonagh (1) 3 - 1 NYR
3rd Period
17:52 NYR EN - R. McDonagh (1) Wrist - ASST: NONE 4 - 1 NYR
The Skinny: The Rangers have won eight straight over the Islanders at Madison Square Garden for the first time in the long rivalry between the teams, outscoring the Isles 35-11; the Isles’ eight-game winless streak at MSG matches the club mark set in the team’s first eight visits to Manhattan … Miller became the first Ranger since Don Murdoch (1976) to score two goals in his first game on Garden ice … The Isles went 0-for-5 on the power play, dropping to 0-for-19 over the last three games; it’s the first time since October 17-22, 2002 that the Isles have failed on at least 19 power plays in three consecutive games … Joe Finley recorded his first NHL point; Chris Kreider recorded his first regular season assist … John Tavares tied Michael Grabner for the team lead in goals (5). It was his 214th career point, breaking a tie with Jean Potvin and Garry Howatt and allowing him to match Mark Parrish for 31st place on the franchise all-time scoring list … The Rangers had scored only four first period goals in their first nine games.
The Shots:
Isles 8-9-11=28
Rangers 10-8-7=25
Home and Road
The Islanders are 4-5-1 overall, 1-3-0 at home and 3-2-1 on the road. It’s the first time since the Isles lost the season opener that they have fallen under .500.
The Rangers are 5-5-0 overall, 4-2-0 at home and 1-3-0 on the road.
In the Nets
Evgeni Nabokov made 21 saves but falls to 4-4-1 on the season. Nabokov is now 6-7-1 in his career against the Rangers.
Henrik Lundqvist made 27 saves as he improves to 4-5-0 on the season and 25-11-5 against the Islanders.
Power Plays
The Isles went 0-for-5 on the power play while the Rangers were 1-for-2. The Isles have allowed a power play goal in each of their last three games.
They Said It
Evgeni Nabokov: “It seems like sometimes we are satisfied to be in close games, but there’s enough talent in here to work hard and win games. We need to start better, and that starts with me and it goes along the line with everybody. That’s the bottom line.”
They Tweeted It
@JesseSpector: Rick Nash has a potential goal wiped out because the whistle blew. For once, may have been the right call. Looked like Nabokov had control.
The Coach
"We bailed on a few plays along the wall--nothing bothers me more than that"
Head of the Class
John Tavares has 214 career points; he is 55 points ahead of Matt Duchene for most among 2009 draft picks. No other player in that draft is anywhere close. Tavares also has more goals and more assists than any other player in that draft.
Friends, Friends, Friends
Matt Moulson has four goals this season; John Tavares has earned an assist on two of them. Tavares has now been on ice for 64 consecutive Moulson goals, earning assists on 42 of them, dating back to a Moulson goal on November 17, 2010 against Tampa Bay.
107 NHL Goals
Moulson has 107 career goals (101 as an Islander). While 262 players were selected before the Penguins chose Moulson in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft, only 17 have more goals.
Road Warrior
All four of Matt Moulson’s goals this season have come on the road. Scoring on the road is nothing new for Moulson; 23 of his 36 goals last season also came on the road. Only Steven Stamkos (24) had more.
Leading Ice Men
Marc Streit led the Isles with 25:51. Anton Stralman led the Rangers with 26:41 (one second less than his career high, set March 2, 2012 at Tampa Bay).
In the Circle
The Islanders won 23 draws; the Rangers won 25. Frans Nielsen won 4-of-7 for the Isles; Derek Stepan won 12-of-20 for the Rangers.
Heavy Hitters
The Islanders were out-hit 34-23; Colin McDonald led the Isles with seven hits. There were no fights, leaving the season total at six.
All-time Winners
The Islanders fall to one game over .500 all-time (1351-1350-433 in 3134 games). The Isles twice last season fell one game below .500. Prior to that, they had not been below .500 since they were 177-178-83 before their victory on January 16, 1978.
4 is a Magic Number
The Isles are 4-0-1 when scoring at least four goals and 0-5-0 when scoring two or less. (The Isles have not scored exactly three goals in any game so far this season.)
Local Yokels
The Isles are in the midst of a stretch in which they will play nine consecutive games in the New York area (six at home, two at MSG, and one in New Jersey). The Isles are 1-3-0 so far in this stretch, with one game at MSG, and home games against Buffalo, Carolina, New Jersey and Philadelphia remaining.
Ironmen
Matt Moulson, the Isles’ reigning ironman, has played in all 256 games since joining the team. Moulson’s streak is the longest for an Islander in the Post-Cup era and the fourth-longest in club history. Billy Harris played in the first 576 games in Islander history; that figure still stands as the club record.
Three other Islanders (Frans Nielsen, John Tavares and Mark Streit) also played in every game last season. Tavares extended his streak to 169 consecutive games, while Nielsen and Streit have each played in 92.
Longest Consecutive Game Streaks, Islander History
1. Billy Harris 576
2. Bob Nystrom 301
3. Denis Potvin 262
4. Matt Moulson 256
Missing Men
Lubomir Visnovsky passed his physical, was added to the active roster, but was scratched as was Casey Cizikas and Matt Carkner; Radek Martinek is on Injured Reserve. Josh Bailey and Jesse Joensuu remain suspended after suffering injuries in Europe; however Bailey is skating with the team.
List Time
Career Wins, Active Goalies
1. Martin Brodeur 661
2. Roberto Luongo 341
3. Nikolai Khabibulin 328
4. Evgeni Nabokov 316
5. Miikka Kiprusoff 313
Career Wins
21. Sean Burke 324
22. Evgeni Nabokov 316
23. Miikka Kiprusoff 313
Career Goals as an Islander
22 Benoit Hogue 105
22 Ed Westfall 105
24 Matt Moulson 101
24 Anders Kallur 101
26 Trent Hunter 99
32 Travis Green 92
33 John Tavares 89
34 Butch Goring 87
Career Assists as an Islander – active players
1 John Tavares 125
2 Frans Nielsen 121
3 Mark Streit 120
4 Kyle Okposo 95
Career Games as an Islander (skaters)
48 Shawn Bates 330
49 Frans Nielsen 329
50 Eric Cairns 327
51 Alan Kerr 326
59 Arron Asham 300
59 Roman Hamrlik 300
61 Josh Bailey 292
62 Gord Dineen 287
63 Jeff Norton 282
64 Kyle Okposo 281
65 Steve Thomas 275
70 Matt Moulson 256
71 Pierre Turgeon 255
72 John Tavares 253
73 Jude Drouin 250
74 Mark Streit 248
75 Brad Isbister 247
75 Brendan Witt 247
77 Sean Bergenheim 246
Career Points as an Islander
31 Mark Parrish 214
31 John Tavares 214
33 Jean Potvin 213
33 Garry Howatt 213
35 Anders Kallur 211
36 Marty McInnis 198
40 Lorne Henning 184
41 Matt Moulson 180
42 Frans Nielsen 175
43 Randy Wood 172
44 Claude Lapointe 171
44 JP Parise 171
46 Shawn Bates 170
47 Jude Drouin 169
48 Dave Scatchard 168
49 Miroslav Satan 166
50 Kyle Okposo 165
51 Oleg Kvasha 158
52 Mark Streit 156
53 Alan Kerr 154
Season Series Stats
The Rangers lead the season series one game to zero (two points to zero). The teams will meet again on February 14 at the Garden and March 7 and April 13 at the Coliseum.
Happy Anniversary
1 year ago today (2-7-12): The Islanders didn’t score through 65 minutes but still won, as Evgeni Nabokov made 45 saves to defeat the Philadelphia Flyers 1-0 in a shootout.
All-time, the Isles are 7-9-3 on this date, although they have lost three of the last four.
On The Farm
Bridgeport is 20-19-2-3. The Sound Tigers will host Portland Saturday night and Worcester Sunday afternoon.
Up Next
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9 BUFFALO AT ISLANDERS (7:00PM)
[MSG+ (Pre-game show at 6:30PM), WRHU (88.7FM)]
The Islanders and Sabres meet for the first of three times this season at the Coliseum on Saturday night.
The Sabres won the season series two games to one (and four points to three) last season. Each team won once in regulation and the Sabres also defeated the Isles in a shootout.
And Finally…
With bad weather headed our way, you might be interested to know that the last Islander game postponed due to weather was on March 13, 1993 when snow prevented the Isles from hosting the Pittsburgh Penguins. That game was played the next day, which was the day the Rangers’ JT Miller was born. (The storm caused the rescheduling of several other Islander games as well.)
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.
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