| Islanders (28-32-9) |
Canucks (43-23-3) | ||||
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AT |
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| Time | 7:00 PM PST |
TV | Sportsnet Pacific |
| Season Series | 0 - 0 |
Last Meeting | 2-1 Islanders (SO) (11-17-08) |
| The Enemy | Lighthouse Hockey | Scoring Leaders | H. Sedin: 28-65-93 Okposo: 14-28-42 |
| Islanders | Category | Canucks |
| 12th | Conference Position | 3rd |
| 4-5-1 |
Last 10 | 7-2-1 |
| 2.51 (26th) |
Goals Per Game | 3.26 (2nd) |
| 3.01 (24th) |
Least Goals Against Per Game | 2.51 (8th) |
| .83 (28th) |
5 On 5 GF/GA | 1.31 (2nd) |
| 15.8 (26th) |
Power Play % |
21.3 (5th) |
| 76.0 (28th) | Penalty Kill % |
81.3 (18th) |
|
30.7 (11th) |
Shots Per Game |
30.5 (12th) |
| 31.6 (23rd) |
Least Shots Against Per Game | 29.0 (7th) |
| 61.3 (22nd) |
Winning % When Scoring First | 81.3 (2nd) |
| 56.0 (29th) |
Winning % When Leading After 1 | 87.5 (3rd) |
| 23.7 (25th) |
Winning % When Trailing After 1 | 45.9 (4th) |
| 79.3 (23rd) |
Winning % When Leading After 2 | 96.4 (3rd) |
| 3.2 (28th) |
Winning % When Trailing After2 |
37.0 (1st) |
| 48.2 (25th) |
Faceoffs % | 51.4 (6th) |
| 10.7 (4th) |
Least PIM's Per Game | 15.4 (26th) |
| -16 (24th) | + / - GF/GA (see here) |
+42 (2nd) |
Update: Tanner Glass in, Darcy Hordichuk out. Good. Andrew Alberts gets another look and Shane O'Brien sits again. "They haven't told me anything" SOB said today. Well then read the papers, man!
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Personally, I didn't even know that Kyle Okposo was leading the Islanders in scoring. That's how much I pay attention to them. I was shocked that John Tavares was 4th in team scoring and a team-worst -18. What I do know is that the Islanders are not the Eastern Conference basement team that I thought they would be. They are 8 points up on the lowly Leafs and 8 points away from the 8th place Bruins.
Some guy named Matt Moulson has 25 goals and leads the team in that category. Moulson..... drafted in the 9th round by the Penguins in 2003, 26 years old and claimed as a free agent by the Islanders 9 days after free agency opened last summer. Sometimes all a guy needs is to play on the top line for a shitty team to show the world what he is made of. Good on him.
The Islanders are finally rising from the depths of NHL basement hell yet remain an anomaly. Consider their last 7 games: 3-3-1. The wins came over Chicago (yea!), New Jersey (wha?) and Toronto (that makes sense). The losses were at the hands of Philly, Boston, Atlanta and St. Louis. You know these guys are playing their guts out, as nobody gives them a hope in hell. So then you know that teams take them for granted. Let's hope the Canucks don't do that tonight.
So who's rolling for the Isles in their last 5 games?
-Blake Comeau had 5 assists.
-Richard Park and Josh Bailey each had 1 goal and 3 assists
-Matt Moulson had 3 goals
-Franz Nielsen and Mark Streit each had 1 goal and 2 assists
-Kyle Okposo and Jon Sim each had 1 goal and 1 assist.
-John Tavares had 1 piddly goal in those 5 games.
-Dwayne Roloson played in 3 of those games, Martin Biron in 2. I wonder if Rolie plays against the Canucks because he is more familiar with them. Also, Biron is 5-12-3 for the Isles this season while Roloson is 21-15-6. Impressive stats by a 40-year-old who most people thought was done after his days in Edmonton.
-Can Kesler keep his point streak alive? He has recorded points in 13 straight games and has scored 6 goals and 9 assists in that span.
-The Sedins like it at home. Combined they have 3 goals and 4 assists in the Canucks' first 2 games back at the Garage. They have come out flying in both games.
-Mikael Samuelsson has 10 goals and 4 assists in his last 10 games. What a killer!
The Canucks can pull within 3 points of 2nd place Chicago with a win, but the Hawks will have 2 games in hand.
Alright, some videos for you:
1. If you're old enough like me, you have a really big reason to hate the Islanders. Think 1982:
2. Sergei Shirokov scores his 2nd goal of the night in a 2-1 Canucks win over the Islanders in Terrace BC.
3. What happened the last time these 2 teams played a regular season game? Cover your eyes and ears!
Go Canucks go! Keep rollin'!