On Saturday night, the Islanders, Rangers and Sharks all wrapped up their 30th games of the season. The Islanders started their third 10 with 10 of the possible first 12 points before deciding that was enough and dropping 3 straight, salvaging the set with the Home Run Derby win over the Wild. Following up on the look at the first 20, here's games 21-30.
Standings after 30 GPAfter 30 GP, the Islandets sit in 14th in the East, 7 points back of 8th place New Jersey. It would take another 4 game win streak to get to .500. At 30 GP, Ottawa was at .500 and still in 12th place, 3 points out, so getting to 500 is just the first step towards getting into the hunt. Now to look at more than W's and L's... after 30, the NYI are creditied with 69 goals, 29th of 30 teams, ahead of only Los Angeles. 97 pucks have found their way into the gaping maw behind Al Montoya (Mark Streit has assists on 90 of them). Four teams have allowed more in. Our -28 goal differential is bad enough to be the worst in the league, edging out Carolina and Columbus who tallied -27 each. One bright spot is in PIM. The 312 the Islanders have taken (either on their own or via the creative imaginations of the zebras) is the 5th fewest. The wily Coyotes have only been called for 253 minutes, while the Flyers have racked up 480. Special teams haven't been all that special. The PP is just under the NHL average of 17%, checking in at 16.2%. The PK is just below the league average (83% for those who don't want to do the math) with 81%. The Special Teams Index works out to 97.1%. Vancouver leads that at 111.4% while Columbus brings up the rear at 89.6%. When it comes to hitting, after Matt Martin, we are a bunch of lightweights registering 601 hits, or 20 per game. Dallas leads with 864 (nearly 29 per game), while the Sharks seem relatively toothless with only 507 (almost 17 per game). Stats through 30 GP
The 3rd Ten
The Islanders 5-3-2 mark was good enough (or not good enough depending on your point of view) for a 6th place tie in the East. We kept even with the Panthers and lost ground to the Rangers, Jets, Penguins, Bruins and Flyers. We picked up 1 point on Toronto, 2 on New Jersey and Montreal, 3 on Ottawa and Buffalo, 4 on Washington, 5 on Carolina and 6 on Tampa Bay. Standings for games 21-30Moving on to the stats, the Islanders got 31 and gave up 32. The 31 was better than the league average of 29. The 32 was below the league average. The -1 differential rested snugly in the middle, between Vancouver's +23 and Anaheim's -17. As with the overall picture, the 92 PIM incurred was amongst the fewest in the league. Montreal was assessed 74 PIM, and those common street thugs in Winnipeg amassed 203, which averages out to over a period a game for 10 games. The 38 PP chances was slightly above league average (36). The conversion rate, 18.4%, also slides in over the league average of 16.4%. The PK also finished just above average. The 33 times short-handed was better than the average (37) while the defense rate, 84.8%, was just over league average (83.8%). The STI came out to 103.7%, well behind Minnesota's 120.9% and way ahead of the 73.6% registered by San Jose. For hitting, 186 was well below the league average (218). Detroit was the softest at 158, while the Kings made up for their lack of goal scoring with a crunching 292. Stats from Games 21-30