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Goalie Shutouts in New York Islanders History

Wingspan of Thor
Wingspan of Thor

Some fun from The Skinny at the Islanders official site:

Anders Nilsson is the first Islanders goaltender to record a shutout for his first NHL win. He is the youngest Islanders goaltender since Roberto Luongo to record a shutout and the first NHL goalie to record his first NHL game [sic, win] by shutout since Al Montoya did so for Phoenix on April 1, 2009.

Later in that post: "Of the 44 goalies in Islanders history, Nilsson is the 25th to record at least one shutout."

He just needs one more to tie the legendary Yann Danis. You now what that means: Time to surf history.

Actually, one more bit of trivia from that post before we dig into the full list: It's reported as only the seventh 1-0 home win in Islanders history. You'll have to click through to see the others with dates, but they hint at them:

The three winningest goalies in Isles history each own one of them; the other four were won by the only three Swedish netminders to ever start a game for the team.

Hail to the Swedes!

Islanders Goalies with Shutouts

Here's the full list of Islanders goaltenders who have put up shutouts. Nilsson et al have some catching up to do, but hey, one great year and you can be in Hrudey or Healy country:

# Player Cur. Team Franchise From To NYI GP W L T OT SA GA GAA Saves Sv% SO TOI
1 Glenn Resch
NYI 1973-1974 1980-1981 282 157 69 47
*
699 2.56 *
*
25 16,408:00
2 Billy Smith
NYI 1972-1973 1988-1989 675 304 230 104 1 *7,181 2,008 3.16 *6,364 *
22 38,129:28
3 Rick DiPietro NYI NYI 2000-2001 2011-2012 315 130 133 8 31 8,832 859 2.86 7,973 .903 16 18,022:30
4 Tommy Salo
NYI 1994-1995 1998-1999 187 62 94 21 5 5,000 488 2.77 4,512 .902 14 10,567:47
5 Kelly Hrudey
NYI 1983-1984 1988-1989 241 106 90 26 2 7,115 787 3.47 6,328
6 13,616:23
6 Chris Osgood
NYI 2001-2002 2002-2003 103 49 39 10 4 2,639 253 2.65 2,386 .904 6 5,735:45
7 Ron Hextall
NYI 1993-1994 1993-1994 65 27 26 6 1 1,801 184 3.08 1,617 .898 5 3,580:37
8 Glenn Healy
NYI 1989-1990 1992-1993 176 66 79 21 4 5,122 564 3.45 4,558 .890 4 9,811:41
9 Garth Snow
NYI 2001-2002 2005-2006 127 44 52 12 5 3,196 309 2.76 2,887 .903 4 6,718:19
10 Wade Flaherty
NYI 1997-1998 2000-2001 60 15 26 6 1 1,351 139 2.84 1,212 .897 4 2,940:55
11 Mark Fitzpatrick
NYI 1988-1989 1992-1993 129 51 53 17 4 3,856 420 3.41 3,436 .891 3 7,394:45
12 Tommy Soderstrom
NYI 1994-1995 1996-1997 78 19 34 9 3 2,087 237 3.61 1,850 .886 3 3,940:08
13 Evgeni Nabokov NYI NYI 2011-2012 2011-2012 35 16 16 0 1 985 79 2.41 906 .920 2 1,964:13
14 Yann Danis EDM NYI 2008-2009 2008-2009 31 10 17 0 3 933 84 2.86 849 .910 2 1,760:07
15 Roland Melanson
NYI 1980-1981 1984-1985 136 77 34 14
2,592 400 3.14 2,338
1 7,639:00
16 Dwayne Roloson TBL NYI 2009-2010 2010-2011 70 29 31 0 8 2,184 198 2.90 1,986 .909 1 4,103:18
17 Eric Fichaud
NYI 1995-1996 1997-1998 75 19 34 9 3 1,978 199 3.14 1,779 .899 1 3,800:08
18 Al Montoya NYI NYI 2010-2011 2011-2012 42 15 11 0 10 1,170 101 2.56 1,069 .914 1 2,371:10
19 Joey MacDonald DET NYI 2007-2008 2008-2009 51 14 27 0 7 1,657 163 3.36 1,494 .902 1 2,912:43
20 Kevin Weekes
NYI 1999-2000 1999-2000 36 10 20 4 1 1,173 115 3.41 1,058 .902 1 2,025:34
21 John Vanbiesbrouck
NYI 2000-2001 2000-2001 44 10 25 5 2 1,177 120 3.01 1,057 .898 1 2,389:56
22 Martin Biron NYR NYI 2009-2010 2009-2010 29 9 14 0 4 859 89 3.27 770 .896 1 1,634:07
23 Felix Potvin
NYI 1998-1999 1999-2000 33 7 21 4 2 977 105 3.35 872 .892 1 1,879:07
24 Roberto Luongo VAN NYI 1999-2000 1999-2000 24 7 14 1 0 730 70 3.25 660 .904 1 1,292:23
25 Anders Nilsson NYI NYI 2011-2012 2011-2012 3 1 1 0 0 77 8 3.01 69 .896 1 159:26

*Data incomplete for the old-timers, obviously

Does it seem like 44 goalies is a small number of total goalies for a franchise in its 40th year? I'd have expected it to be larger -- and would expect Nilsson to be more than the 25th goalie to record an Islanders shutout.

But I guess that's what having stability like Chico Resch and Billy Smith in the nets will do.

The '90s were a constant turnstile of goalies coming in and out, and Bossy knows the seasons since 2008 haven't been much different. That's how you end up with Nilsson, Biron, McDonald, Montoya, Roloson, Danis and Nabokov all making that list.

Despited his limited action in recent years, Rick DiPietro also belongs on that recent post-2008 list. His last shutout was Nov. 26, 2010. Against the Devils, of course.