Islanders Pre-Season Esoteric #1

Welcome to the 2007-2008 Pre-season Islanders Esoteric or should I say the Post 2006-2007 Season Esoteric. We lost 13 players that played on the team at some point last year and it has made for interesting number crunching and a rebuild of my database.

To start off I am going to focuse on Yashin, Blake and Asham. These guys were the top three in many categories and I feel they need to be separated from the others.

As always, if you see a mistake please let me know. We are pushing upwards of 411 players that have ever suited up for the Islanders so there is a lot of information. Tie that with many sources that have errors as well. One of the toughest things to deal with is Ties, Overtime Losses and Shootout Losses but we will deal with it as we come to those points.

Without further adieu I present the Preseason Esoteric thanking those that have wore the Islander Blue and Orange for their service and good luck in their futures.

Islanders Esoteric PreSeason #1

We all know the story of Alexi Yashin so I will not rehash it here. We know Jason left for “bluer” pastures in the great white north. Aaron Asham moved onto Jersey to spend time with Brent Sutter. I bring Brent’s name up because his brother, Duane, appears several times in the beging portions of the Esoteric.

Keep in mind that Duane played in 547 games for the Islanders and his “Esoteric-mate” Mariusz Czerkawski played in 470 games.

Alexi played in 346 games and holds the #41st spot on the all-time games played list. He is 2 Goals and 2 Points behind Duane for the #19th spot and #20 spot with 119 Goals and 290 Points scored, respectively. He is tied with Duane at #19 all time in Assists with 171 Assists. Mariusz and Alexi are tied at #10 all-time in Power Play Goals, both with 47 PPG. Mr. Alt is at #71 overall and 3 Penalty Minutes behind fellow comrade, Oleg Kvasha with 179 PIMs.

Wow! Both Oleg and Chow mentioned early on.

Jason Blake played 426 games on the Island and is now #30th all time in games played as an Islander, 24 games behind Scotty Lachance. He is 18 Goals behind Mariusz. He is solely at #17th with 127 Goals scored during his tenure on the Island. His 131 Assists actually gets him inside the top 30 at #29th overall. Combined scoring for him gives Jason 258 Points and ties him with Britain born, Steve Thomas, at #22 on the all-time Points scored roster. He scored 31 Power Play Goals and is tied with Mikko Makela at #20 all-time in PPGs. His 268 PIMs gets him at the #47th spot for sitting in the sin bin.

Aaron Asham, who a lot of people feel to be the hardest loss of the off-season. He played in 300 games for us and made it into the top 50 of all players who played for the Islanders, tied with Hamrlik. His 47 Goals good enough for #54 spot ties him with Reichel, Dave Stewart and Michael Peca. His 58 Assists gets him to #72 on that list and his 105 Points gets him to #64 on the Points list tied with Kenny Morrow and Scotty Lachance (getting his second mention in this Esoteric). Aaron was the active leader in Penalty Minutes with 315PIMs. He leaves us at the #40th spot a mere 3 PIMs behind Bert Marshall.

I want to slow things down for a moment and talk about a guy that wasn’t here for very long but stirred quite a few emotions and may have been the catalyst that got us into the playoffs last year.

Ryan Smith was here for a total of 18 regular season games and for as prolific as he was it only rates him at #279th overall in games played with the Isles. He scored 5 goals for #173rd and tied with 11 others including Bergenheim. Ryan’s 10 Assists got him to #178th all-time on the Assists list and again tied him with 11 others including Gervais and Tambellini. Now check this out, there was another guy that was here for a brief stay with 27 games played, that brought to the Island just as many emotions to the table and is probably the most hated Islander of all time*, Kirk Muller. Ryan and Kirk are tied at #175th all-time in Points with 15 Points. Ryan sat in the penalty box 7 times while he was here to contemplate how bad he was for 14 PIMs and #247th all-time.

*Incidentally, I had an opportunity to sit with Kirk Muller at the World Championships in Germany some years ago. I got to see his side of the story in relation to Don Maloney and Mike Milbury. I for one, having heard his side, think he has gotten a bad wrap. But hey that’s just my opinion and you can’t change history or what people believe, can you?

I have 9 more players to tackle and I will take them on in the Pre-season Esoteric #2 later on in this week.

Hope all is well and please let me know if you see any errors.

Esoteric Focus

Mikko Makela

News Article blast from the past