New York Islanders Great Suspension Record in NHL

It seems like we can’t get away from talking about suspensions in the NHL. But for the New York Islanders, suspensions are an absolute rarity. Unlike most NHL teams.

The New York Islanders haven’t had to deal with a suspension since the 2014-15 NHL. That season Matt Martin received a single game suspension for kneeing Trevor Daily. That was a full four seasons ago.

At the rate the NHL is cracking down on a number of infractions, from head-shots to slashes, the suspension might be more prevalent. For every team in the league. That isn’t the case for the New York Islanders.

Looking around at the league and comparing the last time each team received a suspension, the New York Islanders are one of the best at keeping it clean on (and off) the ice.

One of the Best

This question sat in my mind after the NHL Department of Player Safety handed out three two-game suspensions over the course of four days.

Mark Giordano and Ryan Lomberg of the Calgary Flames picked up suspensions for kneeing and for leaving the bench in the final few minutes of the game, respectively. While Tyler Bertuzzi received a two-game suspension for unsportsmanlike conduct while sitting on his team’s bench.

So my simple question was: When was the last time the New York Islanders received a suspension and how did that compare to other teams in the NHL? Were the Islanders one a few or an average team when it came to suspensions?

What I looked at was the last time a team got a suspension and how long of a period there was between today (December 8th and the date of the suspension).

Like I said in the introduction, the last time a New York Islanders player was suspended was back in March of 2015. Matt Martin received a single-game suspension for kneeing Trevor Daily.

Compared to the rest of the NHL only the Carolina Hurricanes and the Minnesota Wild have a better record. The Hurricanes last received a suspension in November of 2013 and the Wild last received a suspension in January of 2015.

The average NHL team received a suspension by October of 2017.

It’s remarkable to think that the Isles haven’t received a suspension since that time. Consider that in that time Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck have thrown 1,239 body checks wearing an Islanders sweater (I didn’t count when Matt Martin was with Toronto for obvious reasons).

You’d think that one of those checks would have been poorly timed or would have missed and caught someone in the knee or in the head or at the very least looked like it was worse than it actually was.

But hasn’t happened. Again, 1,239 hits and not a single suspension. And that’s just considering the play of the Isles two most physical players. That’s not considering the actions of another 18 players on the ice on any given night.

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I was just curious as to how the New York Islanders ranked versus the rest of the NHL and I wasn’t disappointed at all. Hopefully, this serves you well at your next hockey trivia night when you get the unlikely question “when was the last time a New York Islanders player was suspended?”