This Day in Isles History: Jan. 14

Jan. 14, 1988 -Denis Potvin becomes the first defenseman in NHL history to score 300 goals.
Potvin notched his 300th-career goal, on the power play, in the Isles' eventual 8-5 rout over the Quebec Nordiques. Potvin finished his 15-year NHL career with 310 goals and 1,060 points. Only four defensemen have passed Potvin in the NHL all-time leaderboard for career goals by blueliners, Ray Bourque (410), Paul Coffey (396), Al MacInnis (340) and Phil Housley (338).

"It's hard to say what was more important, 300 goals] or breaking the [points] record, which was Bobby Orr's,"
[Potvin said to NHL.com in 2017
. "But obviously that [goals] milestone is the one that really sort of hit that barrier, sort of when I got to 1,000 points. I have both those sticks and I have both those pucks, so those are the milestones that I suppose at the time set the standard."

Jan. 14, 2012 - Evgeni Nabokov becomes the 26th goaltender in NHL history to record 300 wins following the Isles' 4-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres. Nabokov stopped 23-of-25 shots in the win, including a Thomas Vanek penalty shot with 1:24 to play in a 3-2 game. Nabokov went 53-47-18 in three seasons with the Islanders. The Russian goaltender wrapped up his 14-year NHL career with 353 wins through 697-career games played.

Jan. 14, 2021 - The Islanders shut out the New York Rangers 4-0 as they opened up their 2020-21 abbreviated 56-game campaign. The win featured two power-play goals from Brock Nelson and Anders Lee and even-strength goals from Mathew Barzal and Lee, making it a two-goal performance for the Islanders' captain. Semyon Varlamov made 24 saves to record the shutout victory.