LHinks: Lottery Day & lots at play

My brother, a rational man -- and also my attorney (but I contradict myself) -- will nonetheless occasionally buy a lottery ticket. When he confesses this bit of curious behavior to me, I like to remind him that his chances of winning are roughly equal to my chances of being mauled by a cheetah while crossing the street in front of my home. Not likely, but remotely conceivable -- and life-altering in any case.

Thankfully, the Islanders' chances of winning tonight's NHL draft lottery are a little better -- although I'm not ruling out a cheetah sprinting by to rip the prize out of Garth Snow's hands and somehow disqualifying the Islanders.

While we've long, long known the important number tonight is 48.2%, the league keeps emphasizing 25%. I think it's their way of saying, "But non-winners can be winners, too!" They want to excite the teams who are higher than 25th place, even if "winning" the lottery will not deliver them #1.

Anyway, we'll have a lottery thread up tonight for the Live. Lottery. Low-down! Domestic bliss permitting, I'll live-blog the anticlimactic event. I'll also post playoff picks tomorrow, to share who I think will win each round (hint: Not the Rangers) and divulge who I want to win (hint: Not the Rangers).

Meantime, some pertinent links:

• As we noted last night, Snow is ruling nothing out, including a trade of the pick, even if it's the 1st. No point in rushing when there are Waddells and Lawtons out there who might do something ... unsound.
• The second third-best lottery candidate removed its GM before he could attend the party. Looks like Colorado might not bring back Tony Granato, either.
• Botta got thoughts on the draft from {gulp} Pierre McGuire. ROAR!
• Mark Streit will indeed play at the Worlds for Team Swtizerland, which is host (in hindsight, it was silly to think he'd ever miss it). James Mirtle has a little on Team Canada's early roster.
• Logan had Snow's non-comment on why DiPietro was seen on crutches. {Sigh} already vented on this tendency in my Islanders end-of-season awards post.
• The NHLer with the largest stick ever has passed away.
• SBN will have a playoff hub up, similar to the Trade Deadline hub we did this year, but here's a nice quick reference with links to the SBN blog of each playoff team.