Happy End of Holiday Weekend. Mondays stink -- but they're a little better when they're actually Tuesdays.

Islanders players are skating on Long Island. John Tavares has arrived. In four days, they'll be skating in Saskatoon. In six days, they'll be playing a game in Vancouver -- televised (on NHL Network). This is really happening: The season is really around the corner. We're about to sort our Joensuus from our Martins from our DiBenedettos. Respect. (P.S. How the hell do you get to Saskatoon?)

If you missed it, we had a few things to consider around here this past weekend, from fawning over grading Mark Streit to comparing today to the Season Previews of 15 years ago, to commending former Penalty Shot Zeus Shawn Bates on his Colorado tryout invite. And via FanPost, a bit of dreaming about what the end of Garth Snow's rebuild plan might look like.

Elsewhere:

• Did I mention John Tavares has arrived and is skating with teammates? [Newsday]
• I kinda get the feeling that Matt Martin really wants to make the club, and really won't be offering any hometown discount when it's his turn to get paid. [IslandersPointBlank]
• A former Islanders captain is still looking for a team. Screw you, Darcy Tucker. [Buffalo News]
• B.D. expands on the Lighthouse-stalling news from the weekend. As with yesterday's LHinks about Nick's bit, I feel like I'm going to use that phrase again a time or two. [Islanders Independent]
• Not totally Isles-related, but Chris Botta at Fanhouse has great thoughts from Pens coach Dan Bylsma on his approach to the job and sudden rise from deposed Isles assistant to Pens ubermensch.
• Not at all Isles-related, but the Stefan Legein story is really interesting. Good on the Blue Jackets prospect for calling timeout when needed -- and good on him for coming back when he thought the time was right.

Look for more previews and history and report cards and general jibber-jabber this week. The discussions have been great, so keep it up -- and newbies and lurkers: Jump in at any time. Gotta get our navel-gazing and big picture musing in before the actual games narrow our focus to the usual "stick it up Koharski's..." fare.