Last night I was a guest along with other SBN Atlantic bloggers on Blueshirt Banter's blogtalkradio show, and when they asked for Atlantic predictions I had to take a moment to think. Of course I should have prepared, as a season preview show is going to ask for predictions. But I just don't think that way. (For the record, I said PIT-PHI-NJ-NYI-NYR -- like hell I was going to put the Smurfs over the Isles on a Ranger fan show.)

I stumble over predictions for standings order because it's hard enough guessing what your own team will do with all the unpredictable injuries and turns a season provides. (Usually, you don't get three major ones before camp closes.) Add every other team into the mix and my thoughts go like this: "Well, it depends: Is Andrei Markov going to tear a tendon in the first game or not?" "Who will be this year's freak Cam Ward injury?"

A month ago we were talking about the Islanders' playoff chances (where WebBard went for the cluster approach over a straight standings order). Discussion quickly turned -- this is before last week's injury carnage mind you -- to health. One of the early comments even began: "Its amazing how much a factor health is in sports!!!" Yep, health.

We can't control for health except for those injuries already known, but we're going to make some community predictions anyway, and hopefully these are general enough not to put a hex on anyone like we did Mark Streit and Kyle Okposo. The idea for this post was JP's (VA chapter, not NY chapter). Categories after the jump, plus latest links.

Islanders Most/Best/Superlatives Poll

First off, I apologize for not being able to construct an easier poll form. If you'd prefer I do a Google Docs type of setup, let me know and next time I'll join the 21st century put WebBard right on it.

But this should work for now (and if you have additional categories, throw those in comments and we'll see if they have legs):

Which Islander in 2010-11 will have:

1. The most points? (last year: Tavares, 54)

2. Most goals? (last year: Moulson, 30)

3. Most assists? (last year: Streit, 38)

4. Best +/-? (last year: Bailey, +5)

5. Most PIMs? (last year: Tim Jackman, 98)

6. Highest TOI per game -- both defense and forward (last year: Streit-25:41, Okposo-20:32)

7. Best GAA? (last year: DiPietro, 2.60)

8. Best save percentage? (last year: Roloson, .907)

9. Most shorthanded goals? (last year: Sean Bergenheim, 2)

10. Most powerplay goals? (last year: Tavares, 11)

BONUS (late add, via MTBVibe): Which defenseman scores the most goals?

BONUS 2: Who plays more NHL games this year -- Nino, Hamonic or Matt Martin?

Give your answers in comments, and we'll tally them up and look back on them in April, I mean May, I mean June.

Links: Grabner Lands, Lawson Lingers, Bridgeport All-Decade Team Starring Frans the Magnificent

Here are your savory links:

• Michael Grabner says the right things about his new opportunity. He only turned 23 Tuesday; when Blake Comeau turned 23 he had 12 NHL goals in a lot more games. [Islanders official site]
• Michael Fornabaio with a couple of bits: Injury update on Nathan Lawson (knee), and his All-Time Bridgeport Sound Tigers team. Five are current Islanders. Not many more were significant Islanders. I suspect the next decade will be different (well, unless every great Islander takes the Bailey/Nino bypass Bridgeport train). Fornabaio writes about it, but you can feel the dilemma in his picks. Great stuff.
  
• Botta on the possible Islanders-Hofstra radio partnership. I'd call this innovative, a sign of the times, and possibly sad but what can you do? It takes two to tango.
  
• BlogBox: 7th Woman talks to Radek Martinek | Islesblogger Mike did the Islanders workout routine with their trainer, in a series we'll highlight more here. Here's part 1. |  NYIFYI on the latest roster decisions | The Voice on various national preseason predictions
  
• Newsday on Niederreiter
  
• Post Hockey Coverage: Brett Cyrgalis, who's been doing strong coverage when provided the space, previews the Isles | Jay "not a paragraph goes by without a dated simile" Greenberg says things look tough for all three metro teams | Larry Brooks has his power ranki-- oh, who really cares?
• The Daily News, which even today is Rangers-only, does its best to pretend that Derek Boogaard is more than a very very tall, very very bad hockey player signed to a four-year, $6.5 million deal by Glen Sather.