Lighthouse Hockey, a New York Islanders community

Awake? I am. Barely. Islanders are up at #31. Who do we want here? Jeremy Morin? Son of Ferraro? Big Budish? A goalie? (too soon.) I honestly don't know, and I'm sure they'll surprise me. [Update: Naturally, they take a goalie] 31: Finland's 6'7" 6'5" g Mikko Koskinen. 62: Sweden's Anders Nilsson, also a goalie. (NYI traded 56 to CBS to get 62 and 92 back.) I'll be in and out, while compiling info on the new picks today. Weigh in with your pick or reaction here. For a leisurely running chat hit Doug's live blog at IslesOfficialsOutlook. The bar is open.

Pretty honored they asked me, in addition to Newsday's Greg Logan, to do the Q&A on the draft and the Lighthouse Project. My answers were truthful but with a bit of required snark; got to leave the straight story to the beatwriter, dontcha know.

Good stuff from Logan, getting Draft Eve thoughts from the top three... Tavares: Has heard the fan chants, is ready to deliver. Hedman: Ready to win over fans, notes Lidstrom does just fine without cleaning people's clocks. Duchene: Knows who the fans want; hero is The Rocket. Also: a Q&A at Orland Kurtenblog.

As the draft hype/anxiety intensifies -- thank you for keeping us twisting 'till the end, Mr. Snow! -- Puck Daddy compiled a thorough roundtable of Isles bloggers (including yours truly) plus beat writer Greg Logan. We'll have an open thread here for the draft Friday, plus the usual musings, news and season reviews between now and then. Logan, going by what he thinks will happen, again projects Duchene. What I love about all this? No matter what, none of us will know for sure until Friday night.

Can't get enough draft coverage? With the Islanders' second pick coming anywhere between 26 and (if they trade up) the teens, virtually anyone in the top 60 could become Islanders. The sweet blog Western College Hockey, an SBN blog, is collecting prospect profiles from all around the various SBN hockey blogs. It's a wide spectrum of views, and more will be added to the list as they are written.

Jon Jordan at Islanders Independent gets quotes from Tavares on Duchene about not being drafted by their boyhood team, while B.D. taunts the media members and fans who would see either pull a Lindros.

As in his uncle, the legendary lacrosse player, who helped the future (Islander?) hockey star handle the media stalking that comes with being Canada's next great young phenom. If the Islanders go with JT, we'll surely see more features like this one, only in the New York press, as they delve into the background story that Canadian media has already told a time or two.

*Jedi hand wave* These are not the picks you are looking for. Nothing new, and Burke's just answering the inevitable questions. He does point out (again) that the only times he's managed to move up, it happened on the draft floor. In other words, hockey fans: There is a whole June to enjoy before worrying about the draft.

Not that anyone needs reminders that Tavares and Hedman are 1 and 1A. But you know, there's half a season left, and anything but a 30th place finish means the Islanders could pick below 2nd. (Today: 5 pts. behind 28th Atlanta.) So check out the latest Central Scouting rankings and familiarize yourself with those other teenage names (Duchene, Kane, Cowan, Schenn II, etc.).