Lighthouse Hockey, a New York Islanders community

My look at the Islanders, past, present, and future.

All hail the psychic powers of "Barry the Islanders fan." Puck Daddy revisits the premature Tavares jersey foul, which we -- er, Doug and I (Islesblogger disagreed) -- also found religiously suspect. In case there is medicine to take, I've re-opened comments to that post and added my own. (Happy ending, stand by my knee-jerk religious beliefs - and, like Fletch, am not a big man.) All in good fun. Either the hockey gods love Barry, or they've got something else in store. But I'll 'fess to owing Barry a beer.

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.

I have jotted more words illusions about John Tavares than I have about any teenager since "Blossom" aired. But a wrap-up of my current draft thinking -- on Isles drafts past and present -- is over at Cycle Like the Sedins, where they will be "cycling" through draft perspectives. There were a lot of draft disasters to choose from, but my pain starts in 1989-91. A big ol' thanks to James for the invite.

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.

As if the injury bug couldn't hurt enough, the Islanders suffered two additional injuries during last nights 3-2 overtime loss in Toronto. According to Greg Logan of Newsday, Bergenheim suffered a groin strain in the third period and goaltender Joey MacDonald suffered an undisclosed knee injury. Both players have been sent home for further examination and it appears Peter Mannino gets the call as backup. Nate Thompson and Richard Park are both on the trip - they may not even need to tap into the Bridge for reinforcements. Some of us here at Lighthouse are sure to be jaded in our view of this, having spoken about this team's sudden resurgence and the real possibility of playing themselves out of that number one or number two pick come June. It seems that the Hockey Gods may have had a real plan in place for these Islanders after all. This just got even more interesting.