Bits: Tavares ends World Championship as Canada's leading scorer

So San Jose survives what would have been a franchise-crushing scare. I think I have to root for the Canucks in the next round though, as I cannot abide any further success for Dan(n)y Heatley's m.o. of Lindros-ing himself from contender to contender.

SBN reactions: Fear the Fin exhales a great big sigh of relief. Winging it in Motown mourns a painful what-could-have-been. A more straightforward approach at Battle of California (I'm totally taking that route next time the Isles win a series).

Incredible that Pavel Datsyuk wouldn't go down without one more scary-good highlight reel goal. [video after the jump]

Datsyuk's Lethal Backhand

I mean, you're just not supposed to be able to do that here.

Meanwhile, looking onward: Behind the Net previews the Lightning-Bruins series of Grumpy Old Goalies. Something has to give, or some shoe has to drop. You know.

Advanced Stats and their History: Nice look at innovator Roger Nielsen and how he tracked scoring chance stats and other things that tell you more than the boxscore. Nielsen is credited with pioneering video work, too, but I just want to throw a shout out to Al Arbour, who was early in that game, too.

Ex-Islanders Jamie McLennan declines a Flames "offer" (quasi-demotion, really) to goalie coach their AHL affiliate, so he's looking for work now.

Islanders Prospects in the CHL Playoffs

Casey Cizikas is not a champion yet. His team lost Game 6 of the OHL final to Owen Sound, who started a goalie who hadn't played since March 31 and helped force a Game 7 Sunday afternoon. [CP with additional coverage]

Out west, Nino Niederreiter's Portland Winterhawks face elimination tonight, trailing 3-1 in their series with Kootenanny. With no other hockey to see tonight, you might find audio or updates here. The Winterhawks have to reel off three straight wins to take the WHL title and advance to the Memorial Cup, where Islanders prospects could collide.

Speaking of prospects, the Sound Tigers offer a write-up on recent signee and ATO-turned-good Tyler McNeely.

IIHF World Championship

Earlier this year, Team Canada Jr. blew a third-period lead to Russia Jr. to lose the gold. Yesterday their senior counterparts followed with a lesser replica, losing their 1-0 third-period lead to Russia to get knocked out of the quarterfinals. The winner was Ilya Kovalchuk's first goal of the tournament.

John Tavares finishes as Canada's leading scorer with 5 goals, 4 assists, 9 points and +6 in seven games. He even led them in PIM with 12. Matt Duchene, if you were wondering, was scoreless and +1. Alex Petrangelo was a team-high +9 because he's pretty good and you will be hearing about him for years.

In the other quarterfinal yesterday, Finland beat Norway for the 16th consecutive time in the WC. One reason? Because you're not supposed to let this happen twice:

(if the GIF doesn't work for you here, it's two identical one-timer goals)

The two semifinals (Czech-Sweden, Finland-Russia) are today, with the gold medal game on Sunday.

Coliseum Proposal

More Coliseum coverage...same as the previous coverage:

"Fios1 News" with a typical 2-minute news reel of community reactions to the proposal.

Former club PR man Chris Botta frames the next 80 (now 79...now 78) days as time for an all-hands-on-deck PR push by the Isles.

Honestly, I saw no new information or opinions on that front. Questions and theories we've rehashed over and over in comments will have to do for now.

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Tonight's the second night in three days without NHL hockey, which is a nasty omen of what's to come, like seasonal affective disorder for me. Should I read a book or something crazy like that? I hear you learn things that way.