Islanders Bits: Views and semi-news from a holiday weekend

Things we saw over the Memorial Day (U.S.) holiday weekend, while enduring the long wait for the Stanley Cup finals to begin:

• Why John Tavares is a top 10 center keeper for you fantasy junkies.
• Why the Senators should trade Jason Spezza.
• Why Paul Holmgrem's stated desire for a goaltender sounds a lot like "Evgeni Nabokov." [Also: Why he may only part with scraps.]
• Why Kirill Kabanov may have a new home next season. More on that Lewiston story here.
  
• Why Rob Schremp Hockey will be alright with a Winnipeg move [audio] ... but Freddy Meyer may look to Europe for his next move.
  
• Josh Bailey and Micheal Haley kinda rhyme. And appear on Toronto's 590. [Neither were fond of Matt Martin or DiBenedetto back in the OHL.]
  

More Islanders Links

• Rough weekend for the Majors after they won all those games only to lose the Memorial Cup final as host. But they'll rebound. And Casey Cizikas should have something happier to think about come Tuesday.
• Newsday says expect the County legislature to pass the motion to put the areener referendum on the Aug. 1 ballot.
• Larry Brooks thinks the Islanders young extension-signers did a good thing. (WebBard will have much, much more on this later.)
  
• Bill Torrey really liked the old Panthers uniforms [plus: more relevant Torrey thoughts. The Arbour-in-Vancouver story is gold.]
• Looks like Anders Nilsson's signing bonus was about $270,000. [CapGeek]
• Justin Bourne with a classic yarn about Clark Gillies (his father-in-law), and golf.

Other News and Randoms

• The legendary Pavel Bure beach Uppder Deck card, from an angle you really don't want to see it from.
• Should the Oilers retire Doug Weight's number? Man, I'd think not but that's up to those fans. I think he sniffs the Hall of Fame but does not get in, by the way.
• Weighing the decision whether to retain Joey MacDonald with the Wings.
  
• Something very detailed about teams' even strength shooting percentage.
• Believe it or not, older hockey markets get better TV ratings for hockey.
• Trivia: Name all the NHL players who have had their jersey number retired. Show your work. [Note: It's a little out of date, and there are a couple of errors. But it's still fun.]
  
• R.I.P. Missing E.J. McGuire at the Scouting Combine this week.

Glad those of you who had long weekends are back. We've got plenty more hockey to discuss this week...