Islanders Bits: Happy Frans Day; Moulson Byng; Brooklyn Something

Today is the feast day of our Frans, the great Dane, whose Islanders shall be renewed by backhand made whole, in accordance with the prophecies, till dynasty come.

Frans Nielsen turns 28 (in mortal years) today. He is signed for four more seasons at a cap hit of $2.75 million per. It is good.

Bridgeport Fodder: Michael Fornabaio has several notes (Rhett Rakhshani off to the dentist, no tea leaves yet on re-signings, everybody shocked by the sweep) as well as his season-ending chat at 1:30 p.m. | Mike Flannery at the Checking Line bids farewell to the Sound Tigers season.

Brooklyn Ping Pong: Oh, look at the public dance we do: Friday it was Gary Bettman downplaying Brooklyn as an option; Monday it's Nets CEO Bret Yormark again making the case for his arena. Around and round we go. [WFAN with audio | Newsday]

Fit to be Byng: Matt Moulson is a Lady Byng finalist, as riffed in this FanShot yesterday. You can hear him discuss his nomination -- and how Kyle Okposo almost ruined it -- in the audio of this XM Home Ice interview [mp3].

Still Playing: Ryan Strome's IceDogs have a 2-1 series lead, but Mitchell Theoret has taken the glory so far.

NHL Bits

The Rangers force Game 7. Lots of themes of bitterness going into that one [SB Nation]. More themes: Spezza misses assignment, sits.

Congrats to the Phoenix Coyotes, who won their first playoff series since ever, or 1987 if you're partial to the Winnipeg origins [great team photo]. Keith Yandle was born in 1986. Yotes fans are slightly happy. Islanders, you're next.

Shocking, I know: Kerry Fraser explains how the refs missed a call in Caps-Bruins.

Here is the Penguins eulogy via Puck Daddy. I've never thought about this, but man we could've come up with a good one. Anyone want to take a shot here and there in comments?

Video Fransies: What He Do

Amen.

P.S. Also on this day: The Bates Penalty Shot. For a look back, Bill Strong retro liveblogged that game for us here.