Bits: Isles Prospects, Draft Talk, Auditions...Oh and the Cup

Tonight, either the Stanley Cup finally gets handed out, or we see the finals series pushed to a brink of historic proportions. Doug Weight, in his role covering the finals for NHL Network and nhl.com, goes into some of the psychological context surrounding both teams. For his part, Kings defenseman Drew Doughty talked of distractions around Game 4, when they had the chance to clinch on home ice.

But these games are close, the Kings lost Game 5 on essentially two fluke goals, and they need to focus on continuing to do what has gotten them this far.

Elsewhere in hockey, for teams whose Cup dreams were long ago extinguished, we have a trade: Brad Stuart reportedly wants to head back West and wasn't going to re-sign with Detroit, so the Red Wings traded the UFA's rights back to San Jose. And we have the usual draft focus, such as:

Feelin' Drafty

• How hard is it to trade up into the top 10 of the draft? NHL draft trades: The price of moving up into the top ten picks - Broad Street Hockey
• Great look at the risk/reward of taking picks like Alex Galchenyuk, for whom scouts are missing essentially a year of data: Hockey Prospectus | From Daigle To Datsyuk: Alex Galchenyuk
• The Islanders official site offers one of its in-depth draft looks, this for Jacob Trouba. (While we're at it, here's Galchenyuk and here's Morgan "not a typo" Rielly.)
  
• You're darn right Dane Kristoffer Lauridsen would like to be picked by the Islanders.

Feelin' Islanders-y

• Portrait of the Brendan Witt as a young man. (He lives in Montana now.)
• If you haven't seen this about player usage charts (for all 30 teams), you should check it out. Full document includes some commentary, including on the Islanders -- but one gain might be that it presents advanced stats in a very digestible, user-friendly way.
• This is old, but is a fun discussion of the Isles logo. (He discusses all 30 team logos.)
• Little tidbit about a charitable golf tradition that brings Isles alumni together.
• Little tidbit about Rob Scuderi discussing the Islanders' potential.
• Prospect Park discussion of several of the Islanders' top prospects.
• Ice Girls, Ice Girls, get your auditions here.
• Weekend LHH humor: PGI imagines a schedule for Garth Snow meeting individual fans.

I see a Matt Moulson jersey; I am completely unqualified to offer further comment here:

The Rest

• On rebuilds: When the Washington Capitals purged.
• Alex Radulov, ice hog?
• Doesn't sound like Jagr will make it to free agency.
• Sticking with Philly: Getting to the bottom of Bernie Parent and the mask at MSG.
• Volchenkov's injury is pretty gruesome. Hockey.
• So Canadian college sports muck things up just like the NCAA, eh?
• Weekend LHH humor: Keith fleshes out Don Cherry's full Red Scare list.