Monday Bits: Counting Down to Lockout

While other leagues carry on with the business of playing, the NHL is ... yes, still looking on its way to collectively shoot itself in the foot. Not much news of note from the weekend, but here are a few items worth reading:

• This is from the end of the season actually, but a little window into Trevor Gillies. Also, from the same source, some nice photos of the Sound Tigers' final playoff game.
• We've done this exercise before, and it's always cruel, but this has a twist: Imagine the Islanders not if Milbury hadn't been around, but rather if there were no trades nor free agency.
• Lockout/CBA Stuff: Rangers owner, manager, coach, player all discuss what seems inevitable | Yeah, I'm not thinking the Quebec Labour Board is the answer | "Money started this; money will end this:" An open letter from NBA basketball to NHL hockey
• Maybe the most interesting angle: Ryan Murray will report to his junior team, but he and his agent are worried that a lockout would lock him into juniors and prevent him from joining the Blue Jackets if the season doesn't start for several months.
• Time for more Dustin Byfuglien weight jokes, surely.
• Some great factoids you might not have known about the 1972 Canada-Russia Summit Series
• More on the Lokomotiv memorial: Another really good one about Brad McCrimmon, this with his father.

So then. Six days and counting...