Islanders Bits: Life During Lockout Time; Hamonic Prepares for Bridgeport

The sound of Bettman, off in the distance
I'm getting used to it now
Lived in a brownstone, lived in Nassau
No preseason games in this town

This ain't no playoffs, this ain't no season
This ain't no fooling around
No time for hockey, negotiations
Fehr's not got time for that now

Transmit the message, to addicted fans
Hope for a season some day
I got three tickets, couple of jerseys
But they've no number, no name

Heard about Boston? Heard about Detroit?
Heard about bandwagon Pittsburgh?
Once empty rinks there, now rolling in cash
But they won't revenue share

Guess I'll just play my, EA Sports game
Win my Stanley somehow
While billionaires fight, millionaires and
We all curse the lockout

-{inspiration}

It's fun to watch how teams react and navigate the NHL lockout rule of not promoting NHL players. For the Islanders, who had their charity golf tournament yesterday, that meant promoting players whom fans very much see as Islanders, but who are assigned to AHL Bridgeport.

That means shots of Matt Donovan teeing off, as well as Ty Wishart and Johan Sundstrom and Doug Weight. Dee Karl has a good roundup from the event, talking to players and Weight and Bryan Trottier about non-lockout things, but getting a good taste of the day.

Other stuff:

• Before we get to the unmentionable [expletive]out in this news bits roundup, here's part six of an excellent Lowetide series on NHL expansion, covering the territory system of the Original Six (when the Rangers were a "small" market).
• If you missed it yesterday, here's Hockey Prospectus' top 100 NHL prospects, with our Islanders-focused take here.
• But since lockout talk is unavoidable, here's a classic Mad magazine piece from the last one in 2004, and here's the Elite Prospects updated list of players who are playing elsewhere during the stoppage.
• The lockout has canceled September preseason games, with October (and Brooklyn) sure to follow. Not sure how it affects Bridgeport just yet. Definitely affects the annual "Hockeyville" event in Canada.
• Mike Modano, like Bill Guerin before him, makes it sound like fighting a lockout isn't worth it. But when the league has been as arrogant as it has been in its first proposal, you can't blame the players for fighting.

And yeah, nothing more from the league or union's talking heads at the moment. (See what I did there?)

But on a happier note, here's the official site write-up previewing Bridgeport Sound Tigers training camp. I will quote the impeccable Travis Hamonic and leave it at that:

"I expect to be a dominant player at the NHL level, so needless to say, I expect nothing less than to be a dominant player at the American League level for however long this thing lasts."

Just when you wonder why you bother watching this league, you're reminded of a Hamonic.