Islanders Bits: Nino Niederreiter Faces U.S. for Medal

We've had some technical hiccups over the last few days (particularly for logged-in users), so apologies to readers and regular commenters if things haven't worked as well. There is some technical jargon to explain that, but then there is hockey. Hockey is more interesting.

• This beat goes on: Newsday will have a season-wrap chat today on the Islanders at 2 p.m. Then beat writer Arthur Staple will be forced to return to indentured Rangers coverage until they suffer elimination.
• Jack Capuano was on Hockey This Morning on XM this...well, this morning. (It's in the show's title!) Mostly discussed the outdoor game though, along with how awesome John Tavares is.
  
• Nino Niederreiter's Swiss team has had a storybook World Championships so far, and now they face Team America in Saturday's semifinal. The Swiss are undefeated, including impressive wins over Canada and the Czech Republic, and now have two shots at earning a medal. Nino has four goals and two assists in eight games, which is fourth on the Swiss team, so his agent has emailed a request to be traded to Djibouti.
  
• The Stadium Journey ranks the Coliseum as the 22nd building in the league. So there. Nice review from Eric Hornick in the "Crowd Reviews" section.
  
• And speaking of which, the latest back-and-forth in the MSG vs. Ratner/Nets Cold War with Nassau as the proxy third-world battleground: Ratner on Bloomberg Radio saying the league would be cool with the Brooklyn-based Islanders playing games at the Coliseum. [IPB]
• Reflection on the Isles-Pens series at Hockey Tracker.
• From clean-up day on Skates on a Plane: More media for an empty locker room than for any regular season game. Playoffs.
• Third String Goalie does the Bourne jersey. Beautiful.

Elsewhere:

• This was brutal video: Eric Staal goes down in a heap at the World Championships. He's getting an MRI back home today.
• Running updates (and many, many GIFs) from last night's playoffsn: The Bruins dominated in OT and finally avoided Henrik's posts, while the Kings stunned the Sharks in a 22-second stomach-punch comeback victory.
  
• Down Goes Brown: What went wrong? Excuses from the NHL's losers