A loss, a trade and a busy night for your friendly neighborhood Islanders bloggers. Regin and Bouchard are Blackhawks now and the shaky season continues. Tomorrow night, the Islanders face Colorado before giving themselves and all of us a much needed mental break.
Islanders stuff:
- Recaps of last night's game: LHH | Newsday | NY Post | IPB | Islanders | Matchsticks and Gasoline
- The facts and stats from Eric Hornick's Skinny.
- Yes, you heard it here last: after the game, the Islanders sent Peter Regin and the ghost of Pierre-Marc Bouchard to Chicago for a 2014 fourth round pick. Dedicated thread here. I'm sure everything I wrote was wrong.
- Dom talked about the latest Andrew MacDonald news and the contract offer he apparently (and conveniently for the Islanders) turned down.
- John Tavares is happy his summer camp roommate Martin St. Louis was added to Team Canada (more on that below). [NHL.com]
- And Team Austria teammates Thomas Vanek and Michael Grabner are hoping to shake things up in Sochi. [NHL.com]
- Not going to the Olympics, Lubomir Visnovsky. Still. [New$day].
- More Lubo: Just this morning, Nick Cotsonika said Team Slovakia will make one final push to get Visnovsky on the team.
- LHH commenter Dave Z (aka DPknees) crafted a FanPost on the Islanders' eternal struggle to sign and keep free agents.
- The Sound Tigers assigned defenseman Andrey Pedan to Stockton of the ECHL. He'll be able to get some playing in while returning from injury. [Soundin' Off]
Slovak GM on Visnovsky: "He say he’s OK. He can play. I don’t understand why he not can play."
— Nick Cotsonika (@cotsonika) February 7, 2014
Slovak GM Otto Sykora said he would speak with Lubomir Visnovsky and then Islanders GM Garth Snow today.
— Nick Cotsonika (@cotsonika) February 7, 2014
Around the national league of hockey:
- Last night's scores. Max Pacioretty had himself a night for the Habs: a hat trick and two (2) missed penalty shots that were awarded in the same period. And not to be outdone by their province and lottery mates, the Oilers beat the Rangers 2-1 at MSG.
- Kinda breaking news: Penguins Krys Letang has a "mystery illness that's not believed to be life-threatening." Jesus, that's not a good thing. I hope he's ok. [Pittsburgh Trib]
- As teased, Marty St. Louis is in and Steven Stamkos is out for Sochi. Stamkos was trying to get back in time for the games after breaking his leg in October, but the braintrust felt he wasn't ready. [EOTP]
- Also out is Henrik Sedin, who won't play for Team Sweden due to injury. [Yahoo]
- So who is going to the Olympics? Amanda Kessel, that's who. Know her name because you'll be hearing it a lot more very soon. [Puck Daddy]
- Tough day at the office for two Predators mainstays on Thursday. Play-by-play man Pete Weber had a heart attack and GM David Poile was hit in the head by a puck in practice. Both guys are fine but were hospitalized, thankfully. Speedy recoveries to them. [On the Forecheck]
- John Tortorella is mad as hell! Or more madder than hell as usual. And he wants some changes on the Canucks. [The Province]
- Cyber squatters are the worst, and this one is messing with the impending Arizona Coyotes. [Puck Daddy]
- Would UFA-to-be Mike Cammalleri be a good fit for the New Jersey Devils? [In Lou We Trust]