[Friday Bits] Angst in Alberta, Snow in the dunk tank, Devils back in the draft

Did you go you sleep before the Islanders 2,417th blown third period lead of the season? You should have. They stay in Alberta and will drop the puck in Calgary at 9:30 tonight. Hey, it's Joe Nieuwendyk Night. I loved that guy.

FIG picks for tonight's game go here.

Islanders news:

• Recaps: LHH | Newsday | IPB | Islanders | Copper and Blue
• The Skinny from eagle-eye Eric Hornick. "The Isles have now lost third period leads 17 times this season, including 14 times at home.  They are 5-5-7 in those 17 games."
  
• Garth Snow talks with NHL Live about the trade deadline. [Islanders]
• A recap of Snow's interview on the FAN590 in Toronto. [Point Blank]
• Snow was, um, the man of the hour after Wednesday's deadline and plenty of writers had something to say about how the Islanders made out or, more to the point, didn't make out. A sampling: Greg Wyshynski  calls the entire Thomas Vanek gamble a disaster for a team still needing assets. CBS's Jeff Capellini says Snow's mistake may have caused irreparable harm to an already strained fan base (he had me 100% up until the last few paragraphs). And Brett Crygalis says that losing Vanek, while painful, might turn out to be the right move for the Islanders in the long run.
• Arthur Staple reports that the Islanders heard the scathing criticisms during the deadline shows and were none too pleased. [New$day]
• Staple is also hosting a chat at Newsday.com today at 1 pm. Say a prayer for him.
• Winger Taylor Cammarata is no. 72 in SB Nation College Hockey's top 100 NHL prospects.

Around the NHL:

• Last night's NHL scores. The Capitals are in a bad way right now and were blanked by the Bruins, 3-0. And the Canucks post-Luongo period begins with a 6-1 loss to Dallas.
  
• In case you missed it yesterday, the NHL let the Devils off the hook on that whole cap-circumvention draft pick compensation thing which is some kind of bullshit. Sorry, In Lou We Trust.
• The Red Wings retired the number of Niklas Lidstrom last night. Full video here at Puck Daddy.
• More trade deadline analysis. Anonymous NHL GMs tell Pierre LeBrun who they're jealous of.
• Forget the Islanders for a minute. How does getting Thomas Vanek affect the Canadiens? The Habs lost his debut game last night to the Coyotes. [EOTP]
• Steven Stamkos is the new Lightning captain. [SB Nation]
  
• Down Goes Brown blows the lid off of the NHL's secret trade request application. [Grantland]
• Here lies a cowboy ref. And why not.