Islanders News: Interviews and notes from training camp's opening

Training camp is underway, with skates through the weekend followed by a pair of split-squad games Monday against Ottawa in St. John's. That's followed by home games at the Coliseum on Wednesday and in Brooklyn on Friday.

(If you still need tickets for the Brooklyn game, you can use this link and enter the promo code "ISLES" to waive the standard "convenience" fees.)

Islanders Reads

• At one point before the Isles, Thomas Hickey was starting to doubt himself, "but once I made up my mind, that I’m just Thomas Hickey, not the fourth overall pick, and I’m going to try and make it to the NHL, I started playing good, solid hockey." [Telegram]
• Quotes, notes, lines, depth charts and physical stats from the beginning of camp -- including the odd choice of Casey Cizikas and Michael Grabner to give up visors. Joshua Ho-Sang is the lightest player in camp; Matt Carkner is the heaviest. [Isles]
• Mikhail Grabovski and NIkolay Kulemin know they have previous chemistry, but they also know they'll need to find their Clarke MacArthur. [IPB] [Video at IslesTV]
• More IslesTV video: Jack Capuano talks about camp. Jaroslav Halak too.
• Around here, we looked at the defensemen in camp. [LHH]
• Rather think about lawsuits? Here's the Barroway letter to Charles Wang, begging for things not to go south after they were already going south. [LHH]
• If you missed it the other day (as it got accidentally deleted by yours truly), here's a bit more about those 5 PTOs the Isles announced. And here is the guide and application for all NHL PTOs.
• Heh heh, Mark captures every summer preview of the Isles: City Name Sports Team Preview.
• "Don't plan the parade route" with that Isles defense though. [Too Many Men on the Site]
  

Beyond the Island

• A statistical look at the best and worst goalies by decade. Great fun with some of the names here. [hockey-graphs]
  
• So Ilya Bryzgalov gets a tryout with the Wild, and Darcy Kuemper ends his contract stalemate. [NHL]
  
• Unfortunately, Kimmo Timonen's blood clots are likely to keep him from playing again. [BSH]
• And Claude Giroux's injury will keep him from playing in the preseason. [BSH]
• War in Ukraine forced Ruslan Fedotenko to try the NHL again. Tootoo's just being Tootoo. [Fire & Ice]
  
• Contenders and pretenders for the Cup this year. [Gretz at About.com]
• Ranking them all by TV watchability. [Sporting News]
• Ranking the Leafs by "compete level," har har. [NHL Numbers]
  
• Sabres training camp questions, via haiku. [Die by the Blade]
  
• Pass or Fail: The Penguins' third jersey is neither powder blue nor..."Vegas gold" or whatever their current panels are. [Puck Daddy]
• What do college coaches think of analytics? Some are into it, some might check it out. [College Hockey News]
  
• The new rule changes, as only Battle of California would conjure them. [BOC]