Islanders Gameday News: Florida calls, Strome returns, Bernier analyzed

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Mine was excellent, including an eight-kid driveway hockey game where my two-year-old daughter received her first hockey injury -- a ball to the nose. Being a natural, she left in pain but didn't miss a shift.

The Islanders spent Thanksgiving in Florida, where they face the Panthers tonight as part of a back-to-back swing through the Retired People State. Leave your FIG picks for tonight's game over here, next to the cranberry leftovers.

Islanders Reads

• You know whom the Isles made room for at the table? Ryan Strome. He's back. [Newsday | Soundin' Off]
• Brock Nelson says stuffing is the Frans Nielsen of Thanksgiving dishes. Kyle Okposo digs the after-meal food coma. And Eric Boulton hosts the bestest Thanksgiving bashes of them all. [Isles]
• Steve Bernier? He's actually been good. Garik reminds: "There’s a place on NHL teams for players who don’t score but do prevent the team from being outmatched while their best players aren’t on the ice." [Islanders Analytics]
  
• Before cooking the turkey, mashing the potatoes, and going hog wild on the stuffing, Mike dropped this week's power rankings. Stupid Habs. [LHH]
• There is still time to recommend lines -- and what do with Milbury -- in guiding the late '90s Isles out of hell via Eastside Fantasy Hockey Manager. Figure out how to best deploy Mike Watt and Barry Richter! [LHH]
• Anyone else fancy a meetup with other LHHers before Monday's game against the Avalanche? [Fanpost]
• Speaking of fanposts, this is a really cool one rounding up all(?) of the sons of former Islanders playing in pro leagues around the world. [Fanpost]

Not Islanders

• Having lost three in a row, the Panthers recalled rookie wingers Connor Brickley and Logan Shaw, while demoting forwards Rocco Grimaldi and Garrett Wilson. Dmitry Kulikov is on IR. [Litter Box Cats]
  
• Alex Radulov is "determined" to become a free agent and, you know, maybe return to the NHL. [@SlavaMalamud]
• These are cool and creative: Blue Jackets game day posters. [Blue Jackets]
• Nail Yakupov, who is coming over in the Hamonic trade (I kid...or repeat message board proposals) was felled by a linesman and is out 2-4 weeks with an ankle injury. [Puck Daddy]
• Carey Price is out (again) at least a week. [NHL]
• It's possible Connor Hellebuyck will get his NHL debut with Winnipeg, which would be hella-cool. [NHL]