Islanders News: End of the Line

Today is the first day of the Islanders off-season. In the preceding 89 games, there were highs, lows, elation, frustration, breakout performances, puzzling decisions, amazing feats of talent, comical bumbling, dumb luck in either direction and about a million other things we loved or hated. We now have five months to hash out all of them.

What I'm feeling now might not be what you're feeling or what someone else is feeling and so on. We'll have much more in the coming days examining the season, the team, the Coliseum and the end of an era.

Thanks to everyone for reading this season and keeping this place lively. We'll add more post-series links if they show up this morning. But for now, here you go.

Islanders memorials

• Recaps: LHH | Newsday | NY Post | NY Daily News | Islanders | NHL.com | WaPo | Japers | Puck Daddy | NYI Skinny
• Dom's post-game thoughts on Big Time players, Showtime futures and small time refs.
• The Islanders' 11 shots in the game was bad, but not the lowest ever in the playoffs. [Sporting News]
• Brock Nelson and Anders Lee found themselves going from top sixers to pressboxers. [Newsday]
• The captain comes to grips with the abrupt end to the team's season. [PHT]
• TV shows that premiered the year the Islanders last won a playoff series: Boy Meets World, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman. [NY Times]
• TSN's Scott Cullen on the Caps' defense making life miserable for the Islanders.
• The loss closes the book on major league hockey on Long Island. [Herrmann | NY Times]
• Inexperience means the end of not only a season, but an era for a franchise. [Vaccaro]
• Returning home to pack their bags, not practice for the next game. [NHL.com]
• That empty feeling. [NY Post]
• Respect is nice, but a trip to the second round would have been better. [Newsday]
• Craig Custance's keys to the off-season. [E$PN IN$IDER$ ONLY]
• As much as last night sucked, the future is a bright one. [USA Today]
• Avoiding the Islanders is lucky for the Rangers. That's not me saying it, it's Brooskie.
• From before the game: John Tavares and Ryan Strome have a roommate/mentor/sorta brotherly relationship. [WaPo] | The Rangers would have had their hands full with either team. [Katie Baker at Grantland]
• Mutual Admiration Society is right this way. [FanPost]

By the way

• Playoff update: The Lightning beat the Red Wings last night, setting up a final Game 7 in Tampa on Wednesday. [WIIM]
• Being a GM today means keeping your mistakes cheap. [Globe n' Mail]
• So who coaches the Devils next year? I mean, besides probably Jacques Lemaire. [ILWT]
• So who is the GM of the Penguins next year? Rob Rossi says the job is the carrot's to lose. [BSH]