Islanders News: Young Mayfield Chronicles; Sound Tigers Shake Up; Cup Final Begins

Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final is tonight. Will the Blackhawks draw first blood? Will the Lightning shock the favorites? Will Pierre McGuire catch a breath? Find out in a few hours!

Islanders news

• Brett Yormark assuages fan fears (I hope), announcing that the Islanders uniforms and traditions will make the trip to Barclays in addition to some new in-arena fan service. The moral of the story is online harassment works! [LHH | Neil Best in Newsday | NHL.com]
• In a completely unforeseen turn of events, John Tavares wins the Islanders Goal of the Year Award. [Islanders]
• Scott Mayfield recounts his trial by playoff fire. [Islanders]
• "And this is a glove I stole from the Coliseum bench from the last game there. Yeah, for real, bro. No! Don't touch it." [Newsday]
• Michael Fornabaio reports a bit of a shocker: Howard Saffan is out as Sound Tigers President after a decade with the club, citing the Islanders' move and restructuring as reasons. The split was a friendly one according to Saffan.
• Fornabaio also breaks down the now-set Calder Cup finals between Utica and Manchester. Cory Conacher scored the series winner for the Comets. Finally, it appears as if Lukas Sutter will not be retained by the Islanders.

Elsewhere

• The Blackhawks are preparing for the Cup final the right way: by playing cutthroat games of Mario Kart 8. [Sporting News]
• How the Lightning defense went from woeful to wonderful. [TSN]
• Jen LC on the special teams battle between the finalists.
• Picks are still shaking out from the Martin St. Louis-Ryan Callahan trade and probably will forever. Somehow, this Sportsnet story fails to mention who the Islanders used the Rangers 29th pick in 2014 on: a young name by the name of Joshua Ho-Sang.
• Down Goes Brown explains how the other 28 teams found themselves watching the final at home like the rest of us.
• The Canadiens will hang on to Jeff Petry for six years and $33 million. [EOTP]
• Petry's old team has a problem on defense named Justin Schultz. [Edmonton Journal]
• A ban on Russian players, such as the one proposed by Slava Fetisov, would have severely changed the course of the NHL over just the last few years. [Japers]
• People are really up in arms about the Lightning's policy on opposing fans in Amalie Arena. The rules only get more stringent in the Hooters Bikini Beach and BBQ VIP Area and the OAKLEY SUNGLASSES JORT ZONE. [Zeitgeist]