Islanders News: Devils down, Rangers next; Tavares lessons; Gudas in midseason form

One down, two to go. Tonight at Barclays, it’s Islanders-Rangers for absolutely none of the marbles.

Islanders links

• Recaps of last night's win over the Devils featuring some former Devils. [LHH | Islanders]
• Jaroslav Halak is all smiles as he returns to Islanders practice after his eye-opening run at the World Cup of Hockey. [Newsday]
• Please welcome Steven, aka sayvillelax94, who joins our staff as a writer. More intros coming this week.
• Andrew Berkshire runs down the Top 20 Centers in the NHL and our boy Johnny is No. 7. [Sportsnet]
• Speaking of Tavares, the World Cup was another great moment for him. [Inside Halton]
• The Sound Tigers training camp roster is here for you. It includes Jon Landry, who returns to Bridgeport after a few years away. [Soundin Off]
• Some observations from last night:
  

  Strome just clocked Blandisi in the jaw after a whistle. I may steer clear of Strome's stall. Kid's got a grudge.

  — Arthur Staple (@StapeNewsday) October 4, 2016

  And if Barzal makes the team, jamming in a puck from the doorstep will help his cause. Skill guy scoring greasy goal makes coach happy.

  — Arthur Staple (@StapeNewsday) October 4, 2016

  #Isles Best player on the ice in the 1st period was Mat Barzal.He showed skating,hockey sense and skill.Playing hard to make the team

  — Butch Goring (@91Butch) October 3, 2016

Retirements and other news

• Oh boy. Old friend Radko Gudas was up to his old tricks last night, plastering Jimmy Vesey's face into the glass in the Rangers-Flyers games. He can expect a phone call from Player Safety. [BSH]
• So it's not just us then:
  

  Vigneault on Gudas hit: "I've seen that hit many times before from that player. I'll just leave it at that." #NYR

  — Brett Cyrgalis (@BrettCyrgalis) October 4, 2016

• Chicago's Nikas "Super Nintendo" Hjalmarsson has been suspended for the rest of the preseason and the Blackhawks' season opener because of a dirty hit. [SCH]
• Penguins GM Jim Rutherford writes an interesting piece for The Players Tribune about some behind the scenes moves.
• Micah, also known as Ineffective Math on Twitter, makes his season predictions and has the Islanders looking... good? [HockeyViz.com]
• Rangers Legend Dan Boyle is set to announce his retirement on Wednesday (from San Jose, for some reason). [FTF]
• And defenseman Barrett Jackman will retire today from St. Louis, where he played all but one of his seasons. Remember when he won the Calder Trophy over Henrik Zetterberg? Yeah. [St.L GT]
• A lot of rookies are prepped to make an impact this season. [TSN.ca]
• One of them is Coyotes defenseman Jacob Chychrun, who's making a push to play already. [TSN.ca]
• A misunderstanding caused both the Stars and Panthers to hilariously both wear white jerseys in the same game. [Miami Herald]

As teased yesterday in Steve's introductory post, here are a couple of videos from CCM showing that totally regular guy John Tavares also happens to be a hockey machine that has a shooting deck in his backyard.

What makes @91Tavares #MadeOfHockey? Watch and find out... https://t.co/yHcRNJuHw4 pic.twitter.com/DkDf28Isuz

— CCM Hockey (@CCMHockey) October 1, 2016

Take a look inside @91Tavares' backyard shooting pad, just like the one you have at home. #MadeOfHockey pic.twitter.com/rlN0fCQBRw

— CCM Hockey (@CCMHockey) October 2, 2016