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Happy Saturday.
Islanders readings
- The team's top line finally got a chance to practice together, with only one preseason game left. [Newsday]
- Sportsnet runs down the top 20 goalies in the NHL and the Islanders have two of them. Where they are might surprise you.
- Oh, and John Tavares was on TSN's Top 50 NHL players list again, but he dropped from last year.
- Mathew Barzal is trying to make the leap from British Columbia teenager to NHL forward. [Province]
- Dom reviewed Rob Vollman's new Stat Shot volume and found the reading worthwhile for both the stats-inclined and old school thinkers.
- Yesterday was the anniversary of the Islanders' first ever game. And it also means Eric Hornick's indispensable Skinny is back.
- The Sound Tigers pare down their roster and prep for today's preseason game. [CT Post]
- Tanner Fritz and Colin Markison had a heckuva time at Islanders camp. [CT Post]
- Missouri Mavericks coach John-Scott Dickson learned a lot from Islanders camp, but is back to run his own team's practices now. [Examiner]
- Torgo is getting his annual prediction contest going again, so get in on it at least to make fun of everyone else's picks.
Further Study
- SBN's massive, in-depth and occasionally hilarious NHL Preview is out. Read it now.
- Yes, there was another Islanders season preview that was less kind than ours. It's your old pal Burnside again. Read at your own risk.
- Nail Yakupov, erstwhile first overall pick and convenient alien whipping boy, has finally been traded by the Oilers to St. Louis, for a conditional pick and distant prospect. Spread your wings, man. [C&B | TSN.ca]
- And to make matters... whatever, the Oilers have signed defenseman Kris Russell with their newly found cap space. [Sportsnet]
- Last one on Edmonton - and I'm not trying to pile on, I swear - but they sent Griffin Reinhart down to the AHL with specific instructions from coach Todd McLellan. [Oilers]
- Michael Del Zotto will miss a month with an injury, opening the door for some young Flyers defensemen. [BSH]
- Now retired stay-at-home defenseman Barrett Jackman is the last of the dying breed. [Puck Daddy]
- Uniwatch catches you up on all the uniform changes and accompaniments this season.
- This is just incredible: Yesterday morning, Harrison Browne of the NWHL's Buffalo Beauts became the first openly transgendered professional athlete in history [Ice Garden | Sportsnet]. He announced it in a letter to SBN's new blog, The Ice Garden. Then later that night, Browne scored the first goal of the Beauts season against defending champion Boston. Basically, it was a movie, happening in real time in hockey.
Howies are colliding!
Got to spend some time with my favorite pair of "big shoes" tonight. #Howie pic.twitter.com/y4nBTO77Bd
— Brendan Burke (@brendanmburke) October 8, 2016