Islanders News: Please stop scoring; Late-est Ho-Sang drama; Happy retirement, Hayley

It’s been an eventful week. Take the day off. The Islanders have a 1 pm game in Boston on Monday.

Islanders news

• Recaps: LHH | Newsday | Islanders | NHL.com | NYI Skinny | Canes Country
• Johnny Boychuk missed the game and is day-to-day. That's not good. But the picture on this story is funny for some reason. [Newsday]
• I got all misty-eyed about John Tavares' first 500 points as an Islander and want to see 500 more.
• Meanwhile, the man himself says the milestone is NBD. [Newsday]
• Brooksie says Garth Snow should trade his way into keeping his job and offers Nick Leddy as bait. I'm not sold on wanting either of those things to happen.
• The Sound Tigers suddenly can't score and a season on the brink is slipping away. The resemblances are uncanny. They lost to Utica 3-1 last night. [CT Post]
• By now you may have heard that Joshua Ho-Sang was a last-minute scratch for Bridgeport because he was late to the arena last night. Coach Brent Thompson was as tight-lipped as he could be, even to CT Post's Michael Fornabaio. Here's the full paragraph from Fornabaio's Soundin' Off column:
  
  Josh Ho-Sang, said Brent Thompson, was late tonight to the arena so was scratched. How late? "Late enough." What gave me pause about thinking "discipline" before we got the official word was that he was there in warmup. Wondered out of curiosity why have him do that if he wasn’t going to play. "Because I told him to," Thompson said with a glare. Fair enough. Basically not to let him out of his responsibility to show up and be ready to play, even if he was late, is how it sounded. He said he didn’t know who’ll play tomorrow but Ho-Sang is an option.
  
  And one more line from the recap:
  
  Rookie Josh Ho-Sang was a late scratch after he arrived late Saturday night, Thompson said. "When you’re late, just like everybody else, you get fined or you’re not allowed to play," the coach said. "It’s been handled."
  
  We've written a lot on Ho-Sang this year and to be honest, I'm not really sure what to make a big deal of and what to kinda just note and move on from. That's the problem when a laundry list starts getting made. Thompson isn't going to say any more on the subject and "late" could be a minute or an hour (or "not early enough" if you're Tom Coughlin). Perhaps this episode will pass and we'll forget about it a while from now. Needless to say, not a good decision by the kid, who should know better by now.

Around the NHL

• Last night's NHL scores. It was like the 80's all over again. Goals galore.
• ...Including this fairly ridiculous one by Alexei Emelin against the Rangers. Talk about the puck having eyes. [EOTP]
• On Friday, the Avalanche traded Cody McLeod to the Predators. Yesterday, he scored against them in his first game for Nashville. Been that kind of season for Colorado. [NHL.com]
• The NHL still hates fun and is doing away with the costume and gimmick-packed Breakaway Challenge at the All Star Game. Booooooo! [Sportsnet]
• Anze Kopitar hasn't had a great season and won't (at least, not yet) participate in his own home arena's All Star Game. [Puck Daddy]
• In hockey, an numbers game emerges. [NY Times]
• Women's hockey legend - and really, "legend" barely scratches the surface of describing her career - Hayley Wickenheiser announced her retirement this week and Michaela from Silver Seven and the Ice Garden writes a heartfelt open letter to a pioneer that opened many eyes over many years. [Ice Garden]