Islanders News: Belmont or bust

The Islanders are in Anaheim tonight for a late one. Cal Clutterbuck is on the trip, but that could be for a return elsewhere in California.

Leave your First Islanders Goal picks here.

Islanders News

• Islanders owner John Ledecky lunched with reporters and said lots of things. Among them: Totally focused on Belmont, will play next season at Barclays (we knew that though because lease), won’t be back at Coliseum, showed plans for Belmont (and to Tavares), which isn’t a real estate play. Hope they win that RFP. [LHH | Newsday | Times | Post]
• Money quote: “we think we're the best and we want to send that message to the community, to the media, to our fans, to our constituents through all the different areas, the players, that we're singularly focused on this and we've spent the resources. We want to win.” [NHL]
• Doug Weight says the power play has been too in love with its own hands, Scott Mayfield has taken a huge step the last 12-14 months, and Joshua Ho-Sang has to tighten up his equal-opportunity chance-making. [Post]
• Garth Snow is well practiced at saying he wants John Tavares to stay and retire as an Islander, and the chances of that are “excellent.” [Post]
• Chris Botta said the Isles and Mike Bossy should talk after recent reports that Bossy was relaying Tavares trade/contract rumors on Montreal radio. (Later, people close to Bossy said no such thing ever occurred. We hereby apologize for not knowing French.) [SNY]
• If you are made of money, perhaps you’ll bid on these Islanders jerseys for the Hockey Fights Cancer auction? [NHL]
• On Eanser’s debut for the Sound Tigers. [CT Post]
• In other Bridgeport notes, John Stevens The Younger is still out. [Soundin’ Off]

Elsewhere Except Vegas

• Last night’s NHL scores: This result in particular pleased me greatly.
• Long expected, the Colorado Eagles will officially be the 31st AHL team next season and affiliate with the Avalanche (sorry ‘bout that part), while San Antonio will switch to affiliation with the Blues. Colorado’s 10-year agreement has to be some sort of record. [AHL | MHH]
• Speaking of whom, Peter Forsberg (the original Big Swed Forbs, around these parts) says they shouldn’t let Matt Duchene play. Is he right or just firing shots from thousands of miles away. (Not that franchise legends ever do that.) [MHH]
• On the Sedins’ ice time, and Vanek being Vanek. [Province]
• It’s nearly Halloween, so here is a slowly loading page of all the scariest goalie masks in NHL history. Gilles Gratton should be higher. [SI]
• In a move that defied all oddsmakers who had him going to The Athletic, former Yahoo/Puck Daddy chief Greg Wyshynski is going to ESPN. (Insert “...they cover hockey?” jokes here). [ESPN]
• The three best places to eat in every NHL town? These are always subjective, but they got two out of three strong picks in St. Louis (there aremany better Italian places in STL than the one listed here, but it’s in the Italian neighborhood, so...). STL is teeming with good joints for every style and ethnicity though (it’s what people do when they don’t have an ocean or mountain nearby), so let me know if you ever need a rec. [Boston Globe]

Vegas Undefeated

The Vegas Golden Knights are on fire, winning again, setting an NHL record for expansion teams by winning its first three, and holding a 58-second moment of silence in their home opener. (Honestly, the Coyotes never stood a chance.) [SB Nation]

Also, Dan was on fire in regards to them: