Islanders News: Learning to Fly

Hockey is finally here! Like, for the Islanders too, I mean!

Game time in Columbus tonight is around 7 p.m. EDT. Leave your First Islanders Goal (FIG) picks here.

And there is still time (until 6:45 p.m. EDT) to leave your picks in the annual preseason prediction poll, but you better follow the rules or Torgo comma get you.

Islanders Reads

• For his first lineup of the season, Doug Weight goes with the ol’ experience move with Jason Chimera over Josh Ho-Sang, Dennis Seideberg over two young blueliners. [Newsday | LHH] (Morning update: But the surviving blueliner might be Adam Pelech rather than Scott Mayfield, reports Staple from the morning skate.)
• Doug Weight sounds like he’s put his stamp on the organization, you know? “"I'm confident in the people around me, our organization, the players we have and I'm confident in what I believe I've started to put in here.” [Isles preview]
• This is simply a fantastic Q&A with Weight, too many quotes to pull out, but here’s one on his outlook: “We’ve got some new faces. We’re gonna be faster than we’ve been. We’re gonna be more skilled than we’ve been.” [Post]
• Your Top 25 Under 25 votes have been tabulated. [LHH Fanpost]
• Tavares on Humpty & Canty. [ESPN]
• And the Isles players aren’t thinking about Belmont or contracts or all that. [Times]
• Then there’s the team site preview of the defenemsen and goalies. [Isles]
• And Andrew Ladd on SiriusXM discussing offseason, Ho-Sang, downplaying the commute question. [Isles]
• It starts off quiet (so advance a few minutes in the video), but Garik covered a lot in his season preview videocast. [LHH]
• The Skinny on the opener. The Skinny: Season Opener
• An early look at the top (current) UFAs for 2018, which drops off immediately after Tavares. [Sportsnet]
• Bernier, Gionta return experience to Sound Tigers forwards - Connecticut Post

Elsewhere

• After losing their banner raiser at home in overtime, the Penguins got BLOWN. UP. in Chicago. Good times. Watch: Brandon Saad scores hat trick in Blackhawks’ season opener - Second City Hockey
• The Jets were also blown out, two nights ago. Paul Maurice not happy. Jets' Maurice: 'This franchise doesn't move forward until it can defend' - Sportsnet.ca
• David Backes out 3-4 weeks for Bruins with diverticulitis - Sportsnet.ca
• The pundits and analytics agree: the Canucks are going to be bad [Courier]
• Still though, they’ve got a great gutless puke: Kuzma: Coach Green ‘ready’ to make a better Canucks team his benchmark | The Province
• Start your season off by understanding the graphics you can get at HockeyViz. [Micah’s Twitter]
• The Riveters will be partnering with the Devils, and shedding those unfortunate earlier color choices. [Ice Garden]
• Speaking of which, Nico Hischier says hello, New Jersey. [Players’ Tribune]