Islanders News: Clean and clear

Well this is weird. No games to preview, no FIG picks, no lineup news to shout at clouds about...the offseason is really here, isn’t it?

Which means an initial tradition is already in the books: Clean-out day is done. (Meanwhile: Around the league, teams continue to clear out coaches. More on that below.)

For the Islanders, there were lots of things said, from the captain on his injury and his future, to several on what Doug Weight did for them, to Jaroslav Halak on...well, a weird year, Andrew Ladd fessing to an early season nagging injury many of us suspected.

But we’ve got lots to read, with the Isles and around the league (and most of it not even playoff-related...yet).

Islanders Reads

• Here’s a roundup of some of the better quotes and interview clips. [LHH]
• More Clean-Out: Videos galore here. [Isles] Photos galore here. [Newsday] And some more video with Clutterbuck and Ladd. [Newsday]
• You know by now that John Tavares wants to sign long-term, right? Because he does. [Newsday | NHL]
• Doug Weight on what’s next. [NBC Sports]
• There was also AHL business: Josh Ho-Sang, Adam Pelech and of course Connor Jones were “loaned” to Bridgeport, while Jesse Graham was called up from ECHL Missouri to join the Sound Tigers too. [LHH | CT Post | Soundin’ Off]
• And of course, the most important season-ending tradition of all: All of our post-game recats in one place, an achievement on Facebook by one man who gloriously remains off of Facebook. [LHH Meowgeist]
• The Islanders players are awesome dudes who raised nearly $300k for the team’s Children’s Foundation this year. [Isles]
• The results are in...and suspicious. Torgo tallies up our preseason predictions and declares a winner. In related news, I can assure you the current Five Year Plan is going exactly as predicted. [LHH Fanpost]
• Meanwhile, as you might expect, almost all of Khan’s predictions came true. [LHH Fanpost]
• As part of the “Greatest 100” series, Mike Bossy gets his portrait unveiled. [NHL]

Elsewhere: Firing Squads

• The best playoff series in the first round ACCORDING TO SCIENCE. [SBN]
• How five Canadian teams bounced back to make the playoffs this year. [Yahoo]
• Willie Desjardins is done in Vancouver.
• Dean Lombardi and Darryl Sutter are done in L.A. Rob Blake is the new GM. [Jewels from the Crown | Puck Daddy]
• That news broke literally three hours after Puck Daddy posted a “Lombardi’s murky future with the Kings” story.
• Red Berenson calls it a career in Michigan. [SBN College | FreeP] Who will replace him? [SBN College]
• Meanwhile, the Stars have already interviewed three candidates to replace Lindy Ruff. [DMN]
• Elliotte Friedman and Bob McKenzie had lots to say on the Dale Tallon resurrection in Florida. [FanRag]
• Tallon had things to say, too. [Miami Herald | TSN]
• Jack Eichel was angry in his post-mortem, and questioned whether teammates are just happy to be in the NHL. [Buffalo News]
• Artemi Panarin earned max bonuses, which will cost the Hawks in cap space. Good. [Second City Hockey]
• With another WC loss, Hockey Canada’s process for its women’s squad has issues. [Ice Garden]
• A look at the aging curve, which comes for us all. [Hockey-Graphs]
• Looking to June’s draft, the top prospect is still this Patrick dude. [TSN]