Islanders News: Nelson, Lee lead; Three Thoughts; Preseason at the Bridge

Islanders stuff

• We waited a while for this 30 Thoughts but it’s informative as always. Plus, there’s a bunch of Islanders stuff in there about Calvin de Haan, Ilya Kovalchuk and some new assistant coaches maybe. [LHH]
• Can’t get enough of that Barzal man. Nice profile of the kid’s WHL final and season here. [Islanders]
• How about some potential free agent ideas from The Hockey Writers? My two cents, in number order: 1. Too expensive. 2. No. 3. Meh. 4. Sure. 5. Oh God. Hell No.
• The Islanders and Rangers will play a preseason game in Bridgeport this year. [BST | Soundin’ Off]
• Meanwhile, the team’s newest affiliate - the Worcester Railers - announced their inaugural schedule yesterday. You can follow PR guy Tom on Twitter here and watch his Tuesday with Tom show for some weekly info on the team.

World Championships

• Quality day for the USA, as they beat Russia to finish atop their group and win their six straight. Anders Lee had the game-winning power play goal in the third and Brock Nelson had two assists plus the empty-netter to seal it. The quarterfinals start Thursday. [Sportsnet]
• Heck, even Dennis Seidenberg had a goal yesterday, helping Germany grab the last quarterfinal spot with a 4-3 shootout win over Latvia. [IIHF]

Around the NHL

• Roman Josi scored with about five minutes to go to give Nashville a win in its first ever conference final game at home. [OTF]
• Ryan Kesler is perfectly happy to play the villain in his beef with Ryan Johansen. [Tennessean]
• The Penguins could call on old pal Mark Streit to fill in their many needs on defense. [The Hockey News]
• Guy Boucher’s stifling defense isn’t scaring the Penguins stars. [Pensburgh]
• Phil Kessel is the most interesting uninteresting player in the league. [Post-Gazette]
• Marc Savard pens a personal tale of coming back from a concussion called, succinctly, “Hell and Back.” [Players Trib]
• Busy day for the Blues, who fired a bunch of coaches, including former Islander Steve Thomas [Blues | Game Time] and announced they’ll be sharing an AHL affiliate with Vegas. [Dispatch | Chicago Business]
• The evaluation period begins in Washington [Sportsnet]. The decisions will not be easy ones [SI.com]. But years of losing in the playoffs may be mentally destroying to the Capitals. [Russian Machine]
• The Rangers named Chris Drury Hartford GM and fired the Wolf Pack’s coach. But don’t worry, Drury remains the team’s VP of Little League Baseball. [BSB | Soundin’ Off on the local angle]
• Sounds like Tampa could host next year’s All Star Game, if it happens at all with that Olympic stuff still a little up in the air. [Raw Charge]
• An update on Griffin Reinhart, who may already be out of Edmonton. [Oilers Nation]
• The Penguins traded insufferable play-by-play guy Paul Steigerwald for former Islanders radio announcer and NHL Network host Steve Mears, a vast improvement if there ever was one. [Penguins]
• The KHL might be contracting a few teams in the near future. So things are going well over there, I guess. [AP.org]
• Predators anthem singer is a little bummed that Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan and others got do the national anthem during the playoffs. [Tennessean]
• The Riveters re-signed speedy forward Rebecca Russo, who you should go watch next season. [BSB]
• Ville Leino? More like Ville EMO. [Puck Daddy]