Islanders Scrimmage: How to watch 50 players, three teams, all the futures

The New York Islanders’ annual prospect mini camp scrimmage has taken many forms over the years — and many colors, sometimes orange, sometimes not — but one thing that has remained consistent is this:

It’s our only peek at any new hockey-like substance during the long summer offseason months, and it’s a chance to jokingly make big conclusions about prospects.

Tonight you can catch it live online here, beginning with a pre-game around 5:45 p.m. and games about 6 p.m. EDT, followed by a skills competition.

There will be three teams (Blue, White, Blue & White...no orange) playing each other in 20-minute long games. Just enough for you to get a taste and have some fun watching without forcing them to play full-length games like this means anything.

Recent top draft picks are spread out, with Mathew Barzal, Kieffer Bellows and last weekend’s top pick Robin Salo on the White team, Joshua Ho-Sang and Anthony Beauvillier on the Blue team, and Michael Dal Colle on the Blue and White team.

But that White team also has Linus Soderstrom in goal, so we will go ahead and make them the favorite heading in.

Check the full rosters on the Islanders site here.

Wanna game thread it up for old in-season’s sake? Come back to this post for the in-game chat and prospect hyperbole.

Going to the game? You can still game thread with us (yay, smartphones!), but you can also harass Newsday beatwriter Arthur Staple for daring to say that one thing about that one player that you totally thought was wrong: