Islanders News: Saturday night’s alright for nothing; Tavares clarifies; Weight explains

Today’s a great one for hockey. Why? Because there are games all day and basically the entire NHL is playing except for the Islanders. So sit back and enjoy.

Our guys return tomorrow night in Calgary.

Islanders stuff

• To recap: First, John Tavares says he’s not having fun right now, given that his team has lost seven (now eight) games in a row. Then, every English language outlet that covers hockey takes that quote as an implication that he wants to bolt the entire franchise, because god forbid they actually read the article. Now, yesterday, Tavares has clarified his remarks, specifying it’s about the slump and has nothing to do with his free agency. Glad we got that settled. [Newsday]
• Doug Weight on Thursday’s shootout: Tavares went because he’s come up in big spots before. Barzal did not because of his (frankly egregious) turnover that led to Connor McDavid’s breakaway and penalty shot. [Newsday]
• Staple on the Islanders’ inability to catch a break or a win. [The Athletic]
• Andrew Gross’s analysis of the shootout loss to the Oilers. [Newsday]
• Dennis Seidenberg on his silver-medal winning brother Yannic and their countrymen. [NHLPA]
• You know who’s played well lately? Christoper Gibson. [Newsday]
• Without Gibson, the Sound Tigers have won five straight, but remain five points out of a playoff spot. [CT Post]
• David Quenneville had four assists in Medicine Hat’s 6-4 win over Edmonton last night, giving him 78 points on the season. [Chat News]
• Also, in case you missed it, CSKA swept their way into the second round of the KHL playoffs on Thursday with a 1-0 Game 4 win over Spartak. Ilya Sorokin started all four games and gave up just one goal against three shutouts. I’d include a story from either the KHL or team’s sites but none of the posts they’ve put up are worth it. But go ahead and look for yourself.
• A feature on the Worcester Railers Woody Hudson. [Telegram]
• The Athletic’s Alex Novet will be on the Fer Sure podcast this weekend and you can submit questions at Winging it in Motown.

Other Stuff

• Last night’s NHL scores. The Islanders are now eight points back of eighth place thanks to the Blue Jackets win last night. Wins? What are those?
• The Devils lead the hard-charging Panthers by just three points as they begin a grueling road trip. Are they in trouble? [AATJ]
• You may have already seen this but here’s that NHLPA player poll of various things around the game: best player, best role model, fastest skater (Nick Leddy is third) and best and worst ice. Sunrise and Glendale have worse ice than Brooklyn. Victory!
• Has Ryan Strome done enough to stay in Edmonton beyond this year? [Edm. Jour.]
• This is kind of a big deal. Trust me. The NHL has opened its first esports tournament that you can enter [ESPN]. So will this gain new hockey fans or flop terribly? Well, it depends [ESPN]
• Sad news: Kyle Okposo has been diagnosed with another concussion. [Buffalo News]
• Sad but also unsurprising news: Martin Hanzel will miss the rest of the season and have spinal fusion surgery. Holy cow. [DBD]
• The 2018 Paralympics have begun and Raw Charge has your sled hockey schedule.