Islanders News: Getting back in the swing of things

Well folks, this weekend’s Bits turned into Monday morning’s Bits, as I was traveling today. My sincerest apologies. There’s like a gameday’s worth of Bits in here as a result, on the bright side, and almost all of them are Islanders-centric.

Two friends’ birthday celebrations rolled into one night in the city on Saturday, and it was a blast, but I’m falling asleep as I type this. At one point, around 1:30 a.m., I disappeared for an hour looking for Kettle brand sea salt and vinegar chips - successfully, I might add, though apparently my original goal was to find a sandwich - and we still had two hours to go before we went to bed, which was the floor. But hey, it was an excellent night, and I had plenty of Anderson .Paak to listen to as I fell asleep.

Unfortunately, leaving them in as I slept rendered my earphones dead the next morning, making for a disappointing train ride that was complicated further by my decision to order not one, but two sausage, egg, and cheese McGriddles at the Penn Station McDonald’s. I got home in time to watch football, though.

The beginning of football season is great for two reasons: 1) something to do on Sundays, which are, historically, the worst day of the weekend, and it requires virtually zero energy, my favorite amount of energy to spend on Sunday; and B) hockey season is right around the corner.

From the Trenches of Rookie Camp

• Dan tallies up the important notes going into and getting ready for Islanders rookie camp in 2018. [LHH]
• Arthur Staple pens the final summer version of Isles notebook, featuring Anthony Beauvillier, Devon Toews, Joshua Ho-Sang, and the rules o’ Lou. [The Athletic]
• The changes enacted by Lou Lamoriello and Barry Trotz are noticed by the players practicing and participating in camp. Also, I learned that David Quenneville is Johnny Boychuk’s nephew by marriage. [Gross]
• The kiddies are grateful for the chance to get a head start on training camp. [Islanders]
• The Islanders’ young goalies are eager to soak up the knowledge of Mitch Korn. [Gross]
• Ho-Sang is focused on the present, not the past. But people keep asking him about it! [Newsday | NHL | Islanders]
• He’s not at rookie camp but he falls under the Islanders in Diapers label: Oliver Wahlstrom is the fourth subject of The Gifted series this year from Scott Wheeler. [The Athletic]
• Michael Fornabaio reflects briefly on Islanders rookie camp. [Soundin’ Off]
• Here are five players that saw time for the Worcester Railers last season that are attending rookie camp. [Railers]
• Kieffer Bellows and Noah Dobson have struck up a fine bond since meeting at Mini Camp back in July, with Bellows showing Dobson the training camp ropes. [Islanders]

Big Boy News

• Ryan Pulock sat down for a Q&A with the team site to discuss his summer, the Isles re-signing his most common D-partner and friend Thomas Hickey, and if he knew Trotz before he got hired as his coach, since they’re from the same town in Manitoba. [Islanders]
• As LHHer 19 Isle in NJ 22 points out, Auston Matthews’ phone call to John Tavares was two weeks before free agency - which may be considered tampering. I know we got a bunch of legal types in the commentariat; what say thee? [LHH Fanpost]
• Tavares is hoping for a “positive” reception when he returns to Brooklyn/Long Island. I am hoping for a beautiful lady to walk through my front door with an extremely large full bag with a dollar sign on it for me while we’re wishing for things that won’t happen. [PHT]
• PHOTOS: Anders Lee, 40-goal scorer, took part in the NHL Media Tour in Chicago. [Islanders]

Business as Usual

• The upgrades needed to make the Coliseum NHL-compliant once again have been approved and will be funded by tax breaks. [Newsday]
• Trotz is excited for the Islanders to return to the Coliseum again. [The Sports Daily]
• The Matt Martin Foundation held its 4th annual poker tournament over the weekend, and it looks like everyone had fun helping raising money for the survivors of the Parkland school shooting. [Islanders | NHL | VIDEO]

20 Questions in 20 Days

At the writing of the last Bits, we had just answered Question #6 about #6, Ryan Pulock. Three more have been answered since then.

• Jenny posted Question #7: “Does Noah Dobson have a shot to make the roster?” [LHH]
• Garik responded to Question #8: “Where will Kieffer Bellows start the season?” [LHH]
• And Dan replied to Question #9: “Who will be the Islanders second line center?” [LHH]

Beyond the Orange and Blue

• Drew Stafford will be attending Devils training camp on a PTO. It’s all happening, folks. [Devils]
• As much as I can’t stand them, I have to give a lot of credit to the aggressive partying the Capitals have done with the Stanley Cup this summer. It’s literally getting the shit kicked out of it; Philip Pritchard actually had to ask them to stop doing Cup stands (spoiler alert: they didn’t stop doing Cup stands). If you only click on one story today, well, you’re wasting a full day of Bits, but please make it this one because it is amazing. [Deadspin]