Islanders News: Greiss glory, Gibson shutout

It’s not game day just yet, so we can enjoy various this and that before the Leafs return with — trivia note — at least one former Islander in their lineup.

Islanders News

• Remember when we wondered whether Brock Nelson would blossom or disappear under Barry Trotz? It’s the former. [Newsday]
• Something Carey brought up in last week’s 19 Thoughts post was how Thomas Greiss quietly has climbed into a select tier of goalies in Islanders history. Noel and Dan P. tackled that topic and more in the latest Isles Buzz podcast. [LHH podcasts]
• Speaking of Carey (and podcasts), he’s the guest on Hockey Night in New York discussing the Trotz and Korn Effects and more.
• Chistopher Gibson earned his second shutout in three games (and now trails only Wade Dubielewicz in franchise history) as the Sound Tigers have won three of their last five, starting a four-game trip. [CT Post | Sound Tigers]
• Prospect Report: Cole Coskey, Collin Adams and more. [Isles]
• The Islanders enter the top five in the Down Goes Brown power rankings. [Athletic]

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Elsewhere

Last night’s NHL scores include the Capitals falling to the Coyotes in a shootout and the Hurricanes revenge-stomping the Senators.

• Before all that though, Anders Nilsson was miraculously the first star of the week. [NHL]
• The Blues are down a couple of key veteran forwards and very tight to the cap, yet have promising prospects in the AHL so they...are bringing Troy Brouwer and Jamie McGinn in on PTOs? “It’s an experienced league,” says Doug Armstrong, who has a couple of Cup rings and a veteran fetish. [STL Post-Dispatch]
• The Toronto Maple Leafs, who visit the Isles tomorrow, have found their latest scapegoat in backup goalie Michael Hutchinson, now on waivers. [Sportsnet] They just couldn’t afford to wait. [Sportsnet]
• Meanwhile Connor Hellebuyck has rebounded to help keep the Jets afloat. [TSN]
• Many moons ago, a young Joe Thornton formed a friendship with Bruins legend Johnny Bucyk that has endured long after his trade from Boston to San Jose. [Athletic]
• The Robby Fabbri trade is a win-win for the rebuilding Red Wings and the 2014 first-round pick. [ESPN]
• If you know or have known anyone going through chemotheraphy, you can feel for Dale Hawerchuk has he fights stomach cancer. [NHL]
• Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher discusses the influence of his dad, a longtime NHL GM in his own day. [Athletic]
• After he chose to turn Remembrance/Veterans Day into a straw-man attack on “you people who come here,” Hockey Night in Canada is finally done with Don Cherry’s intermission old man ranting about a world he doesn’t understand (and never bothered to try) act. [TSN | Sportsnet]
• Cherry crossed a line too difficult to come back from, says Bob McKenzie. [TSN video] How does it feel to be “you people”d by the ol’ xenophobe? Tanzanian-born longtime Canadian journalist Farhan Lalji reflects. [TSN video] For decades, “Cherry was a roadblock to feeling Canadian for those who felt a little less Canadian than others. It was his emphasis on the others. On ‘you people.’ [Athletic]
• Before the Stastnys, there was Vaclav Nedomansky, the Czech whose defection from then-Czechoslovakia in 1974 was “the first [sports] fissure in the Iron Curtain.” [Athletic]
• Nick Foligno was suspended three games for an elbow. [TSN]