Islanders News: Let the offseason festivities begin

We did not post Bits yesterday because the only real news that would have been new was that the Tampa Bay Lightning earned their second consecutive Stanley Cup. No one here needs or wants to read a bunch of stories telling us how they did it or how good they are.

But because this offseason will be so short, team business gets underway quickly. So there is some actual news today!

Also, be on the lookout for a new Islanders Anxiety this morning.

Islanders News

• Apparently, Keith Jones said that the Florida Panthers were Tampa’s toughest challenge. Despite this razor-sharp analysis, only the Islanders made the Bolts face elimination. [Empire]
• Anthony Beauvillier’s fantasy hockey stock rose after his strong-if-streaky playoffs showing. [NHL]
• Ryan Pulock’s game-saving shot-block is among the top memories from the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs. [NHL]
• LOOK! The Islanders posted 74 photos from the season that was. Lots of good memories in there. [Islanders]
• Interesting discussion here.

Elsewhere

So yeah, the Lightning defeated the Montreal Canadiens in Game 5 to win the Cup. Hooray for them. [NHL] If you want to read the live blog of their win, dig in here. [NHL]

• Nikita Kucherov reportedly played the entirety of the Final with a broken rib, likely acquired via that Scott Mayfield cross-check in Game 6. [Sportsnet]
• The good news is that right now, it seems impossible for Tampa Bay to keep this group together; that is unless someone needs surgery! [NHL]
• Long-time St. Louis Blues star winger Vladimir Tarasenko has requested a trade, apparently citing his distrust of the organization over the way it handled his shoulder injury. [The Athletic]
• On that note, it could be the summer of the blockbuster in the NHL. One thing that I think that these writers forget, though, is that not only are the teams trading the stars cap-strapped; the acquiring teams are, too. I’ll believe it’s the summer of the blockbuster when I see it. [The Athletic]
• And similarly, ten questions ahead of the NHL’s offseason. [NHL]
• I clipped this before Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final, but Habs bench boss Dominique Ducharme coached the 2012 Halifax Mooseheads, led by Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin, to a 3-0 series comeback. Obviously, that did not translate to this series.
• Turns out that many Cinderella runs turn out to be just that: a Cinderella run. It does not often lead to sustained success. [The Athletic]
• Dom L. looks back at how well his model did this season. He admits that his accounting for hotness down the stretch did not work, and the Islanders defeating the Boston Bruins was evidence of that. Also, despite his model’s bearish outlook on the Islanders, he hedged his own bets based on the bubble last year, which turned out to be the move. [The Athletic]
• Remember the “Uber Incident” from a couple of years ago? Defenseman Chris Wideman became the scapegoat, despite six other players being in that car—including “star” Matt Duchene—and now he cannot find his way back into the NHL. [The Athletic]
• Billionaire sports owners exploit loopholes in Texas’ tax laws to avoid paying millions in taxes. In other news, water is wet. (Although, this story actually is great and you should read it.) [ProPublica]
• Awful news the other day about Columbus Blue Jackets goalie Matiss Kivlenieks’ death from a fireworks accident. The organization mourns him. [NHL]