Islanders News: So wait, you *don’t* care about preseason?

Sep 30, 2022 - 12:10 PM

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Dom had me for a minute. I was scrolling Twitter half-awake, waiting for my coffee to brew yesterday morning, and I saw the article tweeted out from his and LHH’s account. The headline made my heart drop into my stomach, so you could imagine my relief when I opened the article. Thankfully, he was kind enough to put the disclaimer right there in the subhead. But that certainly got my brain working early.

In terms of what you all came here for, the New York Islanders, marking a week into a training camp, trimmed their roster, re-assigning fourteen players to Bridgeport and sending one back to juniors.

Islanders News

• It was pretty funny when the Isles reporters tweeted out that there were only two groups yesterday, so they knew there were cuts but not of whom. [Isles DTD]
• Here are all the cuts. No notable names; they’re all still on Long Island. [Islanders] Lane Lambert has been especially impressed with Aatu Räty, who appears to be getting a real look. [Twitter Video]
• Nobody really has looked very sharp, but that’s usually the case during the first week of training camp. [Newsday]
• The lines are getting closer to what they want or expect to see in the regular season, and Zach Parise and Mathew Barzal remained paired, alongside Kyle Palmieri. They showed chemistry late last year, and hopefully, both Parise and Palmieri start a little quicker this year. [amNY]

• Brock Nelson has yet to play in any preseason games, but he missed Tuesday night’s game because his wife gave birth to their fourth child that day. That being said, the gray-haired soon-to-be 31-year-old (look at all those hyphens!) is itching to get back into game action. [Newsday]
• Based on what he has seen so far, Anders Lee expects the team to look “noticeabl[y] differen[t]” under Lambert. [The Athletic]
• To celebrate the 50th anniversary season, UBS Arena will have some specialty foods, including an Italian chicken cutlet hero, chicken and waffles, and blue and orange ice cream in an Isles goalie helmet. [Islanders]

Elsewhere

• Rasmus Sandin ended his stalemate, signing with the Toronto Maple Leafs for two years and a $1.4 million AAV. [NHL]
• The amount of insiders who fell all over themselves to express some variation of “Sandin did the smart thing here” was pathetic. Tweets from Elliotte Friedman and Darren Dreger, and this article by Luke Fox—they all better be careful not to hurt their backs carrying all that water for Kyle Dubas, who, six years into his tenure, finally grew a backbone.
• A few different players—including ones the Islanders reportedly targeted this summer, like Nazem Kadri and J.T. Miller—are due for a heavy dose of regression. [The Athletic]
• From each division, a team that made the playoffs last year who is most likely to miss this year, and which of last year’s non-playoff teams is most likely to leap them. In the Metro, Greg Wyshynski predicts the Washington Capitals fall off and the New Jersey Devils replace them. I guess the Devils are easier to write about. [E$PN]