NHL & Islanders News: The Cup is headed to the building
Nabby | Photo by Scott Audette/NHLI via Getty Images
The next game will have the Cup on the line, but there’s an extra day off first. Good day, it’s another off day in the final series of the NHL season, while the other 30 teams await its conclusion and the beginning of Qualifying Offers & Arbitration & Draft & Free Agency & Kyle Dubas Friends Said season.
Islanders Non-News
Nothing new...but ICYMI, here’s Stan Fischler recalling his fun with Evgeni Nabokov. [Isles]
The NHL draft is coming and the Islanders, of course, do not have a first-round pick. But here are five prospects they reportedly spoke to at the recent Draft Combine. [THN]
Stanley Cup Final
In the Stanley Cup final, it’s another two-day break as the series heads back to Vegas. For the first time on Tuesday, you can say “the Cup is in the building.”
The Golden Knights know that status means Game 5 is different, and you can’t avoid thinking about the Cup being so close. [The Athletic]
Vegas will have three shots at putting the series away and putting their name on the Cup, and their opponents will either be without, or more likely with only a diminished, Matthew Tkachuk. [NHL | theScore | Sportsnet]
If Vegas wins it in Game 5, it would be quite the hiring anniversary for Bruce Cassidy. [NHL]
Need we remind you, however, the Panthers have been down 3-1 and survived before. [NHL]
Will Alex Pietrangelo face any discipline for leaving the box at the end of Game 4 and joining a “skirmish”? [Sportsnet]
Elsewhere
The Coyotes can “do a lot of damage” with all their picks at the draft, and you can take that in a lot of ways. [NHL]
The poor, freaking Jets. Connor Hellebuyck is the latest to indicate he does not want to sign an extension. [theScore]
Barry Trotz knows he and the Preds are known for defense, but he now wants them to be entertaining, like the city of Nashville. [NHL]
Patrick Roy says he knows his exit from the Avalanche was rash and will hang with him, but he’d love to coach in the NHL again. [NHL]
Jim Nill knows the Stars have room for improvement, and decisions to make. [Sportsnet]
The Connecticut governor continues to bang the drum about moving a team (the Coyotes) to Hartford, which is never gonna happen. [Sportsnet]
Sports Media News
The Athletic, whose tech-bro founders literally said their mission was to “bleed every local paper til we’re the last ones standing,” has just laid off 4 percent of its reporters, saying they are shifting away from having one beat reporter per sports team to broader coverage “telling the most compelling stories for fans across the teams in a given league, drawing on both local and national reporting expertise.”
And they wonder why we bitch about that publication having no beat writers for some NHL teams while carrying six guys to cover Kyle Dubas’ facial expressions. They plundered the top beatwriters from across the continent saying they’d have great local coverage all in one place and then...no. What a great service they performed for local news. (And yes, this began before the Times bought them. No doubt the founders cashed in nicely.) [NYT]...
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