Islanders News: Parise, Ferraro, Scatchard, announcers

Greetings, everyone. Before training camp and the season kicks into gear, we’ll have a new commenting platform unveiled this week, the details of which will come from our league manager later today.

If you frequent SB Nation sites that cover teams in other leagues, you may have already encountered earlier versions of this platform. It’s overall a big improvement — easier image loading, ability to ignore your most frequent enemy commenters — while retaining some of the features (Z button!) that many longtimers hold dear.

It will also lighten the load for us as moderators; you probably don’t care about that part, but if it makes moderating easier, that’s good. Anyway, I just wanted to give you a heads up because one day this week you’ll wake up to find your cheese has been moved. Just a bit. It’s good cheese though I swear.

Islanders News

Zach Parise news, ICYMI (surely you didn’t):

• He’s excited to be “a piece of the puzzle.” [Isles] And he has “extra motivation.” [NHL]
• Long rumored and reported, team and player finally close the loop. [Athletic]
• Dan and Mike did a special 31+++ Thoughts-style podcast reacting to the Parise news and the legacy that precedes it. [LHH Islanders Anxiety]

Meanwhile...:

• Single game tickets are now on sale. [Isles]
• Chris Botta has launched a podcast series, and the first episode includes extensive conversation with Ray Ferraro on his transition to talking head (and response from players and management) and his time with the Isles and Al Arbour, of course. [Hockey Press Pass]
• Former Islander Dave Scatchard has had quite the post-career, post-concussion journey, and he’s written a book to talk about it. [Isles Blog]
• Arthur Staple joined Hockey Night NY to discuss the great Stan Fischler, among other things. [Twitter snippet | Full interview on Twitch]
• Brendan Burke and Jen Botterill are among the latest additions to the Turner Sports NHL broadcast team. [Turner | Newsday]
• The Sound Tigers Bridgeport Islanders released their Covid policy for attending games; proof of vaccination or a recent negative test required. [CT Post]

Here is a story of wrestler Drew McIntyre touring [Bank or Tire Company or something] Arena [Newsday], and here is video of them painting a logo on the roof:

Elsewhere

• Ken Holland believes “the time is now” for the Oilers to evolve into contenders. (Fans would sure appreciate roster enhancements to reflect that.) [Sportsnet]
• Connor McDavid also agrees it’s about time the Oilers should be good. [NHL]
• The Senators are “believed” to have offered Brady Tkachuk an eight-year, $64 million extension. [TSN]
• Tyler Bozak, still a pretty effective bottom-six center, waited around and resigned for a veteran-minimum style one-year deal to stay with the Blues. [St. Louis Game Time]
• Meanwhile, Vladimir Tarasenko remains and Craig Berube says he’ll be treated just like every other player. [NHL]
• The Wild negotiations with Kirill Kaprizov are going...”pretty slow.” [NHL]
• After a second hip surgery, Ryan Kesler faces reality. [TSN | NHL]
• Still my favorite moment as a U.S. hockey fan (sorry, Canadian friends): Remembering the U.S. defeat of Canada in the World Cup 25 years ago, when USA trailed 2-1 before scoring four times in the final five minutes. So many delicious Lindros, Messier and Gretzky tears. [NHL]
• Bourne: Three teams that may be on the way up, three on the way down. [Sportsnet]
• Inside the studios of some goalie mask artists. [Athletic]
• Pierre-Luc Dubois discusses why he stayed (and will remain) silent about why he wanted out of Columbus. [Sportsnet]