Night edit: Make that “unhappy Monday”? Chris Botta reports that Nate Thompson will miss 2-4 weeks with a broken ankle. We’ll see who’s missing in the morning.
A bit more than half the team took part in a captain’s practice/four-on-four shinny optional late this morning. (Defense appeared also to be optional.) As Chris Botta points out, the Islanders will probably need to call somebody up, but that call hadn’t yet come.
Otherwise, more or less status quo. Jon Gleed, Len DiCostanzo, they’re still here. It sounds as if a lot of the walking wounded will give it a try tomorrow, which could then give them an idea of who will be back for the weekend. As for who might be missing, Jack Capuano sounded most concerned about Tyler Haskins, who had a player fall on his leg Friday night in Norfolk.
Darryl Bootland is going to Austria. Kip Brennan left Finland without a destination; since I’m linking to the Patriot-News, they’re speculating that maybe Brennan could be the Bears’ rumored possible European defector. But today’s the deadline to sign European defectors to an AHL contract. (NHL teams can still sign players out of Europe and send them down to the AHL.)
Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter wishes Mike Royko was around to deal with Rod (bleep)in’ Blagojevich, and really, who doesn’t?