A note before the news of the day: Bridgeport’s auction for Sandy Hook has begun. Some nice stuff from around the hockey world.
Same lines. Same pairs. But something coming.
Scott Pellerin said he hadn’t talked with the Islanders yet about the plan for the near future, what decisions they might make about the lineup for the rest of the week. As it was, the only unusual thing at practice today was the presence of two additional forwards in red: Brock Nelson and Kirill Kabanov. They’d skated earlier with Travis Hamonic (feeling good and obviously happy to (a) get back on the ice and (2) have resolution up top) and Max MacKay (feeling better, he said), then joined the main group. Kabanov’s getting stronger but is happy to take his time and make sure he’s 100 percent. Nelson’s about a week and a half into that “2-3 weeks” timetable.
Asked a couple of likely training-campers if they’d heard anything from the Islanders about when that might begin, and they said no. There are a lot of things still to be firmed up about this settlement, as is likely when you’re firming up the details of a 400-something page legal document you’ve fought over for three months.
There is one call-up already: Trainer Matt Bain is headed to the Island.
Edit: Arthur Staple has Lubomir Visnovsky’s decision to stay in Slovakia. So slash a little more depth out of the defense.
Elsewhere, Mark Visentin is AHL Player of the Week after two 2-1 wins, including Saturday against Bridgeport. Golden Boy J.T. Miller has returned to Hartford, per the Whale’s release. Higher up, net-front wizard Tomas Holmstrom is reportedly set to retire.
And brilliance from the Onion (H/T FakeAPStylebook).
Edit: UConn hockey coach Bruce Marshall, who’d been on medical leave, has resigned.