Quick hit, as this day’s nuts:
–The lines were indeed rearranged from Tuesday, as Brent Thompson said they might be. John Stevens in between Michael Dal Colle and Josh Ho-Sang. Matt Lorito with Chris Bourque and Otto Koivula. It gets tricky from here: Travis St. Denis, Kieffer Bellows and Tanner Fritz were together. But it looked as if Steve Bernier belonged somewhere on that line, and he sat out: upper-body, day-to-day, said Thompson.
Either way, with another (one last) three-in-three, the same kind of rotation could go on as last week. One fewer body, obviously, without Thomas Hickey, but with Michael Dal Colle in place of Andrew Ladd, and we’ll see about Bernier.
–After practice came news that Oak View Group will take over management of Webster Bank Arena. Oak View, which features some big names in sports and arenas, is part of the Islanders’ Belmont project, too.
–Micheal Haley was claimed by San Jose yesterday. Mike McKenna cleared today, as did Devante Smith-Pelly. Boston traded Ryan Donato, son of Sound Tiger (for one game), to Minnesota.
–Critical dates coming soon: Sunday is the last day to clear players through waivers in order to send them down Monday. Monday at 3 p.m. is the trade deadline, and any player still on an NHL roster at 3 p.m. (with limited exceptions) can’t be sent down the rest of the year. (NHL rosters then become unlimited, at least as long as they’re under the salary cap, but teams only have four non-emergency recalls to use after the deadline.) The AHL deadline is the following Monday, March 4, at 3 p.m.
–Sunday morning at 10:30, TCM has “A Hard Day’s Night.” Just a PSA.
–And RIP, David Horowitz, Matt Brickley and Peter Tork.