Top Shelf : Islanders Daily 8/12/2013

Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

I asked myself over and over while on the way home from upstate New York and a brilliant five day weekend visiting my godson why these types of trips always seem to go so quickly. As expected, I did not have a logical answer.

My follow up to that had me thinking exactly in the opposite sense when it comes to the National Hockey League’s off-season. Why does that seem to go so slowly in comparison?

Another day comes to pass with nothing but off-beat and sometimes even colorful off-ice antics to report on as some worthy free agents still wait out their perspective employers to free up the cap space necessary to make the transaction happen.

For the Islanders, Garth Snow has done his work this off-season, locking up his future stars to cap friendly deals and adding Cal Clutterbuck and Pierre-Marc Bouchard to the fold of a team ready to be led in training camp by soon to be announced captain John Tavares. If you don’t believe my last statement, Evgeni Nabokov will clear things up for you.

"“I think he’s ready,” Nabokov said. “We knew last year that he was a leader, not just on the ice. He’s not extremely vocal, but he’s vocal when he needs to be. He’s a very mature guy for 22, and he’s our superstar.”"

Little bits from around the league include Sidney Crosby cutting the line at a Pittsburgh DMV (yep, that is how slow the news cycle is), Tyler Seguin being annointed as the Stars new #1 center (yeah, who didn’t see that coming) and David Clarkson trying to divert the Toronto media from saying his choice to wear #71 has nothing to do with 17 in reverse (Leafs legend Wendel Clark)

Coming up a little later at Eyes is game one of our best of seven ‘what-if’ series between the 1980 New York Islanders and 1994 New York Rangers.

In Case You Missed It

• Could this be the end of Patrick Marleau in San Jose? (Rant Sports)
• You can never have enough veterans (Dallas morning news)
• Ranking the top 5 Rangers moments. Are there even five to rank? (Bleacher Report)
• Why the rehiring of Brent Sutter for team Canada had to be done (Toronto Sun)
• Alex P will be a Blue – fans just need to remain patient (Bleedin Blue)
• John Fischer examines the shooting woes of the New Jersey Devils (In Lou we trust)

Two Minutes For Tweeting

• We all hear you Brian, loud and clear. It’s amazing what last season has done in terms of generating buzz among all Islanders fans. From an old-timer perspective, it’s fantastic to see once again.

• Interesting that a lot of the ‘mainstream’ media are not giving the Isles their due still. But alas, we here at Eyes are fully confident in the organization and team and I guarantee our outlook will be much different come our season preview in September. ?

• Outstanding Isles beat writer Staple is all you need to know about being on the ‘inside’ the Isles and providing great updates and information. Get your questions prepared and ask away!

• So, what exactly is the shipping time from Ontario to New Jersey? And Ashley, can you provide me with a tracking number? ? lol

• I love the description of the team that Kevin used in this tweet – ‘efficient’ and ‘improving’. Could not have thought of two better ones for a Monday morning.

As always, it’s you – the reader who make this all possible and the entire staff here at EyesOnIsles thanks you sincerely for your readership as we get closer and closer to the opening of training camp in about five weeks. You are going to want to keep it tuned right here for all your Islanders news (trust me on this one). We are going to potentially have a very exciting announcement come next weekend. ?

-Andy (@tazman19)