PPD tonight; other thoughts on the season

Remember the STAR-STUDDED FINALE of everyone's FAVORITE REALITY SHOW is tonight when the NHL holds it's FABULOUS PING PONG DERBY to finally figure out who will have the right to select either JOHN TAVARES or VICTOR HEDMAN first overall in the 2009 NHL ENTRY DRAFT in MONTREAL this JUNE!!

(I just thought I'd write that sentence in the press release style that I have always wanted to do. All those CAPS are obnoxious, aren't they?)

So, yeah. Tonight's the night. It's worth noting that Tampa got to pick first overall last year (Stamkos) and that the Lightning have the second-best chance to pick first again. After the Bolts, there are only three teams that can move up to #1: the Avalanche, who had the worst record in the Western Conference, the mighty Thrash, and Los Angeles Kings. Everybody else falls in behind somewhere.

That said, the Isles and their 48.2% chance of landing the first pick can only slide down as far as second. They'll still get a good player but if it happens, it's going to be The Stomach Punch Felt Around Long Island. Seriously, not matter how much the boys improved in the second half, you'd like to get something substantial for your efforts when you're out of the playoff picture by Christmas.

But enough of that. The proposition of losing #1 overall to Tampa makes me want to throw up in my mouth.

So does all of the speculation about The Lighthouse. I love the lazy media and their ground-breaking journalism and how everybody and their brother who has an article of John Tavares has to mention that the team is moving to Kansas City or that Tavares is going to shoot down the Islanders like Lindros did with Quebec a lifetime ago. I guess it doesn't matter to our Canadian brothers that Tavares and his agent both issued statements shooting down the speculation and that anyone with like two minutes to search on Google can find news fro Newsday that the Isles have a pretty good lease until something like 2015.

Why let reality get in the way of silly innuendo that goes nowhere? Of course, they used to say that controversy sold newspapers but the way things are going now, it is harder and harder to sell an actual newspaper to anyone without a coffee ritual or long ride to work these days.

Enh, I feel like I have written this whole post before. Check the archives.

Just a few housekeeping notes for the website to finish for today.

We'll have our first-round predictions up wither later today or tomorrow. We are also working on a feature first suggested by Mrs. NYIFORLIFE a long time ago about our favorite hockey cards. I've been collecting since I was eight years old so I've got quite a few favorites. We hope to share that feature sometime over the long summer.

We also will select out 2008-09 NIFORLIFE.com ISLANDER OF THE YEAR. Last year Richard Park was the winner and you can read that posting at the left by clicking on his picture.

Finally, we'll go back in time for another RETRO LIVE BLOG or two over the summer months. For those who don't know, we'll do a live post of a great game or event from the past and comment on it like we are watching it in real time. The 1980 All-Star Game was a particular favorite; as was a 1976 WHA game with the Whalers taking on the Red Army.