Islanders News: Scrimmaging and skating hard, with a purpose

Also: Mayfield says he’s all better.

Training camp continues for the Islanders and some new faces are getting their brief moment in the spotlight, including a speedy former Columbus forward, a new center and a goalie who’s returning to North America.

Islanders News

• After the Islanders scrimmaged, they bag skated. Mat Barzal says the intensity and conditioning is great. [Isles]
• Roy talked about the reasoning for long skates and conditioning after day two. The consistent refrain is to get off to a good start to the season. [THN]
• Already working on special teams (good!), the Isles aim to be more aggressive on the penalty kill this season. [Newsday]
• Notes from the scrimmage, if you want them, but also Bo Horvat on Maxim Tsyplakov: “He makes a lotta good plays. He’s not gonna wow you or anything with his speed, but he just makes smart plays … he’s just gonna keep getting better.” [THN]
• Delving into three depth free agent signings Liam Foudy, Marcus Hogberg and Fredrik Karlström. [Isles]
• Speaking of, Semyon Varlamov is currently the only certainty in the Isles goalie situation. (Cue: training camp injury to Varly) [Newsday]
• Mike Reilly is excited to be back for a full season with the Islanders (even though he probably still wishes he got a better deal). [Isles]
• Noah Dobson is focused on the season, not worried about his RFA status next summer. [Newsday]
• Scott Mayfield feels good, happy to get back into battles. [THN]

Elsewhere

Oh look, the Fanatics jersey pricing is out! A company with a reputation for shit quality and service now offers four “tiers” of jerseys, starting at $120 for a practice jersey. The few features advertised on the top tiers include a “new NHL holographic shield,” which is hilariously tone deaf:

• Multiple parties in Atlanta, which never really had a chance thanks to ownership during its last expansion effort, are aiming to go for it again. But they need an arena. [Sportsnet]
• The Senators are one very important step closer to the downtown arena they’ve long sought. [Ottawa Citizen | Sportsnet]
• After news broke that injured Robin Lehner was not at the opening of camp for a required medical, he issued a brief statement: “All I can say at this time is everyone knows why I couldn’t be there. I am waiting calmly for things to be sorted out.” [Sportsnet]
• The Oilers have added Zack Kassian as a…pro scout . I mean yeah, he always seemed like a guy with great judgment, sure, gotta hire that guy. [TSN]
• John Tavares looks at transitioning the captaincy to Auston Mathews as “an opportunity.” Totally. [TSN]