As the Islanders come off the Collective Bargaining Agreement's 5 day mandatory hiatus, things have changed. They are no longer in second place in the Atlantic Division, falling one point behind the Washington Capitals. They are only one point ahead of the fourth place Philadephia Flyers. The one good thing is that both Washington and Piladephia have played one more game than the Islanders.

Worse yet, they play the fourth game of their nine game road trip which could make or break their sason. Tonight they visit the Dallas Stars, who are currently ranked third overall in the BRHL. As the Islanders arrive in Dallas, some controversary erupted. Stars GM Junya Kato released a statistical analysis of the BRHL where he claims the Islanders are a below average team, ranking them 16th overall. Immediately after the game the Islanders fly to Chicago, where they take on the Chicago Blackhawks, who are currently ranked number one in the BRHL. Our beloved Islanders will be lucky to come away with two points in the next two games.

While the players were sunning themselves in various exotic locations, rumor has it that GM Lawrence Linke was busy working the phones. Various sources throughout the league have stated that names such as Henrik Lundqvist (yes, King Henrik), Kris Letang, Ryan Ellis, Darnell Nurse, Artem Anisimov, Anders Lee, Josh Anderson, Cam Atkinson and Tomas Tatar have come up in trade talks. When questioned about this Linke's reply was "where do you guys get this stuff". When asked about his appearance at the Oscar's with the mega superstar actress on his arm Linke stated that "that we are just friends". 

Linke further stated that he will not trade a draft choice for a rental unless it makes sense for both the remainder of this year and next year. Linke continued to state that the Islanders are trending upward and doesn't forsee trading parts of the future for a run at the cup.