Full Moon Thursdays & Other Things…

That make me crazy.

Anyone who is a regular on the NYIC message board knows that I have said for years “The Islanders never win when there’s a full moon on a Thursday.” I had tracked it a few years ago and found the odds were always against them. This past Thursday in Boston was no different. The entire day had a bad moon over it, so I assumed the game would have the same outcome as past experiences, and I was right.

My bad Moon day caused various household annoyances; the refrigerator stopped working, our home printer blew an ink cartridge all over the filing cabinet, and my husband’s work camera mysteriously lost two sets of important photos off the media card. It was just a bad and expensive sort of day all around.

It was 6:25 pm when I turned on the TV and played that “Where has Cablevision put the Islanders now?” game. I found the blue screen on Channel 14 saying the overflow game would be on this channel, blah blah, so I put on Channel 414 which is the digital equivalent. Why, I don’t know since the feed has no additional attributes than that on 14, but hell, I’m PAYING for digital cable, I may as well use it. The IO info bar at the bottom said “Islanders Pre-Game 6:30 - 7 pm.” Perfect. I raised the volume and returned to the kitchen figuring I could make dinner and listen to the pre-game show.

At 6:35 pm I started to wonder why I was listening to Marty Broduer. Was this another MSG special they were forcing on us during OUR time??? No. It was the Hall Of Fame show. I grabbed the remote again and started to change channels thinking they moved the show again without telling us, OR, as has been done in the past, just NOT flipped the switch at the right time to air the pre-game.

By 6:45 pm I was angry and irate and looking for someone to call or strangle. Islanders fans were being dissed again, and I wasn’t going to take it! So while I was frantically looking for the Cablevision phone number I also decided to reach out to the two people I knew would have an answer for me, Corey Witt and Jason Lockhart. Yes, yes, yes. I knew they were busy but I was on the verge of screaming. Corey must have sensed my fragile state and emailed me immediately from his blackberry. “No pre-game show tonight. No NYC studio.”

AGGRRRRHHHHHH!!!!! Of course!!! The Brian Leetch tribute! Granted, Brian Leetch was an amazing player, a great man, and I’m very happy that he was honored the way he was. But couldn’t Cablevision get it right and at least CHANGE THE DAMN INFO BAR so that I wouldn’t go into attack mode thinking they did it specifically to screw us? (See? I’m getting myself upset again.) I also burned myself on my oven and dropped dinner. But that’s another story.

Once back on the couch with the laptop, I did find that there is actually a website for the overflow games. They are already scheduled and there are links to where they will be found http://www.nyoverflow.com/. But even this information is buried within their website.

Ok, let’s walk away from the loss before the All-Star game and look towards the future shall we? Give the rest of the team a few days to rest and recover and come back a little less “dinged up” to start the final stretch of games for the season.

For the balance of the season, I’d like to see Aaron Johnson play a little more for sure, and I’d like to see Mike Comrie wake up and be that guy that shocked us during preseason. Bill Guerin is turning into my favorite current Islander for more reasons than I can possible write about; I want to see him get the accolades he deserves. I want to see that smile on Sillinger’s face when his own goals surprise him another 20 times. And of course, I’d love to see Bergie get the points I know he’s capable of.

Good luck this weekend Ricky. I can’t wait to see what ITV has in store for us from All-Star weekend. Enjoy it.

THAT's TWO!

What a day! A very crazy unsettling day, with ups and downs to make your nerves rattled. Since so much related to hockey went on today, this one is going to be long. So, get comfortable if you wish, and I’ll try to bullet point it to make it easier to skim through for those short on time and patience.

Snow & Dey on NHL Live:
Don & E.J. had been promoting the fact that Garth would be on today’s live broadcast since last week. Then I realized that it was coinciding with the Islanders taking the Project Hope Chinese team to NYC. Check out Jason Lockhart’s blog on the day and the rest of the events at http://islanders.nhl.com/news/interdivision_blog.htm. Even before Garth arrived, E.J. was more than complimentary, and I really couldn’t figure out why. I understand he SHOULD be to our GM, who has done nothing but make us proud, but this is E.J. Hradek who calls out fans on the phone and steps all over his co-host Don La Greca. I stream this show every day on the web while I’m at work, so I was just listening and working when Garth first started his interview. He seemed amazingly at ease and jovial, and although I was worried that my speakers would never be loud enough as I usually have to strain to hear him, The sound engineer was right on top of things, and he came though loud and clear. As soon as he mentioned Sean Bergenheim’s name, I stopped working and started writing.

Garth‘s Radio Quotes:

On Bergie: “He finishes all his checks and adds energy to the line-up.” Not the most glowing review, but nice enough to make me stop to listen more intently.
Chemistry: “We do some things with our team that are unusual to create chemistry right from training camp.” (Gee… do I really wanna know? And does it have anything to do with Shakey?)
On Kyle Okposo: “He played well in Bridgeport and we’re in constant communication with the coaching staff. He knows the expectation is for him to be the best player he can be.” Whether he will be called up to Uniondale: “We’re taking it day by day. We want to do what is best for him.”
On Bill Guerin: “Bill Guerin has been the most effective player there could be. He has the ability to unite a locker room … it goes back to Chemistry.” “Good people can do great things.” (I like that line, don’t you?)
On Richard Park: “He came to camp on a try out and has gotten a couple of contracts. We knew what a quality person he is.” (He certainly is Garth!)
On Chris Simon: Okay people, hold onto your hats, here goes. “The team, I think, everyone supported Chris to a man. He took it upon himself to get some counseling. Chris Simon is a player who was my first roommate when I came out of the Nordiques. He’s a quality person in the community… reading at schools, visiting hospitals… he’s the first player to volunteer. … When he is ready to come back, we’ve got a spot open for him.” (There you have it. You were curious what would happen? There ya go. )
On the firing of John Ferguson Jr.: “Pressure. Every year there is one Stanley Cup winner and 29 losers. You live by every win and die emotionally with every loss. You have to pay attention to the details.
On Ricky: “Rick wants to be the best goalie on the ice, no matter what.”
I didn’t take note of his very amusing quips, but there were many of them. I’m hoping that ITV will have the audio or video of this up soon.

Chris Dey also had some good air time to promote Project Hope and how it has grown since it’s inception in 2004. When asked what the ultimate goal of this project is, Dey answered, “We started with a small idea - maybe ten years from now we will have our first player from China.”
While Snow and Dey were on the radio, the kids enjoyed the NHL store, which I have yet to see, but Mr. Dey has been there three times already. And after reading the great blog by Jason Lockhart, I’m suddenly jealous of the Chinese team.

CAMPOLI-OLI-OLI-DONE!
The horrible news was actually delivered to me by the Big Angry Man via email. It seems he received his notification before it reached my desk. This is terrible news, but something we sort of expected considering the shroud of secrecy about the extent of the injury. Now he can play cards with Jon Sim for the balance of the season -- Once he gets back from surgery in Cleveland. Get well soon, Chris. You have no idea how much we’ll miss you. (Kinda makes you wonder if we should have held onto Darryl Bootland a little while longer now, doesn’t it??? Ahem, ahem.)

From Expendable to Extendable:
Uh, refresh my memory. Isn’t Freddy Meyer the Owen Wilson look-a-like we sent packing at the beginning of the season, then somehow, we got him back. So, now we’ve got him for two more years. Who’da thought???

GAME DAY:
When I’m home, and the game is at 7 pm, I never get to see it from the first puck drop. I’m too busy doing other things around the house that need to be done. That means that I wasn’t in front of the TV when Sean FINALLY scored his second goal of the season. And YES!!! That DOES make TWO! I did watch the replay and even though I knew he was going to score, I screamed and cheered for him any way. Nice goal! Great smile when he went back to the bench.

Hey! Shortie!:
Did we ever expect to see a game with THREE short handed goals in it? Especially THIS season considering we’re not even used to seeing three EVEN strength goals on our side of the ice! Great work by Sillinger to score two of them (Go ahead, tell him AGAIN that’s he’s old. I dare you.) And Richard Park found a way to do it again. Come on, you know it was exciting.

Peter, Peter, Peter. Don’t you learn?:
Now, speaking of short handed goals, while watching the Canes power play, B.A.M. brought to my attention that Laviolette was doing it again. “What?” I asked. He’s using five forwards. “Oh I said.” And in my head I was thinking “How the heck do you know that? Do you know all the names of every team? Is it the WAY they play? What? I know I’m not astute at the technical details (you may laugh now) but I wanted to know how he could see this. “The numbers on the jerseys.” Oh. But with two minutes left in the third, Peter did what I never liked about him -- he pulled his goalie. I understand they were down by two, but I felt it was too early. I ALWAYS felt it was too early when he did this on the Islanders. He’s still doing it. It’s still biting him in the butt.

We Win!
Two points to keep us in the hunt and one more game before the break. What a day it’s been. And now it’s done for me. Good night all.

Full Moon over Uniondale

Tiger Track Tom (www.thetigertrack.com) called it Bizarro World. It certainly was! Something had shifted in the space time continuum that caused a strange rift. Too bad it couldn’t also cause the Islanders leaving the Ice with both points.
As it was an afternoon game, I had to play hooky for hockey. Ok, I wanted to, and I wanted to take my daughter and her friends out for the day to enjoy themselves and try to suck a … um… develop a new Islander fan in the process. My daughter’s friend Kat had never been to a hockey game before, and she was glad to go along for the ride, asking technical questions all the while we were driving to pick up their other friend Amanda. As the eldest daughter of a dreaded Ranger fan, I knew that she would probably be wearing a Ranger jersey. She was and I let her in the car anyway.

Considering we were all warned about the increased security at the Coliseum today because of Colin Powell’s visit, I really didn’t see any more security than usual. I guess that means they were just stealth. Good job guys. Also a good job was the $26,000 the Islanders donated to local youth hockey from today’s game. You can’t say this club doesn’t do everything possible for the community.

The on ice ceremony to start the game was very nice. The Chinese national anthem, the kids from the Lighthouse cup teams gathered for the ceremonial puck drop, the unfurling of a giant American flag. Despite Chris Botta’s endless pacing in the tunnel, it was all orchestrated so well, and went off with only the slightest wrinkle. Powell tripped on the carpet on the ice. He made light of it, and went on with the rest of the presentation.

Kat said she wanted to see a fight, but when Jackman tangled with Gleason; she was on the concourse and didn’t see it. It was the only one of the game. Earlier I thought it was going to be Rod Brind’amour and Sutton. They were yapping and yapping at each other, but Brinda’mour has too much time in the NHL to be coaxed by the likes of Sutton. I swear, I think he’s a robot.
I audibly chided Sean, “Any game now sweetheart!” And he must have heard me. He took a shot that Ward grabbed out of the air as if it was a joke. The Event Summary on NHL.com doesn’t show any shots on goal for Sean. But I saw one. I swear.

Ok, let me get into what made the day “Bizarro World.” First, it was visitor day at the Blog Box. It started with an introduction of a co-workers family who are season ticket holders right above the Blog Box. Then it was camera men from Sinovision followed by Terry Goldstein, Director of Retail Operations. A little while later Frank Pasquale (who coached the Suffolk team to a victory in the final!) stopped by to say hello. I’ve known Frank for more than 15 years now. I’d like to say this to him…. Would you just AGE already! He hasn’t changed a bit in that entire time, and that is just VERY annoying! As soon as he left, Islesblogger.com, Michael S. brought his lovely fiancée around for introductions. During intermission, Gaspo (http://stilldrivin.blogspot.com/) stopped by with his son who was desperate to find Sparky. And finally, the last visitor to the Blog Box table didn’t say a word, but stood at the end of the table in his long black coat and black leather gloves, starring at the ice. He had a pass around his neck, but anyone that wears leather gloves INSIDE a building, no matter how cold, scares the death out of me. I’m glad he was on the other side of Okposo Net Ken (http://okposo.blogspot.com/) instead of me.

Then there was Andy Hilbert. First I’d like to tell you that I called Hilbert getting a goal today after about two minutes of the first period. He was just diving and swimming on the ice and doing everything and anything to keep the puck in play. It paid off for him and almost paid off more than once. He had six shots on goal and a lot of “ice” time, flat on his stomach. There was Blake Comeau who seemed to think he was Sidney Crosby for a day. The words that flew around the Blog Box were calm, confident, composed. He was just playing outside his head, and it was beautiful.

There was also an odd game of ice bowling that I think started the downward spiral toward the loss. With about 4:40 left of the second there was a flurry of activity with Bruno, Hilbert, Satan, Bergeron and I think Comrie on the ice. It all started with a whip by Bergeron toward the net and then Bruno was knocked down and his helmet came off. To keep action in the Carolina zone, he had to shoot, which he did, over and over and over. Every shot went off a Carolina leg and Andy was again swimming on the ice trying to direct the puck. It was just…. Odd.

Then there were the calls, the lack thereof, and the ones that just made you cringe. There was no consistency, and as Ted said in the press room, it was just “frustrating.” Well, every loss is, especially when you’re up 2 - 0 in the second and then don’t come home with the prize. “I think we played well enough to win.” Well, not quite Ted. But there’s always tomorrow.

While I was in the press room, I could feel my phone buzzing wildly in my purse. Just as I had told my daughter NOT to call me unless there was a real problem, there it went. I’m smart now, it’s only on vibrate and if it does go off in the room, you can’t hear the Goo Goo Dolls blaring from my pocket. I was worried about the girls waiting in the arena so I didn’t do the locker room post game, I bolted through the tunnel past Garth Snow. Security was now corralling everyone to the penalty box side of the arena in order to wait for the Lighhouse Cup finals which were to start at 5 pm. I found my daughter and her friends as we were three rows from the glass in section 105. I cannot believe how much spilled beer and garbage there was left in the 100s. We had to move twice because it was just too disgusting.

Tom and Michael joined me to watch some of the Nassau/Suffolk finals after they left the locker room. Steve Mears and Chris King were leaving the arena and I yelled out a Happy Birthday to our “radio guy.” Had I known Steve, I would have baked you cookies too!

So here we all were, waiting and waiting for a game that was supposed to start at 5 pm. It was now about 5:28 and the ceremony finally began. I completely understand the delay as the Islander game went into overtime, albeit BRIEF. But what I don’t understand is why in heaven’s name Colleen McGrath was trying to do an American Idol impersonation with her embellished, prolonged, PAINFUL rendition of the Star Spangled Banner! These are HIGH SCHOOL kids! They are itching to get on to that ice! You don’t need to take five full minutes to sing in modulation. I’m sorry, it may have been disrespectful to our anthem, but I couldn’t help but laugh, I tried to stifle them, but it was just horrible.

Woo hoo… there was also a Jon Sim sighting as he dropped the first puck and didn’t seem to be limping as much. He wasn’t smiling as much either. But I haven’t seen that man smile since September.

The turnout for the game was much better than I expected. The entire penalty box side of the coliseum was packed. This had to be a wonderful day for these young players. Who knows who may end up in the NHL draft one day.

As we left the barn at a little after 6 pm, there it was, the answer to the madness of the day: The full moon.
Congratulations Suffolk County All Stars on your win! Treasure it.