Hitting the Ice Too 9-20-08

The Islanders weren’t the only ones that hit the ice on Saturday morning. IslanderQueen and I decided it would be a great time to head up to the Rinx for a little on ice fun.

I don’t know what we were thinking considering we had already had about as much “fun” as we could tolerate the night before. Or should I say morning before considering that we didn’t finally close our eyes until 3 am. My dog didn’t quite care that I had a late night. He woke at his usual 5:30 am looking to be fed. It was a good opportunity for start the Advil regiment I’ve been on all day.


It was a beautiful day. A perfect Saturday for the last official weekend of summer. But here we were packing gloves and warm socks along with our skates and jerseys. The gorgeous weather must have kept most of the kids away from the rink. It was wonderfully empty. A little disappointing was the new price is now $10.50 per adult. But then again, their utility bills must be insane because they’re certainly not using money to renovate the interior.

There is nothing like the smell of an ice rink. IslanderQueen thinks it’s the ice itself. But having been apologized to for driving in a car with a day old hockey bag -- I know better. The scent has nothing to do with the ice at all. But I don’t mind it. As a matter of fact, I notice that even after you leave the rink, the scent stays with me for a few hours.


We needed a locker this time as I had my new camera with me. The lockers are so old; they’re only .50 cents a shot, when you can find one that isn’t jammed. Within 15 minutes, we were on the ice, skating over grease pencil lines and diagrams from the skating clinics they run.

It was wonderful. The sound of the blades on the ice and the cool air rushing through our hair.

The more we went around the rink, the better we felt. It’s always difficult the first few minutes, trying to get the confidence back to actually skate without fear. After a good 45 minutes, we decided it was time to rest for a while and headed to the snack bar for the perfect hang-over cure: coffee and waffle fries. Okay, not the most well known of hangover cures, but it seemed to help. And what a bargain at $4.50.


When we returned to the ice we were happy to see NYIC photo shop kind Steve Depot and his son out on the ice. We had no idea he was going to be there, so it was a pleasant surprise. We talked about new coach Scott Gordon and Steve-O’s personal opinion on Garth Snow’s tenure as GM. I considered checking him into the boards, but Steve-O skates so much better than I do, that I thought twice.

By 2 pm, IQ and I were starting to feel muscles we didn’t know we had. It was time to get off the ice and get home for normal Saturday chores. It’s always the weirdest sensation when you take off the skates and put back on your shoes. It takes a few minutes to get comfortable again. I’m thinking if we go more often, we’ll get used to the transition better. I can only hope.

I’m over tired and over medicated so I’m not ready to crash yet. The Yankees won, the Mets lost and Jeter got plunked on the hand, but he’ll be ready for the last day at Yankee Stadium on Sunday. Preseason hockey has hit the airwaves too as MSG aired the Rangers vs. Senators game. Senators won. It was just an awesome day all the way around, wasn’t it?


Have a pleasant Sunday. Enjoy summer’s last hurrah.

And... THEY'RE OFF! :-) 9-19-08

Happy Emoticon Day! Yep. Emoticons were actually born in 1857 when Morse code operators used 73 to indicate Hugs & Kisses. They didn’t really catch on until 1982 when a professor at Carnegie Mellon University suggested using our standard : - ) to indicate a joke. See? Learn something new every day.

Oh, and Happy Birthday Rick DiPietro. You get to take a nice plane trip on your birthday. But I’m sure there’s cake waiting for you this evening. (Along with whatever else you’ve requested.)

So it’s off to Moncton today for the entire team and staff. And I mean “entire.” On Wednesday I asked the PR Dept if anyone was going to be left in Uniondale and I was given the names of some new interns and a snide remark. I know there are other fans and bloggers heading to Moncton today, so I’m wishing everyone a safe trip.

Islanders Illustrated Episode 4 aired on MSGPlus last night, and for some insane reason, I thought it was airing at 7:30 pm instead of 7 pm. I will have to catch it during one of the additional broadcasts this week.

I’d like to bestow a gold star on the Bruins organization for setting up a live blog to cover yesterday’s rookie exhibition game in Shelton, CT. Considering that the Islanders are the forerunners in the Blogosphere, I was very disappointed that their article on the game didn’t appear on the website until well after 6 pm. Tsk Tsk!!! Especially considering that the kiddies in Orange & Blue won 8 - 4. Congrats to Sean Bentivoglio on his hat trick. Nice way to make a new coach take notice of you.

And speaking of the new coach, I don’t think I can say this enough: I really like what I see. There’s an intelligence, determination and high energy there that can’t be denied. I’m hoping he can hold onto all those wonderful traits by the time January rolls around.

I’d really like this to be a pleasant season for everyone involved.

Does the season officially start today as they head out to camp? I’m still uncertain. I haven’t put my necklace back on yet. For six years I knew exactly what day to start my season by taking the little velvet box out of the drawer and putting on that necklace. But ever since March, when I agreed to remove the number from the logo charm, I feel a little distanced from my yearly ritual. Maybe I’ll put it on the first pre-season game at the Coliseum. Maybe not. Maybe I’ll find a new ritual to take the place of the old one that would kick off the start of a new hockey season.

For the Islanders though, this is the day the ‘08-‘09 season OFFICIALLY begins. Hold on boys! I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be a very WILD RIDE!

Happy Friday people!

Scott Gordon Teaching On Ice - 9-17-08

Okay, I'm a bad girl. I'm taking a few hours for mental health reasons from work. I'm here at IceWorks watching Scott Gordon in action for the first time. I must say...

I'M DAMN IMPRESSED!!!

Oh look! REAL DRILLS!! Real instruction and a whistle that doesn't stop. They huddle, they're told what to do, they get a little confused, but that's okay. They're young. He's patient. He tells them again. He stops them, tells them what they did wrong and they go back at it.

No. There is no fatherly yelling. There is coaching. Which is nice to see. The other coaches haven't said boo yet. They're all just hanging back, waiting. These are ALL he coaches including Bryan Trottier and Ken Morrow as well as the coaching staff from the Sound Tigers.

Since there are no names on the back of the jerseys, (something Gordon wishes to change) I can only assume that the littlest kid in blue is LI native Vlad Nikiforov. I still can't say his name. He looks like he's 12. The same way Bruno (who just passed me) looked when he first came to prospect camp. Like a boy among men. And we know how he turned out. Little Niki is fast, a little confused, but fast.

So... I did get one, maybe two pieces of new info from m good friend Josh Bernstein.

Check out the NEW ITV portal. It's NHL.com TV portal, and it's awesome. There will be some great new content coming up that will entertain and impress all us die hard fans.

Also, check out CBS News for the "Tunnel to Towers" Run on (I believe it's) 9-28. CBS News is doing a feature segment on the Islanders and their contribution to this worthy cause. There are exclusive interviews with Campoli and Gervais as well as Chris Dey. Sounds like a great piece with some good exposure on network TV.

They're clearing off the ice, so I'm sitting here waiting to see what's next.

"Dee! Dee!!" I recognize the voice, but am slow to turn around. Garth Snow just peeked out from behind the posters to say "Hi" to me, which was very nice of him.

Sitting chatting with Katie Strang from Newsday who concurred that the Hockey coverage should indeed expand with the Dolan's in charge. I'm thinking it's a clever move on their part to keep us very vocal Islanders fans from yapping back at them all the time.

I don't know what I'm doing up here just hanging out and typing. But... what the hell... it's cool up here and I do so love being in the rink. That's why I came down. I know that it will be a little while longer before I can see an actual hockey game since I'm not going to Moncton. (Neither is Katie.... she's not in Newsday's budget.) I guess Greg will have to be our only link. Not sure if Chris Botta is making the trip, but if he is.. that will be great coverage to send off his new (supposedly daily) Islanders Point Blank on September 25th.

Botta's BACK -- Well, Sort Of 9-16-08

When Chris Botta dropped a hint about his ‘next venture’ on his NYIPointBlank blog last month, I was hoping beyond hope that it would include a high profile job with the league itself. I prayed it would be an NHL job and crossed my fingers that it wouldn’t include basketball. I’ve already lost one of my favorite writers to basketball (Alan Hahn), and I really didn’t want to lose another one.

I checked the blog faithfully waiting to see what was next. What is next (on 9-25-08) didn’t come from his own writing, but from a press release I received at my desk at work yesterday afternoon from the Islanders announcing the new alliance between the team and the best PR guy in the business.

As fans, we all know there was no one more in tune with every aspect of this team and the organization. Perhaps his honesty and ability to be open got him in some hot water now and again, but we all respected him for being able to deliver good news and bad with a style all his own that some how made it more palatable. His passion for the sport and professionalism are undeniable. The cherry on the sundae? -- he can be damn funny too when he wants to be.

Twenty years is a long time -- in numbers. But it goes by in the blink of an eye. You wake up one morning and realize you’re not the same person you were before. With luck and hard work, you only get better and make more of an impact on the world around you.

Be prepared. Botta’s impact will be felt though out the league. You can count on it.

(I still would have loved to see him standing next to Gary Bettman at a press conference. Guess I’ll have to settle for him being a guest on the Commissioner’s radio show this season. ’Cause you KNOW that’s gonna happen! I guarantee it!)

All the Best, to THE Best, good luck CB!

The Ike Spike - Shame on EXXON - 9-14-08

I interrupt this hockey blog to get angry at something I was witness to today. Gas gouging. Or so it seems. But I'd like to understand why the EXXON stations (you know the guys who made billions of dollars in profits) seem to have made the bold move of increasing their gas prices to about $4.09 a gallon for regular while other gas stations have only increased their prices by about .05 a gallon to about $3.79.

I actually bought gas at HESS for $3.69.9 a gallon ON CREDIT. No difference between cash or credit. So please explain to me why there is a 50 cent per gallon spike? Last I heard Texas was only responsible for about 10% of the production. So if only 10% could be effected by Hurricane Ike, how can they in clear conscious raise the price by 50 cents in one day?

Disgusting isn't it? I think so.