HockeyFights.com has relaunched with a new slick site design and logo.
This place just had that “left my gloves in my hockey bag too long before I used them again” smell to it. So we took a few lemons, some zambonis and handful of strippers and came up with this.
In addition, they’ve got huge improvements behind the scenes that make it much easier to update the site. Team pages tally the fights year by year. You can see the Islanders’ team rivals here and player rivals here. The Isles’ Loyalty List shows you who’s dropped the blue and orange gloves the most since 1998.
Don’t forget their Fight Log and videos section where you can watch fights and vote on them. I love this site, I’ve been a visitor for many years. The site and it’s community have been based around their forums since before there were hockey blogs, YouTube and even before Alexei Yashin was an Islander. The home page was a little stale and needed some “blog-like” features, automatic updates, and a fresh coat of paint. Hats off to the team on a job well done.
Top 5 Islanders Fight Leaders Since 1998
Rank Player Fight Totals
1 Eric Cairns 59
2 Eric Godard 35
3 Steve Webb 27
4 Dave Scatchard 24
5 Arron Asham 19
Is a $100,000 ice skating treadmill.
I am not making this one up.
A midnight Zamboni run to Burger King has cost two Idaho ice-rink employees their jobs.
The workers apparently took the squat ice groomers from Idaho Ice World to get hamburgers after finishing up their shift at 12:30 a.m. earlier this month.
The skating rink, owned by the city of Boise, says the two 75-thousand dollar Zambonis don’t appear to have been damaged.
Still, the city may press charges against the fired employees, whose names haven’t been made public.
Operating an unlicensed Zamboni on a city street is illegal.
Jim Hall, Boise parks director, says any Zamboni incidents generally happen “in the confines of an ice skating rink - not cruising up and down the street.”
Wow. I used to drive the Zamboni at Long Island Skating Academy (now Islanders Iceworks) and had a great story about how I got fired. But these two guys blow my story away. There weren’t any drive-thru’s close enough to LISA for me to think of it.
Anyways, it was July 4th weekend 1998 and the rink was closing early. Last session was open hockey on the small rink from 8-9:30p. I was supposed to meet friends down in Long Beach at Paddy McGee’s. I kicked the guys off the rink, cut the ice, dumped the snow, walked around and cleaned up, turned off the music, turned off the lights, set the alarm and headed for Long Beach in my busted 1979 Plymouth Volare.
Monday morning I get a call from the rink manager, “What happened Saturday night?” he asked. “Nothing” I said, not recalling any incidents. He then informed me that someone was still in the locker room when I left and set the alarm. He came out of the locker room, set off the alarm, and was trapped inside. The cops showed up and the owner got a phone call to let the guy out. I don’t know what the heck he was doing in there for so long, but I got canned. See the Burger King story was much better, not to mention they had 2 Zambonis.
The pay was crap, but it was still THE BEST JOB EVER! I would skate by myself or with a few friends on the small rink all the time when it was open. I found a pair of hard plastic skate guards in the lost and found - they were great, I could drive the Zam without taking off my skates or ruining my edges. All the “lost” pucks would end up in my hockey bag, it was only about a year ago that my seemingly endless supply of hockey pucks finally ran out. I let my brother and another friend drive the Zamboni out back and dump the snow so they too could proudly say…”I Drove The Zamboni”.
If I ever win the lottery, I’m opening up my own double-rink arena.
Ted’s pissed. He even dropped the “Q-word” the other night talking about the 5-1 loss to the Lightning. He said he thought the team quit trying at the end of that game. First Ted spoke with the team leaders and encouraged them to hold a players only meeting. Then he went back into his office and shuffled the lines.
Simon makes the jump to the top line with Alexei Yashin and Jason Blake. When asked why he didn’t move Asham, who previously has teamed with Yashin, Nolan said it’s possible Asham might alternate with Simon.
“You could probably do a double whammy with those guys,” Nolan said. “Arron’s been playing well. You look at that so-called fourth line. They’ve been working every game, and they deserved to play a little bit more. So, Simon’s there. Asham could get up there. Andy Hilbert’s with the other guys. We’re going to try to reward people who work.”
Hilbert moved to left wing on the second line with right winger Miroslav Satan, and Mike Sillinger replaced Mike York as the center on that line. York and left wing Trent Hunter were dropped to the third line along with right wing Viktor Kozlov, who was playing on Yashin’s wing. Richard Park and Shawn Bates will form a new fourth-line combination with Asham.
Other Islanders and NHL news…
- GM Garth Snow is hanging with his new co-workers, the 29 other GM”s of the NHL at the GM meetings in Toronto. On the table for discussion is the NHL schedule. It appears the unbalanced schedule will be staying with us for at least one more season. Personally, I hate the schedule - the league has it’s most marketable young superstars in years but the schedule prevents some NHL fans from seeing them.
- Canadians would apparently rather steal stuff instead of drinking Bud Light beer. Well can’t blame them for that with those deeeee-licious Canadian beers available up there. Bud Light is running a promotion in Canada with NHL Vintage Hats inside cases of Bud Light. Canadians are opening the cases and stealing the hats instead of being seen buying that swill.
- Ex-Islanders beat writer for the NY Post Evan Grossman is now writing for NHL.com. Last week he covered the television production crew of the Islanders/Devils game to give fans an behind the scenes look at what goes into getting a game on the TV.
- Finally Greg Logan (Newsday) discusses DP’s contract and how that effects fan’s expectations in light of DP getting booed last week.
Terry Frei writing for ESPN SportsTravel has put together a list of the Top 10 North American Hockey Experiences. It’s a good list even if the Rangers and Madison Square Garden are on the list. Making the trip to Toronto to see a game and check out the Hockey Hall of Fame are still on my to-do list. Be sure to read the article for Terry’s descriptions and reasons for choosing each event.
- QUEBEC INTERNATIONAL PEE-WEE TOURNAMENT, QUEBEC CITY
- RANGERS GAME AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, NEW YORK
- BEANPOT, BOSTON
- MAPLE LEAFS GAME AT AIR CANADA CENTRE, TORONTO
- MAJOR JUNIOR HOCKEY WITH THE PORTLAND WINTER HAWKS
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COLLEGE GAME AT GRAND FORKS, NORTH DAKOTA
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CANADIENS GAME AT BELL CENTRE, MONTREAL
- AMERICAN HOCKEY LEAGUE GAME AT HERSHEY, PENNSYLVANIA
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HURRICANES GAME, RALEIGH, N.C.
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YOUR LOCAL RINK
Greetings from Jacksonville, Home of Super Bowl XXXIX (Pats 24, Eagles 21)…and no hockey on television. The MAN has me working down here for a few days and for the most part, I can’t complain. It’s 85 and sunny. I get to eat and drink on the company tab, and I’m not in the office. That said, anyone who knows me knows I’m a greedy bastard. So, i went out looking for some NEW YORK ISLANDER HOCKEY! the other night. Much to my chagrin, the local sports bar was showing Florida High School Football Friday Night Lights style. And Motocross. Can’t forget the Motocross. I asked the bartender if he could put on the Islander game and failing that, any hockey at all. After all, it was late, the football game was about wrapped up - purple beat white - and the place was emptying out. Bartender says no. Says he needs to watch the postgame wrap up show. Some kid named Burwicky (sp?) is going to be on. I thought he was joking. I really did. I laughed. He shot me a look like I grabbed his mother’s ass. I said “You serious?” He said, “Yup.” In my head I said “F’n Jacksonville.”
At least the Coliseum Heroes won. Hope to be back in time to attend the opener with Murph and his legendary tailgating skills. Tell the Ice Girls I’m on my way.
6′2″, 175 pound, 14 year old defenseman Jon Merrill has verbally committed to the University of Michigan hockey team for 2010. Merrill is believed to be the youngest college hockey commitment ever. Let the Wang/DiPietro jokes commence…I figure 25 years, maaaaybe 30, but no more than 35.
[Via Deadspin.com]
Print this stuff out, take it to the can with you for some hockey-related reading materials.
- Newsweek looks at hockey’s rabid fan base and how blogging is a good fit for the sport and it’s fans. Sadly, IslandersArmy.com does not make the final cut to be included on their list of must-reads
- LCS Hockey looks at the beginning of the NHL season. Fortunately, they just ignore the Isles instead of shredding them.
- For you Fantasy Hockey players, James Mirtle has his eyes on some players to have breakout seasons.
- NHL.com wants you to become a telemarketer for the league. This unpaid position is sure to rescue the league’s TV ratings.
- NewYorkIslanders.com has an incredible story from Joel Bouchard about the impact fans can have on the players themselves:
The man told me a story. He said that he was at a game in San Jose between the Sharks and the Flames, about ten years ago when I played for Calgary. At the game, a player on the Sharks reached out to deflect a slapper I was taking. As I took the shot, part of my blade sailed over the glass and landed right next to his wheelchair. He had held on to the stick blade for a decade!
I told the guy, “I’ll give you my address. Mail it to me. I’ll sign it to you and mail it right back.” The man said I didn’t have to. He reached down and pulled out the cracked stick blade from a cart at the bottom of his wheelchair. I was blown away. I wrote, ‘To Brian, All the best. Your friend, Joel Bouchard.
That’s perspective.
- And finally, I whipped up some Playstation Portable wallpapers on my other blog. There are five Islander ones in there. There is also a desktop version of the NHL 94 one which has an Islanders/Rangers theme to it. Best. Hockey Videogame. Ever.
Bloomberg News is reporting Chris Chelios, Dwayne Roloson and Trent Klatt sued the NHLPA and Ted Saskin, its executive director, and other union officials, including Trevor Linden and Bill Guerin, for depriving players of their rights. The trio accuse Saskin of using union money to campaign for his job and seek his ouster. Here’s an excerpt of today’s story:
The players claimed that when Goodenow left as executive director last year, he was paid $8 million for time left on his contract without proper union board authorization. The appointment of Saskin immediately afterward was done without a required secret ballot of the union’s executive board, the complaint said. The group said that when Saskin was a union lawyer he used union funds to campaign for executive director among players and withheld facts from union members in campaigning for a salary of more than $2 million.
NewYorkIslanders.com, the online home of the Orange and Blue, is shilling for The Great (Whiney) One. Any self-respecting Islander fan despises Gretzky. I’m not going to quibble with the man’s skills. My problem with him stems from the Isles sweep of Gretzky’s Oilers for Cup #4. Gretzky acted like a spoiled 8-year-old in that series. Can’t stand that guy. So, I was displeased when I saw the Isles’ website running banner ads for a 4-DVD collection of Gretzky’s greatest games. I know the site is linked with NHL.com and I know the bad vibes with Gretzky are more than 20-years-old and I should probably get over it, but still, it ain’t right. They should nix the ads in favor of travel packages to Gillies’ home town of Moose Jaw. Who’s with me?
