Friday night, the Yanks don’t play until 10p, so how about the Islanders Army “Bag of Pucks” link dump makes an appearance this summer?
The lovely KristyHot enough for you today? It’s about to get warmer thanks to the Islanders Ice Girls. On the new NewYorkIslanders.com you’ll find new photo galleries of all the current Ice Girls, from Alexis to Sasha and all the beautiful ladies in between. Skirts, boots, high heels, AND Islanders jerseys? I’m totally distracted now.
Tryouts for the 2007-08 Ice Girls will be held 9am Saturday August 18th at Islanders Iceworks in Syosset. If you can skate and aren’t afraid of fuzzy dragon mascots, maybe you have what it takes to be an Islanders’ Ice Girl. It also helps if you have thick enough skin to ignore rude behavior by probably gay NY Rangers players.
Isles’ Girl Alison A Lightning Ice Girl
BarstoolSports.com ranked the ice girls of six teams, giving the Nashville Predators the number one slot, or was it Dallas? Hard to tell from the ranking. Anyway, NO LOVE for the Islanders Ice Girls. They are mentioned as an afterthought. I’ll give the Barstool guys a pass and assume they just forgot to check the Isles’ squad before doing the ranking. I think any group that takes on that bastard Henrik deserves a top spot, but that’s just me.
Bizarre story in today’s Newsday. Bizarre with a capital “B”. Two of the Islanders Ice Girls have accused Ranger Goalie Henrik Lundqvist of slashing the squeegee out of their hands as they were cleaning around the net during a stoppage in play and other unknown Rangers of spitting on one of them. WTF? Can this actually be true? What kind of a-holes would do something like that? I watched most of the game but didn’t see anything. What gives this story some credence to me is a colleague of mine was at the game, sitting in the righthand corner behind Lundqvist when the Ranger goalie is said to have taken a whack at one of the Ice Girls. Here’s what he had to say:
“There was definitely some contact and the Ice Girl just looked at Lundqvist like she was in shock and skated away. I don’t know if it happened on purpose but Lundqvist definitelty took a little slash with his stick.”
Ice Girls Kelli & Chanel
According to Newsday’s account, a second Ice Girl says she was spit on as she passed the Rangers’ bench later in the game. She reported the incident to Islander officials who acknowedged seeing “two or three” wet spots on her backside. Contacted by Newsday, the Rangers had no comment.
Here’s what one of the Ice Girls had to say: “”I was disgusted and upset,” 19-year-old Chanel Benson said. “That’s why I started crying. All of a sudden, these grown men are hitting Kelli and spitting on me? It was unprofessional, and they shouldn’t have done it. We’re just there to do our job. “
If any of our loyal readers were at the game and saw/didn’t see anything, let us know. Here’s what some fans in attendance told Newsday.
The Detroit Red Wings roll into the Coliseum tonight to take on the Islanders. MLive.com, which covers all things Michigan, has a piece today on the lack of love between Wing Keeper Dominik Hasek and Coach Ted Nolan. Hasek was Nolan’s goalie in Buffalo back in 1997 and is perceived by many as the main reason Nolan wasn’t offered a long-term contract to stay with the club, despite winning the Jack Adams Award for Coach of the Year.
“We weren’t really close,” Hasek said. “I was blamed in Buffalo for being the reason he left, but I have to say, in the end, it was his decision.”
Jeff Gold of Newsday also writes about the acrimonious relationship between Nolan and Hasek, getting some of Coach Ted’s thoughts in the article.
“I don’t think we have too much to say to each other,” Nolan said. “He made a statement that he didn’t want to play for me. That’s everyone’s prerogative.”
The game figures to be a tough one for the OrangeAndBlue (23-21-5). Hasek, who turned 42 yesterday, is 26-8 this season with a .911 save percentage and a 2.01 goals-against average. Detroit is in second place in the Central at 31-14-6.
In other news, Newsday’s Neil Best devotes today’s column on the Havoc Zone. I was a huge fan of this idea even before I realized GM Garth and the Ice Girls made occassional visits to the folks in line in the coldest, windiest parking lot on Earth. One day I am going to quit my job and devote an entire year to analyzing the weather conditions there. It’s uncanny. Anyway, Ice Girls bringing you hot chocolate? Now that’s customer service.
Technically, those in the Havoc Zone are supposed to have a college ID, but in practice the team allows people in if they stick to the spirit — in other words, high schoolers and young adults are OK, not middle-aged parents accompanying pre-teen children.
As mentioned here earlier, the Islanders hosted the first of two “Select a Seat” events at the Coliseum last night. It seems like it was a big success.
More than 1,500 fans took advantage of the opportunity for hand-shaking and bantering. By the end of the session, the Islanders said they had sold more than 300 tickets to their remaining home games and another 500 tickets to a six-game package.
My brother and I arrived around 6:30pm and were surprised to see about 50 cars in the parking lot, certainly more than I expected. We headed downstairs and were greeted by Islanders ticket reps handing out free media guides to everyone. Our ticket rep Tony took us through the doors and into the Coliseum where the available seats were all tagged with orange or white flyers indicating their availability for the 6 or 23 game plans. The ice was fresh, the jumbotron was showing past game highlights, and fans were walking all about the arena with ticket reps, picking their seats. Tony asked us what our seating preferences were and then led us to the end of the ice where the Isles attack twice. There were plenty of seats to choose from, but we quickly settled on a pair of seats in Section 307, Row H in the middle of the row. These seats were about as low as available and only two sections into the end-zone “curve”. I wanted to be as close to the middle as possible, and I didn’t want to be behind the net and have a poor view of the other end of the ice. The seats are technically end-zone seats and were $306 per ticket for the 6 game plan.
The view from Murph’s new seatsI gave Tony my credit card info for the tickets and wrapped things up with him. He had more seats to sell, and we had Islanders to meet! Before we could even make it into the Isles’ locker room, we ran into Mike Bossy!
The Boss signs the 1980 Commemorative Team Puck for my brotherI got The Boss to sign the base of my Bossy McFarlane NHL Legend figure. I think The Boss has a problem with some of these ending up on Ebay. He asked for my name, and signed the base “To Kevin Mike Bossy” writing my name and then signing it as close as possible and even overlapping a little bit. I understand why he does this, but I was a little disappointed in how it came out.
Boss was surrounded by fans old and young everywhere he went. After getting our autographs we headed into the Islanders locker room area, A.K.A. Islanders Fan Heaven. The walls are covered in huge photos of Islanders old and new. We spotted this trophy cabinet on the way in with mini Stanley Cups, Calder Trophies and other awards the Isles’ dynasty won along the way.
Lots of hardwareWe turned the corner and ran into $%@! Sparky. He was OK, I think he knows all Islanders fans over age 14 hate him. I promised him I wouldn’t beat him up and he pointed us into the Islanders locker room. Yashin, Hunter and Hilbert were hanging out in there greeting fans.
Hunter and Hilbert waiting for more fans
Introducing the Isles’ new 4th line…Hunter, Murphy, and Hilbert
What’s with the red shoes? Did Yashin lose a bet?
He wasn’t there, but this guy still friggin’ rules!
The guys were happy to take pictures and sign our media guides. Remember when Yashin’s forearm got cut by a skate blade in 2003? The same thing happened to my brother one week after Yashin’s injury, so of course my brother wanted to compare scars and get a picture of the two of them showing them off. Yashin was more than willing to roll up his sleeve for us, except he’s hardly got any scar at all. Apparently the Isles (or maybe Carol Alt?) knows a really good plastic surgeon.
We thanked the guys for their time and headed back out into the hallway. It leads all the way down to the Isles Executive Offices. There we met GM Garth Snow and one of the Ice Girls. Garth said the new job was definitely tougher than his old one with longer hours. His new job has some perks though, he said he got his own office and an Ice Girl. Someone behind us asked Garth if he was available to play goal for his men’s league team, that got a good laugh from everyone. Garth said if they’d match his salary from last year, he’d think about it.
After Garth we realized we missed Coach Nolan’s office so we headed back towards the locker room and ran into the coach. We told him what a good job he’s done so far and to keep it up. On our way out of the Coliseum we ran into The Boss who had just grabbed a cup of coffee. We got one of the security guards to take a picture of my brother, Bossy and myself. We heard Bryan Trottier was hanging around too so I asked Mike if had seen his old friend Bryan and he said Trotts had left for the night. I hope to get that photo signed by Boss the next time I meet him.
More pics…
This great picture from last year’s reunion night is in the locker room hallway
Stick/equipment room. I was very tempted to grab a couple of those blue Easton Synergy sticks as it’s the same stick I use.
This huge mural is in the locker room hallway. It’s got old pictures with all sorts of Islanders history listed on it.
This is the left side of the mural. I could have sworn I took three pictures of it so I could piece it together into one photo, but I didn’t have any pictures of the right-side.
I had no idea GM Snow was that big. I’m 6′4″ so he must be 6′5″.
Any excuse to run pictures of Ice Girls
This photo is on the walls of the executive offices
Along with this Mack-Daddy chair
Murphy, Bossy, Murphy
My full set of photos is here. There are a couple I left out of this post, and I’m also waiting for my brother to send over the ones he has (including Coach Nolan). All in all, it was a great experience and it shows how far the Islanders are willing to go to get fans back in the stands. If you are on the fence about a 6 or 23 game plan, I suggest you head on over to the Coliseum tonight between 5-8p for some hardcore persuasion. You won’t be sorry.
Day 2 of the Select-A-Seat event is Wednesday from 5-8 pm. Miroslav Satan called the Islanders’ offices today and volunteered to be there for the locker room tour from 5 - 6:30. Arron Asham and Bruno Gervais will also be in attendance. FSN color commentator Billy Jaffe will be on hand to talk Islanders hockey. Once again, Ted Nolan and Garth Snow will be in their offices to answer any questions fans may have about the current team. And, as Trottier, Hunter and HIlbert proved on Tuesday, you never know who else might show up on Wednesday.
The “Orange and Blue Review” email newsletter from the Islanders just landed in my inbox. Chris Campoli who’s been out since the end of training camp with a pulled groined, is fully rehabbed, and has been called back up to the Islanders.
“I’m ready,” said the 22-year old rearguard. “I worked hard to get back into playing shape in Bridgeport and really appreciate the efforts of the coaching staff, training staff and teammates with the Sound Tigers. I’m excited to be back with the Islanders. This is an important road trip for us and I want to start contributing.”
Also, the Ice Girls will be getting their party-on at Dave and Busters this Wednesday for the Islanders/Dallas Stars game.
This Wednesday, November 15th, the Isles will be in Dallas, but the best place to watch the game is at the Islanders Official Road Game Viewing Party at Dave & Busters in Islandia. You can meet the Ice Girls and win great prizes like Isles tickets, Zamboni rides or a team signed jersey. Dave & Buster’s is located off of Vets Memorial Highway in Islandia.
The Islanders have announced some new features at the Nassau Mausoleum Coliseum for this season. Also the pre-game entertainment for the home opener tomorrow night at 7:00p vs the Boston Bruins. Season ticket holders now have their own entrance/exit and there is valet service for the skyboxes. IslandersArmy.com will be slummin’ it near the entrance (for a quick getaway) on Hempstead Turnpike with a cooler and a grill, and then up in the rafters of section 320. Our tickets don’t say obstructed view, but I bet they are.
As we start the 2006-07 season, here’s a few new things that you’ll notice starting on Saturday.
As you pull up to the Coliseum, the perimeter and parking lots will feature over 100 “We’re All Islanders” banners.
When you arrive at the building, NYI 365 season ticket holders will have their own entry/exit right off of Earl Ovington Blvd. VIP suite & Club ticketholders will have a new entrance as well, complete with a Valet & drop-off service right at the door!
We have an entire new dasherboard and glass system. We’ve gone back to a seamless glass system on the sideboards and the endzones will remain a much clearer acrylic glass. Why should you be excited? It’s true the Coliseum has the best sight lines in the NHL, now sitting down low just got better.
You’ll notice your Coliseum Ushers will be looking a little bit more Islanders blue & orange! Speaking of new uniforms…wait till you see the Ice Girls!!!
If you’re sitting in the 300s, don’t worry, we have a brand new Daktronics videoboard. The resolution is impeccable. You’ll see everything!!!
Once you’re in your seats, here’s a few things you won’t want to miss….. We’ll kick off the night with two brand new videos. One featuring many of the greats, old and young and then a little something around the life of all of us fellow commuters! Yeah ,”We’re All Islanders” too! The videos will be seen on the new videoboard and projected on the ice surface.
This will take us into the introductions of the 2006/07 Islanders…. Count on cheering for all of the new coaching staff and your favorite players #1 to #81 as they skate through the on-ice flame towers!!! Always remember, before the game the players can hear everything in the locker room. Let ‘em know you’re there!!!!
After the Islanders are introduced and you give a warmmmmmm Long Island welcome to Boston Bruins, L.I.’s Kevin Covais from the last season of “American Idol” will perform the National Anthem.
Bossy and Trottier will be dropping the ceremonial first faceoff.
Newsday.com reports on the Islanders’ newest website feature, “Islanders TV” a video streaming service of Islanders highlights, interviews, and more. The service is free and available now for season ticket holders. The Islanders plan on selling subscriptions to the service later this year after some more testing. Here is a list of highlights from the Islanders TV webpage:
- Greatest collection of Islanders content on Earth!
- Beyond the Bench with Ted Nolan
- The Garth Snow Show
- Islanders Ice Girls Reality Show
- Off the ice access to Islanders players
- 2 cameras at every Islanders practice
- Exclusive and extended post game interviews
- Live coverage of team press conferences
- Watch up to five videos at a time
- Upload your own videos
- Create Buddy Lists & Share Playlists & Movies
- Debate different topics in public forums
Ice Girls Reality Show??!! Sign me up!! In all seriousness, this is an ambitious service for the Islanders to launch. NHL coverage in general is hard to find in print and on TV, and even harder for Islanders fans in the competitive New York market. The Islanders are trying something different, and have a full-time staff committed to this project.
The volume is staggering, some of it weird, some timely, most only for true believers. Like regular TV in its early days, it has the whiff of improvisation and unpredictability.
Want to see Rick DiPietro get hit in the face with a pie on his 25th birthday? It’s there. Want to see the camera follow an “Ice Girl” (Monica) to her room as she changes for a tryout? It’s there, too (and G-rated).
(Josh) Bernstein heads a four-person staff that travels with the team gathering material that is updated each day. Friday’s offerings included 8 1/2 minutes of locker- room reaction after the defeat in Phoenix (in which team cameras did a lot of listening in on interviews conducted by Newsday’s Greg Logan).
There also was extensive video from both Thursday’s and Friday’s practices, complete with commentary from the team’s radio announcers.
I’m sure the season ticket subscribers who get the service for free will enjoy it. However, it remains to be seen what the Islanders plan to charge for the service and how many paid subscriptions they will get.
Finally, I’ll leave you with the thoughts of PuckUpdate.com, who has obviously thought this over a lot, and come up with the ultimate Islanders TV feature…
I’m not going to sit here and pretend that I’m not pitching I-TV a semi-reality show featuring me and GM/backup goalie Garth Snow in a bowling league with Islanders great Mike Bossy, where we constantly give Snow advice on doing his job. Of course, it’ll be called “Who’s the Bossy?”
