Your New York Islanders arrived at The Barclays
Center this morning to a professional and welcoming atmosphere. With the team positioned at the doors of
their new home for media day, it was clear that the waiting was finally over. The Islanders organization felt what it was
like to be on center stage in their new home in Brooklyn.
Brett Yormark, Chief Executive Officer of The
Barclays Center spoke early on about how Orange and Blue will remain the primary colors of the Isles after the move
to Brooklyn. He also mentioned that a
patch denoting Brooklyn would be added to the current home and away jerseys and
a new third jersey would be developed that could be more centralized to their
new Brooklyn home, as this blogger originally surmised.
Yormark added that
The Barclays Center would hold 15,813 Islanders fans at the current
configuration (some are currently an obstructed view) and that adding additional seating was being considered. This was close to the 16,234 currently
accommodated by the aging, but still adored NVMC and a higher capacity that the 14,500 seats as
previously mentioned. With state of the
art amenities, TBC should be an all around improved fan experience for
Islanders faithful.
Photo by Rich Arleo, Twitter
The atmosphere of
optimism and excitement experienced by the event, even from Twitter or the live
web-cast was obvious. Expectations are
high and the team seems ready to start a new chapter in the tale of a storied
American franchise. Ownership, Management,
Coaches and players were vocal about the hopes for the upcoming season.
Islanders owner, Charles Wang said this about
the teams arrival, "When we came out there and saw the beautiful white ice
and the big logo and everything, the heart went ‘ba-boom, ba-boom,” Wang said.
“It’s unbelievable.” On the chance of an early start in Brooklyn, he
added, “There’s been no discussion (about moving sooner), because our plan is
to honor the commitment of the lease,” Wang said. “I think we’ve always wanted
to get here as soon as possible. But again, we’re going to honor that lease.”
Per islanders.nhl.com, Head Coach, Jack Capuano had this to
say on roster possibilities, " I think we’ve always been an organization
that gives opportunity,” Capuano said. “They’re friends in that room right now,
but they’re competing for jobs. We’ll just have to see how these guys play
during the preseason games. They’re not going to make the team in the first
three days here. We’ve always felt that if there’s somebody who’s going to help
us win, then they’re probably going to be on this hockey team.”
Daniel Friedman quoted Isles goaltending prospect, Kevin Poulin as saying, "I don't wanna just play every once in a while anymore...I want to play a lot of games." Friedman adds, "(He) Feels he's ready to prove himself."
Sounds good to me.
Isles Notes:
Per
Arthur Staple, "Def. pairs were not firmly set during first session, but
when they were, Strait-Hamonic was together, along with Viz-Hickey."
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