There’s nothing better then getting a text from the equipment staff during their post-season locker room cleanup.
The only question for this team-issued gem is, “to ebay, or not to ebay?”
I think we all know the answer to this one…
Always get it signed first, then ebay.
Does the fact that it’s a medium make it seem less authentic?
…we’ll just say it was Keith Aucoin’s.
If only I wore a size 11 or 12 shoe, I could wear a new pair of Islanders Zigs every day. Not too many 9.5s floating around the storage room.
More news crews came to film an empty locker room on clean-out day than came to any single regular season game.
Thank You Playoffs.
New playoff banner, same sick banner-hanging skills.
Colin McDonald conducts his interviews in John Tavares’ stall, citing its “the only one the media knows how to find.”
Wouldn’t want MSG’s Peter Ruttgaizer getting lost.
It’s a mantra that resonates throughout a sports organization, from ticket salesmen who have an easier time putting butts in seats, to PR guys who get to enjoy some positive press.
While the Coliseum has been hopping and the media has swarmed during the team’s recent stretch of success, not every department is benefiting.
It turns out, when you have the world’s most superstitious coaching staff, the tried-and-true mantra is thrown out the window.
There’s been one constant during the Islanders’ exciting playoff push, and it doesn’t involve the starting lineup, line combinations or X’s and O’s.
The coaches’ basketball game has become a pregame institution, much to the dismay of the staff’s ankles, knees and backs.
After several weeks of playing, it’s become evident that the coaches don’t even like basketball. But when they play, we win. So they play.
With countless rolled ankles, twisted knees and jammed fingers, the banged-up coaches spend more time with the team medical staff than most players.
They ditch the crutches, braces and ice in the locker room each night and limp out to the bench to coach through the pain.
Doug Weight debuted his new pair of Dunks on the last trip… they led to a career-high 9% shooting percentage (the games are determined in large part by rebounds, and when you’re under the basket with a bunch of hockey players, those rebound’s also come with an elbow to the face).
Anything to help the team.
Here’s what Matt Martin’s family looks like on the Family Feud video game for iPad.
Note Team Martin’s score.
I give his family a lot of credit for remaining in good spirits, despite their abysmal performance last week on our flight to Washington.
The Martin’s were routinely quicker on the buzzer, but failed to close out the board, allowing Team Eisenberg to steal the points.
We surveyed 100 people and asked: What’s Marty’s best move going forward against Team Eisenberg?
Once again, Team Martin came through with the top two answers, but left the points ripe for the taking. Team Eisenberg takes another easy steal with the number 3 answer: Denial.
It’s about damn time we had a 1pm road game. #omeletstation
Here’s what Assistant Equipment Manager Richard “Shakey” Krouse looks like unloading the team’s dry cleaning.
(Always such exciting stuff on this blog, right?)
This was actually a first for Shakey. You see, the team doesn’t get its workout gear dry cleaned…
At 2 a.m. Wednesday, after the Islanders equipment staff had already driven the equipment from Washington D.C.’s Verizon Center to Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center, they hauled fresh bags of CLEAN practice apparel to the team hotel in anticipation of an off-ice workout.
Apparently, when they asked the hotel to keep the clean laundry at the front desk for players to pick up in the morning, all the bellhop heard was “laundry.”
The clean gear was sent straight to a dry cleaning service, based (of course) in New Jersey.
The mishap was discovered less than an hour before the day’s scheduled workout, once the laundry had already been dumped out of each player’s bag and locked into a lengthy cleaning cycle.
Four hours after the workout was supposed to begin, the re-cleaned gear arrived, beautifully ironed, folded and tagged in individual dry-cleaning bags.
Sadly, the players weren’t able to appreciate their workout shirts and shorts in such pristine condition, because the equipment staff (and certain honorary members of the equipment staff, who also dabble in PR and blogging) spent the next hour removing every stapled tag from every shirt, sock, boxer and sweatband.
Here’s how many tags I pulled out of my first TWO bags…
…Between players, coaches and trainers, there were 30 bags.
The de-tagged gear was re-sorted into player’s individual laundry bags, which looked like this…
…which was a shame, because I was highly anticipating writing a recap of my first-career NHL Laundry Draft; a pick-by-pick analysis starting with the first-overall pick (a showdown between Radek Martinek’s pricey Skinz spandex pants and Tavares’ barefoot-running footsie thingies) to the final pick, Mr. Irrelevant, a.k.a that loose left sock with a whole in it belonging to a player that I’ll allow to remain nameless.
The JT #frontflow had a night to remember Sunday on NBC’s Mike’d Up with Bruce Beck.
It took two stylist and all of Johnny’s focus to keep the wily bangs matted down to a respectable 4-inch peak.
Most head-on camera angles kept the hairdo in check, but the occasional side profile revealed a more compelling story of JT’s front locks, rebelling against jars of pomade and rising toward their full party-in-the-front potential.
Radio interview on the left, TV on the right.
I think MSG asked for the wrong #91.
Fair to say neither player went to deep into his team’s second period game plan.