Movember is alive and well in Bridgeport.
Not a bad 7-day growth for Cizikas.
Because the 20th round of media guide edits can wait until tomorrow, Islanders staffers joined team management and coaches today at the Long Island Ronald McDonald House to cook a meal for the house’s guests.
On the menu: Baked Ziti, Meatballs, Salad and desserts.
To answer the obvious question: Yes, Head Coach Jack Capuano handled the sauce (I stirred, we bonded, NBD).
Also of note: +2 Italian-Points to General Manager Garth Snow for calling it “gravy.”
With the big guns on the main course, Assistant Coaches Brent Thompson and Doug Weight were on dessert duty. Brownies, cookies and cupcakes galore.
Here are the bench bosses pretending to do dishes. Maybe they did “dish.” Staffers did dishes.
To answer the other obvious question: Yes, this is what SOAP posts will consist of with no players around.
Whats the best thing about being a hockey player in the offseason? Eating three square dinners a day.
NHL.com’s Dan Rosen is writing several features on star players and their offseason training programs. Each article is paired with a video, which includes that player’s daily diet. The one-upsmanship at breakfast has been phenomenal.
He started with Steven Stamkos’ way-too-normal breakfast of eggs, fruit and yogurt.
P.K. Subban then revealed that he buys an entire cow every offseason and eats it for breakfast and lunch every day.
Then Tavares took it to the next level with Buffalo meat. If Oregon Trail has taught us anything, JT can now feed his wagon party for weeks. He still needs to look out for snake bites, dysentry and typhoid fever, though. Good thing that side of avocado is loaded with antioxidants.
[video]
NHL13 New York Islanders Player Ratings
EA Sports’ NHL13 player ratings are out, negating any need for a formal 2012 training camp.
I’d like to be the first to congratulate virtual Matt Donovan for beating out the competition in what was surely a heated battle for the sixth defenseman spot.
Nice to see a virtual NHL arbitrator saw fit for Lubo to join the team. He and Streit both lost five-points from NHL12’s 87 ratings. I guess Streit was five points more valuable last year after his season-ending shoulder injury – tough break.
Better luck next year to virtual Ryan Strome, who’ll seemingly spend another season in the OHL. I guess he didn’t impress in training camp. Kid just isn’t clutch – ask Russia.
Moulson’s three-straight 30-goal season, it turns out, were just flukes. He’s an 82 this season – you’re prototypical “B-minus” NHLer.
Oh, and JT finishing seventh in the league in scoring last year and playing in his first All-Star game? That’s good for a two-point downgrade from his 87 rating in NHL12.
Isles defenseman Matt Donovan joined play-by-play man Chris King in the radio booth Tuesday night at Bethpage Ballpark to provide a few innings of color commentary during a Long Island Ducks minor league baseball game.
It was a fun concept for an Isles TV feature (coming out August 10), except as it turns out, Matt knows next to nothing about baseball… That probably should have been our first question for the d-man, before “Are you free Tuesday for an Isles TV feature?”
Cue Matt and me brainstorming token baseball phrases and buzzwords during the first three innings.
Before his fourth-inning debut, we came up with such gems as:
- Good eye
- Bloop and a Blast
- Ducks on the pond
- Hot corner
- There’s no crying in baseball
- Some lucky fan is going home with a souvenir
- Something involving a “frozen rope”?
Despite having these beauties and more up his sleeve, the only baseball commentary Matt delivered during his 1.5 innings of action was “He’s throwing really fast.”
To be fair, Kinger gracefully geared his broadcast more towards hockey and the Islanders during Matt’s innings, and Matt had great things to say about the ballpark, the fans and the mascot, “Quacker-Jack.”
To his credit, in his best broadcasting move of the day, Matt knew NOT to mention the Ducks pitcher’s no-hit bid, which lasted until the seventh inning.
DUCKS 5, SKEETERS 0
He’d already met over 200 loyal Islanders ticket holders, but when John Tavares looked over the 40-50 bags of jersey’s belonging to no-shows, he sunk back into his chair, hung his head and fought the tears.
#FakeCaptions
An Islanders TV feature on beloved Mets and Isles broadcaster Howie Rose landed a pair of videographers and yours truly in the middle of a PR guy’s worst nightmare: we were credentialed media members in an unfamiliar clubhouse (unlike my actual nightmares, I remembered to wear pants to the ballpark).
Poised to follow Howie through his typical day at Citi Field, yet unfamiliar with the Mets’ media policies, we were the very so-called “journalists” upon whom team PR officials keep a suspicious eye. Fortunately for us, the MLB media policy seems to offer journalists a lot more leeway in terms of standing around and doing nothing in the clubhouse. Where the NHL environment insists that media get in, get their interviews and get out, baseball culture allows journalists into the clubhouse for several hours leading up to the game. (Baseball players must love that.)
The three of us, camera and microphone in hand, trailed Howie from Mets General Manager Terry Collins’ press conference, to the Mets clubhouse, to the dugout during batting practice. Along the way, we ran into Mets star player David Wright no less than three times; each time, he seemed even more dumbfounded that Howie was receiving the reality TV treatment from a camera crew. The first encounter yielded a mild “what’s with the camera?” but Wright quickly escalated to a full assault: “I can’t believe this! Why would anyone want to follow you around for a day?”
One thing that seemingly holds true, whether in a baseball clubhouse or a hockey locker room, is that players love to chirp their support staff.
Howie, never shy in a locker room, offered “You just wait and see how many clicks this gets.”
While we were hot on Howie’s heels as he hopped between dugouts and clubhouses, we blew through several non-media crowds that were also given special access to the field. Among them, a camera crew was shooting two girls who I assumed had won some sort of “meet a player” contest. A tweet later that night from @cocorocha revealed otherwise.
Leave it to me to blow by an international supermodel, who was wearing a Mets shirt outside the Mets dugout, because I had to chase down Howie Rose. (Or was I just playing “hard to get?”)
To finish the shoot, Howie waxed poetic about the differences between calling baseball and hockey, between radio and TV, and even between David Wright and John Tavares. Check Islanders.com on Friday, July 27 for the video.
…but if I was…
Let’s make it official…