The Isles played a ‘home’ game against the Habs in Moncton last night… But you would not think that they were the home team, based on the crowd…
With Montreal being close to Moncton, the Habs fans turned out in droves. The crowd was loud and supportive, but in the end, the Isles were victorious.
I bet the mood would be like a few years ago, when there were sometimes more Ranger fans in the stands as there are Islander fans at the Coliseum on certain nights.
But two goals by John Sim, another by Bill Guerin, and stellar play by Rick DiPietro, caused the “Bleu, Blanc and Rouge” to be poo-poo. The 3-1 victory was the first for the new Isles, which left a good taste in Coach Ted’s mouth.
“I told Sim between periods I love players who compete,” said Nolan on the Islanders Web site. “We have a bunch of guys who compete hard. One of the key reasons we got Guerin was because of his hard work and leadership. He got the guys ready for the game and then stepped it up on the ice.”
Anyone who really thinks the captain position is just ceremonial, well you can see that this will NOT be the case in this locker room. The team will respond to his (Guerin’s) actions both on and off the ice. Leadership by example can work, but in hockey, for some reason more than other sports, a vocal captain can be just what the doctor ordered.
Bryan Berard played a great game, and will be fighting hard to snare a top 6 spot. He seems from reports, to be a lot more mature and taking the game more seriously than he has ever done before. Great story and an interesting way to turn it full circle.
Friday night - the Habs get to play the home team, this time in Le Centre Bell. However, instead of about 5K, there will be over 21K screaming fans, with many saying choice words to the team in French (Note to Bruno - give it back… LOL!)
Today, on www.newyorkislanders.com, the team announced the 12 Charter members of the NYI Blog Box. A group of crazed individuals who love their team and enjoy writing about it. The names and links to their site are listed below at the bottom of this entry. Please bookmark these sites, and make sure you check them out; the same way as you visit the View from Section 317. Information is power, fun, and in many cases, entertaining. I am going to work on getting all of these sites on my links section at the right of the main page.
Some of you may ask, “Gary, why did you not apply?”
Well - at first, I really did not want to. My work commitments take so much out of me, that I wasn’t sure if I 
would be beneficial in the position. However, I still feel that I can write as much now, as I have in the past year. My site gets a tremendous number of hits (a lot of junk hits, but hits nevertheless). and I do get a lot of comments; so to me, that means that people like me! I almost feel like Sally Field, accepting her Oscar in the movie “Places of the Heart”.
Well - I sent a request to Corey Witt to include my site in the Blog Box. Hopefully at some point in time this season, I will be honored to be a part of this group.
Well - lunch time is over, and I have some projects to get back to. Have a great day, everyone!
Gary
THE NYI BLOG BOX PARTICIPANTS
Posted under Islanders 07-08
This post was written by Gary Harding on September 20, 2007
Montreal isn’t that close to Moncton (over 600 miles), it’s actually much closer to Long Island than to New Brunswick. However, the Habs are easily the #1 team in Eastern Canada.
More importantly, the Islanders were the #1 team on the ice of the Moncton Coliseum on Wednesday night. Having more of their regular team on the ice for the first time got a good showing - we’ll see if they can show another strong effort in debuting the white sweaters on Friday at the Bell Centre, which should be downright funereal compared to Moncton (or Monday’s preseason opener vs. Pittsburgh, which had a playoff-like atmosphere - only in Montreal.) The attendance figure may say 21,000 plus, but there should be a sea of red on Islander TV.
Just an aside - a French-language sports discussion show (”La Zone”) spent the first 15 minutes talking about last night’s game, including a live hit from Moncton (at midnight local time) - too bad that coverage doesn’t exist everywhere.
Should be fun tomorrow night in the one and only Mecca of Hockey.
Rich - I know the geography. Maritimers would lean toward Montreal than New York. That is a no brainer….
I’m glad we picked up the W. I haven’t gotten a chance to read about the game, so, as usual, thanks for the run down, G.
Gary,
Thanks for the compliment today! Hopefully we get to see you up there soon as well!
Just wanted you to know that I added a link to your blog (had been meaning to).
Thanks again!
Mike