Some cool tidbits about UBS Arena, in no particular order.
Barzal says it's a high end facility, beautiful and they're a lucky group to be playing there.
Ross Johnston and Oliver Wahlstrom played paper-rock-scissors to see who would be the first Islander to get onto the UBS ice ever. Wahlstrom won 2/3 and got to be first. Wahlstrom won the deciding round with rock, to Johnston's scissors. I can't believe that Johnston doesn't always choose rock.
Call up Robin Salo will get an incredibly cool rookie lap! I'm sure other players have gotten a rookie lap to open a building, but it can't exactly be common.
Trotz said the arena is top notch in every way, and "puts a pep in your step". Good! They need that.
Like all teams, the Isles have out of town "meetup groups" that meet to watch their favorite team's games in whatever city they're located in. Unlike any other team, the Isles have dedicated an area of facade inside the new arena to showing the logos/names of these meetup groups. Very cool nod to out of town fans! Some have already cynically said that it's not a big deal for the team to put that up. Bullshit. They paid to have the signs printed and put up, and could have sold that space to advertisers. Plus, what team thinks to do that? Ledecky has said he knows how important out of market fans are to the Isles. So he paid them some honor in the new place. I love it.
There are signs in the parking lot that say no tailgating and no honking. Predictably, fans are already planning huge group photos with these signs, while they tailgate and honk...
Players were checking out everything at the new place, including Wahlstrom and Martin being photographed checking out the penalty boxes.
One day to go. They're still working on fine details.
Ledecky said they'll be ready for the game, but said there will be kinks to be worked out. Fans are being told to arrive really early so the parking doesn't make people late. What was that about not tailgating?
Arrive early! But don't tailgate. Yeah. Sure. For a fan base that has loved tailgating games for almost 50 years and that was one of the big reasons they hated their "new home" in Brooklyn...
Isles open UBS vs the Flames, who were their first opponents at Nassau Coliseum when both teams were new expansion franchises in 1972. Nice job NHL. That's pretty cool. At least you got ONE game right on the schedule.