Went to the Isles-Caps pre-season game in Bridgeport last night. Had a great time. Sat 2nd row in the corner on the side where the Isles shot twice. We were also right near where the Caps walked in/out of the rink. Lots of Caps fans (???) there and they were annoying, coming over to high-five players through the fence. I have to say- Holtby made a point of giving a stick-tap to each kid's hand he saw. That was very cool to see. Some of the younger players just walked by with their hands down, like they're too cool. The best thing we saw there though was some Isles fan heckling the Caps. I have no idea what he said, as he was on the opposite side of the concourse, but he seriously pissed off Trotz, who stopped and had a few things to say back! Trotz was obviously pissed; we could tell by the animation of his head on top of his lack of neck. The Isles fan leaned back and said "sorry coach". Trotz nodded and walked away. The assistant coaches caught up to him on the ice and were laughing. The Isles fan was totally red with embarrassment and may have left the game or moved his seat. I didn't see him again.
Not to make just Isles fans look dumb- there was a super tall Caps fan standing near us during warm-ups with his kids. A puck went over the glass and got stuck in the protective netting right over him. My wife pointed it out to him. He reached up and easily got his hands on it, but kept trying to knock it back toward himself- despite the netting going up another 15' and being very well intact. After about 3 minutes of everyone laughing at this idiot, some other guy came down and told him to pick his kid up and have the kid push it forward. The kid then tried the same move his dad had failed at for 3 minutes.
Eventually another puck landed a few feet away and some other kid immediately got lifted by his dad and did it the right way. After a minute, the first family figured it out. I golf clapped for the dad.
Due to our seats, the arena staff offered to let my girls ride the Zambonis for the pre-game ice cut! We got into the underbelly of the arena and my younger daughter FREAKED the fuck out! She's always wanted to ride a Zamboni, but all of a sudden she had a level 5 meltdown, crying, doing this weird thing flapping her hands together and just repeating "no no no no..." So they let us go to the arena door & watch the older sister & some other kid ride around. After she calmed down (the instant I said she didn't have to do it), she had fun watching from the doorway. I thought she'd regret not doing it, but even after the game she said she's so happy she didn't. Weird. One of the in-arena hosts was on skates and offered to get some photos of the older on the Zamboni. Very cool of him. Afterwards they gave the younger a Sound Tigers shirt for her troubles.
Very good game, even though the Islanders (mostly Sound Tigers in this one) lost 2-1.
Some notes on players:
Dal Colle is nowhere near NHL ready. He's been invisible all pre-season. He's big but he looks kind of lost. He started last year in junior like that and then had a great year, but he needs to seriously step up.
Ho-Sang is fast enough, made some very smart passes and plays, but really needs to learn to stay on his feet. He was knocked down whenever someone touched him. And he usually grimaced as he got up. Maybe he's got a minor injury like so many players do, but then his overall toughness and "gritz" is questionable. And gritz is what Capuano looks for in players. I don't think Ho-Sang has a chance at the Isles out of camp although depending on roster moves, he may be a mid-season injury call-up. I was actually hoping he'd have a noticeable mental lapse during the game so I could yell "Ho-Sang, WAKE UP!" but alas, he was very alert and smart. Ho-Sang also drew 3 penalties early in the game, before all the meathead Sound Tigers started taking a ton of dumb penalties.
Barzal- he didn't get as much ice time as he had in the first 2 games he played, but he was always in the middle of things. He made one great poke check steal on a guy way bigger than him, and was long gone before the guy swung his stick around at him. I still wouldn't be surprised to see him get the 9 game tryout at least. He's looking like an NHL player.
Beauvillier- he looked pretty good, but is definitely headed back to juniors. He plays with the gritz though, so Capuano will like him. Eventually.
Capuano- wasn't coaching!!! The Sound Tigers coaching staff were on the bench. Maybe the Isles staff were up in the press box to evaluate things from above?
Lee- played a great game, scoring the Isles only goal on a rebound from a Pulock bomb. He was great along the boards as he always is. Good to see his leg has healed.
Pulock- looks to have matured a little, as he doesn't just try to shoot every time he gets the puck. He picked his spots and only had 1 shot blocked.
Bernier- on a PTO. Why? He took a moronic penalty with like 3 minutes to go and the Isles down a goal. Way to kill any momentum, dipshit!
JF Berube played the whole game, which I found odd, considering Chris Gibson will be in Bridgeport, and I thought they were trying to sort of cross-sell the Sound Tigers to Isles fans. Berube played well, and maybe he played the whole game so they can make a decision on what to do with him since he's third on the depth chart and would require passing through waivers (which he likely won't). Also of note- after every whistle he immediately skates over to the left hand boards and looks at the crowd. I find it very odd that a player would look at the crowd at all, especially a goalie. But he would like right at me or one of my family. My younger daughter have him a smile & thumbs up after a good save and he smiled back!