I bought a part seasons ticket to the NY Islanders.

I wore my PR Islanders away shirt to the games at Nassau Colisseum a couple of weeks ago when the Isles played the hated NY Rangers.

The colours are even similar - the NYI wear orange, blue and white.

Go Isles.

I'm boycotting the NHL. I have been ever since the "work stoppage" a couple season ago. I love hockey. It used to be my second favorite sport.
I'm just really salty over how the NHL does business. The salaries are already climbing towards the same level they were when the owners started crying that they couldn't survive financially. Now they are signing dudes to bbig money deals. Again.

I don't follow the league anymore. I have no idea who playes for the Islanders.

I used to hate the Rangers. I didn't like the Islanders much either. But I didn't hate them anywhere near as much as the Rangers and the Flyers...

Have fun at the games. Please feel free to boo extra when my exteam, the Washington Capitals go to the Coiseum to play. Our owner is one of the clowns who helped make the financial problems worse.

The NHL is a first for me, so I don't have the feeling of the history so much and I can see where real fans still are outraged at the boycott year, which should never have happened IMO.

And it is expensive to go to.

Last year there was a pre-season NHL match at the Coliseo in San Juan between the said hated NY Rangers and Florida Panthers.

A number of the UDP boys were in attendance. We livened up the occasion, as there was only 2,000 odd in the stadium which holds 20,000.

The classic lines from the movie Slaphot came out like "hey Hanrahan your wife's a #$%^&*n". You could hear it right around the stadium.

The game was bizarre in itself because why the NHL chose to squander money on having a match in PR in the first place was beyond me. There are only two ice rinks on the island. Like it's not as if PR is a growth market for ice hockey.

The Coliseo is turned over to ice skating near Christmas. There is rumoured to be an ice rink in Aguadilla. I went looking for it once and couldn't find it and ended up out the back of Ramey Air Base at the western end of the island completely lost.

I like the Nassau Coliseum however which has a good feel for hockey and has a bit of an edge to it. It was like stepping into the Santurce Cangrejeros old arena or where the Guaynabo Mets basketball play, only a more modern.

The night I went to see the Rangers and the Islanders play had a real edge to it. The Islanders favourite player is their keeper Mike DiPietro (DP) and he is cheered like our lads used to cheer for Dan Kennedy.

The Islanders fans are very vocal and ok so long as you follow the Islanders.

Quick I better get in before outraged hockey fans do!

Mike DiPietro (DP) is a goalie.

Dan Kennedy is a keeper.

DiPietro is still the goalie?
He played for the the US National Olympic Team (in hockey that is always a country's best team).

I was in San Juan a few weeks before the exhibition game. I can't beleive that only 2,000 people showed up. I remeber seeing the posters for the game.

The whole night out was expensive as.

I mean we paid around $65 each for our tickets and they weren't the most expensive by a long way.

And the beers in the Coliseo weren't cheap either, going for around $5 a pop. They had me longing for the super value specials from the vendors at the JRL.

Despite the posters the tickets were only available a couple of weeks beforehand and on the day the publicity was pretty minimal. No wonder not many punters showed up.

Rangers shirts were on sale for over $100. I didn't see too many of those being worn around Plaza Las Americas mall afterwards.

I think the Rangers won 3-2 from my hazy recollections of the evening.

Wow. Those tickets are pricey as h@ll. Especially for PR.


My wife and I used to sit in the nosebleed section
for Washington Capitals games. They call it the Eagles Nest. Tickets costed $10 a pop for regular season games.

I got hooked with some center ice seats by a restaurantuer friend of mine and those joints costed $175 a pop.

Of course it was nice to see how the other half lived but I actually had more fun in the nosebleed seats. I liked the view better (you could see the whole rink) and the crowd was more fun up there.

Yep NHL in PR was definitely a one off.

I agree - the cheaper seats in the Nassau Coliseum is where the real atmosphere is. The view is slightly restricted as the roof is lower there but the crowd makes it worthwhile. The stadium is older and very suited to hockey.

The back row seats at Boston Garden are also fun to be in too - there are some real die hard Bruins fans there as well.

I was at MSG for a pre season game Rangers v Flyers. At the end of the second period my mate and I got beers in and when we came back some drongos had come down and pinched our seats and wouldn't move.

I went to the Mets a lot this season (another reason for my allegiance to the NY Islanders) and the nosebleeds behind the plate is where the real atmosphere is at Shea Stadium.

Some games you can pick up tickets for $5. The games v Washington Nationals at the end of Sept had $5 nosebleeds - I guess the Mets thought that they would have clinched by then and they would need to boost the attendance. They turned out to be vital games. The Nats swept the Mets to really upset the applecart at Shea. And we all know what happened next.

I have a soft spot for the Nats as they used to be the Expos who I saw a lot of in San Juan.

Youppi of the Expos is the only mascot who comes close to Populoso IMO.

Yeah.

My Nats helped rain on the Mets' parade.
Youppi was one cool Brutha. I liked him a lot, too.

What did you do to the drongos who pinched your seats? Did you get an usher or security to move them? Or did you just move to some other nearby seats?

Youppi was excellent and enormously popular at the Expos games in San Juan. I can still recall him running along the top of the dugout getting the crowd going.

One night I was at the basketball at the Coliseo and Jay Jay the Santurce Cangrejeros mascot sat next to me. I was sitting courtside near Maripily - which was worth the admission fee in itself.

I started talking to Jay Jay (as you do).

I interviewed Jay Jay about his costume which is very similar to Youppi's, only more orange. Jay Jay told me told me that it was made in the same factory as Youppi's.

Jay Jay went on to say the he even filled in occasionally as Youppi for some of the Expos matches in San Juan which enormously impressed me.

At that point Jay Jay had to leave to fulfil other press commitments, dancing with his gyrating hips and belly flopping on the court.

Actually by the end of the second period the ushers at the MSG were nowhere to be found and my mate and I had to find other seats as the drongos had well and truly made themselves comfortable.