Hey, Vacation Part 1 is over. (Part 2 is while they’re in Moncton. I’ll probably be a little more in-communication then.)
Even with this break, I have spewed almost as many blog posts this summer as I did in the entire 2005-06 season, including playoffs. (Wasn’t doing a postmortem for the first month, but still.) I am ready. Are you? Good, here’s a smidgen of news (before I actually, y’know, do some work Friday): The Islanders have a rookie camp going at Syosset the week of Sept. 15. No word on times or anything yet, but — and here’s the fun part from our perspective, even though our new benevolent overlords at Hearst increased our mileage reimbursement — there’s a Rookie Camp game at Shelton on Thursday, Sept. 18, at 1 p.m. They’ll be playing Boston, and a solid four or five probable Sound Tigers regulars should be playing.
Here’s audio from the Kevin Colley presser in Utah.
Pete MacArthur landed in Rockford.
Soon after trading Lawrence Nycholat for Darien’s Ryan Shannon, Ottawa signed Brad Isbister.
As noted in the comments, Jimmy Galante got 87 months. Here’s the News-Times’ editorial. The rest of it is some serious stuff. But the candidate who steps up to say that his Justice Department won’t be enforcing hockey leagues’ salary caps with wire-fraud charges? He gets my vote. (Or not. It’s tough to tell.)
We have dodged tropical-system bullets for 22 years, so I probably shouldn’t be ticked off to see back-to-back storms heading our way. (Good to see that Hanna appears likely to veer a little more east of us than previously thought. Not good to see Ike taking a turn toward us.) Doing the Fish over the weekend, if we dodge these bullets.
And RIP, Don LaFontaine, movie-trailer guy, and Bill Melendez, who brought the Peanuts characters to life.
*-John Stewart, 9/5/39-1/19/08