temperature at puck drop: 9 degrees; wind chill: -8 degrees; dew point/"feels like": -11 degrees; wind speeds: 15 MPH/NW; gusts up to 25 MPH/NW; (relative) humidity: 37% (measured at about 6:50 P.M. EST (NWS), so actually slightly before the start of the game, which didn't start until closer to 7:15)
after the game: 7 degrees; wind chill: -7 degrees; dew point/"feels like": -9 degrees; wind speeds: 10 MPH/NW; gusts up to 22 MPH/NW; relative humidity: 45% (this time around, measured between about 9:50 and 10 P.M. EST)
(...this might be a good time for me to mention that our place appears to be about a mid-century (1950s/60s) build, meaning that it's just old enough to still have steam pipes, like so, except silver, instead of white, and it sometimes takes a while for heat to get "pumped" out of them, along with producing these "clanging" noises every so often, but, considering how plain old those steam pipes are now, having had the boilers changed some years ago, and having to be supplemented with electric "space" heaters, they're still more than effective!)
attendance: 1,353, which, honestly, seemed quite the reasonable estimate this time, despite most people having to travel fair distances, and the brutal cold outside - the arena itself was actually warm to the point that I actually started sweating a tiny bit right around the end of the opening period, leading me to remove all of the winter weather "equipment" I entered the arena with from then on up until after the game!
"...what was I wearing?", you might be asking right now: Smith's WorkWear either flannel or fleece-lined denim; Old Navy thermal undershirt; the ol' Hartford Whalers' (dark) blue with green/grey/silver/white striping/trim; Northern Explosion (light) blue polyester vest (like this, except, again, in blue); Brave Soul "black label" "varsity"-styled jacket, like you might see college/H.S. athletes wearing, except in a "generic" format, not produced by any school(s); two pairs of gloves; ski hat/"ski mask" (face covering/etc.)
Last night, as mentioned, I was back at the Nassau Coliseum in Hempstead/Uniondale, on Long Island, for the first time, myself, since this 2011 game; this time, however, the competing teams were Army West Point, and Sacred Heart University, which, as you know, I had already seen both in various capacities within the months leading up to now - watching Army football smash Fordham back around Labor Day, and then watching SHU hockey defeat UConn about a month and a half later, but what made this particular game weird from the start was that it ended up being a Sacred Heart "home" game, despite being played on Long Island - literally the only reason I could think of for that being the case was the NHL's Islanders having had their AHL affiliate in Bridgeport since 2001, and Sacred Heart moving its (actual) home games there from both Milford and North Branford, CT, to Bridgeport in 2016... The arena itself almost has this "exoskeleton" look to it now, also, after the renovations of a few years ago, with everything inside having been changed since the Islanders left back in 2014, and, in fact, you wouldn't be far off for confusing it for the Barclays Center, over in Brooklyn, since the operating group over there actually manages most of the "new" Coliseum's facilities now!
Despite all that, though, the majority of the crowd was rooting for Army, which makes sense, given the shorter trip from West Point to Hempstead/Uniondale, compared to the Bridgeport -> those two places trip, yet the Coliseum showed the majority of replays in favor of Sacred Heart, including playing the same intro video as seen in Bridgeport, and, in a quite petty move on its part, not showing any replays for any of the Army goals throughout the game, along with only playing (a rather crappy recording of) the Islanders' long time "goal horn" after Sacred Heart goals, and the PA announcements even had different "tones" to them, depending on what happened (Army goals and Sacred Heart penalties were announced in a very "straightforward"-like manner, while Army penalties and Sacred Heart goals got a bit of "emphasis"), although, in a sense, there was some "karma" there, as the camera operators increasingly seemed to almost "run out" of Sacred Heart fans, and replays in favor of the team, to show later on in the game, and they ended up showing anybody/thing they could get in the late stages, although, honestly, it was better that way, in a tiny sense, since it seemed to "galvanize" the Army fans who made the trip from wherever to make that much more noise after Army goals, and even hits, which, as you'll find out, there were more than a few of during the game!
Despite all that, though, the majority of the crowd was rooting for Army, which makes sense, given the shorter trip from West Point to Hempstead/Uniondale, compared to the Bridgeport -> those two places trip, yet the Coliseum showed the majority of replays in favor of Sacred Heart, including playing the same intro video as seen in Bridgeport, and, in a quite petty move on its part, not showing any replays for any of the Army goals throughout the game, along with only playing (a rather crappy recording of) the Islanders' long time "goal horn" after Sacred Heart goals, and the PA announcements even had different "tones" to them, depending on what happened (Army goals and Sacred Heart penalties were announced in a very "straightforward"-like manner, while Army penalties and Sacred Heart goals got a bit of "emphasis"), although, in a sense, there was some "karma" there, as the camera operators increasingly seemed to almost "run out" of Sacred Heart fans, and replays in favor of the team, to show later on in the game, and they ended up showing anybody/thing they could get in the late stages, although, honestly, it was better that way, in a tiny sense, since it seemed to "galvanize" the Army fans who made the trip from wherever to make that much more noise after Army goals, and even hits, which, as you'll find out, there were more than a few of during the game!
Alright, after all of that, it's time, once again, as always, to recap the game itself, and I'll start off this one by saying that the first about 10 minutes or so of the game almost seemed like a bit of "feeling out" time between the teams, mostly appearing to go in Sacred Heart's favor overall, which is ironic, though, since the teams skated to a 5-5 tie in Bridgeport earlier in the season, although Army got the first "man advantage" of the game, which ended up being unsuccessful, but Sacred Heart soon thereafter converted on the first Army penalty of the game to open the scoring midway through the period, after which Army fought back, though, and got a "man advantage" equalizer of its own a few minutes later, and then managed to take the lead from about five minutes remaining through the first intermission!
During the middle frame, the hitting suddenly increased, especially in terms of hits right in front of either team's bench, and Sacred Heart tied the game just about five minutes in, albeit at even-strength both ways, soon committing another penalty, although Sacred Heart managed to catch Army's power play unit "napping" right at the end of those two minutes, and got a "breakaway" goal just after the conclusion of the aforementioned penalty, to give Sacred Heart the lead once again, and, despite Army dominating the shot count after that, the period ended with Sacred Heart still holding the 3-2 edge that "shorthanded" goal ended up creating earlier in the period!
The final 20 seemed to start off in much the same fashion as the game itself did, with both teams suddenly trying to "feel out" each other once again, and, in doing so, ended up committing a bunch of penalties, even with some more hits, one of which Army ended up converting on to tie the game once again, this time at 3-3, although, as was the case throughout the night, Army just plain refused to shoot the puck, preferring to just move it around this sort of "umbrella" formation it kept setting up in with each "man advantage", finally getting said goal with just seconds remaining on the penalty, and only after hearing quite a few of the Army fans suddenly getting quite restless, and calling for more power play shots from their team! That would be it for those 20 minutes, however, leading to, for me personally, yet another game featuring another five-minute overtime period!
The overtime period seemed to be "a tale of two halves", almost, with Sacred Heart dominating early, and Army dominating later on, although both goaltenders were quite up to the task standing in front of them, both stopping everything that came their way then, to create, again, for me personally, another game ending in a tie, this time 3-3, just like St. Cloud State @ Princeton, game 1/2, from the previous weekend!
box score (Army)
some images from the Coliseum's in-house photographer (you'll see little arrows off to either side of those images; merely click to move through them!)
(also, thankfully, none of these made the trip...)
My next game, now, would be Michigan State v. Minnesota @ MSG, Sat. night, 1/20, except nothing appears to be left in my usual center ice/200-level sections there (only the 100-level end seats, followed by corners, and then center ice, so I'm not sure at this point whether to even bother with that game, given those circumstances!)
Also, in still more sadly inevitable retail news, it looks like Macy*s is joining the much-maligned in recent years Kmart/Sears duo in shutting down dozens of locations early this year - specifically, Macy*s is said to be set to close about 100 locations, while Kmart will be shuttering 64 locations, and Sears 39, for a total there of 103 locations between them, at least for now; in non-department store updates, Mattress Firm apparently learned its lesson from buying Sleepy's "the hard way", since it's also planning on shutting down somewhere between 100 and 200 locations very soon, and Toys "R" Us is reportedly set to close somewhere in the 100-200 location range itself very soon, so that's just yet another "nail in the coffin" of physical retail, and another win for online retail going forward!
(enough negativity, though; how 'bout some retail nostalgia?)
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