It’s taken me a few weeks to actually get Mr. Snow to sit down with me for a chat. I understand the food chain well. I know talking to me on the record comes well after time spent with the MSM. I have no problem with that. So when I received a note that said Garth would make time for me today at camp, I jumped at the opportunity even though it meant leaving work at an odd lunch hour.

When I arrived at 11:30 am, my friend Webb20 from NY Islanders Country was chatting with Garth by the glass. They were discussing the monster named Mikko and how much Garth is looking forward to him playing in Bridgeport.

“You’re late. You missed the first session. There’s a fine for that you know.” Yes, Garth Snow likes to kid around. At least I think he’s kidding with me. But occasionally I have to remind him (and others) I actually have a day job. He also knows that I have no clue if there really are rules that are supposed to govern the media. (I actually went searching for my wallet once when they told me there was a $50 fine for my cell going off in the press room. I believed them…. Until Stan Fischler’s phone went off and no one told him to cough up $50. Yeah, pick on the chick in the room.)

There was a nice crowd of season ticket holders at today’s practice. This was one of the perks of being a STH for this season. You got to watch John Tavares learn the system.

IceWorks is one of the worst possible places to attempt to do an interview when there is a practice. Between the sounds of the on ice drills, the Zamboni running and the hum of the ice makers, you have to add in the noise from the train at the Syosset station. My little recorder struggles and sometimes fails.

Garth was leading me up the stairs to the mezzanine where he likes to watch practice high above the ice when he had to stop to answer a few more questions from those that needed an answer. So I waited, and waited, and waited thinking how much of my lunch hour was being wasted. I didn’t complain out loud. I’m very lucky to be where I am to begin with. I took pictures instead.

While other bloggers make camp in the upstairs offices, I have never been up there before. After the office area, it’s basically a storage area in mid-construction with a few 50’s style bar stools parked up against the wall looking down over the rink. This is where he takes it all in and studies the on ice product; in between interruptions of course. There were two more.

“I apologize for not getting back to you right away. I haven’t had my phone on me a lot.” Always a gentleman, the man with the weight of the NY Islanders squarely on his shoulders was apologizing to the blogger Mom. That took me by surprise and I fumbled for my recorder and almost fell off the bar stool. He got a good chuckle out of that and I gathered my thoughts and asked on the record:

“Are you really putting all your stock in Joel Rechlichz as the enforcer?”

“No. We think he has an upside. He can skate, he can get to his checks, but he still has to grow as a player and get more familiar with the type of system we’re playing. Don’t forget, he’s young. But I think he’s shown that he can be effective at this level. We just need him to get in some games. Whether that’s here or in Bridgeport will be determined by the training camp he has.”

After speaking with the Wrecker on the weekend, he’s going to try to make the most he can of it. But it’s obvious; Garth hasn’t made a final decision on the toughness factor of the team.

Regarding Blake Kessel, Garth agreed with me that Blake has improved over last year’s prospect camp.

“I had a great conversation with him. He’s a lot more comfortable on the ice this year. He’s really a good kid. He’s done a good job at UNH. At that program that have an Olympic sized ice sheets. I can really see how his skating has improved.”

With Kessel returning to UNH in September, it will be quite a while before he makes it to a training camp and maybe begin his pro career in Bridgeport.

I asked Garth about the Long Island connection in Nikiforov and Romano. I’ll have that entry up next, but he is very happy to have Romano with the organization. So are Romano’s parents.

I turned off the recorder and put it away. Everything from then on was off the record, but we did discuss the very difficult process of developing the rosters. It all comes down to training camp, but he is very happy with what is coming up through the ranks and this current group of prospects. The scouts have really done their job well.

Since we hadn’t spoken immediately before the draft, he asked me who I thought he was actually going to pick. I told him I knew there was no losing in any of the choices, and he agreed. But he did chuckle at me again when I told him I actually wanted him to take Hedman.

“Hey! We don’t have anyone that size except Sutton and we didn’t even see him most of the season.” I explained.

What I had actually done was bring up a painful memory of man games lost. We talked about the greatly anticipated return of Andy Sutton who will be in the final year of his contract. He was truly missed on the team after his season ending injury. But what more can you ask of a player who breaks his hand blocking a shot and then breaks his foot blocking a shot? Let’s hope he is injury free this season.

Let’s hope everyone is injury free this season. I think a good 50% of the gray hair Garth is currently sporting came from just last season. It was one of hardship and disappointment. With the addition of John Tavares and the continuing development of Josh Bailey and Kyle Okposo, every Islander fan is hoping for a season that will make 2008-09 just a difficult memory.

Please!

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