Bridgeport Islanders play home opener Saturday
When New York Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello said this summer that the team had begun renovations in Bridgeport, the home of its AHL affiliate, a fair follow-up might have been “physical or metaphorical?”
And the answer might’ve been “both.”
The AHL Islanders, who play their home opener on Saturday against Springfield at Webster Bank Arena, got a facelift with a raft of veteran talent, some from outside the organization and some from within as the parent club built up its depth, making changes to its coaching staff. The building is getting work, too, including an in-process rebuild of its dressing-room complex.
In at least one case, one tied into the other. Chris Terry, the AHL’s leading scorer in 2017-18, signed with Bridgeport in the summer.
“I had very good talks with Chris (Lamoriello, Lou’s son and Bridgeport’s general manager) in the summer and expressed this new facility they have built here in Bridgeport,” Terry said in the preseason, “their philosophy of winning and developing. I really thought it’d be a good fit.
“Every player or coach I used as a reference had very good things to say about playing here. I saw a really good fit. I was excited to get here.”
Terry and NHL freeagent pickup Andy Andreoff lead the Islanders, formerly the Sound Tigers, with three points after the team played three road games last weekend. Austin Czarnik, in the second of a two-year deal with the parent Islanders, and young forward Arnaud Durandeau had two assists apiece.
The team has remained quiet about details on the renovations to its dressing room complex (and declined to provide any for this story), which are still ongoing. Word from outside the organization is that the
team’s new complex has a much-expanded footprint.
Bridgeport coach Brent Thompson said last week that the new coaches’ offices give them more space to make it easier to hold meetings and teach. Captain Seth Helgeson called the space “pretty legit” and compared it to an NHL dressing room.
“We’re going to enjoy it and use it to our advantage,” Helgeson said. “I think everyone’s pretty impressed with what has happened over the last few months to get this locker room ready.”
Islanders ownership had discussed such work for years, and began it once the team cut a deal with the City of Bridgeport to end a lawsuit, improve the arena and keep the team in town for 10 more years.
“We’ve had a program here with the locker room that we’ve been able to address some things that we wanted to address,” Chris Lamoriello said last week, “which I think will put the players, coaches, and training staffs in a great position to succeed.
“And then we’ve also started some arena renovations, some of which you will see, some of which you won’t see but are going to improve the spectating environment greatly, so we’re excited about that,” he added. “That’s going to take a little bit of time, but it’s going to be day to day.”
Saturday, the first regular-season game out of that new dressing room, is a milestone day in several ways. It’s the first home game in Year 21, breaking past the initial 20-year agreement that bound the team to the city, a team that nearly didn’t get to Year 4.
It’s the first AHL game here with fans since March 11, 2020. It’s the first home game under the new Bridgeport Islanders name, a change that came in May after 20 years of Sound Tigers hockey. And those 20 seasons mean that Saturday is the team’s 1,500th game.
Only 19 franchises in the league’s 86-year history have played more, and they should pass the defunct Hamilton Bulldogs (1,504) in a couple of weeks.
There’s a fanfest at 5 p.m. and a magnetic-schedule giveaway at the door on Saturday against Springfield, which named Simsbury’s Tommy Cross its captain on Thursday. On Sunday afternoon, when Bridgeport meets Laval, kids 11-and-under get in for $10 at the arena box office with the purchase of a fullprice adult ticket.