Tag: New York Islanders

New York Islanders buy $50,000 worth of Mega Millions lottery tickets as jackpot reaches $1.2 billion

Islanders fans have 25,000 reasons to pay attention to the next drawing

The Mega Millions jackpot is up to $1.2 billion and everyone wants a piece of the pie. Everyone, including the New York Islanders, which purchased $50,000 in tickets, the team announced.

Why $50,000? Apparently, the figure is in honor of the team’s 50th anniversary. Per Newsday’s Andrew Gross:

“As we prepare for our historic 50th anniversary season, we want to show our appreciation for our Islanders’ season ticket members and staff and give them a chance to participate in this massive Mega Millions drawing,” Islanders co-owner Jon Ledecky said in a statement. “Revenue from lottery tickets is dedicated to education in New York state, so no matter what happens in today’s historic drawing, important funds have been generated for education in the state, which supports our fan base and their families.”

The $50,000 equates to 25,000 entries and the potential prize money would be split evenly between the team’s full-season ticket holders, suite holders, staff and the Islanders’ Children’s Foundation — but only for earnings above $250,000. Anything below will go solely to the foundation.

As it stands, there will be many Islanders faithful paying extra attention to the lottery. Maybe it’ll set the tone for New York’s upcoming NHL season.

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Notre Dame’s first three nonconference dates revealed

Mark your calendars for November.

Notre Dame’s 2022-23 schedule is starting to take shape. The dates and opponents for the Irish’s first three games, all of which are part of the Gotham Classic, have been announced. The season begins Nov. 16 at Purcell Pavilion against Southern Indiana, which is making its Division I debut as part of the Ohio Valley. That will be followed with a home game Nov. 22 against Bowling Green, an opponent the Irish have not faced since a 92-65 Valentine’s Day victory in 1972.

The third game, which is being promoted as the showcase game in the Gotham Classic, is Nov. 25, when the Irish will take on St. Bonaventure at UBS Arena, where the New York Islanders play. This matchup has been known since March, but we finally know when it will take place. This will be the Irish’s first game against the Bonnies since a 57-54 win three days before Christmas in 1994.

Here’s to a strong start to what should be another great season.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

 

Three Notre Dame alumni nominated for King Clancy Memorial Trophy

Hopefully, one of them wins!

With the Stanley Cup playoffs underway, it’s time to speculate who will win this year’s awards in the NHL. One award is the King Clancy Memorial Trophy. This award is presented to the player who best exemplifies leadership on his team at all times and has been a humanitarian in his community. Past winners include Pekka Rinne, Henrik and Daniel Sedin, Henrik Zetterberg, Patrice Bergeron, Vincent Lecavalier, Jarome Iginla, Ron Francis, Curtis Joseph and Ray Bourque.

Every team has a nominee, and this year, Notre Dame is well represented. That’s because three players who once suited up for the Irish are among the nominees. That means there’s a good chance Notre Dame will have one of its own be listed among some elite company, although the award only has been presented since 1988. Here are the three former Irish players to watch out for this awards season, two of which play for playoff teams:

A look at the history the Raptors are up against with their 3-0 comeback attempt against the 76ers

The Raptors are trying to join a pretty exclusive club across sports

The Toronto Raptors are trying to make a little bit of NBA history by becoming the first team in the league to ever come back from a 3-0 deficit. A game 6 win tonight would go a long way for them.

But there’s so much history available to us that says this just will not happen. We’ve seen this so many times.

Teams have taken a 3-0 lead 145 times in the history of the NBA, per Land of Basketball. Obviously, those teams have gone on to win the series each and every time. Only 3 of those games have made it to a Game 7.

So, clearly, the Raptors are facing an uphill battle. But, the thing is, a 3-0 comeback is bound to happen at some point.

If the Raptors were to pull that off, they’d be the 6th team in the history of the major North American sports leagues

Notre Dame’s Jake Pivonka is finalist for Derek Hines Award

Congrats to the Irish captain.

An Achilles injury put Notre Dame forward Jake Pivonka’s senior season in jeopardy. He was able to return to game action in mid-December after sticking around as a team leader as he went through rehabilitation. Now, the captain and 2018 New York Islanders fourth-round pick is being recognized in a big way. He has been selected as the Big Ten finalist for the Derek Hines Unsung Hero Award.

The award, which is presented by the Hockey Commissioners Association, is given to the player who best “displays exemplary sportsmanship, is supremely competitive, intelligent and extraordinarily conditioned with an unmatched work ethic.” It is named after Derek Hines, a former Army player who was killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan in 2005.

In 126 career games with the Irish, Pivonka has 38 points, nine of which have come on goals. Of those nine, four have been game-winners. One of those came in the deciding game of the Irish’s Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal win over Wisconsin.

The winner of the award will be announced April 8 during Frozen Four weekend festivities in Boston.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Notre Dame to play St. Bonaventure in 2022 Gotham Classic

Did you expect this opponent?

Notre Dame knows at least one of its nonconference opponents for the 2022-23 season, and it’s not one that was on anyone’s radar. That opponent is St. Bonaventure, which the Irish will play in the 2022 Gotham Classic at UBS Arena, the new home of the New York Islanders. It will be the Bonnies’ second straight season playing a prominent ACC program at a neutral site. This season, they lost to Virginia Tech in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Irish are 5-2 all-time against the Bonnies, but the teams have not faced each other since a few days before Christmas in 1994, which the Irish won, 57-54. That marked the third straight season in which the teams met, and it snapped a two-game losing streak for the Irish in the series. Before that, the Irish had won all four previous meetings.

The Bonnies have a 20-8 overall record this season and have a double bye in the upcoming Atlantic 10 Tournament.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Former Notre Dame players on NHL rosters to begin 2021-22 season

Pay special attention to these players this season.

The puck has dropped on the 2021-22 NHL season, and the full 82-game schedule has returned. Besides the usual amount of hockey to look forward to once again, there also is a new team that has taken the ice. One player on that team played collegiate hockey at Notre Dame, as did nine other players who are starting the year on NHL rosters. That number could grow later this season with 15 other former Irish players starting play in the AHL, but for now, here are the 10 you can see at hockey’s top level at this moment:

The NHL bets we’re most excited to place for the 2021-22 season

BetFTW’s favorite NHL bets as the 2021-22 season begins

The NHL regular season is back and so are some of our favorite bets.

Four months after the Tampa Bay Lightning repeated as Stanley Cup champions—earning a solid payday for anyone who took their 2020 preseason odds at +750—the campaign for a three-peat begins Tuesday with Pittsburgh Penguins in Tampa at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN. The Seattle Kraken will play their first regulation game in team history when they visit a Vegas Golden Knights club that’s no longer the newest franchise in the league at 10:15 p.m.

Before the puck drops, the BetFTW crew shares the wagers they’re most looking forward to this year.

Islanders Ryan Pulock makes incredible game-winning save in the dying seconds of Game 4

The save of the playoffs from Ryan Pulock!!!

Ryan Pulock has 100 percent made the save of the Stanley Cup playoffs this year, and he’s not even a goaltender. In the waining seconds of Game 4 between the New York Islanders and Tampa Bay Lightning, Pulock bailed out his goaltender Semyon Varlamov with a stunning save on Ryan McDonagh on what should have been a wide-open net for a goal.

With three seconds left in a 3-2 Islanders lead, McDonagh was able to get open for a pass at the top of the circle. Instead of taking the direct shot, McDonagh pulled the puck with a spin move, completely faking out Varlamov and leaving the Islanders net open. Pulock, however, was right there for the knee save to secure the win and steal overtime away from the Lightning’s clutches.

It’s a play you have to see, preferably more than once.

And here are some more angles of Pulock’s save.

Now that is something else from Pulock. The Islanders now head back to Tampa Bay with the series tied 2-2, and if New York pulls out the series win, look back upon this moment where everything changed.

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Greg Van Roten, childhood Islanders fan, glad to see Dan Feeney embraced

Unlike fellow Jets lineman Greg Van Roten, Dan Feeney wasn’t always an Islanders fan.

Dan Feeney has only attended two Islanders playoff games, yet he has already become the new face of the fanbase.

Several Jets, including rookie QB Zach Wilson, have made themselves heard at a couple of the Islanders’ playoff games in recent weeks. Feeney has grabbed the attention of the cameras, though, crushing beers on his head and chugging them. He’s gone viral more than once, and the backup offensive lineman has become a well-known name in New York despite not playing a game here yet.

The Islanders have enjoyed Feeney’s presence so much that they collaborated with the Jets on a t-shirt featuring Feeney’s signature mullet.

Feeney, however, is not the longest-tenured Islanders fan in the Jets’ trenches.

“He was a Blackhawks fan,” fellow lineman Greg Van Roten, who spent his childhood on Long Island, revealed Tuesday. “Now he’s coming in, and Islander Nation has embraced him. I’m not jealous or bitter, but I grew up an Islanders fan!”

Van Roten has been the orchestrator behind the Jets’ adventures to Nassau Coliseum. He joked about using the Jets’ public relations team to get tickets to see his favorite NHL squad.

But Van Roten views these gatherings with his teammates as more than just going to see a hockey game. The 2020 Jets were limited in the time they spent around each other due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so they had a harder time connecting away from the field or team facility.

With fewer pandemic restrictions now in place, this current Jets team can come together for events like Islanders playoff games.

“It’s an opportunity to bond,” Van Roten said. “We didn’t have this opportunity last spring, and it definitely hurt us as a team throughout the season. You get to spend time with your position group a lot but maybe not with guys from other position groups or across the ball. This has been a no-brainer as far as, ‘Hey, let’s get together on a weekend to go see a game, and blow off some steam together and get to know each other on a more personal level, not around football.'”

The Islanders lost Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Semifinals on Tuesday to the Tampa Bay Lightning by a final score of 4-2. The series is now tied 1-1 and Game 3 will be at Nassau Coliseum on Thursday night at 8 p.m.

For those wondering, the answer is yes, according to the New York Post: Feeney and other Jets will return to The Barn to root on the Islanders.

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