Adam, this is a wonderful post for localism.  It's the kind of thing that will help people realize you are more than a real estate agent... you're a local expert!

MARGARET:  Thank you very much for your compliment.  I really enjoyed doing this one.  I got to spend time with the family on a weekend to do something that others will be interested in.  Thanks for your comment, Margaret.

Adam, I've spent so much money in that store....my daughter is a die hard Islander fan, she loves to go to the games and has to have jersey's-- lots of jerseys :)

CAROLE:  Lots of jerseys will definitely make the wallet a little lighter.  Don't show her this blog, or you'll be on your way to buying at least one, if not two new Islanders jerseys (home and away) (LOL).  It's a lot nicer in there now, and I think that you'll enjoy it more than before.  Thanks for sharing, Carole.

Hello Adam, your New York Islanders are in my city this week:

Moncton - Local hockey fans can look forward to 10 days of exciting hockey when the New York Islanders arrive in Moncton on September 12. In addition to the exhibition game they will be playing against the Montreal Canadiens, the Islanders are also bringing their training camp to Moncton next week. With that, comes a number of community events and opportunities for fans to take in some outstanding hockey action.

The New York Islanders will arrive in Moncton on September 12 and will be conducting the majority of their training camp activities and scrimmages at the Tim Hortons 4-Ice Centre. In addition to practice time, the team will also participate in two rookie games against the Canadian University Champions, the UNB Red Devils, as well as the Runner Up team, the UdeM Aigles Bleu. The Islanders will parade through Main Street as part of ‘Hockey Night in Downtown', which includes a BBQ, autograph signing and music, and will also participate in a charity golf tournament.

The New York Islanders will battle the Montreal Canadiens at the Moncton Coliseum on September 19 at
7:00 p.m. Tickets for the game are on sale now and can be purchased at the Coliseum box office, by phone
(1-888-720-5600) or online at tickets.moncton.ca

LARRY:  Your making me want to hop on a plane to Montreal.  That sounds like a great time.  Please check back in with some more details after the event.  Thanks for all the information.

Adam, FYI - Continental Airlines has a daily non-stop flight from Newark to Moncton. Come on up, I'll show you around!

LARRY:  I've actually been up to Montreal when I worked for Billboard Magazine in sales.  Canada was one of my territories.  It's a beautiful city.  I wish that I could get up there now for this, but the timing isn't right.  I hope that you and your fellow Habs enjoy the experience.

Adam, I keep writing Moncton and you keep writing Montreal.

Here is a link to a Moncton newspaper article about the Islanders' general manager, Garth Snow:

http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/front/article/75763

LARRY:  Sorry, I saw the Montreal Canadiens mention in your first comment.  I didn't know where Moncton was, and thought that it may have been near Montreal.  No offense intended.

No offence taken Adam.
I hope you received the articles about the Islanders in Moncton I emailed to you.
Here is the latest one.

Islanders ‘love it here'

GM thanks community for warm reception as NHL team wraps 10-day training camp in Hub City

By James Foster
Times & Transcript Staff Published Saturday September 22nd, 2007 Appeared on page A1

There are not enough superlatives in the English language for the New York Islanders and the local organizers of the NHL team's 10-day visit to Moncton to describe how impressed each are.

"It has been an absolute treat working with this organization," Larry Haley, local co-ordinator of the Islanders' 10-day training camp in Moncton, said during a goodbye news conference yesterday.

The training camp wraps up this morning.

Warren Frizzell, manager of the Tim Hortons 4-Ice Centre which hosted the camp, was equally effusive, noting the rink complex has hosted a large number of national events but "This one," he said, "is right up on top of the list."

Islanders general manager Garth Snow threw it right back at them, as well as at the community at large which embraced the Islanders as if they were a Moncton home team.

"It is refreshing to meet people who are so genuinely down-to-earth," Snow said.

"I just want to thank everyone in this community for such a warm reception."

Everyone involved in the training camp kept assuring the assembled media that they were not hearing empty platitudes, that the bonds that have been forged between Metro Moncton and the Islanders are warm and quite real.

But those assurances weren't necessary because the bonds are so evident. Even as Snow spoke and his team practised on the ice, team members were chatting with local rink rats in the stands or signing jerseys and hockey sticks to be given away.

It was also evident during the team's golf tournament earlier in the week which was followed by an auction of items to raise money for the Magnetic Hill Zoo. When star forward Bill Guerin, and other players, spent wads of cash bidding on music blasters and other items of which he quite likely already owned plenty, onlookers thought he was merely contributing to a good cause. They didn't know the half of it.

Guerin and others showed up yesterday at the 4-Ice Centre and gave their purchases away to the staff there, tokens of thanks for the good service and good times during the past week and a half.

The Islanders are without a doubt "a class act," said Ian Fowler, the city's general manager of parks, recreation, tourism and culture.

When Frizzell and Fowler first met with Snow months ago, Snow vowed the team "will become part of the community; we want to form a partnership here."

"Well," Fowler said, "they have gone above and beyond what anyone would have expected. We have never dealt with a finer group of people."

What most people don't know is that much of the team's outreach to the community was not because someone in Moncton asked them to do this or do that, but rather much of it was the team's idea.

A prime example is when the team invited players from Harrison Trimble High School to their game and then into the locker room, as a token of how they felt upon hearing that four HTHS teens had been killed in a car crash -- this was the Islanders' idea. Likewise when an emotional coach Ted Nolan addressed students on how to overcome their grief. The team wasn't asked to do this. Quite the contrary, they asked to do it.

A highlight for Snow was Hockey Night in Moncton, when Main Street was closed on a Friday night and the players were paraded into the downtown by bagpipes to mingle with fans. Snow said it evoked powerful memories of when he was young and would look up to his own hockey heroes, with his hockey parents at his side, just like the thousands of young people he saw on Main Street eight days ago, flanked by their own hockey moms and hockey dads.

"Man, that parade was a sight to see," he said.

The Islanders will be back next year -- and the year after that, thanks to a three-year agreement to hold their training camps here.

"We love it here. It's got everything that we want," Snow said.

And after the three-year deal expires?

"We hope to extend it," Frizzell said.