Blast From The Past: Islanders Open Team Store At Cantiague

Anton Community Newspapers • 132 East 2nd Street • Mineola, NY 11501 • Phone: 516-747-8282 • FAX: 516-742-5867

Blast From The Past: Islanders Open Team Store At Cantiague

Written by Cory Twibell Friday, 31 August 2012 00:00

Championship teams from 1980-84 practiced at Nassau County’s Cantiague Park

During the four years that the New York Islanders practiced at Nassau County’s Cantiague Park in the early 1980s, the organization took home four Stanley Cups.

The team, following its last Stanley Cup title in 1984, relocated to several different practice rinks throughout Long Island but hasn’t been able to recapture the magic of those Cantiague teams since.

Islander’s forward Kyle Okposo signs an autograph for a young fan at a recent team event. Photo by Cory Twibell Islanders Pro Shop Manager Tim Murray knows all about those four historical seasons, having worked at the Cantiague Park Pro Shop from 1980-84 while attending nearby C.W. Post University.

In addition to holding practices at Cantiague, the team would also host a majority of its functions at the rink – a significant exposure opportunity for young hockey fans in Nassau County.

“The team used to host training camp, rookie games, prospect games [at Cantiague] and back then the Islanders used to play the Rangers, the Hartford Whalers, the Devils. They’d bus in and the Islanders’ prospects would play the prospects of those other teams,” said Murray.

Aspiring hockey players from the area now have another chance to experience the benefits of having an affiliation with a pro hockey club at their home rink.

“From the Islanders’ standpoint, we look at Nassau County being our home base. Nassau County’s hockey program boasts about 600 boys and girls that are registered to play in their hockey programs. Now we partner up for them and we give them a professional pro shop, which they haven’t had since those Cup runs,” Murray added.

In addition to its new team store (located inside the pro shop at Cantiague Park Ice Rink at 480 West John Street in Hicksville), the Islanders plan to host clinics with professional players and coaches throughout the year, including one during the store’s grand opening ceremony on Saturday, Sept. 8 at 11:30 a.m. With the rink’s recent renovation, which included new boards, glass and lighting, young skaters now have a premier ice hockey facility close to home.

“As part of this grand opening, we’re bringing down a player and one of our coaches and we’re going to give them a clinic. They’re going to get the advantage, the kids in these programs, that several times a year, the Islanders players and coaching staff will get involved with clinics for the children of Nassau County,” Murray explained.

Though the National Hockey League and its players are currently working toward a new collective bargaining agreement in order to avoid a lockout for the upcoming season, the Islanders have shown a commitment to their fans and the hundreds of aspiring young hockey players nearby.

“It’s just another way, besides offering the services that come with skate sharpening and having equipment right there at the rink with that kind of convenience, that the team is reaching out in its grassroots efforts to the kids who play hockey in Nassau County,” Murray said.

For more information on the Islanders team store or the Cantiague Park Ice Rink, call (516) 571-7056.

News

Alleged 'Johns' Made Public

Thursday, 13 June 2013 00:00

Across Nassau County, residents are reacting with mixed emotions to the Nassau County District Attorney’s recent arrests of more than 100 men for soliciting prostitutes, including three from Hicksville, four from Levittown, eight from Wantagh and East Meadow, and one from Bethpage. The DA’s office not only arrested the men, but made public their names and photographs.

But for as shocking as these very public revelations may be, some local residents seem nonplussed by the whole incident.

Health benefits in more ways than one

West East All Natural Bistro and Wine Bar is a fresh and virginal startup that provides hope for change in a landscape that has become stagnant and saturated with the same, tired, fast food, assembly-line approach, and artificially hospitable corporate eateries.

A few years ago Raquel Jadeja and her husband, Jay were just regular customers of Danny Wu’s establishment. Wu is the original owner of The West East All Natural Bistro. The Jadejas many years of restaurant experience led them to become Wu’s unofficial consultants. Their friendship, which was a symbiotic progression, culminated when Jay became a co-owner and head chef in October of 2012.

Sports

Hicksville Runners Score In Belmont Run

Thursday, 13 June 2013 00:00

Award winners Jill Loveland and Anne Broderick led a large contingent of runners from Hicksville who successfully completed the 2nd annual Belmont Stakes Blue Ribbon 5K Run for Prostate Cancer on June 2.

Loveland was the first woman in the 25-29 age group to cross the finish line with a time of 23 minutes, 19 seconds. Broderick scored in 26:15 to earn the first place award in the women’s 45-49 age group.