Off to Kansas City for Islanders hockey, wee wee

that turned out 14,000 fans a night in the 90’s for an IHL team. Hockey has be building in KC over the decades since the NHL Scouts were in town.

Hey, thanks. Your impression is my impression from the outside…a different story if teams locals actually cared about were there. K.C.’s certainly no dynamite market, but with the right owner the NHL or AHL could (and have) do worse.

I’m hoping to! Had it many times, but I’m not sure if I can squeeze it in. This trip was already kind of unwise and pigeon-holed into a tight schedule…which often makes for the best trips.

Haha, thanks! I appreciate it. I try to remind people from time to time that I’m not local, but then I try not to beat people over the head with it, too. Not sure where the best balance is.

Newcastle will be back … surely … some day. So far, so good anyway. I hate that they dropped (for obvious reasons), because now it’s that much harder to keep an eye on things.

I made the mistake of reading some of that before heading to the game, and it left me with a pit in my stomach when I got there. Answering other people’s questions there — and talking to a bummed Coyotes fan — didn’t help. But I can’t help thinking there’s some way the team has to remain after all the grandstanding is done. That’s where I’m resting my hope, anyway.

or visit

pucKChaser.com

lots of discussion on there about this very topic.

Moulson and Sim also look good and I am already inclined to admit that I was wrong about De Haan.

LOL. I missed you! I started to keep track of every team’s jersey I’d seen, and the Wild was one I didn’t spot. When I saw a Coyotes one (and even ended up sitting next to a Yotes fan), I was sure I’d see every one.

Thanks for the report. Very nice building. I laughed when they announced icing over the P.A. I cried when the guy behind me was telling his kid, “Yeah, you can elbow in hockey.”

I was in a blue Islanders Bossy #22 jersey, if any other attendees drift into see this.

Other Isles jerseys spotted (remember, this is K.C., not the Coliseum): Turgeon, LaFontaine, tons of Yashins, Peca, DiPietro, Guerin and … LINDEN!

And I was the only guy in the arena with a Wild Gaborik jersey on, as most other people have hopefully just trashed theirs.

Were you wearing a Mets hat? I think I might’ve caught you in a pic of some Isles fans.

That’s rockin’ Kemper like the Comets were playing :)

The attendance was about 9,700. I think that number is about right. It was on a Tuesday night with two teams that play 1,200 miles away on a night where Zach Greinke is gunning for his Cy Young.

Frankly, the Isles or the Kings are big draws in the KC area. The vast majority of hockey fans in KC are Blues fans, others are Stars, Avalanche, or Blackhawk fans. After than it’s a pretty good mix of Penguins, Red Wings, Rangers, Leafs fans.

There’s definitely a bitter taste in the mouths of Kansas Citians right now. We were played by Mario and the Pens. Straight up. He even admitted it. The Predators dangled the possibility. Our prospective owner Boots Billagio sold out and took up ownership stake in the Pens and voted to keep them in Nashville. Then Bombardier used KC as leverage against Montreal in building a huge aircraft plant at a time when all the automobile factories are closing around town.

There’s a lot more to this story than just an attendance number.