Reporter: "Come on, man. You can't give me three hours' notice when I'm covering high school softball in the middle of a lockout that's making your league irrelevant without at least letting me know if this is the big one."
Source: "Okay, it's the big one."
Reporter: "See you there."
--How several conversations probably went this morning
The short notice, the interesting context of the advisory (we're talking about rail accessibility?), and the important figures who are set to attend today's press conference were all big clues that this is The Big One. Doubtful that Gary Bettman and the mayor show up for this without the Barclays Center developers having landed their long-sought second fish, the New York Islanders.
Not long after the advisory, multiple go-to hockey reporters confirmed with their sources that this is indeed what is happening: The Islanders will play in [bank of some sort] Center at the expiration of their Nassau [gloriously unsponsored] Veterans Memorial Coliseum in 2015.
Among the many sourced reports that are multiplying by the minute: [NY Post] [TSN's Bob McKenzie] [Sports Business Journal's Chris Botta] [Daily News] [Times] [Wall Street Journal] [Crain's Business]
Adding further interesting fuel: NetsDaily has a source saying Bruce Ratner will take a minority stake in the Islanders, a possible hint that this is no temporary flirtation.
Long awaited and mostly expected as Nassau County options dwindled and Brooklyn pushed and pushed. But wow, this is really happening.