[Bits] Enough Brooklyn Islanders Camp Coverage to Burn Your Morning

Hockey! Training camps have opened around the league. Beat reporters have awoken from summer slumber and cottaging.

And of course for the Islanders yesterday, it was both the opening of real training camp and the opportunity for a Brooklyn media blitz. For the organization, mission well accomplished:

• The seating capacity for hockey in Brooklyn has changed from original reports of 14,500 to yesterday's reports of 15,800, including a few hundred obstructed view. That includes box seating, but every building's capacity includes box seating: Newsday | Islanders Point Blank
• Bruce Ratner -- who, I mean, he is a promoter and ringmaster at heart -- praised the arena's intimacy, saying it's laid out "vertically, not horizontally" so it will have great intimate views even from the high seats. Theoretically, this should be the happy benefit of a place designed for basketball.
• That "vertical" perspective is backed up in this Eyes on Isles report, which also describes the scoreboard location (a burning issue for some of you OCD sufferers) and other things.
• And the photo used in this Times recap of the day tends to underline the "vertical" sight line theory.
• NY Mag has a great overview of the whole seating setup. I'll be honest, ever since this move was announced the idea of a quirky but intimate setting intrigued me. Cookie-cutter arena this is not, and that's not a bad thing. But we'll see.
  
• In the Daily News recap, Casey Cizikas recalls the playoff atmosphere for basketball and says it will "probably be louder for us."
• NHL.com: Improving Isles could get even younger.
  
• The official site has the players praising the Brooklyn arena experience, and Jack Capuano saying camp is open for prospects to win jobs.
• As promised, these colors don't run. I mean change. And as hoped, the Isles will deal with the Brooklyn branding through a new third jersey, says Brett Yormark: "A second home jersey, and that is where we are going to get a little creative. That is where we will speak to Brooklyn in an authentic way."
• Hometown boy -- Long Beach, not Brooklyn -- Joey Diamond says his Isles opportunity is a dream come true.
• Tank-tastic: USA Today surveyed 29 players and 16 said the Oilers were most likely to become a powerhouse. The Isles were next with 5 votes. Columbus and Toronto also made the list. I don't like that company.
• Penn State players (including Isles pick Eamon McAdam) talk the excitement of entering the major conference scene.

Elsewhere

• Brad Boyes says this whole PTO experience has him really thinking about shooting more to win a job in Florida. Something in the subtext of his comments hints at why teams have bounced him around so much.
• Imagining alternate NHL histories (including a Milbury-free Isles)
• Probably no one in media abuses "exclusive" -- er, sorry, I mean "EXCLUSIVE!" -- more than the Post. But it's fun to see the concept abused in other contexts. TSN brags about "a statement delivered exclusively to TSN" by Cody Franson (so: His agent emailed some crafted answers, maybe). He says he gets the Leafs' cap situation and is willing to do a one-year deal. Negotiating through the media FTW! If Nonis wants to send him and Reimer our way, I'd be okay with that. Exclusively.
• Heh, but the Leafs want to improve their blueline.
• They might just with Paul Ranger's interesting comeback from a mysterious leave, which sounds like it had to do with finding purpose and dealing with being a pro athlete: National Post | Sportsnet
• Darryl Sutter has been to a lot of NHL training camps. He says the competition between Bernier-bait Scrivens and PTO Garon is open.
• Flames camp: Guy tries to make a name for himself by laying out a scoring veteran as he scores. Must be training camp.
• This is why I don't ever blog-promise to eat inedible things.
• NCAA: A long Q&A with retired BU coaching legend Jack Parker.
• These are free agents still looking for jobs.
• Ron Hainsey is not one of them, now that Carolina signed him after Joni Pitkanen was lost for the year.
• Dan Cleary apologizes for all the drama, but he's staying in Detroit like he always wanted.
• Meanwhile, Buffalo signed Cody Hodgson for six years at an average of $4.25 million per. Hmm...

Buffalo spending $100,000 per year for every goal against that Hodgson was on the ice for last season.

— Corey Sznajder (@ShutdownLine) September 11, 2013

Hockey's Coming