NEW YORK — With the Avalanche in Brooklyn to face the New York Islanders at the Barclays Center, I spent part of the day wandering around Brooklyn, including to Juliana’s for lunch and to Long Island University to commune with the spirits of Clair Bee’s Long Island Blackbirds, the basketball team featured prominently in one of my books. In the many years I have covered the NHL, off and on, all my previous trips to see the Islanders took me to Uniondale for games against the Rockies, Avalanche, or New York playoff opponents during the franchise’s glory years.
I only wish I could have seen Ebbets Field.