Islanders Weird Nickname Going Around the Locker Room

There's a weird nickname going around the Islanders locker room right now. According to Mathew Barzal, "Gary" is a nickname?

Hockey players are bad at giving each other nicknames. The Athletic's Sean McIndoe (subscription required) had an entire piece about how the media needs to take back responsibility for giving out nicknames to players. Today we learned that there's a weird nickname going around the Islanders dressing room.

Gary.

That's right. Gary. Like SpongeBob Squarepants pet Snail. Like Hall of Famer and former New York Mets Gary Carter. And like current NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman.

According to Mathew Barzal, both he and Jordan Eberle call each other Gary. And the inspiration comes…