Thoughts on NYI PB and CB

As I told him in a private e-mail on Wednesday, Chris Botta taught me almost everything I know about PR. He didn’t have to take a chance on a 21-year old kid when filling out his post-lockout PR staff, but he did and I owe him more then I can probably ever repay him and if for nothing else then for the memories I made in my time with the team.

It’s sad to see Islanders Point Blank leaving in its current form. As an employee of the team, it was a great place to check out what Chris wrote about because 1) It was an opinion of a fan who cares very much about the team and 2) It was an opinion of someone who I deeply respect. And as a fan after my time with the team, well, those same reasons apply.

I hope one day I can work with Chris again because he is a great person to work with and I’m sure there is more I can learn from him. As fans of his blog, we learned a lot too. And not just about the team, because if you read close enough, you could really get a huge insight on how and why hockey teams make the decisions they do.

To me, Islanders Point Blank wasn’t just about the news that was broken, but how it captured the hockey spirit.

There’s more I can talk about, but those thoughts will have to remain between the two of us. Best of luck to Chris in his next step.

What was TSN.ca Thinking…

Fact: At 10:25 PM last night, Chris Botta posted this story on his blog. The story’s title: EXCLUSIVE: GUERIN WILL APPROVE A MOVE

Fact: At 10:30 PM, no one else had this scoop

Fact: At 12:18 AM early this morning, Canada’s sports leader, TSN.ca posted this story on their website. Their title: Source: Islanders' Guerin willing to waive no-move clause

Fact:As of 9:30 AM this morning, TSN.ca’s story did not name their sources. The story’s byline still read: “TSN Staff”.


I’ll continue this blog entry by saying TSN.ca is usually a very reputable source for sports coverage, especially with hockey. It’s hard to match Bob McKenzie and Darren Dreger. If either one of them had this story, they would have been credited with it. And rightfully so.

But it’s all too obvious that their source was Botta’s Islanders Point Blank blog. They just didn’t want to credit a blog with the scoop. If Newsday had it, I’m sure they wouldn’t have had a problem with it.

Unfortunately for TSN.ca, this goes right up there with when “the website that will not be named” back-timed a web story on an old Islanders-Flyers trade in December of 2006 so it appeared they broke it when the truth was a press release was sent out before the anonymous one had it.

Fact: TSN.ca should have played this one better.

For the NYI Media Blog, I’m Corey Witt

Discuss this post at IslanderMania.com

Catching up from Moncton

Here are some much belated notes and thoughts from training camp so far:

As I alluded to last year, from a media standpoint, Training Camp is used to get the major in-studio sit-downs out of the way for MSG-Plus, Islanders TV and Game Ops.

For instance, MSG-Plus gets a lot of their sound and video for the season-preview show in camp. All those videos you see at games with players answering questions gets recorded by Game Operations in camp. Islanders TV also records a plethora of video that appears on the website and also on the scoreboard. Game Ops and MSG-Plus also recorded their video headshots the night before we left for camp – which seems like forever and a day by now.

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I’ve been really impressed with Scott Gordon so far – but I’m not talking about his presence on the ice. Dealing with media, Flash has been confident, honest, endearing and open. It’s a great combination and a PR guy’s dream.

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The news of Jussi Markkanen’s son passing away has hit the team hard. Few Islanders know Jussi personally, but goalie coach Mike Dunham does. The thoughts and prayers of the entire Islanders family goes out to Jussi and his family.

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I for one am really excited for Chris Botta’s blog starting tonight/tomorrow at Midnight. I’m sure he and Greg Logan will keep each others on their toes from time to time. And that will be great for the fans.

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One player who has surprised me in camp so far is Mike Haley. He played in the rookie game against the University of Moncton and was a player who really stood out. You could really notice him on the ice and he might get a look in an upcoming pre-season game.

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Jack Hillen has showed the same poise he showed in those final two games versus the NY Rangers last season – and not just on the ice, but off it as well.

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You don’t really appreciate Mitch Fritz’s 6-foot-8 frame until you see him standing next to 6-foot-3 Trent Hunter and 6-foot-6 Eric Cairns. I’ve never seen Hunts appear as small as he did then at that time.

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At 37-years old, Doug Weight’s youthful enthusiasm makes me feel like I’m 50. I’m really in my 20s.