No Airline Miles on Chartered Flights

After the Islanders flew commercial in the 1999-00 season, the NHL made it a rule that teams must fly charter. I heard the Zdeno Chara story of trying to switch into the emergency row seats to stretch his legs more then once. In fact, the Islanders were one of the tallest teams in NHL history that year. Not a good time to scrunch on Southwest.

Ontheforecheck.com put together some pretty interesting information on how many approximate miles each team in the NHL will travel this year, how many back-to-back sets of game they’ll have and compared both to 2008-09.

According to the website, the Islanders will travel approximately 31,550 miles this season, which will be about 3,424 additional miles from last year. It’s unclear whether they include the miles they’ll spend on the bus driving to New York City, Newark and Philadelphia or from Anaheim to LA in March. Those miles are always a little harder on the joints.

Chartered flights can get cozy, but when you’re spending that much time in the air and hardly ever getting home before 2 AM, it becomes more daunting.

But don’t get me wrong, some of the best memories I have from working with the Islanders was flying on that plane and I’ll miss the camaraderie that went along with it. On one of our many flights last season, broadcaster Howie Rose told me try a Pizza joint in the Great Neck (where he used to live and where I currently live). Coincidently, I did tonight and it was great.

Travel can be extremely tough in the NHL as the season goes on, but it’s also a lot of fun with the right people and the right attitude.

Jiggs Recalled on an Emergency Basis

Howie Rose will be on NY Mets duty this week and Islanders fans will have the pleasure of (Hockey Hall of Famer and all around great guy) Jiggs McDonald partnering up with Billy Jaffe in the TV booth for the next three games.

The original plan was to have Howie call the Mets' season opener in Cincinnati today for WFAN 660 AM and then have him fly to Carolina on Tuesday for the Islanders game on MSG-Plus (it's an off-day in the Mets-Reds series). He was then supposed to fly back to Cincinnati for the remainder of the series. Jiggs was prevously scheduled to call the games for MSG at Pittsburgh and home versus Philadelphia. Howie would then rejoin the telecast for the season finale.

However, heavy rain in the forecast puts today's Mets-Reds game in doubt. If and when the game gets rained out, Howie would have to stay in Cincinnati to call the make-up game tomorrow. Instead of playing it by ear, MSG made the call yesterday to let Howie stay in Cincinnati regardless tomorrow and fly Jiggs in a game early.

Howie will rejoin Billy in booth on Sunday versus Boston.

Discuss this post at IslanderMania.com

Rose Goes National

Long-time Islanders TV play-by-play man Howie Rose will be calling the Mets-Atlanta Braves game for Fox Saturday Baseball.

I’ve always believed Rose is one of the most underrated broadcasters in sports and this will give a good portion of the country the opportunity to see him in action.

If you don’t know, Rose broadcasts the Mets on WFAN radio and used handle the TV duties back when the team was on FSN and MSG. He’s been covering the team for the past 30 seasons.

Congratulations Howie!

Getting Jiggy with it Tonight

With Howie Rose on Mets duty tonight, Hall of famer Jiggs McDonald will be calling the action on MSG Plus. Howie Rose will rejoin the team for the final two games versus the New York Rangers later this week.

I get by with a little help from… Howie Rose

Not too much news from the morning skate for tonight. Same lineup for the Islanders other then Jeremy Colliton (# 72) being inserted for Miro Satan. Rick DiPietro will go against Ty Conklin in net.

So with that said, I have a story to share…

It starts when I got back into my hotel room last night after dinner at 10:30-ish. Tired, I figured I would do some quick ironing for today and then go to bed. I took out the suit jacket I was planning on wearing to see how it faired through the travels and it was good. Next up was the pants… Which I quickly remembered were still on Long Island in my closet. Uh oh.

I’ll quickly interrupt the story to give you a trade secret. On two-day trips (travel one day, play a game the next and come straight home), most everyone just brings one suit -- the one they’re wearing. For longer trips, it could be two or three suits which guys just rotate through. Don’t worry, we bring plenty of shirts and ties to help the illusion.

So, I decided to go with two suits on this four day trip which is more then enough considering I also brought with me a pair of khaki pants for the off day in Minnesota. Before 10:30 PM last night, I thought I was all good for this trip.

Anyway, down to only one suit I quickly called my fiancée to see if she could FedEx the missing suit pants to Minnesota so I could at least switch suits in Minnesota. But as I called her, I realized that Islanders play-by-play man Howie Rose stayed back on Long Island to celebrate his wife’s birthday. BTW, Happy Birthday Barbara!

By 11:00 PM last night, I texted Howie to see if he was still up. He was and more than willing to help me out. The pants were brought to his house early in the morning and packed with his luggage.

They’re now in Pittsburgh and don’t need to be ironed in case you were wondering.

So, to steal a line from the Beatles, I get by with a little help from Howie Rose. Thanks Rosey!

TV: The Jiggs-ernaught Returns Again

You might have caught this at the end of the Rangers-Devils telecast on MSG, but if you didn’t here it is… Howie Rose will not be with the Islanders tomorrow night in Pittsburgh or Friday night in New Jersey due to a death in the family. The condolences of the entire Islanders family are with Howie, his wife Barbara, their children and the entire Rose family.

Replacing Howie in the broadcast booth will be Hall of Famer Jiggs McDonald. Jiggsy met the team in Pittsburgh this afternoon from his summer home in Florida

BABY WATCH: More news from the broadcast booth of FSN NY… Billy Jaffe and his wife Victoria are expecting their first child at anytime. Don’t be surprised if one day soon you see Butch Goring filling in as the color analyst. Butch has done a great job as an intermission analyst for FSN’s Islanders telecasts so far this season

TV: Mears on FSN, Butch on Radio

Due to family reasons, Howie Rose will be unable to join the Islanders in Philadelphia for tonight’s game versus the Flyers. Stepping in for him will be Islanders radio play-by-play announcer Steve Mears, who will be making his NHL TV debut. He will of course call the game with Billy Jaffe.

This will be Mears’ first foray into live TV, but not TV altogether. When he was with the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs, Mears occasionally called the CHL Game of the Week for Leafs TV.

On the radio side, Chris King will slide over to play-by-play and will be joined by FSN analyst Butch Goring for tonight’s broadcast.

BLOG: Jiggs' Magic Number is Still 4

As a Mets fan, it hurts me to write this...

Last year for a handful of games, Islanders fans got a special treat when Hall of Fame broadcaster Jiggs McDonald came out of retirement to fill-in for Howie Rose with the New York Mets in the MLB Playoffs. And for a long time, it looked like that was going to happen again this season. Or so we thought.

As another Orange and Blue team from New York is on the edge of one of baseballs biggest collapses of all-time, we Islanders need to support them. Even if you’re a Yankee fan, you want the Mets to win just so Jiggs to have another turn as an Islanders broadcaster.

Hopefully this becomes an annual thing with Jiggsy coming back. But right now, Jiggs and the Mets need your support to get in the playoffs.

And if case you don’t know, the Mets only have a one game lead in the NL East and their “magic number” is four. Meaning they need to win four games or get four losses by Philly or any combination of that adding up to four to make the playoffs. Both the Mets and Philly have four games remaining.

So… Lets Go Mets!!!

READ: Why Howie Rose is Great

You might remember me writing something on NYI.com earlier in the summer about why Howie Rose is one of the best announcers in all of sports.

Back in May during a Mets game at Shea Stadium, David Wright hit a very long home run to left-center field. Without missing a beat, Rose called it: "David Wright almost hit the first home run in the history of Citi Field!" It was a home run hit so far, it landed in the construction zone of the Mets' new ballpark. And Rose explained it perfectly.

This afternoon, when introducing Pedro Martinez and his return to the mound after missing the entire season due to an injury, Rose said: "Pedro Martinez, working on 341 days of rest, gets set to face the Reds..." Just as if it was Pedro's regular day in the rotation.

Just a reminder that as Islanders fans (and Mets fans, too) we are spoiled by Howie's witty remarks and great broadcasting skills. In our book, Howie's the most under-rated announcer in all of sports this side of Steve Mears.

NEWS: Jiggs to Return, Again

Our good friend and legendary broadcaster Jiggs McDonald has informed us the MSG has asked him to fill in for Howie Rose on the TV side to start the season if the New York Mets make the post-season. Like last year, Howie will be with the Mets during their playoff run and will re-join the Isles once the Mets wrap up their post-season play (and hopefully a World Series Championship). If the Mets miss the playoffs, you can expect Howie to join Billy Jaffe from the begining.

Last year when Jiggs filled in for the first handful of games, it was a great experience for him, us and the fans. We're sure it'll be another great experience this time around.

Jiggs: We look forward to hearing you call the Orange and Blue again.