Wednesday, July 8, 2009

John Tavares Press Conference

As expected, the John Tavares Press Conference today went rather smoothly and involved very little Q and A with the press. A very pleasing crowd of 350 fans arrived for the first free press conference the Islanders have held, while there was also a fairly large number of media and photographers. Situated right next to the opposing team's bench were Greg Logan of Newsday and Chris Botta of Islanders Point Blank.

Howie Rose, commentator for the New York Islanders, began the day with a nice introduction, and even went as far to say that it seems as if the "Renaissance of the Islanders is happening through this pick." After a few words from Garth Snow and John Tavares, a small time period (roughly two minutes) was devoted to Q and A with the media. The first question was completely off topic for the day (Will John Tavares be captain? If not, who will be?) As expected, Scott Gordon brushed it off as kindly as possible without entirely blowing it off. Lastly, John Tavares stood center stage as his family surrounded him for pictures, as did Garth Snow and Charles Wang, and lastly a picture of Josh Bailey and John Tavares standing together (the nice 1-2 centermen punch for the future). Accordingly, John Tavares stepped out to the back to the chant of "John Ta-va-res" erupting from the 300 or so fans who were still seated and soaking in every minute of it.

The entire press conference lasted all of thirty minutes, but it was nice to see the great turnout not only from the fans, but also the media. While I only saw a guy wearing a TSN shirt, I am more than positive there were many other sports outlets there. God I hope Brian Burke was watching the press conference live in Tavares with Nazem Kadri.

All in all, it was a good learning experience attending my first press conference. I did snap about 20 or so pictures, and I even took a short ten second video, however, something is wrong with the server today for uploading images or videos from my iPhone, so I will post them as soon as I can. The quality of the pictures that I took were alright, and much better quality pictures can be seen on the New York Islanders official website if you would rather see those. I recommend that option!

Also, if you were unable to be at the press conference or watch it live, the Islanders have the entire conference video-taped and present on their website. Amazing how the hockey excitement for us Islander fans has continued into mid-July. It's about time...

Up next on the Tavares schedule: John and the fellow Islander prospects take to the ice at Syosset Ice Works this Friday for the annual prospect camp. Although the prospect camp will last five days, it is only open to the public on Sunday. The doors will open at 10:45AM for all public. New York Islanders Net will definitely be there, so I hope to see many of you there as well.

-Justin

1 comment:

Rob Malone said...

It was great being there. I saw you sitting in the third row, but I had to leave a few minutes early and I never got to say hello.

-Rob M.