NY Islanders Soar to New Heights

By KAILA STRICKLAND

What’s the most iconic way an NHL hockey team can celebrate a new season and venue in the city of New York? Light up the Empire State Building with the team colors. That is just what New York Islanders Brock Nelson and Nick Leddy did Thursday.

The two players stopped by the national landmark a day before the team’s inaugural game at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center against Chicago Blackhawks allowing all of New York to bask in the glow of the new 2015-16 season.

Friday’s game would be the first ever regular season NHL game played at the Barclays Center.

Leddy appeared with a full dark goatee beard alongside Nelson, standing at 6 feet three inches tall with 196 pounds to his lanky frame and curly brown hair.

Guards roped off a small mock Empire State Building in the lobby for a lighting ceremony led by the two players, which showed exactly what the actual tower would look like later that night- illuminated in Islanders colors blue and orange.

The Islanders slipped into their hockey jerseys, fitted in smaller sizes to not appear oversized on their non padded bodies, over slacks with brown leather shoes before they took the floor.

President of the Empire State Building, John Kessler, opened the ceremony and gave Nelson and Leddy a commemoration hand-sized model of the building and in return was given a game puck signed by both players.

The New York Islanders’ co-owner, Jon Ledecky, took to the podium and expressed the team’s excitement and determination for the season.

“There is only one goal for both players- win the Stanley Cup”, said Ledecky.

The “local Minnesota boys”, as Ledecky described them, talked about New York City and what it was like visiting the Empire State Building when they went up to the observatory deck at the top of the 110-story building.

Leddy, 24, who already has one Stanley Cup ring, said it was his first time visiting the Empire State Building and snapped some of his own pictures of the New York skyline. He wasn’t scared of heights, “But the more I think about it the more I realize how high up I really am”, said Leddy.

The Empire State Building stands at 1,454 feet high and outside on the building’s observatory deck there is no glass separating visitors from the windy leveled atmosphere.

“I’ve been before but never to the top so it’s exciting. I’ve been to the top of the Rockefeller”, said Nelson, who just turned 24 last week. New York is a big change for him. “It’s a lot different. There’s 1700 back home, in the whole town”, said Nelson.

Brooklyn’s Barclays Center would be a good transition for him and the team. “It’s a beautiful building and there are a lot of passionate fans there”, said Nelson.