Thursday's practice officially started at 11:30, but nearly the entire team was on the Islanders bench 15 minutes early, watching the goalies go through their session. That's a rarity, but so is being the first NHL team to skate in a new building and the Islanders just wanted to soak it in for as long as possible. Ross Johnston and Oliver Whalstrom played rock-paper-scissors for first steps on the ice and even Ryan Pulock, who couldn't participate in the first practice due to a lower-body injury, stuck around to watch and posted "Can't wait to hear you Saturday" on his Instagram story.
Mathew Barzal wanted to get the full experience of walking into the building for the first time, so he intentionally shielded himself from seeing too much UBS Arena construction progress. He had no expectations heading in, but judging by his reaction, the building exceeded whatever he thought was possible.
"It absolutely blew me away," Barzal said. "I walked right in, saw the gym, saw the eating area and I couldn't wait to see more. The entire facility and the rink and how it was set up was so high end. I can't even tell you how nice it is down here. We're a really lucky group."