New York Islanders: Word Association Game for a Long Summer

New York Islanders fans, bored by a seemingly endless and uneventful summer might decide to play word association to get from this summer, to the Stanley Cup.

New York Islander topics seem to run into one another during the days when summer fades into autumn. The lines blur between fears and dreams, and between individual thoughts, in these last few days before NHL and World Cup camps open.

Is Snow looking for a first line winger… does that affect Tavares staying… if the venue situation is clear… if the cap room exists… if certain guys leave… or get picked in the expansion draft… and so on.

So let’s play word association. I’ll say a word and you respond with the first word that pops into your head. If I say “up”, you say…  Right, “down”. Got it? Good. And we just keep going until one of the two of us loses concentration. Let’s play.

If you are like most Islander fans longing for the start of a season, I promise your thoughts will come back to your beloved team no matter what word we start off with.

If I say “Summer”, you say…. “Winter”.

If I say “Winter”, you say…”Fall”

If I say “Fall”, you say, “Okposo, constantly, for no reason.  There was nobody even close to him.”

Wait a minute, that’s twelve words, lets go back and try to adhere to the rules.

“If I say”Winter”, you say…”Snow”

If I say “Snow”, you say… “Cappy”

If I say “Cappy”, you say… “Basement”

If I say “basement”, you say…  “Rangers, hopefully. It isn’t likely, but if Henrik gets hurt it could happen. Then again you could say the same about the Islanders and Tavares. Jersey and Philly are pretty good, the Canes are building something and Columbus has to win a game in the first half eventually.”

What?   No, no no.  Let’s roll it back a couple words.

If I say, “Snow”, you say… “Ice”

If I say “Ice”, you say… “subpar”.

If I say “subpar”, you say… “Wang”

If I say “Wang”, you say… “Crooked”

If I say “Crooked” you say… “straight… uh… strait.”

If I say “Straight” you say… “Outta Brooklyn”

If I say “Outta Brooklyn”, you say… “Willets Point”

If I say “Willets Point” you think about the Islanders first line and wonder.. “Will its point total eclipse last year’s first line? And what really was the first line last year. I suppose Strome spent the most time on JT’s right. I think P.A. and Ladd can beat those numbers”

Ok, now, back to the game

If I say, “Ladd”  you say… “Boy”

If I say “Boy” you say… “Chuck”

If I say “Chuck”, you say… “Norris”

If I say “Norris”, you say… “Leddy”

If I say “Leddy”, you laugh and say, “Pokka”

If I say “Pokka” you say… “dots”

If you say “dots”, I wonder how the Isles middle six centers are ever going to win in the faceoff dot this year. Strome? Nelson? They’ll be down around 40 percent which is not acceptable.

From Overtime to Stanley Time

If I say, “No”, you say… “Yes”

If I say, “Yes, Yes, Yes”, you say… “YesUV”

If I say, “YesUV”, you say… “backseat”

If I say “Backseat”, you say…  “Hickey”

If I say Hickey, you say… “Overtime”

If I say “Overtime”, you say…”Tavares against Florida… no Lafontaine in DC… no Morrow against the Rangers or Tonnelli against the Pens, wait, Pens, Volek was… oh crap…Nystrom. The right answer will answer will always be Nystrom.”

Now of course, there are no right or wrong answers in word association, but let’s proceed with “Nystrom”.

I say “Nystrom”, you say… “Seven eleven”

If I say “Seven eleven, you say… “Slushie”

If I say “Slushie”, you  say… “Barclays Ice”

Maybe some readers aren’t old enough to remember Nystrom well enough to associate a word with him, so let’s get more modern.

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If I say “Barzal” you say… “Quick”

If I say “Quick”, you say … “Molson”  (Matt Molson is Jonathon Quick’s Brother in Law)

If I say “Molson”, you say … “golden”.

If I say “golden”, you say… “silver”

If I say “silver”. you say… “The Stanley Cup.”

And that my friends, is how the game of word association can take you from this summer, to the Stanley Cup.