Around The A Podcast - Season 2 Episode 18 with Brent Rossi of the Bridgeport Islanders - Around The A Podcast - Covering the AHL, the American Hockey League

Episode Transcript
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(00:06):
This is Around the a a weeklylook at the top stories, news and
interviews from the NHL's top developmental leaguewith your hosts David and Patrick Williams on
the Sports Podcasting Network. Starting towind down this second season of Around the
a few episodes still left to goand a whole lot to unpack on this

(00:30):
week's show, a David Foot PatrickWilliams. Here, of course, we're
going to recap the Pacific Division Finaland tell you that the Bakersfield Condors beat
the Henderson Silver Knights in a bitof a thriller. It was an excellent
series and a crowd being in TMobile Arena and Vegas certainly made a difference
there. The Henderson Silver Knights andBakersfield Condoors also featuring in on some of

(00:54):
our headlines this week as far asleague awards go, and a big signing
for Bakersfield as well. We've alsogot an update on the Palm Springs Arena
project, which we talked about acouple of weeks ago, and our feature
guest this week is Brent Rossie,the president of Business Operations from the Bridgeport
Islanders. Yes Islanders, we'll haveto watch ourselves, I'm sure. A

(01:17):
few times Pat when we talk tohim, not to call them the sound
Tigers. But again, probably thelast super busy week of the season,
I think, but a whole lotto talk about this week. Yeah,
you know, we're now going toprobably knock on wood, I guess enter
a little bit more of a quieterperiod for next maybe four to six weeks.

(01:38):
NHL playoffs start to wind down,so that will take up a lot
of the oxygen for the hockey world. Hl's wrapped up. It's ironic debt.
The season started four months late,and now we're actually ending the season
earlier than normal, So everything Igot really compressed. So in some ways
that you know, the offseason forsome people is shorter, but you know,

(02:00):
for some players it's actually quite abit longer because they played well into
May, you know, maybe longerthan they would have played normally. So
that's that's where things stand right now. It was that Bakersfield Henderson series,
who was a nice way into theseason. I mean, there was a
lot of strange change of season,and that was the first time I thought
all season things started to feel normalonce again. Yeah, we do have

(02:23):
some audio from some of the folksinvolved in that series. The head coaches
from both Bakersfield and Henderson, aswell as a couple of players as well,
to talk a little bit about theseason as a whole, and as
well the atmosphere in the T MobileArena for that Pacific Division final. That's
all coming up in our on thefly segment later on. Before we get

(02:44):
into the headlines, we'll remind youagain to subscribe to the podcast to give
us a rating and a review aswell, and shoot us an email around
the apod at gmail dot com ifyou've got some feedback for us. We're
going to dive into that over thecourse of the offseason and see what changes
we can for the program heading intonext year. But let's get into the
headlines, pat, and let's startwith the Bakersfield Condoors being crowned Pacific Division

(03:07):
champs. This was the only divisionthat held a playoff style tournament to decide
a winner. It was extremely wellexecuted and as we said right there off
the open, the series itself wasquite exciting and well contested, Bakersfield winning
Game one three two in overtime,Henderson coming back with a fairly decisive six

(03:30):
three win in Game two, andthen the Condoors picking up the win and
the series victory as well three two. In game number three, I know
you took the games in. Whatdid you make of what you saw as
far as the on ice product wentand how different was it from what we've
been watching throughout the course of theseason. Yeah, the only problem with
the series is that it only wentthree games, will you know? It

(03:53):
was the best of three, soit did feel like it went by pretty
quickly. You had, you know, three games at four nights, which
was a challenge for both teams,games especially for Bakersfield. They had come
in and they actually played a stretchof four and five and then six and
nine overall. So but it certainlydid not show their play. They were
energized that Game two got away froma little bit. Four goals in the

(04:14):
first period for Henderson. You couldsee that they that Henderson came out that
night on a mission. They hadlost Game one and they did not want
to lose Game two, and theycame and kind of blew the doors off
Bakersfield in that first period and kindof wrapped the game up right then and
there. And then Game three wasjust a real good classic back and forth
training leads and goals and came downto third period. Tyler Benson, of

(04:39):
course, one of the top playersin the league, a third overall and
scoring. He got the decisive goalon a really pretty, you know,
shot under the crossbar. So itwas a phenomenal series. It felt like
a playoff hockey, and not playoffhockey for this year, but just by
any standard yea, and I thoughtfor this season it was the first time

(05:00):
I, like I said earlier,things felt normal, Like you had crowds
and the ability, and you hadthat playoff energy. Whatever the players may
have thought about the playoff format ornot wanting to be there, all the
rumors that had gone around, theystarted didn't play like it. They came
in, They went all in.They viewed it as an opportunity to showcase

(05:21):
themselves for six games. In thecase of Bakerfield. Um, you know,
to NHL general managers scouts, wheneverthe case may be, you have
Seattle coming in next season, youhave new jobs springing up. As a
result, players played like that wasin the forefront of their minds. So,

(05:42):
um it was. It was reallygood hockey. It was fast paced,
it was physical, there was thatthat kind of that tension between the
two teams. They had played alot in the season. They played ten
times overall in the regular season,so you know, they were familiar with
each other. So a lot ofit came down to execution. There were
no real surprises and it was justa good chess match. Good you know,

(06:04):
high quality, skilled yet physical hockey, and with all of the development
and the learning that was done overthe course of this season, a chance
to uh, you know, putthose lessons learned into action and into practice
and um, you know, notworry about development as much as winning because
you get to a tournament situation andyou can, uh, you know,

(06:26):
put yourself kind of like you saidin that you know, typical mindset of
we're not just here to develop ourskills, We're here to win. And
I think, um, you know, from the highlights at least that I
saw, and from the little bitsand pieces I saw, it certainly did
come across that way that those guyswanted to win and they wanted to prove
something and end this strange season onthe highest note possible. Yeah, well

(06:47):
you start with Henderson. I meanthey've come in, um, you know,
guns a blazing, just a teamthat they they view winning as an
essential part of development and the sensethat you can't develop if you don't win.
You don't want to develop your playersand lose an environment. And simply
by winning, you get to playhigh stage, high pressure games and that's

(07:09):
all part of development. So theycertainly played like that. And then in
Bakersfield, you look at what JayeWoodcroft, the head coach there, has
done human in twenty eighteen and isturned around a program that had kind of
you know, trended water for fora number of years. They've won now
two out of the last three divisiontitles. Um, they're developing prospects,

(07:30):
they're they're they're winning. That meanthey're doing everything you want and that's huge.
Here they had been to Oilers whoare still even though they were a
playoff teams, ye're still trying tofill in some of those gaps in the
lineup at the NHL levels. So, um, both clubs really emphasize that
that winning component. I mean,I can't tell you what what a difference
it means when when you have teamsthat play that way as opposed to the

(07:51):
more well, we're going to developthe kids and you know, win or
lose, and that you know,you see those teams, they just get
they get run over, they can'tkeep up. The kids aren't able to
match that level of some of thoseteams that really do emphasize winning. And
you know, that's the standard Imean. And so if you're a player

(08:13):
in the league and you wanted toknow, all right, what's the standard
I need to be at, youknow in order to really make a push
for an NHL job, just watchthat series last week. It was as
high as it gets without actually beingthe NHL. Yeah, and before we
move on to the awards and otherheadlines, the big question that kind of
sprung out to me was, youknow, now that we've seen that kind

(08:35):
of tournament play out and how successfulit really was, does it leave you
kind of wishing that some of theother divisions had done the same thing,
Because to me and I, youknow, again speaking to Troy Man a
couple of weeks back, and someof the players in bellvill and around the
league, while there, you know, wasn't a whole pile of appetite necessarily
for playoff hockey. I think thatperspective may have changed a little bit for

(09:00):
some after watching how it played outat West. Yeah, and I think
we all understand why they didn't.Uh, they're still some restrictions as far
as arenas uh and and fans,and then that brings in the financial aspects.
Uh So I get that, um, but and and I think part

(09:20):
of what made it the difference washaving fans in the building. I thought
it was a great idea that theymoved the series to the NHL building.
That was a big thrill for theplayers. I mean, they prove it's
all to a man commented on thataspect, you know how, you know,
it felt like big time all right, Now we're not We're not even
in our own building, which isa nice building in its own right.

(09:41):
We're not where the big boys play. Uh and um, we're able to
showcase our our stuff for the Vegashome fans and for a lot of fans
in that market. This is thefirst time they really got to look at
some of their prospects, and it'sjust a it's a great thing are having
the NHL and the HL team inthe same market. Uh there's you know,

(10:03):
the NHL fans are that much moreinvested in the minor league product.
So it was it was a greatenvironment. I do think I do think,
yeah, there there is a littlebit of a regret at least on
my part that the other divisions couldn'tmake it work. But it certainly do
understand why it wasn't possible. Themoney, the numbers just didn't work.

(10:26):
Yeah, and everybody kind of getsit at this point, but it was
nice that at least one division couldget that playoff you know, tournament if
you will often running and complete it. And if you want to learn more
about that partnership between the NHL cluband the AHL team in the Vegas area,
check out last week's episode with BrianMcCormack, the voice of the Henderson
Silver Knights. He gave us someexcellent, excellent perspective on that. Again.

(10:50):
Our feature guest this week is outof the East, the Far East
in the league, the Bridgeport Islandersand I always have to now pause.
Rerent Rossie will be with us fromthe Islanders to talk about their rebrand and
a little bit about what they're tryingto do with their new image moving forward.
The league awards and the headlines thisweek are dominated by players from that

(11:13):
Pacific Division final series. Let's startwith Bakersfield first. Adam Cracknell, the
fifteen year. Vet was a hugepart in that series, and he has
been resigned for the upcoming year.I got to see him a fair bit
when he played for Laval the lastcouple of seasons. Powerful shot from the
point, real dangerous on the powerplay. Obviously a veteran leader on whatever

(11:35):
club he's with, but earned himselfan early signing, right you know,
the buzzer went on that Pacific Divisionfinal and he was putting pen to paper
just about the next day. AndI think that says a lot about what
he can bring and did bring tothe Bakersfield Condors. Yeah, how nice
for him, and he made thatopportunity for himself. But you get that

(11:56):
contract done before you barely even leaveddown. Um, it's huge weight off
his shoulders. I'm sure not havingto worry about free agency this summer trying
to land a job. So hesquat square away. It gives him h
and has found me some stability andthe ability to plan and uh, like
I said, all the elements,Uh, he still can play. He

(12:18):
led the playoffs and scoring, hewas dominant, and then a series against
Henderson, big body et selon onfaceoffs. Henderson players and coaches remarked it
was a good opportunity for them fortheir players to have a chance to play
against someone like him who's played overtwo hundred nhil games um to just get

(12:39):
a sense of what it's like togo up against the player who still has
that pedigree and still has that thatstandard. And uh so that that's a
great signing for Bakersfield. Like Isaid earlier, that the Edmonton lawyers have
really turned around that whole program inBakersfield, really have invested in getting some
good veterans there. Ryan Stanton anotherone, you know, so Seth Griffith,

(13:01):
Brad Malone, good veteran core therethat kind of guide the younger players.
It's making a huge difference. It'svery similar now with Ken Holland running
the show there to what he didin Detroit and Grand Rapids for so many
years, that same formula of yeah, you want to develop prospects, but
you have to give them a goodfoundation to work with. And if you

(13:24):
can blend those two things together andget the right veterans in there, as
we saw, you have a prettygood chance for success. And that work
in Grand Rapids obviously led to afairly recent Calder Cup Championship as well.
So, and we've talked about thatin recent weeks on the show with just
about the importance of adding those veteranguys and supplementing the young skill and you

(13:46):
know, players that need developing andCracknell obviously an easy signing to make for
the Bakersfield Condors heading into next season. The league awards this week fairly heavily
dominated by the Henderson Silver Nights.Let's start with the Bads Bastion Memorial Award.
Logan Thompson is the AHL's top goaltenderfor the twenty twenty twenty one season.

(14:09):
A rookie goaltender. Is that arare thing to have a newcomer to
the league win the league's Outstanding GoaltenderAward? Yeah, that's not generally an
award that you're able to kind ofcome in your first year and snag.
Especially there's some good goalies in thisleague who are UM formidable competition for for

(14:31):
that award. And obviously the seasonwas weird and different and um certainly not
your typical UM season. But hedid everything you wanted to do, came
in, played in the ECHL lastseason. Remember only two years, three
years ago, I should say hewas in the youth sports at Brock University,

(14:52):
so you know he was. He'scome a long way in just a
couple of years. Um signed overthe offseason by Kelly mccrimmin. They go
back to their days with the BrandonWeet Kings and came in and just phenomenal
job. We heard from Brian lastweek, you know, just yeah,
he's a little bit of that dominantcastack style, just kind of floppy and

(15:16):
does whatever it tastes get to savethe save me. But he had a
good team in front of him.But that team also had a really good
goalie that allowed them to play theway that they did. And you know,
it's just a perfect match to thetwo of them together. And I
won't necessarily be surprised if you seeThompson make a real push in the next

(15:37):
year or two for an NHL jobwith the Vegas Golden Knights. He did
make his NHL debut and a reliefappearance this past season, so add that
on to the accolades. But uhyeah, I mean, you can't argue
with the numbers sixteen, six andtwo in the regular season, goals against
average was one point nine six.The save percentage ninety three in twenty three

(15:58):
games, and then his playoff numberswere excellent as well for the Henderson Silver
Knights and well deserving for the twentyfour year old rookie out of Calgary,
Alberta. Logan Thompson wins the AHL'sOutstanding Goaltender Award, the Bads Bastion Memorial
Award, and his teammate Ryan Murphy, who was the Eddie Shore Award winner

(16:19):
for Top Defenseman. You mentioned thatThompson had a good team in front of
him. One of those guys wasobviously Ryan Murphy. Yeah, Ryan Murphy,
what a story. Former first roundpick of the Carolina Hurricanes eleventh overall
back in twenty eleven. Came inwith a lot of hype, but your
classic kind of puck moving modern dayoffensive defenseman and never quite worked out for

(16:41):
him there. He bounced to theMinnesota the New Jersey system. He actually
had to go to the KHL lastseason and part of the start of this
year kind of reworked his whole game. As Brian told us last week,
you know, he had gone awayfrom what made him successful early on,
what had gotten him draft have tofirst in the first round. Back as

(17:02):
an eighteen year old and he gotback to that, UM got to you
know, kind of back to thefundamentals of his game and what made him
successful, but then was able touh, you know, incorporate some of
those lessons over the years. AndI had a good chat with him the
other day at their exit interview,and uh, he was really forthcoming about
you know, the pressure, andit's sort of the direction that young players,

(17:26):
especially top picks get. I canbe a you know, real tough
and uh, you can get offtrack pretty easily and before you know,
your three or four or five yearsinto your career and um, you're kind
of wondering what happens. Uh.So I mean, to his credit,
he uh he came in there onan HL deal, m forced himself you

(17:48):
know, you know, into thattop role. UM, and it's done
everything you can ask. I doI know that he wants to stay in
Vegas with that UM Vegas system.Uh sure, I'd love to get himself
an NHL contract to a deal,but if he doesn't, he's gonna be
highly sought after on the free agentmarket. So you know, to his
credit, he really did, Ithink, try to rework his game.

(18:12):
But also like I said earlier,just stick with those foundational aspects that made
him so successful. I think foryoung players sometimes there's so many people that
get in get into their ear andyou know, you get a lot of
conflicting information and get people that aretrying to completely reinvent you. That's tough
for a young player. But youknow, to his credit, he was

(18:33):
able to kind of get his careerback on track and as a result he
has his work to show for it. Yeah, probably would have liked the
division title, as would of LoganThompson, but they'll take that individual hardware
for sure to attack onto the resumeand like you say, we'll see you
know what that does for his youknow, stock on the free agent market

(18:53):
coming up here in the next fewmonths. The last award that will mention
that this week is the Lewis AR. Pierry Memorial Award. That's for
Coach of the Year. And ifyou're an avid listener to this program,
you will not be surprised to hearthat Spencer Carvery from the Hershey Bears was
the winner of that. We've talkeda lot about, you know, what

(19:15):
he brings behind the bench, inhis attitude, in his philosophy on prospect
development and in his coaching style,and naturally, I would imagine Pat,
you're not surprised at all to seethis be announced. No. Ever since
he came into Hershey that started twentyeighteen, it's been pretty much nothing but
win. That first half of thatfirst season they were in last place.

(19:40):
It took him a little bit oftime to get his system in place,
to get his message across. Butfrom that point forward that year, they
played seven eighty nine hockey down thestretch, got themselves into the playoffs,
pushed past a number of teams.Last season, they were in contention with
Providence in Delville for a first overallin the Eastern Conference. Well could have
easily been the team to come outof the East last season had it not

(20:03):
been from the pandemic interrupting the seasonand then eventually shutting it down. And
then this season first overall in theleague, dominant, pretty much start to
finish, well coached, well disciplinedteam, really no holes in that lineup,
but a good blend of like wesaid earlier, prospects than winning the
Washington Capitals. Hershey affiliation going backto two thousand and five has been one

(20:30):
of the best, if not thebest in that span in the entire National
Hockey League and what they've been ableto do in terms of winning and development.
Fourteen players on the caps twenty eighteenStanley Cup team had come through Hershey,
and there's gonna be a few moreat the very least that come through
Hershey now, especially if the Capsretool some some spots in their lineup for

(20:53):
next season. Big part of thatSpencer Carberry one of the top young head
coach prospects in the entire league,and that that's a job or that's a
position that for that award, there'sa lot of competition. There was a
lot of people that you could havemade a very good case for this season.
But wait, Carvery guided that teamthe way the way he's done it

(21:15):
ever since he got there. Youknow, it's just been an excellent job
by him. And you know it'sI think for him, only a matter
of time before you eventually see himbehind an NHL bench. Yeah, all
favoritism aside. I think his predecessorand Hershey, Troy Mann, probably was
in the running for that award thisyear just based on what he was able

(21:36):
to do with so many Rookies inBelleville this season Manny Vivros, who will
hear from on on the Fly alittle bit later, obviously coming into a
brand new franchise and getting Henderson tothe point they were at. The list
goes on and on, and deservedlySpencer Carby the winner again of the Lewis
Piery Memorial Award for Coach of theYear. There are a few more awards

(21:56):
to be handed out over the nextfew days in the next week, so
we'll recap them on next week's show, episode nineteen, and we'll tease for
you that we're looking to finish thisseason in episode twenty with the hopefully the
new president and CEO of the AHL, Scott Housen, working on nailing that
down to send out the season witha bang and head into the offseason,

(22:19):
but still a couple more weeks beforewe get to that. Before we get
to our feature interview this week again, it's Brent Rossi, the President of
Business Ops for the Bridgeport Islanders.Our last headline this week comes out of
Palm Springs, where the shovel isofficially in the ground on that arena project,
which has taken about two years toget to this point, Pat,

(22:42):
We've talked a fair bit about itrecently, but this is a huge milestone
to finally get shovels in the ground, to get construction started, and to
start the process to getting this thingbuilt as quickly as possible. Yeah,
it's a it's been a journey.I think it's probably fair to say,
UM that that team was originally announcedin September twenty nineteen, UM, and

(23:07):
they were expected to play in downtownPalm Springs. Well that planned out,
UH scrapped. There was a lotof opposition locally, you know, in
terms of location and parking and everythingthat goes with that. UM. Background
breaking had been scheduled for February oftwenty twenty. Well we all know what
came after that, UM, andit's been a long, long slog for

(23:30):
all the parties involved. UH.They're now going to have that building two
hundred and fifty million dollars on theoutskirts of Palm Springs in a community called
Palm Desert. It's right off majorInterstate Highway. UM. The accessibility there
will be pretty good for people,UM and for that market. One aspect

(23:51):
of it is, UM there's goingto be just more ice available there's not
really any ice to speak of atthe moment, know for for minor hockey,
and you know, the community atlarge, so you don't say,
yeah, exactly right, how muchused in the desert? No, there's
not. And um and yet Imean when you think in the last twenty

(24:15):
years, how that part of theUnited States has become, you know,
kind of a little bit of ahotbed. You know, Austin Matthews from
Arizona, I mean, m Vegasobviously a huge success story. Southern California.
I mean you go back to theWayne Gretsky days of him coming to
LA and kind of spurring that.And uh, now nowadays, if you

(24:37):
see a player coming from California,it's not even that shocking. Um you
know, whereas you know, wasn'tthat long ago really in the grand scheme
of things that you're just in cplayers from California. But um, so
now you have an opportunity to expandthat footprint further in a place like Palm
Springs. I can tell you beingthere last year in it was January of

(24:57):
twenty twenty. There's a lot ofmoney in that market. Uh, you
know, there's a big, bigmoney obviously, you know, when you
look at a two hundred fifty milliondollar building, it's all gonna be privately
financed. So that's I think abig win for the local community and for
the taxpayers there for sure. Umand you have the O Field group led

(25:18):
by Tim Lwicki, who's uh kindof had his hand and everything in terms
of arenas and franchises and uh youname it in the last how many you
know years, I mean, oneof the major major players in that in
that in that world, and he'sbeen pretty hands on with this, with
this uh deal and getting it tothe finish line. So this is a

(25:40):
big deal for Seattle getting this inplace. You want to have it opened
by fall of twenty twenty two,which would get them uh you know,
they will miss next season, sothey'll have to put their players somewhere.
But by that point in two twentytwo, you definitely want to have your
own franchise where you can really startto get your your prospects in order and

(26:04):
start developing as an expansion NHL franchise. So now this is a big deal.
I find that kind of fitting thaton the day they're breaking ground for
that arena, it's roughly thirty fiveCelsius in a round of one of four
fahrenheit, which just seems pretty fitting. But it's a beautiful, beautiful area.

(26:29):
It's going to be, i think, immediately a top destination for players
who have an opportunity to sign there. To play in Palm Springs. You
have a lot of road games inSan Diego two hours away. Ontario's an
hour or so away, Baker's Fielddoesn't too far, Henderson's not that far,
so you'll have a good travel setup for the team. It's just

(26:49):
a big it's a big step forthe NHL franchise number thirty two, and
you can learn more about what's happeningwith that arena project. The good folks
at the Palm Springs Desert Sun haveobviously had some running coverage of that,
so you can head over to aDesert Sun dot com and check out everything
that's going on with the Coachella ValleyArena, which again has officially broken ground

(27:12):
this week, a big, bigmilestone in getting that to franchise set up
in Palm Springs. We'll move onto our feature guests this week. Brent
Rossi is the President of Business Operationswith the now Bridgeport Islanders. We talked
the other week about the kind ofsurprise rebrand and some of the initial reaction
to it. We're not gonna,you know, just lob softballs either at

(27:36):
Brent. We're gonna ask him sometough questions about why rebrand. I for
one, was a big fan ofthe sound Tiger's logo and that whole image
and thought it was one of thebest in the league, if I'm being
blatantly honest. But we'll talk tohim about why make the change. But
this is a guy, pat that'sgot a pile of experience and was behind

(27:56):
this decision, and as you'll hearfrom him, you know, didn't take
the decision lightly. He was workingwith Pagoula Sports and Entertainment, so that's
the group that owns the Buffalo Sabers, Rochester Americans, Buffalo Bills, among
some other properties. He was selectedto Sports Business Journals forty under forty list
in twenty eighteen because of his success. He's worked for World Wrestling Entertainment,

(28:21):
the Harlem Globetrotters, Philadelphia seventy sixers. I mean, the guy's got
some experience, and while I wouldhave liked to have dove deeper into some
of his other career accomplishments and stories. We kept this pretty tightly, you
know, around the Bridgeport Islanders rebrand. But a guy with a ton of

(28:41):
perspective and and we'll get real deepinto this. Yeah, when they approached
us about to any interview, Imean absolutely, Like you said, there
was a lot of controversy. AndI guess that's not surprising you're changing the
name of a team that's had thatfor twenty seasons. That's an interesting part
of the hockey map in general becausethat's where Rangers fans Eilanders fans kind of

(29:04):
converge overlap, so that that's kindof a subplot there. The New York
Trailanders are Islanders are trying to establisha stronger footprint in that areas of southern
and southwestern Connecticut. And let's behonest, I mean Bridgeport has struggled really

(29:26):
badly over the years off the ice, build a fan base. I mean
there are a lot of nights there, you know that the building is pretty
empty. It's a tough market tocrack. When they brought REVERSSI in twenty
nineteen, they definitely went for aheavy hitter, a guy like you said,
who's got all kinds of experience,a real, real strong business person.

(29:51):
And now he's actually I think gonnaget put his staff on this.
He came in last season, wellby the time you kind of get a
sta I wished you run into thepandemic shutting down the season this season obviously,
you know, from a business standpoint, what can you say, Um,
no fans. Uh. You knowBridgeport played two teams all season.

(30:12):
It wasn't really you know, achance for him to do his job.
This was just trying to keep this, you know, the team afloat for
this year and get through this season. Now, this summer and going into
next fall. That's where I thinkyou'll really see his fingerprints on this this
team. He has a lot ofwork to do. He's certainly did not
hate an easy job. You know. Obviously that resume he probably could have

(30:36):
had a pick up a lot ofdifferent jobs, a lot of different roles.
UM. He's a guy that obviouslyhe is up for a challenge.
UM. And as as he detailsin an interview with him, UM,
he has a lot of ideas,a lot of different thoughts on the plate.
Uh, things that he wants toincorporate and he really wants to get
that franchise up up the bar andget them much more, much more steady

(31:03):
footing off the ice, and getthose players to playing in front of fans.
I mean that makes such a differencefor young players to have that atmosphere
to not playing that the building everynight. And frankly, I'm pretty confident
that he can do it. Ithink, Um he's a guy obviously,
you know when you hear it inthe interview with us, very charismatic.

(31:26):
He knows how to sell, heknows how to push a product, and
I think it'll be very interesting tosee how this unfolds for the nation a
couple of years, see what hecan do to turn it around. We've
got more audio coming up later onOn the Fly from Bakersfield and Henderson,
but first, Brent Rossi, thepresident of Business Operations of the Bridgeport Islanders,

(31:47):
joins us next on the season twoepisode eighteen of Around the Air.
Interact with us on social media,give us your thoughts using the hashtag around
the A and follow us that aroundthe APOD. Thanks for taking some time
for us brand appreciation absolutely, youknow, Patrick David, great meeting you

(32:10):
guys. Thank you. Um,I have to admit that I have also
messed up, Um the part Isler'sname a couple of times, caught myself.
Um, but I'm getting more usedto it, so appreciate you having
me up. Yeah, and everybodywill get used to it more and more
obviously as as everything rolls out andinto next season. Before we get into
the rebrand a little bit, Iwanted to get some thoughts on this past

(32:31):
season that was. Um, itwas strange for everybody, maybe a little
bit more so Um in your partof the league where you saw the same
couple of teams all season long.What was it like? And especially from
the business side of things, goingthrough the pandemic and and you know,
running an operation through this strange season. Yeah, I mean, you know,

(32:53):
there was honestly good and bad.Um. The bad was you know,
it wasn't a regular season. Wedidn't have fans in here. It
was a completely different atmosphere. Um. You know, we played the same
two teams, um, you know, twelve times, which again from a
development perspective, was great. Fromyou know, probably a excitement and storytelling

(33:16):
perspective, you know, wasn't asgreat. Um. The positives and you
know, I'm kind of a glasshalf full guy. The positives was the
staff UM came together in a waythat I don't think we ever have prior
to this. UM. We wereall challenged in a completely different way.

(33:37):
UM. We had, you know, a bunch of challenges and obstacles that
we had to come up with solutionsfor where there was really no manual U
and that was across all sport andI think entertainment in general. UM.
But what what it did is itis it allowed us as a team to

(33:59):
think about things in a different wayand to really kind of think outside the
box. And I would say therewas a type of you know, coming
together, you know moment this season, a real bonding moment for our employees
because what we actually did is wedidn't bring in anyone from the outside to

(34:21):
run any part of our game.It was all done internally, which was
done for a reason obviously from asafety perspective. We wanted to make sure
that anybody working our games, youknow, went through the proper you know,
safety protocols. So we had,you know, our vice president of
ticket sales who was our PA announcer. We had people on our ticketing team
who were in the penalty box,you know, opening up doors for players.

(34:45):
UM. We had you know,people on our marketing team who were
staticians and you know writing down shotson goal and things like that. So
it was again a way for themto maybe get a little more immersed into
what is like to run you know, a game day for a hockey team.
UM. That got out of theircomfort zone with some things, and

(35:07):
you know, ultimately, knock onwood, we didn't have one issue this
year, um in terms of youknow, employees or players, um,
from a pandemic or COVID perspective.UM. So it was that that's the
that's the positive, and you've seenit around here where it's just a different
environment because of the closeness. Ithink that all of our employees here um,

(35:30):
you know kind of had during duringthat time. Along those lines,
UM, what lessons might you beable to take, What practices may you
be able to take from this season? And what are the challenges now going
into next season when you know thegoal is to have things back to normal
at least as much as possible.Yeah, I don't think there's not much

(35:51):
we're going to be taken from thisseason Canada, because I think I think
we are ready for a normality.UM, more than anything. It was
honestly just seen the staff step upand the way that they did, and
it was more of a learning youknow, thinking for them, it was
them getting experienced in different areas.It was as an organization developing trust with

(36:13):
each other. As we go intonext season, I think there's more of
an appreciation from our standpoint for puttingon events with fans and just what we
miss when we don't have fans inthe building. Never do we take our
fan base for granted, but fromwhat we're going to be doing next year

(36:35):
is we are making a full commitmentto revamping our fan experience and every kind
of touch point we have with ourfans on game day, but also you
know, during the season, reallyyou know just how valuable they are to
everything that we do, and noteven the revenue side or the ticket sales
side, obviously that they're extremely valuablein that side, but just in terms

(36:58):
of the branding and the excite meant, the storytelling, you know, and
how we hopefully can you know,start to develop and grow our brand here
in Bridgeport and Fairfield County and hopefullyall Connecticut. Chatting with Brent Rossie,
the Bridgeport Islanders President, of businessoperations. Let's talk about the rebrand a
little bit um naturally, I thinkthere were some some folks around the league

(37:21):
that were maybe a little bit surprised, kind of caught off guard. Where
did the I guess, the ideacome from. What was the process like
to arrive at the Islander's name andthis kind of concept. So candidly,
it's something we've been talking about forabout a year and almost a half when
I've got here October first to twentynineteen, and I think a month into

(37:45):
it, we started having conversations internallywith our GM Chris Lamorello, the GM
of the Islanders, lou Lamarello,and then our ownership group about how we
want to start to move forward withthis brand. It was nothing about us
turn our back on the sound Tiger'sname. It was more about us moving
in a different direction in terms ofcreating that direct connection between our parent club

(38:07):
and HL club. There were severalreasons for it. I think first off
is the way that the NHL isstructured now there is such a connection between
HL and NHL. You know,ten years ago, my favorite day of
the year was trade deadline day inthe NHL because you would see unbelievable,

(38:28):
right, trades back and forth,not that you don't see that now,
but they're different types of trades.They're not you know some of these young
you know players who are you know, have five six years left in their
contract. It's maybe a little differentnow. So now there's such a connection
between draft development and then the actualyou know, big leagues that from our

(38:49):
standpoint, we saw a huge opportunityfrom a storytelling perspective. I'm in a
content creation perspective to start to developour fans in a way where they see
that connection where you're going to watchyour favorite Islanders come in from the draft,
go to Bridgeport, have success here, and then go to New York
and have success there and follow themthroughout that entire their entire career. Um.

(39:10):
The other reason for it was wesee Connecticut as a massive opportunity from
a fandom perspective, um, froman Islander's uh, you know, growth
in terms of the brand and interms of extending our fan base within this
area, within Westchester and within Connecticut. A lot of that is driven by

(39:32):
Ubs Arena, which is being builtand will open you know, in in
next season. Um. And nowit's a much closer drive m to get
from Connecticut. There there is atrain and subway options that will make the
drive to get into a game alot more convenient. Um, it's actually

(39:52):
the closest venue to Connecticut outside ofobviously Webster Bank Arena. When you look
at all the other ones in NewYork, the venue is going to be
absolutely spectacular. If you have notseen renderings of it um ubs Arena dot
com, it is unbelievable. Um, what they've tried to do there in
terms of bringing some of what thecoliseum has and bringing it to UBS Arena.

(40:16):
UM. You know, simple thingslike the height of the ceiling,
the height of the roof where youknow, typically the way that that venues
have been built recently, are youknow kind of you want to they have
these massive, you know, cathedralceilings. What we've actually done, and
this was really through our ownership group, John Ludeki, Scott Melkin and Dewey

(40:39):
Shay was They wanted to bring thatintimate experience from NASA into UBS Arena,
and not only the feeling, butalso the noise. And if you hear
anybody any players, um, youknow who are NHL players, they will
tell you one of the loudest venuesis NASA Coliseum, and you know,
some of the reason is because ofthe low roof and you know how kind

(41:01):
of that that feeling when it comesto cheering and stuff like that really you
know, kind of deflects off ofoff of it. So that was one
of the of the the reasons why. But it is absolutely spectacular. Um.
I was actually at the game onWednesday when when we beat Pittsburgh to

(41:22):
go on to round two, andwe had I think nine thousand people in
the venue and it sounded like twentythousand. It was the loudest um you
know, craziest atmosphere I've ever beena part of. So just now closing
your eyes and you know, goingto you know this the beginning of next
year with UBS Arena and having asold out you know crowd every game,

(41:45):
which we will um and just everythingthat's going to go into it will just
propel that brand. And then againwe're looking at it from the standpoint of
we're in our twentieth anniversary, goinginto our twentieth anniversary, We're now creating
this direct connection between the Islanders.What a better time for us to now,
you know, adopt their name mand really start to to you know,

(42:05):
create that association between the two brands. No now is part of that
rebrand a new logo. What werethe elements or the ideas, the concepts
that you kind of wanted to conveyto your fans. That I mean,
going away from a very almost iconiclogo like the sound Tiger's Head. Yeah,
we we wanted a logo that wasmore a traditional sports logo. We

(42:30):
wanted to get away from, youknow, more of the cartoony type of
logo. We wanted legitimacy to thebrand um and it was also important that
we represented two things. One aswe represented the city of Bridgeport. They've
been fantastic partners with us and that'sobviously where the iconic be um that we're
calling the icono be Um in ourlogo comes from. And we also wanted

(42:52):
to have a direct tide in theNew York Islanders. And it was tough
to come up with that concept umif we're not actually taking you know,
their logo. So we did iswe took the tape on the stick um
and that's a zoomed in you know, a picture of the Islanders and why
in their logo, which is myfavorite part of the logo. Um.

(43:16):
Now, you mentioned that you're tryingto build in rooms there and you're you're
in an interesting location because traditionally that'sbeen hardcore Rangers country, you know,
Westchester County, uh, Fairfield County, Stafford, Greenwich, all that.
How do how do you how doyou break through that? Because I mean,

(43:36):
you know, New York fan basetraditions tend to go back two three
generations. Yeah, So I thinkthere's there's a couple of ways. One
is, um, starting as youngas we can from a fan based perspective,
so we have great partners um,you know, from rink partners,
community, ring partners um. Butyou know, there's there's several ways that

(43:59):
fandoms developed, right. One ofthem is obviously location, you know.
The other one is you know,parents, whether it's your father or your
mother. And another one is youknow, affiliation and association if you feel
part of something. When I wasgrowing up in Canada, I'm actually originally
from from Canada. One of myfavorite teams with the New York Islanders,
and the only reason was because whenI was playing in youth hockey, I

(44:21):
was on the New York Islanders team. Right, you just took a bunch
of different hockey logos and put onthere and I was all of a sudden
New York Islander. So that's partof it. The second part of it
is is riding the excitement of theNew York Islanders brand. I think it
is a very cool hip brand.Right now. We're doing things the right

(44:44):
way. We are again building thisone point one billion dollar venue in Belmont,
New York or sorry, Elmont,New York. We have an unbelievable,
believable ownership group. We have thebest GM in the history of the
NHL, and we have the bestcoach right now in the NHL in my
humble opinion, And when you lookat who we are what the Islander's way

(45:06):
is, it's something that fans canget behind because it's about hard work,
it's about dedication, it's about selflessness, it's about creating a first class environment,
a first class organization from the topup. And I believe that pride
is what really propels fandom. Youknow, people want to be proud of

(45:27):
who they're affiliated with. Right youcan talk about the New England Patriots,
and you know you're proud because ofas a Patriots fan, because of you
know, the way that they ranthat organization. The victories were one thing,
but also the way that they portrayedthemselves. We are the same in
hockey. We are the ownership.Our ownership group has created this this environment

(45:49):
across our entire organization that is basedon doing things the right way, whether
that's in the community, whether that'syou know, how we actually try to
build brands, whether that's how weroper that ourselves on social media, whether
that's you know, what our gameday experience is, um. And I
think most importantly that's how we treatour players. UM. And you know
what that we want you know,our players to be proud as well.

(46:14):
UM. And then that that alsogoes to how we treat our fans um
And that is so important to us. UM. I think sometimes sports teams,
you know, miss that right.We serve. We're not about telling
fans. We serve them. It'sjust like any other service industry. We
serve them. So what they want, um, you know within obviously you

(46:34):
know sometimes you know, you don'twant to just get me of anything,
UM. But that's that's what ourjob is is to provide them with the
best environment that that that we possiblycan um, and to you know,
grow that fandom, you know,through all the different touch points that we
have to the Hartford wolf Pack figuringto this revamping at all. And I

(46:55):
asked that because you know, obviouslythe New York Rangers affiliate. You know,
when you say Islanders, you know, I mean it's almost like Rangers
are part of the Islanders identity ina way and vice versa. How much
might you try to kind of playup that rivalry a little bit, you
know, which has already been inplace through the years. Yeah, I
think that's more more of it.It didn't play into the decision at all,

(47:15):
UM, but I think it's anopportunity for us to strengthen now that
rivalry on the HL side of it. Um. You know, Rangers Islanders,
UM. You know Wolfpack Islanders UM. And you know we have a
great relationship with you know, thebusiness operations and the hockey operations in Hartford.

(47:36):
UM. We've already talked about things, whether it's the Connecticut Cup you
know, or something like that thatwe can do that really tries to fuel
that rivalry within Connecticut because you know, we're really the only two professional sports
here. UM. You know,there's there's the Hartford Athletic but you know
there's no longer the baseball team here. Obviously, the Hartford Whalers are no
longer here. So if you wantto watch professional sports, you know you've

(47:58):
got these two different options within atleast this state. So I think there's
huge opportunities for us, and especiallyagain based on you know that that rivalry
right now going with the Islanders andthe Rangers, which was great this year.
UM, it always is. UM. A lot of fans kind of
social media and otherwise have expressed concernabout the long term future a bridgeport.

(48:21):
What can you tell them to kindof, I guess ease their concerns.
What's the status of the arena lease? Just where do things stand on that
end? Yeah, we are hereand we're committed for the long term.
UM. We we have extended ourlease. There's UM again. No,
we're not going anywhere. UM.We I think I've said this before.
We love the city UM and wedeveloped a fan base here for twenty years

(48:45):
UM that we're not going to turnour back on. UM. So we
are committed here for the long haul. We're working with the city every week,
UM in terms of how we wantto move forward. With this venue
and improvements that are going to happenwithin this venue. UM. And you
know, all I can say iswe are moving in a very very positive
direction. UM. You're going tosee a completely you know, different venue

(49:06):
over the next couple of years.UM. And that is because you know,
not only us, but the cityis extremely committed to this venue and
to this this organization, and wehave a tremendous relationship with them. UM.
And you know it's just getting betterand better. UM. You know,
with with with time here. Youcame to this role October twenty nineteen.
Uh, you know, you're justkind of getting your feet wet.

(49:28):
You hit the pandemic. Then thisseason, I mean, you know,
from a business standpoint obviously was whatit was. Do you feel like you
have not been able to quite putyour stamp on things yet? Yes?
We So when I first came in, UM, it was really to do
an audit of the organization, figureout, you know, what we're doing

(49:49):
great, what we're doing good,and what we can improve on. UM.
You know, collectively, we developeda plan that we call Vision twenty
twenty UM that I think that wasnot the most creative title for the Dinnerbody
want to use that UM. Buta lot of it was about, you
know, how we can improve froma ticket sales perspective, UM, and
most importantly from a fan engagement andfan experience perspective. UM. We got

(50:10):
our our our staffing right now.The amount of talent that we have here
that we brought in from you know, outside of of the industry, UM,
some people within the industry UM isabsolutely amazing. UM. But to
your point, it was really goingto be twenty twenty, twenty twenty one
when all these changes, you knowthat we're going to be realized. And

(50:32):
you know when Covid hit UM,I was one of those guys that said,
hey, in two weeks, we'llbe back in the office. UM.
And obviously I was completely wrong.UM. But what it allowed us
to do is now even plan youknow more UM for now twenty one twenty
two UM, and you will seea completely different brand. Not only our

(50:54):
logo obviously you know the logos changedalready, but how you furience our games.
You know what the customer services,UM, what the arena is going
to look like, all of thatstuff that is you know, one,
two and three on our list,and we've already seen a huge growth in

(51:15):
terms of season ticket membership. Sowe're already headed in a really really good
direction. UM. We now havea direct connection with the Islanders as well
in terms of how we create efficienciesacross the organization to help out, whether
it is with ticket sales, whichwe rescoped our ticket sales department's roles while
we were here to help sell theIslanders during the pandemic. We're also looking

(51:37):
at it from a partnership perspective andwhether or not there are you know,
certain partners of ours or the IslandersUM that see you know, kind of
a unique opportunity to be branded,you know, within both venues and with
both teams. So to answer aquestion, yeah, I mean we haven't
done what as a group here wewant to UM, but this this upcoming

(52:00):
year is I think when we're goingto be able to put our stamp on
on the Bridgeport Islanders. Now,you know, traditionally and the long before
you got there, the team isstruggled to put people in the building and
the team is struggled to uh kindof break through the noise. I mean
it's it's a crowded market in someways, you know, just being that
close to New York City and mediacoverages, and what it was was,

(52:23):
um, how do you build thoseconnections with fans that you know want to
follow their team Dane and Dale,but just haven't been able to through the
years. Yeah, it's it's agreat question, and it's really the hardest
thing right now. I think facingsport in general, UM, you know,
ticket sales, in my opinion isthe hardest job in sport because there

(52:45):
are so many other other options outthere, um, for you know,
for entertainment. Um. What wehave done is we've we've surveyed our fans,
We've been focused group with our fans, and we've asked them, like
I said, we serve you know, how can we make this experience better
for you. One of the thingsthat came out of it is we have
a season ticket membership model where it'sbasically one price and you can sit wherever

(53:08):
you want. That's one of thefirst that I've heard of in the AHL.
I think in professional sport in general, we have a premium and we
have a base package. Your premiumyou get, you know, some of
the different benefits. Your base packageis stripped down, but you still get
a ticket to every game and youget your seat location, if you want
End Zone, if you want Centersix, wherever you want, it's the

(53:30):
same price. So that was thatwas one of them. The other part
of it, and you know Ikind of alluded to before, was we
can't control what happens on the ice, but we can control everything else,
and we want anyone who enters ourarena to have a fantastic memory regardless of
what happens on the ice. Weare in the business of making memories.

(53:51):
Every event, driven, every sport, every entertainment is about getting you know,
families, kids, adults, whateverit is, into the venue so
they can leave and say that wasgreat because of a blank um. And
that's really where where we're focused.Where you walk in the doors of Webster
Bank Arena, you're not going straightto your seat, right, that's your
backdrop. You're gonna go to ourKids Zone, or you're gonna you know,

(54:14):
there's gonna be other entertainment options there. You know, we're gonna program
um the intermissions so that people wantto stay in their seat. Obviously want
them to buy concessions as well,but um, you know that they can
stay in their seat because we're goingto entertain them. And then when they
get out, we got to figureout a way for them, you know,
to from from an egress standpoint,for them to get home as quickly

(54:35):
and safely as possible. UM.So it's all those different touch points UM
that I think is going to helpus really with this branding, UM and
growth of our of our franchise herein Bridgeport. When next October rolls around,
it will be about nineteen months sinceyou last play a home game.
It's a long time to kind ofbe separated from your fans. When you

(54:57):
talk with people around the league,U, what are some of the concerns
I guess or also maybe opportunities thatcome with reopening next season. Yeah,
so two months ago it would havebeen a different answer, because two months
ago there was a major concern thatpeople might not want to come to events
because of safety concerns. I thinkbased on what you've now seen what I

(55:22):
saw on Wednesday with people just havean appetite to get out and experience life
and experience entertainment the way that theydid before the pandemic. So I'm actually
looking at it on the positive sideof it, which is the opportunity here
is for us to differentiate ourselves fromother entertainment options out there, because we

(55:45):
think there's going to be a massiveappetite. Not to say that people at
all took going out for granted,but I think, just like anything else,
when something's taken away from you,right, sometimes you don't realize how
much you miss it. Um,there was you know, I was,
I was, I was talking toyou about it, but you know I
would watch um hockey games or sportingevents with my son, and you know,

(56:09):
you when Cocky was gone, whenyou know, the Masters wasn't in
April of you know, a coupleof years ago, I was like sitting
there going, you know, Ican't believe how much I'm actually missing this.
And there was just something of justthat moment when you know you're you're

(56:29):
really kind of understanding how important eventsare, how important entertainment is, how
important is spending it with people youlove or your friends, um. And
you know how much that means toyou know, you as as a human
being, UM and you know toagain to me as a father. UM.

(56:49):
So I think there's again a lotof people who have that you know,
kind of bent up you know,um, frustration or you know they
want to get out. So Ilook at it from opportunity standpoint, where
you know, we have kind ofone chance to make a first impression with
some people who maybe have never beento a Bridgeport Islanders game before or previously
a Bridgeport Sound Tigers game before.And how are we going to make sure

(57:10):
that everybody that comes into our venuehas a fantastic time? Um, And
you know, really is itching togo to the to the next one,
in the next game, in thenext game. Yeah, obviously lots of
work to be done between now andOctober. What do the next few months
look like as far as trying topump this new image and get people even

(57:34):
more excited than we already know theyare to get back in the rink.
Yeah. So you know, rightnow we're the New York Islanders biggest fans.
So that's that's you know, forthe next hopefully couple months. But
after that, you know, oursummer plan right now is really to get
into community as much as we possiblycan from grassroots perspective, UM, partnering
with you know, some of ourgreat partners around here, just to get

(57:57):
our brand out there. And thenit's going to be you know, schedule
announcements. UM, it's going tobe promotional you know games, UM,
it's going to be what our whatour you know what our preseason games you
know potentially are UM. And thenonce we go on sale um with with
tickets, that's when we really youknow, kind of put the pedal down,
UM in terms of getting out therefrom a marketing and promotional perspective.

(58:21):
UM. So you know, we'relooking at it no different than we would
you know in previous years. Right, there are certain times that you know,
we really have to ramp things up, but this year particularly, it's
about us getting into the community,making sure that people know that we're here,
we're here to stay, um,you know, and and hopefully that
we can also provide the service umto the community we live in and we'd
love as well. At the sametime, Yeah, it's been a long

(58:44):
time off, but certainly exciting thingsto come. Brent Rossie is the president
of Business Opts with the Bridgeport Islanders. Thanks again so much for the time
and enjoy the big clubs run here, hopefully keeping the play Thank you really
appreciate you guys having me ups.Interact with us on social media, give
us our thoughts using the hashtag aroundthe A and follow us at Around the

(59:07):
apod episode the eighteen of our secondseason of Around the A continues David Clinton,
Patrick Williams Here time for On theFly, and only two stops on
the Fly in one city this week, because it's Bakersfield and Henderson, who
played the Pacific Division Final in LasVegas at the Team Obile Arena, the

(59:31):
home of the Vegas Golden Nights.Before we get to that, maybe a
quick recap of that chat with BrentROSSI. We told the listeners it was
going to be in depth, andit certainly was. I think we learned
a lot about exactly what they're tryingto do in Bridgeport and build that connection
with the New York Islanders on LongIsland and again something that as we've said

(59:53):
on the show, is starting tobecome more prevalent around the league, really
forming that strong connect uh, notjust on the ice between the NHL club
and the AHL affiliate, but inthe front office and with the fan base
as well. Yeah. You know, the NHL the HL have never been
more messed um than they are nowand sort of both sides needed needed other.

(01:00:21):
I mean, if if you lookat what the HL does for the
NHL, it produces ninety percent ofthe players apply for the NHL and vice
versa for the HL. Um,the NHL gives them that Uh, that
that that credibility, that that thatpedigree, whatever word you want to call
it, in that connection. Uh. You know, so it's kind of

(01:00:43):
a symbiotic relationship, and that's whyBridgeport's trying to tap into that. You
know, I understand the fans skepticism. I really do. UM on the
other hand, you know, youlook at Bridgeport for the last twenty years,
how has that name taken them?How that that whole brand? Obviously,

(01:01:05):
you know, if things had beengoing great, you probably wouldn't change
anything, right, So I thinkit is a fair point that brand's making
that, Yeah, we need tokind of come in the here and he,
like he said, he came into do an audit of the franchise.
Uh, see what works, seewhat doesn't. Evidently they determined that
this was part of what they thought, at the very least can work better.

(01:01:30):
Time will tell, But this isa situation where you know, this
isn't Hershey or Grand Rapids or Chicagoor one of those franchises where you're filling
the filling the building consistently so ifit's not working, maybe a change it
and maybe it works, maybe itdoesn't. But you know, when you're

(01:01:53):
consistently near the bottom of the leagueand attendants, you really have nowhere to
go but up. And Brent andRossie now he can kind of start from
from a fresh start. You havea new new name, a new brand,
a new everything you know, andeverything that happened before twenty nineteen before

(01:02:15):
he arrived as the past, announceabout what he can do and the staff
that he can put on the franchise, and time will tell if it works.
But I think you do have togive him in the Islanders credit for
willingness to try something different and seewhat may work. Yeah, and I

(01:02:36):
mean I was kind of thinking,um, it does kind of change your
perspective on the rebrand a little bitbecause again, as we mentioned before the
interview, like I was surprised,I am at first, was not a
fan, didn't understand it, couldn'tkind of figure it out. But after
hearing the explanation, it does makeyou know a little bit more sense at

(01:02:57):
least. And yeah, you knowthey always say if it ain't broke,
don't fix it, but in thiscase, safe to say that things were
a little bit broken in Bridgeport andand a change needed to be made,
and that's what Brent is there todo. Yeah, you know, it's
it's kind of like the Hartford Whalers. You hear now, Oh I love
the Whalers. I love the logo. But then you know, you know,

(01:03:19):
I know some people from Hartford,and then you talk to them about
what it was like back then,and they weren't filling the building. So
the team left. Obviously there wasa lot more to the story than that,
but um, you know, it'sone of those things where people don't
like change, right, and sortof like, I didn't hear this huge

(01:03:39):
outpouring of love and adulation for thisSound Tiger's name and logo before the move
came, so you know it's onlyafter the move came that people are like,
oh, well, what are youdoing? We like that? Well,
okay, well where was everybody fortwenty years? They weren't. They
weren't certainly filling up the building,that's for sure. Because you know,

(01:04:00):
as you said earlier in the show, I mean, how many nights do
you see the Sound Tigers and they'replaying before rose of empty seats? So
yeah, you bring a guy.I mean, this is a guy with
high, high level credibility and talkto people around the league, very high
marks. And then you know,obviously his resume Wwe, Google Sports,

(01:04:23):
Comcast, Spectac Corps, um,you know, the Philadelphia seventy six years
So, um, the guy thatobviously knows what he's doing. He's had
a lot of success in different placesthat he's been. I say, give
him a shot, see what hehas. If he can make it work,
I mean, that would be amajor issue off the off the plate

(01:04:44):
for this league and really solidify thatmarket and give them that that foundation that
frankly they've never really had, um, you know, going all the way
back to when they started two thousandand one. Yeah, So it'll be
exciting to see what else they cando in that front off in Bridgeport to
you know, get more fans onboard and see how they can build from

(01:05:05):
you know, what they have now. And and I'm interested to see what
that partnership with the Islanders looks like, if they can grow the Islanders fan
base in that part of the country, because, as we mentioned in the
interview, it's pretty heavily New YorkRangers territory. So lots to look forward
to on the rebrand front in Bridgeportmoving forward, and we thank the Islanders

(01:05:28):
and Brent Rossi for his time indoing that interview with us here for around
the eight. Let's move on toOn the Fly this week again, just
two stops, Bakersfield and Henderson.The site of the Pacific Division Final was
Vegas, and we'll hear from thehead coaches of both of those teams and
a couple of players as well.Let's start with the head coach of the
Pacific Division champion, Bakersfield Condors,Jay Woodcroft, who gave you some thoughts

(01:05:55):
this week about what it meant tohim and to his club to win that
champion. Yeah. Yeah, thisvideo is well I should courtesy of the
conjurors themselves Condors TV. So Iwasn't actually getting on this interview, but
yeah, Jay Woodcroft one of themreal bright young coaches in this league.

(01:06:15):
Like we said earlier in the show, it's done a fantastic job coming in
there and revitalizing and turning that programaround. He had a long time as
an NHL assistant coach. This gavehim in an opportunity to kind of run
his own shown his own bench,and he's taking the opportunity now. The
last three seasons, as I saidearlier, two division titles in that spand
so they've had a seventeen game winningstreak that first season, They've developed prospects,

(01:06:44):
they've had a lot of success,and they're starting to produce some players
for edvanton Oilers. I won't besurprised to see three, maybe four players
from this team go up next seasonand stick up there. And a huge
part of that day wood and whathe's been able to implement in Baker Soon.
Disappointing postseason for the parent club,but a nice feather in the cap

(01:07:08):
of the Ahl club as the Condoorswin the Pacific Division championship. And again
from the Condoors we heard what thatchampionship means to head coach Jay Woodcroft.
I just said to him that theyknow how I feel. We asked them
to do some hard things here,including playing six games and nine nights through

(01:07:29):
them, went to all the timeand had a take out two really good
hockey team, two very well coachedhockey teams. And to see those guys
laid on the line like they did, they know how I feel. And
in listening to Jay Woodcroft, youcan hear that. You know, while
it was not a league championship oryou know, a typical playoff, it's

(01:07:54):
still meant a lot to him towin that title. And that's something I
would imagine echoed by his players andstaff as well. Yeah for sure.
I mean, Manny Bieber, Isaid, coach, will we hear from
it a little bit? Um said, this is our Caulder Cup. Um,
you know, this is the bestwe can do this year. Um.
And um. That's how both teamsapproached it, that this was,

(01:08:16):
you know, obviously not your typicalplayoff, but hey, this was the
next best thing. Um, we'regonna play, so we might as well
go all in and go for it. And both teams, uh that that
was very evident in their play Um. And it was high level hockey,
like I said earlier, really feltlike playoff hockey, both with the fans

(01:08:39):
but also just the intensity on theice there, you know, all the
little postal scrums, you could tellthat both teams really were dialed in.
Uh, and we're taking it veryseriously, even though, like we said,
it wasn't your typical playoff for yourtypical battle for our Caulder Cup.
And both teams had young and talentedgoaltenders backstopping them through this season. We

(01:09:03):
talked about Logan Thompson earlier on StewartSkinner across the pond from him in goal
for the Bakersfield Condors and put upsome pretty good numbers himself over the course
of the season to two thirty eightgoals against, nine fourteen save percentage,
a couple of shoutouts in thirty onegames, good playoff numbers as well,
and he shared some thoughts on whatthe season meant for him and what he

(01:09:26):
was able to garner, you know, as far as development goes in this
strange time. Yeah, Stewart scareit probably could have made a good case
for the Bastian Award that Logan Thompsonwon. A workhorse lid the league.
Like you said, thirty one games, put some really nice numbers, had
a real good breakthrough season. Actuallystarted the season with Edmonton, came down

(01:09:48):
for Bakersfield I think at the timewas oh and five. So he came
in and really solidified things were halfthe bat, got the back on track
and they really never looked back.They played over seven hundred hockey the rest
of the way, including the playoffs. So as we're here, you know
again from Condor's TV um Stuart's Skinner'sthoughts on this season and how his game

(01:10:12):
grew going through this sixty Yeah,it was. It was nice for me
just to kind of have a herelike this just kind of bring up the
confidence a bit and just to knowthat, you know, I can play
and that uh, you know,being able to play well in this league
is obviously a good step moving forwardand when you want to play in the
NHL, right, so it's it'sone league behind, so um, you

(01:10:32):
know, it's a it's a goodstep for for myself individually this year.
But at the same time, Iwouldn't be here without the guys playing as
hard as they did in front ofme all year round. So um,
you know it was. It wasawesome year. Uh and uh, you
know, I just really enjoy them. And it was a big year for
him as well, you know,put up those numbers in the regular season
for the AHL. He also madehis NHL debut this year. I had

(01:10:56):
twenty two years old, so naturallya lot to learn for a young gold
ten and it seems to me thathe was able to learn a lot this
year. Yeah, apparently. So, I mean, you know, I
mean, you really can't ask morefor your season than what he got.
I mean, he got thirty onegames in. I mean, so he
got, you know, not allthat far off from a more standard workload

(01:11:16):
that you get in a full seasonfor a lot of goalies. Just he
was just every night it seemed likehe was in net. I mean,
Jay Woodcroft wrote him, um thatwhole way, and um it paid off
obviously the team and I think itreally expedited Schooner's growth. And you know,
depending on what the Oilers do,you know, with with with their

(01:11:40):
goaltending picture, I think it wasa good shot you could see Stoner and
Edmonton next season in the backup role. Um. I think you know,
obviously he has age on his side, he has affordability on his side.
So based on what he did thisseason, I think he's shown that he
has to be viewed as a realcontender for that job in Edmonton. And

(01:12:01):
he took some playing time away fromanother pretty good goaltending prospect in Dylan Wells,
from a former Peterborough pete, Sothat says a lot I think about
Skinner's play over the course of theseason. Let's flip over to the Henderson
side of things, that this teamwas favored to win this Pacific Division by
yourself as well, and then forobvious reasons with the type of season they

(01:12:26):
put together. And I've listened tothis Manny Vibrow's clip already, and I
was a little surprised at his demeanor. I thought he might be a little
bit more fired up in and perhapsyou know, upset with the result.
But as little here in a minute, this was not the case. He
seemed to just be happy to havegotten the season in and as most of

(01:12:49):
the people we've talked to on theshow have done, gave a lot of
credit to the staff and the peopleoff the ice that really made this season
possible. Yeah, I think itwas. He's almost sentimental. I guess,
like reflective. I guess maybe itwould be another word. Um.
You could see the priory had inhis team and what they had done.

(01:13:12):
That was a big thing for alot of teams to get through the season
and be able to stay at theend of the year. That you had
zero COVID cases. Obviously, ifyou have COVID cases, that doesn't mean
necessarily that anybody did anything wrong,but certainly. I think if you if
you had zero cases, you candefinitely be proud of that as a team,
and he clearly was. And thencertainly what they did on the ice,

(01:13:34):
they started off seventeen and three,they were rolling and really I mean
they you know, came down tothe third period of the final game of
this postseason before they finally built out. And so yeah, if you're Vivos,
you had a team starting in anew market, didn't under you know,

(01:13:56):
obviously the most strange circumstances, umyou had to introduced a team to
a to a market where you couldn'thave fans for the first two thirds of
the season. Yet they did that. They played well, they developed players.
There's number Topyon prospects on the teamthat I think you'll see in Vegas
before too long. And a hugepart of that was Manny Rivers his first

(01:14:16):
year running in HL bench. Umdid a fantastic job. It was a
pleasure for every one of those kidsin that room are really good people most
importantly, and they happened to begood hockey players also too. So no,
it was fun. It was alot of times, uh, you
know throughout the season where you know, a lot of things. You don't
know what's going to happen with thepandemic and everything. And you know,

(01:14:40):
I give our our training staff,and our doctors and and the and the
group themselves, you know, justby by chance or by luck or and
also not just by chance of luck, we had didn't have one positive COVID
test, and uh, these kidsreally bought in this year and worked as
hard as they could and make surethey took care himself there ice Also,
Yeah, he did do a fantasticjob. And I mean we'd have to

(01:15:02):
thank him, I think for somuch of his personal time this year,
the amount of time that he tookout of what was surely a hectic schedule
to talk to you and and othermedia and you know, to do that
side of the job. He's gotto be commended for that. And again
it was a little surprised he wasn'tupset, But um, at the end

(01:15:24):
of the day, as we've saidall year long, it's it's been about
getting these games in keeping everybody healthy, and even without the Pacific Division title,
the Henderson Silver Knights were able todo that as well. So um,
thanks again to Manny Vivos for allof his time he's given to around
the A throughout the course of theseason. Our last stop on the Fly

(01:15:45):
this week is still in Henderson,but with one of their rookie players,
twenty year old Caden Korzakum. Thisis a guy who only got into a
handful of AHL games this year.He did play for Canada at the World
Juniors. He was in the WHLbubble where he played fifteen games for the
Colowna Rockets and got into eleven regularseason games with the Henderson silver Knights.

(01:16:08):
Tell us about this prospect, patand why he was one of the guys
you wanted to hear from on cleanoutday. Yeah, he was kind of
your one of your classic examples ofa young player with CNHL eligibility. Started
the season in Henderson, got alittle bit of time in there, and
WHL started up playing. He hadto go back, so he kind of

(01:16:31):
straddle with both lines, and thenHenderson played long enough that he was able
to actually find his way back tothe American Hockey League after his WHL season
ended and really had an opportunity tocome in at one of the best times
possible, did some playoff action anddo so in an NHL building. And

(01:16:51):
he loved the opportunity. Young kidwere good attitude, a good really good
young, solid prospect. I know, the Vegas management lights him a lot,
man, he reverse lates him alot. So um, yeah,
it's um. You know, ona season which you know there wasn't a
whole lot that was necessarily fun forplayers. You could see that they had

(01:17:15):
fun that night, coming out seventhousand plus in the building, playing in
obviously one of the you know,shiniest, flashiest NHL buildings there is,
being all part of that, ofthat atmosphere. And I sent this on
Twitter after the game. I mean, what a strange kind of bookend to
the season. You start February fifthin Massachusetts at a practice rink on a

(01:17:38):
weekday afternoon end on a Saturday night, in an NHL building right off the
strip in Vegas. I mean kindof just a fitting end, I guess
for such an upside down stream season. And it was a really cool,
really cool way I thought to endit, you know, to not edited
a practice rink with no fans,but to really sort of use this now

(01:18:00):
the springboard toward next season where we'reall open and I think at this point
feel a lot more optimistic than you'llhave full buildings, um and a real
big return to normal. I meanevery team in the league is counting on
that and really pushing toward that.And we heard from Cayden Corzak about that

(01:18:21):
experience of playing at T Mobile Arenaagain not to full to capacity, but
to full based on what we've seenaround the league this season, and as
he'll tell us, quite the experiencefor a young player, Yeah, I
was. It was something spotial outto play here for sure, especially in
um that amount of fans that wasprobably the most I've played and probably my

(01:18:44):
whole life, and it was bumpingin there and um that meant out everything
to our group and um, justhaving those having those fans behind us,
and um, that's kind of amakes base a special, is the fans.
So M having back in the buildingwas um, definitely, I for
sure, and just the experience overallfor him Pat again only sixteen games in

(01:19:05):
total, but I mean line upthe list of junior eligible guys who got
even half that many games in atthe AHL level this year, and uh,
you know, tell me how muchtheir games grew just based on that
experience. It was a huge opportunityand Caden Corsac obviously relishing that opportunity.

(01:19:26):
Yeah, I mean, we're greatopportunity. I mean, you know,
considering the circumstances, I think ifyou're him, you have to be pretty
happy for your season. Like yousaid, he got some world doing your
time, so you had an opportunityto do that and had a chance to
play high level HL even into thepostseason, and then also gotten some of
his WHL times, so I hada chance to go back. It's more

(01:19:49):
familiar setting and kind of put abow on that experience. So it was
all things considered. I mean,I think you're if you're a Corsack,
and a number of other players forthat matter, the season went pretty well
and you can now use that asa chance to go into summer on a

(01:20:10):
good note. Um, have agreat summer training, follow all the you
know instructions and all the guidance thatthat you'll have. I know of in
Vegas, for example, a lotof players actually staying there this summer,
which, surprise, surprise, abunch of young twenty something guys would choose
to spend their summers in Vegas andtraining there and use all the top notch

(01:20:33):
facilities and everything else, So probablythe least surprising news of the entire season.
Um, but uh yeah for aguy like Corzak. Cody Glass is
another one. Um, you know, just a chance really to to you
know, have a good end tothe season and now have a great summer,

(01:20:54):
like I said, coming to campand ready to maybe compete for an
NHL job or at the very least, um, get to the AHL team
and really have a good season.Yeah, big summer ahead for him and
for all the prospects. Big summerahead for us here on around the A.
We're gonna take a real close lookat the show and see what we
can do better next year and whatkind of changes we can make. We're

(01:21:15):
always hungry for feedback from the listeners, so if you've got some tips for
us around the apod at gmail dotcom, we would love to hear from
you. If you've liked what you'veheard so far through the course of the
season, make sure to subscribe tothe podcast at rate and review it as
well, and again we'll see whatwe can do building into next season.
I talk like we're done, We'renot done yet, Pat, We've got

(01:21:36):
at least two episodes left. Thegames are finished, but there should still
be some news to talk about whenwe reconvene again next week. Yeah,
you know, like there's always somethinggoing on in the hockey world. I
mean, today have when we're recordingthis year the Palm Springs groundbreaking for the
new two hundred fifty million dollar facilitythere. So this is now the time

(01:22:00):
where you're moving to some more ofthe offseason stuff. You've already had one
coaching change in Le High Valley.You know, there could be more management
changes around the league or resignings,and then eventually, before you know,
we're into July, you'll have thefreedence CE period, the draft comes up.

(01:22:20):
That always seems to have an effecton something, especially now you see
more and more young players finding theway in the American Hockey League one way
or the other. The HL rule, I think is still an issue that
is very much kind of come tothe forefront again. Now you have an
entire season of top young players whowent through that, so you have a

(01:22:42):
good, good base of of dataon that, and then you know different
experiences for different players and different teamswith how that went, and so I
think that will be an issue.So yeah, you know, hockey's pretty
much at this point of twelve monthsport business and you know there's really not

(01:23:03):
too much downtime anymore. Yeah,we'll see what we can dig up for
next week's show. If you wantto hear some other recent episodes, or
even some that aren't so recent,dating back the last season, we've had
an excellent guest list on the program. Sports Podcasting Network dot Com has all
the old episodes, as does whateverplatform you are listening to the show on

(01:23:25):
right now, So check out theold episodes and make sure to check out
the newest episode next week. Orwe're back for episode nineteen of season two
of Around the app

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Around The A Podcast - Season 2 Episode 18 with Brent Rossi of the Bridgeport Islanders

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Around The A Podcast - Season 2 Episode 18 with Brent Rossi of the Bridgeport Islanders