{"id":404942,"date":"2026-01-13T08:50:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T08:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/404942\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T08:50:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T08:50:24","slug":"islanders-minnesota-pond-hockey-outing-the-latest-example-of-their-tight-knit-vibes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/404942\/","title":{"rendered":"Islanders\u2019 Minnesota pond hockey outing the latest example of their tight-knit vibes"},"content":{"rendered":"

WINNIPEG, Manitoba \u2014 A few weeks ago, the Islanders team group chat lit up with a text from Anders Lee.<\/p>\n

It said they were going to have a day at his house in Minnesota, and to bring an old jersey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told the boys, you gotta wear your favorite jerseys from when you were a kid,\u201d Lee said Monday, after the Islanders practiced in Winnipeg. \u201cPull one out that means something to you, you maybe won a tournament in or whatever it was. Guys brought jerseys from home, had guys shipping them, having parents ship them out, make sure they had them there for the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Lee, the Islanders captain and a native of Edina, Minn., had bought a place in the area recently with a pond. The schedule aligned perfectly, with two days between the Islanders win on Saturday in Minnesota and their game Tuesday in Winnipeg. They were going to have an off-day anyway before flying north.<\/p>\n

\"Anders<\/p>\n

Anders Lee invited his Islanders teammates over to his house in Minnesota for some outdoor hockey fun while on the road. Tyler Brosious\/New York Islanders<\/p>\n

This was a rare opportunity in a busy NHL schedule, and one that was apropos for a team whose mantra all year has been playing with joy. The Islanders and a handful of support staff, all out on the pond, playing 17-on-17 hockey on a sun-soaked January day like they were children.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looked,\u201d Jean-Gabriel Pageau said, \u201clike one big family. Just skating together.\u201d<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s easy to fall into the trap of cliches about team-building on a road trip, especially a seven-game marathon like the Islanders are on. Truth be told, that aspect most \u2014 as in 95 percent or more \u2014 of NHL trips comes in getting a meal together, and maybe going shopping. If they\u2019re in the right locale, some guys will play golf, but, as Pageau pointed out Monday, \u201cnot everyone\u2019s golfing.\u201d<\/p>\n

One year when he was in Columbus, Adam Boqvist said, the schedule aligned for the team to take a one-day trip to the Masters. Otherwise, he\u2019d done nothing like this over his seven seasons in the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s huge,\u201d Boqvist told The Post. \u201cJust being together. Otherwise you\u2019re sitting in your room or you\u2019re going for a walk. And when you\u2019re at home, you\u2019re with your family, wife, kids. When you\u2019re on the road, we like to be with each other. We enjoy it, we have a great group of guys here. It\u2019s a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even when the Islanders were at their lowest point a year ago, no one would have questioned that the dressing room was tightly knit. Still \u2014 and being 25-15-5 is a major help \u2014 the vibe is different this year. This was just the latest example.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The New York Islanders spent an off day at Anders Lee\u2019s house in Minnesota and laced up the skates on the pond. Tyler Brosious\/New York Islanders<\/p>\n

\"Some<\/p>\n

Some Islanders celebrate while skating on a pond in Minnesota. Tyler Brosious\/New York Islanders<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was amazing. We had so much fun,\u201d Pageau said. \u201cIt reminded, I think, everyone, of some good memories when you\u2019re young and with your parents or your friends. I think a day like that together is very good for the team just to go out and have fun. You can see the amount of smiling we had. I think it just brings everyone together.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Islanders spent about six hours at Lee\u2019s house, Boqvist said, though not all of it was on the ice. At some point, they retired indoors to watch football.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love getting together as a group, but depending on the schedule and what we do and where we are, it\u2019s tough to find a good activity sometimes,\u201d Lee said. \u201cThis was a perfect one to do where we can just be with each other, laugh a bunch all day, watch the games. Just spend time with each other in a relaxed setting.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuys are already on the road, guys are away from their families. Just gives them something great to do rather than walking around, going to lunch, going back to their hotel rooms.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WINNIPEG, Manitoba \u2014 A few weeks ago, the Islanders team group chat lit up with a text from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5110],"tags":[11464,8493,5,122,8563,161,3328,159,5190,5189,4,4937,77],"class_list":["post-404942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-islanders","tag-adam-boqvist","tag-anders-lee","tag-hockey","tag-islanders","tag-jean-gabriel-pageau","tag-minnesota","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-islanders","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkislanders","tag-nhl","tag-the-islanders","tag-winnipeg"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115886937031898743","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}