(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Top Comments: Islanders’ Home Opener Notes Edition [1] ['Major Kong', 'Belinda Ridgewood', 'Chitown Kev'] Date: 2026-10-06 For as long as I have been a season ticket holder, I have attended every single New York Islanders home opener. While it is usually a packed house and the crowd starts off with a lot of intensity, most of the games have ended in a loss. The team seems to have real problems winning the first home game of the season. This past Saturday was the 54th home opener and 4200th regular season game for the team. I did not go expecting a good result. It was the first home game for Matthew Schaefer since he was unanimously voted the Calder Trophy winner as rookie of the year last season season. He got the biggest applause of all the intros. The team introduced its newest captain, Bo Horvat, who was previously captain for the Vancouver Canucks. I figured it would be him though I preferred it go to Schaefer, who is now one of the alternate captains. The national anthem, which I refuse to stand for, was performed by a 105 year old WWII veteran playing the alto sax. Even I had to put aside my feelings about that awful song for one night. The team also acknowledged it’s former long time TV play by play announcer, Howie Rose, who retire from calling NY Mets games on the radio this year. Oh, and everyone got a free t-shirt. We played the New Jersey Devils, who we swept last season which included a 9-0 win at home late in the season. I was not expecting that to repeat. In fact, I was expecting a typical bad loss. I was not thrilled with the roster moves over the last 8 months and have been pretty down on the team’s chances this season. Fortunately, or unfortunately, we skated to a 6-0 beatdown of the Devils, who looked terrible most of the game. Matthew Schaefer was all over the ice contributing two assists including one where he knocked down a puck from the air at the blueline to keep the puck in the zone and made a swift pass to Horvat for a goal. Our newest rookie, Viktor Eklund, who played the final game last season, has looked like he belongs in all three games he;s played so far. It was his 20th birthday; he scored a goal and had an assist. Even with the shutout, the on-ice post game interview went to him. He talked about his mom who flew in for the game to celebrate his birthday. (She was interviewed on the TV broadcast). The interviewer announced to the crowd it was his birthday, so the entire building sang “Happy Birthday” to him before he left the ice. All in all, it was a fun night. My expectations for this season are still low as the team really needs to get younger and move out the players who are long past 30. The team desperately needs assets, so it can acquire top players if they have any hope to be a serious Cup contender early in Schaefer’s career. Diarist reserves all rights to his original writing only. Community material is not covered by this © Now a word from out sponsor and onto the Tops! Uploaded to DailyKos by Ed Tracey Here at Top Comments we welcome longtime as well as brand new Daily Kos readers to join us at 10pm Eastern. We strive to nourish community by rounding up some of the site’s best, funniest, most mojo’d & most informative commentary, and we depend on your help!! Here’s the new & improved DK6 version of how to submit nominations: If you see a comment by another Kossack that deserves wider recognition, please send it either to topcomments at gmail dot com either search for user @topcomments, or click this link then click “send message”!) by 9:30pm Eastern.. Please please include a few words about why you sent it in as well as your user name (even if you think we know it already :-)), so we can credit you with the find! Top Comments for October 6, 2026 From Ocean Driver: This was in The Nature Bucket from Friday but thats a weekly feature so the comment wouldn’t have expired yet It’s a sailing race story with some unexpected adventures like a crocodile, rays and big surf. He came in 12th but that wasn’t the point. [ed note: Comment by KenBee] From brillig: In my Monday Top Comments diary Top Comments: T minus 29 Days Edition, doncoolidge had a great comment that ended with this: The worst thing that the Democrats can do is become complacent and think they don’t need to vote, it’s going to be a blowout. But it won’t be one unless every one of us casts a progressive ballot. Complacency is the GOP’s tool; ours has to be our righteous moral outrage. From RosyFinch: [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/10/6/800108583/community/t/ Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/