In early December, Sports Illustrated’s Daniel J. Friedman explored how Long Island has grown into a hotbed for hockey.
Wrote Friedman, “But along the northeastern coast, there is another locale that has entered the conversation, a 1,400 square mile slab of land surrounded by water on four sides, populated by nearly eight million and situated just across the East River from a major urban center. That would be Long Island, New York–the home of Bagel Boss, Billy Joel and, as has become increasingly clear, hockey.”
What has this amounted to? While we’re not going to summarize the entire article, Friedman cites a number of players — specifically, the Maple Leafs’ Jeremy Bracco and Bruins’ Charlie McAvoy — as evidence of this shift.