The first Islanders practice in their future Long Island home base was a happy occasion. And not just for the promise of having what general manager Garth Snow called “the best practice facility in the league” when the Islanders move into Northwell Health Ice Center (formerly Twin Rinks) full time this summer.
Travis Hamonic returned to practice on Wednesday before a crowd of Long Island school kids, Islanders season-ticket holders, sponsors and even Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano at the facility in Eisenhower Park that Charles Wang purchased in October.
Hamonic has been out for two weeks with a hairline fracture in his foot, suffered in the second period of the Isles’ Jan.