Kevin Connolly and Christy Brinkely Attend the NY Islanders Game!

Christie Brinkley was out there last night!

So was Kevin Connolly, star of the HBO series "Entourage."

Hall of Famer Mike Bossy made an appearance, too!!

The minor detail is that the biggest names were between the boards when the game wasn't going on. Brinkley, an enthusiastic fan wearing a white Islanders jersey, dropped the ceremonial first puck for the home opener against the Sabres. Connolly, a Long Islander with a sense of history, competed with Bossy in a between-periods shootout and wore No. 11 in honor of Bossy's old teammate, Wayne Merrick.

Kevin Connolly and Mike Bossy did some in between period game, where they shot pucks into a net for charity.   Connolly made two and Bossy made two and the charity got like 300$ USD. Open goal, by the by.

Getting the current Islanders' Q rating up to the supermodel or hot cable actor range is going to take a little while, which is fine with them. Being an Islander means trying to make a name for yourself.

That is pretty much the way it always has been here. Even the great Islanders players didn't come here great. They earned their way. And even then, they weren't the biggest celebrities in the world. That, too, always was fine with them.

The Islanders just don't have the cash or cachet to attract marquee-caliber superstars. In National Hockey League circles, Long Island is a place to carve an identy, not to live off one.

What the Islanders must sell is a chance. They have to persuade the fan base that the team has a chance to be worthwhile. They have to convince players they have a chance to be somebody. This is the place for the likes of center Mike Comrie, for whom the Islanders represent a chance to be The Guy.

"I'm 27 years old now. This is my seventh year. You mature along the way, you learn from experiences," said Comrie, who signed as a free agent to center a top line between captain Bill Guerin and Ruslan Fedotenko. "There are some ups and downs, but one thing I've learned is the harder you work, the more successful you're going to be.

"There's only a certain few spots on each team where you can feel like you can be one of the go-to guys. As a player growing up, you always want a chance to be a guy a team counts on," he said. "Everybody is accountable, and you need everyone to win. But it's exciting to be in a spot where you can feel they truly care about how you play and how you produce."

How's this for a "How do you do?" Twice in his first two nights, Comrie has broken a late tie with the kind of neat, clutch move that a talented, big-time player makes. He made a name for himself for the sellout crowd, breaking a 1-1 tie at 1:39 of the third period in last night's 3-2 win before adding another goal at 8:39. The latter produced the chant "Com-rie!" That all happened after he scored the deciding goal (his second goal of the game) during a 6-4 win in Buffalo Friday.

A few more games like this and kids are going to be wearing Comrie jerseys at Roosevelt Field by next week.

Not that he is a no-name. He is a celebrity in Canada. An Edmonton native, he is the son of a furniture magnate and is dating Canadian starlet Hilary Duff. Published reports said Comrie spent $100,000 on a Mercedes SUV for her 20th birthday last month. "Sometimes," he said with a grin before the game, "you have to choose not to read the papers."

Whoa, let's not get carried away. The Islanders can use the publicity. If they can get in People, they can attract more people to the ticket booths and the free- agent negotiating table. The Islanders are in the process of burnishing their image (again).

Sure, it's nice that they once won four Stanley Cups in a row. But for most modern NHL players, the 1980s might as well be ancient Rome. In this post-lockout, supposedly balanced new NHL, major free agents tend to go with the glitter of big-market teams (meet the new NHL, looks like the old NHL). The Sabres didn't look anything like the team that ousted the Islanders and Rangers from the 2007 playoffs, what with the defections of centers Chris Drury (Rangers) and Daniel Briere (Flyers).

The trick for the Islanders is to keep an underdog's edge without falling into a "poor us" funk. The fun will be watching Comrie and others develop, seeing them try to make names for themselves.

Already, there is progress. Nobody on the roster has the name "Alexei Yashin."

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396 lainiek Published 10/7/07   Message Add to Friends