The New York Islanders had their daily practice Sunday at the Eddie Westfall bubble rink in Veterans Memorial Park in Calverton.
Eddie Westfall himself was on hand to watch the Isles take the ice at the rink, which is operated by the Peconic Hockey Foundation.
The Peconic Wildcats players got to see the Isles action up close and even had a chance to take the ice for photos with the NHL players.
“The players were just so cordial,” said Riverhead Town Council Member Ken Rothwell. “As soon as they got off the bus they arrived on, they started shaking hands with the kids and signing autographs,” Rothwell said.
The kids got to watch the players warm up for practice by playing a little soccer in the parking lot, he said.
“It was their regular daily practice and they followed their daily sequence,” Rothwell said. First some injured players had time on the ice and then the whole team comes out for their full daily practice, he said.
“It was an amazing experience,” Rothwell said. Islanders co-owner John Ledecky helped put the practice together with Peconic Hockey Foundation President Troy Albert, Rothwell said.
He enjoyed talking with a host of Islanders players from team captain Anders Lee to the newest player on the roster, defenseman Matthew Schaefer, who turned 18 only a month ago.
Schaefer told him he still can’t believe he’s playing in the NHL, Rothwell said. “He said, ‘Listen, last year I was a kid out there, on line waiting to meet NHL greats and getting autographs.’ He goes, ‘I just, I can’t fathom that I’m playing in the NHL. I’m playing for the New York Islanders.’”
Rothwell, a lifelong Islanders fan and an ice hockey player himself, can relate. He’s still in awe of the team’s first captain, for whom the bubble rink is named. He relishes the time he gets to spend with Westfall.
“He’s just a phenomenal individual. He keeps up on even the current day in the current rosters, and knows all the players.
“And he’s just so thrilled that the ice rink is named after him,” Rothwell said.
Westfall’s son was there yesterday, and he told Rothwell that having the rink named for him means so much to his dad.
He was such an instrumental player in the team’s early days, Rothwell said. He was a veteran forward brought in to lead the new team in its first season in 1972.
“This is his legacy. He has a rink here on Long Island, for the kids. And that’s what Westfall is all about. It’s all about the kids. He sees that Riverhead is just like hometown hockey, the bubble. It’s not a two-story elite structure with restaurants and fancy restrooms and showers and everything,” Rothwell said. “It’s where the hometown kids go to play,” he said, recalling how when he was a kid, “we couldn’t wait for the pond to freeze over.”
His passion for the sport motivated him to be the driving force in town government behind the construction of the bubble rink at Veterans Memorial park. Rothwell believes the rink is already helping to grow interest in the game in eastern Suffolk.
The Islanders Foundation was a major donor supporting the construction of the rink, Rothwell said.
Another major donor to the rink was Edgar Goodale of Riverhead Building Supply, Rothwell said. The support of both RBS and the Islanders Foundation was crucial to the construction of the rink, Rothwell said.
The Islanders open the 2025-2026 season Thursday night in Pittsburgh and play their home opener Saturday night at UBS Arena in Elmont.
RiverheadLOCAL photos by Emil Breitenbach Jr.
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