Nyisles and Sparky Have Not Spoken Since Wednesday
The New York Islanders' two mascots have reached an impasse over the firing of Patrick Roy. Sparky is calm about it. Nyisles is not, which is proving to be his entire argument's undoing.
ELMONT, N.Y. — Two sources with direct knowledge of the situation confirm that Nyisles and Sparky the Dragon have not been in the same room since Wednesday evening. A disagreement about the organization’s decision to part ways with Patrick Roy escalated to the point where a recycling bin was involved.
Sparky, in what colleagues described as “a measured, thoughtful tone,” said he understood why the organization made the move. The team had lost six of its last nine. Things weren’t working.
Nyisles disagreed.
“Patrick Roy’s intensity is exactly what this team needs,” Nyisles said, according to one source, before pointing at Sparky for an uncomfortable length of time without saying anything else. He stormed out, but left a voicemail for Sparky less than 10 minutes later that sources say “really got out of hand around the two-minute mark.”
The irony — that Nyisles’s central argument in defense of Roy’s volcanic temperament was delivered at escalating volume in a UBS Arena service corridor — has not been raised with Nyisles directly. He has not seemed receptive to feedback.
Sparky, who is a dragon and therefore theoretically the more combustible of the two, has been described by multiple sources as “fine, honestly.”
When contacted through a representative, Roy’s ego issued the following statement regarding his firing: “There’s a reason they made me so good in the NHL ‘95 video game. I’m the best. They’ll regret this, no doubt.”
As of Sunday, Nyisles had not returned to his locker. The recycling bin has been righted. Its contents have not been fully recovered.
Correction: A previous version of this article stated the Islanders had lost seven of their last nine games. The correct figure is six. We regret the error. Nyisles has been informed and somehow feels this makes his argument stronger.
