New York Islanders General Manager Mathieu Darche has brought in a familiar face from his time with the Tampa Bay Lightning, naming Jason Berger the team\u2019s assistant equipment manager.<\/p>\n
Darche said he first met Berger after joining Tampa Bay\u2019s front office, where Berger had already established himself as a high-energy, highly organized member of the equipment staff. \u201cHe\u2019s just full of energy,\u201d Darche said Friday on The Jeff Marek Show. \u201cI\u2019ve had some players on the Lightning text me like, \u2018Hey, you stole Burger from us.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
When an opening in the Islanders\u2019 equipment department came up, Darche considered candidates from inside and outside the organization but ultimately turned to Berger, who he said not only understands his standards but brings a unique spark to the dressing room. \u201cHe\u2019s extremely organized and he brings\u2026 energy in the room,\u201d Darche said. \u201cSometimes we downplay the role of these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Darche arranged for head coach Patrick Roy to speak with Berger before the hire was finalized. \u201cPatrick spent like an hour and a half, two hours on the phone,\u201d Darche said. \u201cHe called me right after. He\u2019s like, \u2018Oh my god, we need this guy. He\u2019s my type of guy. The energy and\u2026 just on the phone.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
In Tampa, Berger worked as the No. 2 equipment manager. His new role with the Islanders will be his first as a lead in the position. \u201cLike me, I got my opportunity as a GM. He was the number two in Tampa and I think he gets the opportunity of being number one,\u201d Darche said. \u201cI\u2019m excited to have him on board and I think the guys will really enjoy him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York Islanders General Manager Mathieu Darche has brought in a familiar face from his time with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-70740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}