One gets the impression he was never going to be just Joe, or Joseph, or J.D. Since he was a 4-year-old kid skating for the Apple Core team at the Ice Arena rink in Long Beach, he was known as Joey. When someone asked who that kid was who wouldn’t go home, the answer was “Joey Diamond,” the name in full seeming to imply a persona that was going to transcend this little rink on the southern shore of Long Island.
“We’re all so proud of him,” Henry Lazar, the man who runs Apple Core, said with a pronounced New York accent.
Diamond is now a 24-year-old, the son of a retired NYPD cop who ushered people from Manhattan to New Jersey on 9/11, and whose basement got demolished in Superstorm Sandy. Joey is in training camp trying to earn a spot with the Islanders, the team he spent a lifetime rooting for and one he now hopes to get a chance to represent.
“I’ve wanted to play pro hockey my whole life, and getting a chance to play here is extra special,” Diamond said after a split-squad practice at IceWorks in Syosset on Tuesday. “I know what I have to do to play my game and do whatever I can to contribute to helping the team win.”
Listed generously at 5-foot-8, 175 pounds, Diamond’s most likely landing spot this season is with AHL Bridgeport, where he played 10 games last year after graduating from the University of Maine. He signed a one-year, entry-level deal out of Maine, and had two goals and five points for the Sound Tigers.
Yet, to get the full impression of the player, one must look into the Maine history books, where Diamond leads the program with 467 total penalty minutes in 135 games.
“I don’t really see size in him,” said Scott Pellerin, head coach of Bridgeport, who ran Tuesday’s practice while most of the probable NHL team skated at the Coliseum. “I just see him going out there and being a hockey player that competes, and he finds a way. He’s had to deal with [criticism for his size] for a long time, but for me, I don’t look at it as anything negative, I look at it as a positive because he plays with a determination that is unmatched.”
Diamond got his first chance to don the coveted Islanders sweater last Thursday, when he played in a preseason game against the Devils at Prudential Center in Newark. He played a hard, if unspectacular, game up until the closing minutes, when he was called for “attempted spearing,” roughing, and got into a fight with another diminutive forward, the Devils’ Stephen Gionta.
“It happens,” Diamond said. “I’ve never changed the way I played. I played this way since I was a younger kid, and it’s always worked out for me. I just play the way I know how to play the game, and that’s all I can do.”
In the aftermath of Sandy, Diamond returned home to help clean up the historic Long Beach boardwalk. It started to bring back all the memories of his youth, which, of course, included a long history of heated Islanders-Rangers games at the Coliseum with his dad and friends, probably the same venue where he learned about spearing.
A lot of the people that were with him during those days and the years before are now the ones rooting for him to succeed. And if that coincides with rooting for the Islanders, then the success can only be richer.
“He’s fun to watch,” said Lazar, Diamond’s junior coach. “You definitely get your money’s worth when you’re watching Joey Diamond. And you can quote me on that.”