Rinx owner Tom Palamara took a victory lap this week when Hurricanes goaltender and Long Islander Brandon Bussi brought the Stanley Cup to his crowded ice facility in Hauppauge on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first thing he did when he walked in this building, he went right to the north rink,\u201d Palamara told The Post. \u201cBecause he wanted to step on the ice with the Cup where he first stepped on the ice as a child \u2014 and he had all the kids around him.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The jubilant moment shared by much of the L.I. hockey community \u2014 and fans harmoniously waiting in a seemingly infinite line while wearing Islanders, Rangers and Canes jerseys \u2014 is just the latest feather in Palamara\u2019s cap.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Carolina Hurricanes goalie Brandon Bussi, center, poses for group photos, including with Tom Palamara, center right, on Wednesday, August 19, 2026, at The Rinx in Hauppauge, N.Y. Heather Khalifa for NY Post<\/p>\n
He\u2019s been a pioneer in the sport for decades \u2014 dating back half a century to when Palamara started the Providence College women\u2019s hockey team in 1974.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The inaugural head coach found himself working underneath future Devils Stanley Cup-winning general manager Lou Lamoriello, who later worked for the Isles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tom Palamara speaks about Carolina Hurricanes goalie Brandon Bussi during his visit to The Rinx on Wednesday, August 19, 2026, in Hauppauge, N.Y. Heather Khalifa for NY Post<\/p>\n
Professional ice hockey player Brandon Thomas Bussi brings the Stanley Cup to Bracco\u2019s Clam & Oyster Bar in Freeport, NY, on Wednesday, August 19, 2026. Stefano Giovannini<\/p>\n
Palamara said the experience \u201creally started my hockey career,\u201d which led to a role as an off-ice official with the NHL.\u00a0<\/p>\n
More recently, Palamara brought his years of valuable experience back home to the island and has owned the popular venue where top-tier local hockey talent has trained for over two decades. He was also named president of the New York State Amateur Hockey Association earlier in the year.\u00a0
When reflecting on Bussi setting the Cup down on the Rinx ice surface and hallways, Palamara had one word to describe the full-circle moment: \u201camazing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Although only a portion of those fans were able to get in the building before Bussi had to leave \u2014 Huntington\u2019s Greg Packer was the first to arrive, lining up at 5:30 a.m. for the 10:15 a.m. start \u2014 the first Suffolk County Cup champ made it worth everyone\u2019s while.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Carolina Hurricanes goalie Brandon Bussi, center, poses for group photos, including with Tom Palamara, third from left, on Wednesday, August 19, 2026, at The Rinx in Hauppauge, N.Y. Heather Khalifa for NY Post<\/p>\n
Bussi walked the Stanley Cup to the seemingly infinite line outdoors that snaked into nearby park land, so everybody who showed up could get an eyeball view of him with the coveted hardware.\u00a0
\u201cIt was so good to see the fans,\u201d Palamara said, \u201cbut also to see how Brandon really took care of the fans.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rinx owner Tom Palamara took a victory lap this week when Hurricanes goaltender and Long Islander Brandon Bussi…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1014222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,3107,6084,405,403,5226,5225,293,5228,5227,62,7010,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1014221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-carolina-hurricanes","tag-long-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-nhl","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-sports","tag-stanley-cup","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117131579649766755","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1014221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1014222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1014221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1014221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1014221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}