Sydney Esiason does not expect to spend a lot of time in her family home this postseason, even with her boyfriend’s Islanders eliminated.
Sydney is the daughter of Boomer Esiason, who bleeds Rangers blue and red, especially during the postseason.
“Matt and I weren’t actually allowed in the house when the Rangers were in the Stanley Cup because my dad thought we were bad luck,” Sydney said of last season’s five-game loss to the Kings.
“Every time we stepped inside the house, the Kings would score, the Rangers would lose. I probably won’t be allowed into my own family home and Matt won’t be getting home-cooked meals for a while.”
Matt is Islanders forward Matt Martin, whose team would have loved to be opening a series with the rival Rangers on Thursday night. Instead, it will be the Capitals coming to the Garden after knocking out the Islanders in a hard-fought seven-game series.
The one silver lining for Sydney, who works as a host for NHL.com, was not having to deal with the angst of her boyfriend’s actual team going up against her dad’s favorite team. But she says despite the split allegiances, the two get along “so well.”
“They golf together, they watch games together, my dad likes to ask Matt about teams, players, and Matt always asks him for advice,” said Sydney, who also has an older brother, Gunnar.
“They are actually really good friends and actually quite similar, both hard-working guys. It’s a lot better of a relationship than people probably think it is. I don’t have to be there when they hang out, so that’s a good thing.”
And it turned out much better than Sydney suspected it might. She was dating Martin for three weeks before she brought him to her parents’ Long Island home.
“I was really nervous to bring him to the house, that he played for the Islanders was a main concern of mine,” Sydney, 22, said. “My mom welcomed him with open arms, of course. She’s the sweetest person ever. My dad walks into the kitchen with a Brad Richards Rangers jersey on acting like this is what he wears every day, like it was totally normal and just said, ‘Hey, Matt, how’s it going?’ and shook his hand. It was actually great because it broke the ice.”
Now Sydney is following in the footsteps of her quarterback-turned-WFAN-host father’s second career. She landed a position at NHL.com not long after graduating from Boston College. She spends her nights during the season watching games with producers and her fellow hosts — “like Buffalo Wild Wings without the beer,” she says — then calls the highlights for the league’s website.
“I was auditioning left and right, and nothing was coming my way at first,” she said. “But then I auditioned with the NHL, and I thought it was my worst audition out of every single one. I’ve been there since October and I’m just so happy and grateful.”