Something is being shrouded in all the excitement with the Islanders pending move to Brooklyn, and that thing is sentimentality.
Make no mistake: Nobody is lamenting the fact that soon the Islanders will no longer be playing their home games and hosting the majority of their practices at one of the most antiquated arenas in North American sports. Yet it’s there, at the Nassau Coliseum, hard on Hempstead Turnpike just off the Meadowbrook Parkway, way back in pavement-strewn Uniondale, where this franchise was born, and where its heart still remains.
On Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, they got a glimpse at their new home come the 2015-16 season, a shiny $1 billion cathedral to all that is modern and trendy and accommodating for fans and players alike. Charles Wang, the Islanders’ belabored owner, dropped a ceremonial first puck along with Barclays Center developer Bruce Ratner. On the other end of the ice were the Devils, winning the first NHL game — even if it was an exhibition — in the borough of churches, 3-0, all the while the Coliseum sat vacant and dank.
“I know a lot of people are disappointed we’re leaving Nassau County, I know we’re disappointed, we would have loved to have it work out here,” captain John Tavares told The Post after a practice there on Friday, his mouth turned up at the sides with a bittersweet grin.
Coming off a wonderful season in which he was a finalist for the Hart Trophy, Tavares is not only the face of the franchise but has distinguished himself as the clearest voice in the locker room concerning the move. He glances around the Coliseum and notices all the lackluster amenities, knows it’s not good for the fans and for attracting free agents to make his team better.
Yet he can’t help it when his heartstrings pull just a little.
“The Coliseum, so many special things have happened here, so many great teams, great players,” said Tavares, wiser than his 23 years. “It’s home. You get used to it. We know this place means a lot to people, but it’s definitely going to be time once we move to Brooklyn.”
The time on Saturday was about boasting and bragging and showing off how great the Islanders’ future will be in their new plush digs. Posters of an artist’s renderings of the team’s new “campus” within the bowels of the building were on display, and boy it looks nice.
“It was a great game and it was a great atmosphere,” coach Jack Capuano said after his team came out flat and were practically blown out of the building. “When the time comes, we’ll be excited to be here.”
Added forward Josh Bailey: “A lot of the rinks now, they’re all obviously great rinks, but they can look pretty generic. I think it’s kind of nice to have a little bit different of set up.”
Yes, things are different in Brooklyn, where the ice is off-center and the 15,813 capacity makes for the second-smallest arena in the league. Most of the 14,689 fans in attendance were clad in Islanders’ orange and blue, and spoke about how much they liked the new place. The fans in the obstructed-view seats, of which there were more than a handful, maybe not so much.
So with some ironing out still to do over the next two years, the one absolute is that this building will modernize a franchise that is ripe with history, and adds volume to the perceptible buzz the team is now carrying with them.
“It’s time for a new building,” Tavares said. “I think financially and on the business side of things, it’s important nowadays. But the Coliseum . . .”
Tavares trailed off, shaking his head — the idea complete if you just knew what he was talking about.
***
Forward Kyle Okposo took a stick to the face late in the third period, necessitating some stitches above his left eye. His eye was bloodshot and the area was swollen, but Okposo said, “it should be all right.”