This might be difficult for the natives to swallow, but the idea for the Islanders is not to try and recreate the atmosphere that existed at the Coliseum, it is to create an atmosphere of its own at their new home in Brooklyn.
No, Barclays Center is not the Coliseum, and really, until last season’s tidal wave of nostalgia recast the pumpkin into a glittering coach, that would have been perceived as a good thing. For years and years, nobody went to the old barn anymore, and it wasn’t because it was too crowded.
Nobody came to hear the goal horn and nobody cared how it sounded and could even tell you what exactly it sounded like. The sound of the horn of a car stuck for miles in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the LIE? Fine. The sound of the bell of a cow on a farm in Suffolk County? Maybe. The sound of a foghorn from a lighthouse on the East End? If you say so.
What did it sound like, by the way, when Mike Bossy got his 50 in 50 or when Bob Nystrom scored at 7:11 of overtime? It sounded like bedlam is what it sounded like. Nobody could hear the horn. Or was it a siren?
Ownership is doing the team and its players no favor by building a new practice facility at Cantiague Park in Hicksville instead of attempting to find a site for a rink in — or nearer to — Brooklyn.
Politicos who suggest the move to Barclays is temporary and the team will soon return to the Island and a renovated Coliseum are doing no favors for the team, the players or the Long Island fan base.
This is a Brooklyn team, even if the incoming ownership and Barclays management that runs the off-ice operation, did not petition the league to change the club’s name to either “the Brooklyn Islanders” or “The New York Islanders of Brooklyn.”
This is a Brooklyn team, even if the primary uniforms and the logo remain the same, and even as all of the great old banners from the old barn have been shipped to, and will be hang in, Barclays.
Even as the same P.A. guy will be in place, and the same organ and organist, and even as the same goal horn will sound in the wake of the tantrum on social media this week after management introduced a distinctive city sound into the mix, that of a subway horn, at an exhibition game.
The Islanders have built a pretty darn good team that is a very watchable one. Ownership has the obligation to try and make it Brooklyn’s team without neglecting the franchise’s roots or offending its loyal and original fan base.
It’s a tightrope difficult to walk, but the transformation is both necessary and appropriate. This is about a new era in Islanders hockey and creating a new environment and atmosphere at Barclays.
This is about growing a new tradition in Brooklyn. The sooner the better.
If the Rangers had known Oscar Lindberg would have a camp like this, no, they would not have signed free agent Jarret Stoll in August. But now that he is here, Stoll is an asset down the middle whose value will only increase in the playoffs.
And that, as the Rangers become one of those teams in pro sports for whom success can only be achieved by winning a championship, is what management must prioritize even in dealing for the next seven months with an untenable cap situation and an imperfect roster.
We’re supposed to believe that “Mr. Jacobs” of the Bruins just might rather pass on his $33 million-plus share of the $1 billion in fees projected by Gary Bettman if the NHL adds two clubs for 2017-18 than recommend that the league in fact expand?
Sure he will.
Remember. Expansion fees are not included in Hockey Related Revenue and thus belong to the owners and owners only. And 2017-18 expansion would come two seasons before an anticipated Owners’ Lockout IV.
Spare us the consternation about the continuing numerical unbalance between the East and West if Quebec joins Las Vegas as expansion clubs.
The next round of expansion should bring a radical realignment of the NHL that could, if not should, feature a Canadian Conference.
But about the expansion draft. We raised the issue last year and are raising it again. In a league in which successful teams always have extremely limited cap space, is the NHL going to create a pair of teams that would have up to $75 million of space with which to bid on free agents?
Meanwhile, the first NHL team ever to play in Brooklyn will be called “New York” when the only NHL team ever to include “Brooklyn” in its name — the 1941-42 Brooklyn Americans — played at Madison Square Garden.
Finally, the Blackhawks may be very good at hockey, but their decision not to inscribe Antti Raanta’s name into the Stanley Cup makes the franchise look petty, petty, petty bad.