Islanders To Play Select Games at Nassau Coliseum

The barn will rock again.
Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday afternoon the New York Islanders will begin playing select regular season home games at the NYCB Live Home of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, beginning next season.

The Islanders will split home ice between the Coliseum and their current home Barclays Center until the team's new arena at Belmont is ready sometime likely in the 2021-22 season. The team is set to play 12 games at the Coliseum as early as September 2018 then will split the remaining home games after 2018-19 between Brooklyn and Long Island.
"There are about 120 games; three seasons" Cuomo said Monday "The number of games over those three seasons will be split, half at played Barclays Center and half played at the Coliseum."

The announcement means the team playing its first regular season games in Uniondale since April of 2015. Last September, the team played a pre-season game in front of a sold-out crowd at the Coliseum, the team's home from 1972-2015.
"The building has obviously got a tremendous sense of history and tradition" Islanders Co-Owner Jon Ledecky said at Monday's press conference. "Our fans are so excited to be here. I think if there were no seats, and they had to stand, 14,000 would come and stand here, that's how excited they are."
Earlier this month, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman toured the Coliseum to ensure the building was up to NHL standards and would be able to host the team during part of their three season wait for the new building.
"The Coliseum will undergo some basic structural modifications so it meets the specifications on the Commissioner" Cuomo said Monday "It will also give us an opportunity to welcome back the Islanders to the place where they belong which is Long Island."

Scheduling details will be ironed out by National Hockey League. The league will determine which games are played at each arena, as well as which building will home the team's playoffs games if they advance to the post-season.
Still, even without a definitive schedule, Monday's announcement was exciting news for the Islanders.
"We know how our fan base felt about this place and us as players too," captain John Tavares said. "There have been so many good memories, at least that I've had here with my teammates and personally I had so much fun playing here and it's such a big part of the history of the organization. It's really exciting with the development at Belmont, what that's going to mean to the franchise long-term and then on the short-term basis, being able to come back to somewhere where really the heart of the franchise is."