The Coliseum’s last hurrah

Islanders giving fans something to cheer about in final season on L.I.

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When the breakout New York Islanders have scored one of their many dramatic goals this season at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, it sounds like the roof could blow off the place. And inside the 43-year-old arena on Hempstead Turnpike in Uniondale, you never know if it might actually happen.

“This is an old, old arena, so the noise kind of gets trapped in here,” Islanders forward Matt Martin said. “The building almost rumbles. It’s one of the oldest arenas in the league and a very fun, fun place to play.”

“All year it’s been spectacular,” added Islanders captain John Tavares of the Coliseum crowds. The Islanders have given their fans much to cheer about this season as the team jockeys for position atop the Metropolitan Division with a 34-18-1 record and 69 points through Sunday, including 17 wins at the Coliseum, five more than all of last season. And fans have responded, selling out the arena 13 times to date.

‘It is crazy in there’
The team is having its best season in more than a generation and it’s happening as the team prepares to leave the much-maligned Coliseum for the state-of-the-art Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

“Certainly with the way the season has gone,” said Tavares of the final season at the Coliseum, “and how great the crowds have been, certainly, I think, more and more it pops in your mind.”

For former Islanders player and coach, Butch Goring, the team’s current television color commentator, the reality of the team’s move about 30 miles west hasn’t sunk in. “I’ll deal with that when it happens,” Goring, a four-time Stanley Cup champion, said. “Right now I’m going to enjoy what’s going on now.”

Goring, who now lives in Oyster Bay, noted some of the features of the “old barn” that makes it so unique, like its “Zamboni corner,” where pucks take unexpected bounces, or the fact that the Coliseum is much smaller than newer arenas, which enhances the views and makes the building louder. “This, without question,” he said, “is the loudest building in the league. It is crazy in there.”

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