Isles optimistic heading into 1st B’klyn playoff game
NOT EVERYTHING went swimmingly during the Islanders’ first season at Barclays Center, although they notably did finish with a better home record than they managed one year ago in their farewell campaign at beloved Nassau Coliseum.
After earning a series-opening split in the first two games of the playoffs this week in Florida, the Isles will play their first postseason game in Brooklyn on Sunday night — armed with home-ice advantage in what now amounts to a best-of-5 series and looking for a replication of the tinderbox atmosphere they’ve come to expect from their fans in their most recent playoff appearances in 2013 and 2015.
“The Coliseum actually felt like the place was going to fall down last year,” winger Matt Martin said Saturday. “You hope that it’s similar at Barclays Center. We accomplished what we wanted to in getting a split in Florida, but now we have to use the three games at home to our advantage.”
The Isles finished with a home mark of 25-11-5 this year en route to their second straight 100-point campaign, earning three more standings points (55-52) than they had in their final season in Uniondale.
Still, this is the sixth consecutive playoff series — dating back to 2003 — in which the Islanders came back from their first two road games in a 1-1 series tie.
They lost each of those previous five series, going just 3-9 in their final 12 postseason dates at the Coliseum. They did take two of three at home against Washington last year before a noshow performance on the road in Game 7.
“It’s a long series and we’ve learned that it’s hard to put teams away. There’s still a long way to go, but we definitely want to take advantage of being home,” John Tavares said.
“The Coliseum to me was one of the most intimidating buildings; (the fans) were right on top of you,” coach Jack Capuano said. “Here it’s going to be the same way. To me, the first real taste of it was the first Rangers game at home (in December), just to see how loud it can get (at Barclays Center).”
Of course, the Isles finished 28th in the NHL with an average attendance of just 13,626 — and 27th in capacity at 86 percent of the maximum attendance of 15,575, which includes about 1,500 seats with limited views.
Among the challenges the Isles players experienced this year were commuting — often by train — from Long Island on game days. By midseason, they switched their morning skates to their Syosset practice facility, although those skates will shift back to Brooklyn beginning Sunday.
Several players also voiced displeasure recently about the shoddy first-year ice conditions at Barclays, but the NHL dispatched ice guru Dan Craig and other technicians last month to help rectify those issues.
“It’s gotten better since they put the dehumidifiers in and it’s definitely helped,” Kyle Okposo said. “It’s been noticeable, it’s definitely been better, so hopefully it will be more of the same (Sunday) night.”
LINE DANCING?
Capuano indicated “there’s been consideration” of shifting Frans Nielsen from Tavares’ left wing back to center on another line for defensive purposes, but said “we can’t sacrifice that line right now (also with Okposo) to try to get other guys going. So we need other guys to pick it up.”
Asked about a sloppy Game 2 at both ends by the line of Josh Bailey, Brock Nelson and Nikolay Kulemin, Capuano acknowledged: “You can say that those guys have struggled” and “they haven’t really generated a whole lot.” But the coach gave no indication of lineup changes for Game 3.