Readers say goodbye to the Long Island team as the Islanders move to Barclays in Brooklyn next season.

Opinion

Opinion Islanders Reader Essays

I grew up in Section 208, Row A. 
That was the area of Nassau Coliseum where my dad and I had season tickets for Islanders games from the late 1980s until the birth of my son in October 2003. 
I was too young to witness the Stanley Cup championship games from 1980-83, but I clearly remember the kids in my preschool class in Bellmore chanting, "Let's Go Islanders!" It sounded like a really good tune to me. I was a girlie girl who played with her Barbies -- while listening to announcers Jiggs McDonald and Eddie Westfall on Sports Channel. 
I started going to games with my dad in 1984. We were part of large and loud crowds with players on the ice named Bossy, Trottier and Potvin. Sometimes my dad let me get a pretzel from the shopping carts outside. I would eat it as we listened to the postgame radio show on the way home. 
I stood by my Islanders when they missed the playoffs in 1989, was part of the "New Decade, New Dream" when the Isles clinched a playoff berth in the last game of the 1990 season, and I had the best year of my hockey-fan life during the playoffs of 1993, when they beat Washington and Pittsburgh to reach the conference finals. 
I wrote multiple book reports about Mike Bossy's autobiography, and made goalie Mark Fitzpatrick into a papier-mâché doll as my sixth-grade art project. I studied for high school exams at weeknight games, placing my books on the ledge in front of me, a perk of sitting in our section's first row. 
I cried in my seat when the Rangers swept the playoff series of 1994, yet I kept returning for years after that, only to see a fisherman logo briefly take over our jerseys as the crowds around me dwindled. 
I was there with ice packs the day I had all four wisdom teeth pulled, and even came straight off flights from LaGuardia Airport once or twice, having planned travel around the Islanders' schedule. 
As I got older, I refused to date Rangers fans because I knew our personalities and beliefs would totally clash. 
I wrote my college entrance essay about the Islanders and then chose to stay home to attend Hofstra University. Among other reasons, I didn't want to abandon my team. 
I saved all of my ticket stubs and clipped Newsday articles and back covers for years, organizing them all in scrapbooks, which I am able to show to my son, now 11. Recently, I told him that when I was in seventh grade, my parents let me attend Islanders games at the Coliseum with my friends. My dad would drop us off and pick us up, which now, as a mom, sounds really scary. But the truth is, the Coliseum was a safe place, just like home. 
My son will be in seventh grade next year, so at a recent game, he asked whether he would be allowed to go to games with just his friends. 
I had to pause before responding. He will never be able to attend an Islanders game on his own at the Coliseum because when he is in seventh grade, the Coliseum will no longer be home. 
When we both realized this, the conversation was abruptly over. Neither of us was ready to deal with it. 
As the team fought for a playoff spot, I fought back tears all season each time Coldplay's "Fix You" was played to welcome the Islanders onto the ice. 
"Tears stream, down your face, when you lose something you cannot replace . . . Lights will guide you home . . ." 
Where is home? Brooklyn? 
Things could be worse. Brooklyn isn't Kansas City. But it might as well be, because my Islanders are leaving -- and taking my childhood with them. 
Reader Meredith Vogel lives in Melville.

Commentary

OPVOG12

The Islanders will take a piece of me to Brooklyn

Reader essay: A piece of me goes to Brooklyn

Islanders Reader Essay Vogel - Cropped

In 1978, fate chose me, a kid from Brooklyn, to become a lifelong fan of the New York Islanders. 
My mother had purchased satin spring jackets for my older brother and me. My brother got first dibs and picked the New York Rangers jacket because he was a fan of the team. So I got the Islanders jacket. 
I was 9 and only vaguely aware of the Islanders. I was a passionate Mets fan, addicted to baseball and the terrible team playing in Flushing. 
Living in Brooklyn, I learned that most of the other kids who followed professional hockey liked the Rangers. I started following the Islanders and began to fall for them when they lost in the 1978 playoffs to the inferior but tougher Toronto Maple Leafs. 
I recall my uncle agreeing with me that the Islanders were better than the Leafs, but the Leafs used dirty play to steal the series (on a heartbreaking overtime goal in Game 7). Predisposed to rooting for underdogs and bad teams in general (hello late-'70s Mets), the loss only intensified my interest in the Islanders. 
1979 was even worse for us Islanders fans. The Isles had a terrific season and were heavily favored to beat the Rangers and head to their first-ever finals. But the Rangers' goalie -- John Davidson -- stole the series with his acrobatic saves, and the Islanders lost in six games. That one hurt badly, 
The next year, the Islanders had a mediocre season, but at the end they engineered a trade for Butch Goring, the second-line center the team had long needed. As every Islander fan knows, this time the team dispatched the bullies, the Big Bad Bruins of Boston, on their way to face the formidable Philadelphia Flyers. 
On May 24, 1980, at 7 minutes, 11 seconds in overtime, "Mr. Islander," Bobby Nystrom, scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal, sending me screaming ecstatically throughout my house (after all, I was born at 7 pounds and 11 ounces!). I don't recall any reaction from my brother or my father, both Rangers fans. 
Over the next several years, my love for the team grew to genuine fanaticism. I listened to or watched every game, hiding a transistor radio under my pillow. I knew the number of every player -- I still do! -- and his statistics. As I got older, I realized how special the team was, arguably the best team in hockey history and perhaps New York sports history. 
I often lobbied my father to take me to an Islanders game, but he made the Nassau Coliseum seem like it was a million miles away, much too far from our home in the Marine Park section of Brooklyn for us to attend a game. It was "all the way out on the Island," he would say, as if the team played in Montauk. 
Although he was a big sports fan, my father didn't enjoy attending sporting events; he had an aversion to crowds. My brother considered himself lucky that our father took him to one Rangers game a year. I didn't attend my first Islanders game until the 1983-84 season, when a friend and his family invited me to go with them. 
For me, there's a striking irony to the Islanders leaving Long Island, my home for the past 14 years, for Brooklyn, where I lived until I was 24. 
My three children are all big Islanders fans (not that they really had a choice), and I've promised that we will attend games at the Barclays Center. It won't be as convenient as heading to Uniondale, that's for sure. 
I've already heard from friends that it's a pain to get there and the sight lines are nowhere as good as those at the Nassau Coliseum. Parking, too, is apparently a nightmare, according to people who have been there for concerts. But whenever I think of the team's move, I remind myself that Brooklyn is not that far away. It's not Montauk. 
Reader Jeff Siegel lives in Valley Stream.

OPSIEGEL

I wore my Islanders jacket proudly

Reader essay: Fate chose me to be an Islanders fan

Islanders Reader Essay - Siegel

As an Islanders fan since 1975, my reaction upon hearing of their move to Brooklyn was relief. For many years, rumors were that the team would move to Kansas City or Saskatchewan or some remote outpost. 
As the final season at Nassau Coliseum would down, however, I became increasingly melancholy. Although a long ride, I will hop on the train from Sayville to get to Barclays Center next season. The Stanley Cup banners will hang from the rafters along with the retired player numbers. The team has indicated it will keep the name and the logo, at least for now. 
But it won't be the same. 
Barclays is only 30 miles west of the Coliseum, but much farther in perception. Despite geographical and historical references, Brooklyn is not Long Island. This team belonged to the suburbs. It was cool that in newspaper accounts, Uniondale appeared right along with New York, Chicago, Montreal and Los Angeles. This was Long Island's link to the big leagues, and it gave us a sports identity that the Mets, Yankees, Jets and Giants couldn't. Now that identity will be in Brooklyn. 
It won't be the same. 
The 12 years I had season tickets at the Coliseum included two Stanley Cup seasons, 1982 and 1983. I witnessed the iron will of Bob Nystrom, the all-around greatness of Bryan Trottier, the unparalleled scoring ability of Mike Bossy and the steady greatness of Denis Potvin. There was the toughness of Clark Gillies and the non-stop hustle of John Tonelli, my favorite Islander. And who could forget the take-no-prisoners attitude of goaltender Billy Smith? 
I recall the night the Islanders beat Edmonton to sweep the Stanley Cup finals in 1983. Trottier, usually so stoic, skated around the rink pumping his arms, exhorting the crowd. 
I remember Mike Bossy scoring his 50th goal in the Islanders' 50th game in 1981, and Tonelli preserving the dynasty with two late goals, including the overtime winner in an incredible elimination game against Pittsburgh in 1982. 
Games against the Rangers were happenings, especially between rival fans in the stands. And who could possibly forget Nystrom's goal at 7 minutes, 11 seconds of overtime against the Flyers in 1980 to win Long Island's first Stanley Cup? I've always felt that 7-Eleven stores missed a marketing opportunity on Long Island after that. 
Until this year, the team hadn't been good for a long time, because of lousy management and mediocre players. But there were still some great players, including Pat LaFontaine, Pierre Turgeon, Zigmund Pálffy and, of course, today's star, John Tavares. But Tavares and his mates will play at Barclays next season. 
The Nassau Coliseum will be renovated for the circus, ice shows and whatever else they deem entertainment. As far as I'm concerned, the arena will cease to exist. I want to remember the old barn the way it was. My son thinks the Islanders will return someday. Ah, the optimism of youth. 
I will always be an Islanders fan, and perhaps they will hoist a Stanley Cup in Brooklyn. It would make me happy ... but it just won't be the same. 
Reader Jerry Giammatteo lives in Sayville.

OPGIA

Islanders in Brooklyn? It's still sinking in

Reader essay: It won't be the same

bobby ny cropped

During December's winter break from school, my daughter and I spent a night at a New York Islanders hockey game. In a way, it was no different from dozens of hockey nights we have spent together over the past 12 or 13 years. But on closer inspection it was very special. 
College sophomores home between semesters generally have better things to do then hang with Dad at a hockey game. It has been that way since she turned 13, the year her social life kicked in. However, she still goes to a few Mets and Islander games with me each year. It's one of the rare times I get to spend quality time with her. 
We started going to Islander games when she was in elementary school and the PTA would buy 300 of the best "last row" seats money could buy. 
I can remember bits and pieces of games we attended together over the years -- catching not one but two intermission T-shirts shot into the crowd from the ice in one night, a few awesome overtime shootouts, a couple of bench-clearing brawls. 
With the Islanders completing their last season at the Nassau Coliseum -- or the old barn, as some call it -- I thought back even further to experiences in the early '70s with my dad. We attended Islander games in 1972, the team's first season. A few short years later, we went to a slew of Stanley Cup playoff games. Dad and I also attended a few Mets, Knicks and Jets games. I don't remember many specifics, just a blurred collection of insignificant things: my first stick night, where the fans got mad at the refs and threw thousands of sticks on the ice in frustration, and seeing my first professional playoff game in any sport. 
I was enamored of Islander stars Bobby Nystrom and Clarke Gilles, two of my favorites. Forty years later, I play tennis with Bobby at a tennis facility by my home in Jericho, and I have socialized after work through business several times with Clarke. My memories of their stellar play and stardom have faded as I see them as everyday folks. 
We didn't have Facebook or Instagram back then, so my memories are all I have. We didn't snap photos at the game. Shame on me; maybe we should have. 
Next season the Islanders move to Brooklyn, so I am not so sure if hockey will be my family's sport of choice. My daughter is a young adult and our opportunities to go to games together, to bond and enjoy a few minutes of conversation, are dwindling. 
Maybe not going to games together is a rite of passage. I hope she carries on the tradition of taking kids to games if she has her own children. Maybe she will even take her father along. 
Reader Mark Fogel lives in Jericho.

OPFOGEL

Father-daughter bonding at the old barn

Reader essay: Bonding at the old barn

Islanders Reader Essay - Fogel

Long Island readers say goodbye to the Islanders

Newsday

Readers say goodbye to the Islanders

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