While the New York Islanders are Vegas-bound for the postseason, they will once again be without a home for next season. Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov’s Onexim Sports and Entertainment is planning to close Nassau Coliseum indefinitely while it seeks new investors to take over the lease and assume its remaining debt.
Previously, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that the Islanders would play the 2020 playoffs and the entire 2020-21 season at the 13,000 seat arena.
This, of course, is not the first time Nassau Coliseum has been closed.
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On April 27, 2015, a then-22 Evgeny Kuznetsov scored a brilliant late third-period goal on Jaroslav Halak to give the Capitals a thrilling 2-1 Game Seven win over the New York Islanders.
“Pretty sick,” Alex Ovechkin said of the goal.
“If you’ve never played hockey, you’ll never feel this,” Kuznetsov added.
The victory sent the Capitals to the second round of the 2015 playoffs and, at the time (we thought), ended the Islanders’ 43-year run at the Nassau Coliseum as they were moving to play in Brooklyn at the Barclays Center. Here is a mature Photoshop I made then.
But three and a half years later, the Islanders returned on December 1, 2018, after the Coliseum underwent a $165 million renovation.
The team has remained since then and was planning to stay until construction was completed on Belmont Park Arena ahead of the NHL’s 2021-22 season.
Now, if Nassau Coliseum remains closed, the Islanders will either have to return to Brooklyn or find temporary digs elsewhere.
