Islanders break in downtown digs
Suffer exhibition loss to Devils in first-ever NHL game in Brooklyn
During a weekend that featured a bittersweet farewell to two of our city’s greatest champions — Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte — in the Bronx, Brooklynites came Downtown en masse and in full throat Saturday night to welcome the arrival of our borough’s sporting future.
An animated crowd of 14,689 filled the Barclays Center to witness the first-ever NHL game played in Brooklyn, marking the Islanders’ historic initial step into the place they will officially call home beginning in 2015, if not sooner.
Though the Islanders slogged their way through a snooze-inducing 3-0 exhibition defeat to the New Jersey Devils on the admittedly not-yet-ready-for-prime-time ice surface, the buzz in the state-of-the-art arena was at a regular season pitch throughout the momentous evening.