Lou Lamoriello has no qualms about the Islanders’ layoff or their move back to Barclays Center disrupting their playoff high.
After clinching a sweep of the Penguins on Tuesday night in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Islanders will wait to find out their next opponent — the Capitals lead the Hurricanes 2-1 in their series — but the location is set. Their past 14 home games have all been played at the Coliseum, but now the Islanders will go back to commuting to Barclays Center for the rest of the postseason.
“We’re not going to allow any change to get in the way of what we’re doing at this point,” Lamoriello, the Islanders’ president and general manager, said Wednesday on WFAN.
“The only way it becomes a negative is you think it’s a negative or there are reasons for it to be. We have no reason for it to be a negative. We played half a season there. It’ll be our home arena. We look forward to our fans, who have just been tremendous, as far as what they brought. We have no doubt they will be the same in Brooklyn.”
The Islanders went 12-7-1 in Brooklyn this season and 12-7-2 at the Coliseum. They hosted playoff hockey at Barclays Center in 2016 and went 2-1-2.
The NHL allowed the Islanders to play at the Coliseum for the first round, in what was seen as a compromise after splitting their regular season between the two arenas, but said it did “not qualify as an NHL major-league facility.”
Lamoriello called the Coliseum an “obsolete building” and said the franchise “could never survive playing there” financially.
As for waiting around to start their next series, Lamoriello said the Islanders would make sure to use the time off to their advantage.
“There’s two schools of thought, but we can’t control it, so we can’t allow it to get in the way,” Lamoriello said. “We’ll handle it the best way we can. The players will get a couple days off, which is much needed.”