The New York Islanders are about to be full-time residents of Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum again. This is according to a story from Newsday's Randi F. Marshall, who reports that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will be at the Islanders game Saturday to announce that not only will the team be playing any postseason games in the Uniondale, N.Y., arena, they'll also be playing all of their home games for the 2020-21 season there.
Of course, this move will just be a temporary one as next year's NHL season is supposed to be the last for the Islanders before they move to a new arena at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y.
The decision for the Islanders to split games between Barclays Center in Brooklyn and Nassau was conceived around 2017, when the decision to move the team's home arena to Belmont was announced. Since then, it's been clear that Nassau was the preferred home for the Islanders, as last year's playoff series against the Pittsburgh Penguins showed.
That push hasn't been limited to the fans, it's made its way to people with actual government power. Just last month, Nassau County Executive Laura Curran sent a letter to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman asking to have all 2020-21 games played there. The commissioner originally called the request was "a little premature," per Newsday. Needless to say, Curran could not be happier about this recent development.
"This isn't just what the fans want -- it's what the players and the organization want too," she said in a statement, calling Cuomo "indispensable" to her efforts to get the team back to the Coliseum, according to Newsday.
Once this whole plan is set in motion, the Islanders' last game in Brooklyn will be March 22.
