The Islanders announced Monday they are moving seven of their regular season games to Nassau Coliseum, which includes bringing the Islanders-Rangers rivalry back to Long Island.
Two of the relocated games, which were originally set to take place at the Barclays Center, are against the Rangers on Jan. 16 and Feb. 25. The Isles now have 28 games scheduled at the Coliseum for the 2019-20 season. The Jan. 16 game will mark the first time the rivals have played at the Coliseum since March 10, 2015, a 2-1 Rangers win.
After the 2014-15 season, the Isles moved their home games to Barclays Center, but starting last year they split their home games between Barclays and the Coliseum until their new Belmont arena is complete. The move will be a welcome one for the Rangers, who didn’t get their first win at Barclays until Jan. 12 of this year.
This is the second year of a three-year agreement arrangement by Gov. Andrew Cuomo that ensures the Islanders split games between the Coliseum, which served as their home arena from 1972 through 2015, and Barclays Center, where they played full-time from 2015 until 2018.
In 2017, the Coliseum reopened after a $180 million renovation and in the summer of 2018 underwent another renovation worth nearly $10 million in order to bring the arena into NHL compliance to host Islander games.
With the Islanders’ $1.3 billion Belmont arena project officially breaking ground on Monday, the team won’t have to split their schedule between two homes for much longer. The arena is set to be ready in 2021.
The other games moved from Brooklyn to Nassau are Oct. 6 vs. Winnipeg; Oct. 8 vs. Edmonton; Oct. 27 vs. Philadelphia; Jan. 2 vs. New Jersey and Jan. 6 vs. Colorado.