New York Islanders Transition from Long Island to Barclays

For the last several seasons, the New York Islanders have been somewhat forgotten by casual hockey fans. Of course the fans of the franchise are going to live and die by the team, but everyone else has viewed them as a squad looking for some type of identity. All of a sudden, they now look like one of the hottest franchises in the NHL with a move to Brooklyn on the horizon and a young and talented team. It certainly will be an exciting time after years of mediocrity.

Most teams who have change on the horizon seem to focus on making the roster as good as possible when that change happens. A lot of new excitement is going to be surrounding Brooklyn when the Islanders (or maybe another name) start playing there. However, it is nice to see that those loyal fans out on Long Island are getting an opportunity to see a legitimate Stanley Cup contender fight every single night before they are gone.

This team really looks like they are something special, as people in fantasy hockey like the way standouts such as John Tavares, Jaro Halak and Travis Hamonic are playing. It seems like an entire team effort, and in a pretty mediocre Eastern conference, anything can happen as long as they get into the playoffs while things are going well.

Eventually, the Islanders are going to move to a fancy, state of the art arena, and new fans are going to adopt them as their NHL team. However, there is something to be said for this final run with a pretty talented core group of players. They might not be as talented as that dynasty three decades ago that really helped to build this franchise, but a memorable playoff run could make the move a little bit more tolerable.