Islanders Close Coliseum with Crescendo

The last playoff game at Nassau Coliseum was a visceral one.

Anthony Beauvillier's OT winner in Game 6 against the Tampa Bay Lightning hit all sorts of senses. Ears rung from a deafening roar. Fans - and players - jumped into each other's arms, hugging and high-fiving each other. The smell of stale beer hung in the air as cans rained down from the stands, thrown onto the ice in a fit of celebration. Fans mobbed Jon Ledecky on the concourse as they took their time leaving the building, loudly shouting out "Let's Go Islanders!"

The Islanders didn't close the building with a Stanley Cup, but the Coliseum sure went out with a crescendo.

"I'm glad the Coli was able to be closed down in that manner because it deserved that," Captain Anders Lee said. "Our fans deserved that, I think us as players deserved that as well. It feels right in some ways, it feels wrong in other ways. We still feel how close we are, we know where we are, so it's a little bittersweet in that regard."

Game 6 was the exclamation point on a rowdy and boisterous swan song for the Coliseum. The old barn seemingly became an envy of the hockey world in the postseason, putting its best fan foot forward with chants, tailgates and rising decibel level. Whether it was Dan Feeney chugging beers, the crowd joining in for the national anthem or spontaneous New York Saints chants, the energy rarely, if ever, dipped during the postseason.

"Hands down we have the best fans in the league," Semyon Varlamov said. "It's unbelievable. It's so much fun to play in. It's a little bit stressful before games because they can be pretty loud. It's an amazing and unbelievable atmosphere, so we as a team will miss it for sure."

Ryan Pulock, who saved Game 4 vs Tampa in the final seconds before being mobbed by his teammates said just thinking about the atmosphere in the Coliseum made him shiver.

"It kind of gives you chills," the usually-reserved Pulock said. "Those are some memories we'll all remember for the rest of our lives really a couple of those moments. The fans will too."

Going into this (second) final season at the Coliseum, a lot of the tenured Islanders were asked about their memories of the building. For a lot of them, their first games and first goals stood out, but this deep playoff run allowed for memories to be made right up to the very end. Head Coach Barry Trotz, who was on the receiving end of a less-friendly beer toss back in 2015, said Game 6 was as good a hockey memory he's had at the Coliseum. Same with Casey Cizikas, who routinely got one of the loudest pre-game ovations when his name was announced in the starting lineup.

"Game 6 is going to stand out for me," Cizikas said. "We never stop fighting and the crowd felt that energy and they kept growing, getting bigger and bigger, louder and louder and we fed off it. That's going to be the game that sticks with me for a long time."

There were plenty of special nights in the Coliseum's second life. Fans knocked the stanchions out of the glass in the
Islanders return on Dec. 1, 2018, setting the tone for the next three years. Brendan Burke's "

Butch Goring and John Tonelli had their jerseys retired above the ice they played on.

The Islanders' 6-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 28, 2019 became one of the most legendary regular season games on record. The Josh Bailey song rang out almost nightly - and even earwormed its way into Ilya Sorokin's head. The Islanders also won their last meeting with the rival Rangers on Coliseum ice, rewriting a wrong from the 2015 closeout.

"I feel like we've had a couple of these with the last time we've been there, but it was a good run," Bailey, the longest-tenured Islander said. "It's a special building, for our fans, for this organization, it's meant so much to us to play there and the atmosphere, but you turn the page and move forward and we're looking forward to moving into UBS."

Cal Clutterbuck has long professed his affinity for the building, citing the low roof and the noise the acoustics seem to generate. After this year's playoff run, Clutterbuck revised his thoughts a little, perhaps informed by playing without fans for the first part of the season. As much as he loves the building he's played in for five of his eight years as an Islander, it's the people who power the electricity.

"People talk about the building and the conversation is always the Coliseum, the Coliseum, but it's really like more the people who fill the place up, and the energy they can muster up," Clutterbuck said. "Just there's a genuine feeling of honesty in the building, I think it reflects the fanbase and population really well. As a player, you can feel it. There are a lot of buildings are loud, but this one has a different sort of tone to it. We really love it and we're looking forward to that sound being transported a couple miles down the road next year."

The Islanders are looking ahead to UBS Arena, which Trotz said will be the "grandest" building in the league next season - and a source of energy as the team ramps back up from a short offseason.

There will surely be new memories made in the new building and the Islanders hope to fill it with as many banners as the dynasty Islanders hung up at the Coliseum. On Sunday, as the team decompressed after a deep postseason run, there was a pause to say thanks to the old barn for rocking once more in the playoffs, beer chugs, beer cans, OT winners, series clinchers, songs sung and all. The Coliseum deserved it all. Clutterbuck summed it up.

"What a way for them to go out."