Dec. 22--Six decades after Walter O'Malley proposed building a stadium for his Brooklyn Dodgers at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues a sports arena sits nearly in the same spot. Denied a replacement for Ebbets Field, O'Malley followed population shifts and moved to Los Angeles, which worked out pretty well.
The NHL's New York Islanders and NBA's Brooklyn Nets have followed a new shift back to Brooklyn, to Barclays Center. The Islanders, forced out of Nassau Coliseum when politics and money got in the way of renovating or replacing the rundown arena, are still settling in during the first season of a 25-year lease. The arena, with its dark interior, hundreds of partially or very obstructed views, off-center scoreboard and white SUV parked behind one net, is just starting to feel like home.
"More and more it does, for sure," center John Tavares said after the team prepared for Monday's game against the Ducks. "You're in a place for so long and you're in here only the first couple months, so it's going to take time."
Practices are held on Long Island, where players live. On game days they commute to Brooklyn on the Long Island Rail Road and take their pregame naps at a hotel. "We'd rather be home but it's part of the transition and something we've got to get used to," defenseman Calvin de Haan said. "I think it's been all right so far."
In some ways the transition has gone well. The Islanders' improved business arrangement guarantees them perhaps as much as $50 million annually from Barclays Center, which keeps revenues from tickets, sponsorship and other areas. Also, the Islanders are 12-5-2 at home after defeating the Ducks, 5-2.
But their attendance average of 12,727 before Monday's game ranked 29th in the NHL and 25th in percentage of capacity, at 80.5. Last season they averaged 15,334 fans, 94.8% of capacity. "It's tough for some people to get here after work," De Haan said. "But we're trying to open up a new area and hopefully get people to start cheering for the Islanders here."
Lamoriello relishing new challenge
Lou Lamoriello's question as he approached his 73rd birthday wasn't why he should become general manager of the Maple Leafs after being squeezed out in New Jersey, where he built three Stanley Cup champions in 28 years.
After looking at a group that included Brendan Shanahan as Toronto's president, Mike Babcock as the coach, wunderkind Kyle Dubas as assistant general manager and Mark Hunter as director of player personnel, Lamoriello didn't think twice. "You look at that and you say, 'Why not?'" he said.
Lamoriello, elected to the Hall of Fame as a builder in 2009, last July became the newest person to tackle an old problem: leading the Maple Leafs to the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1967. He's intrigued by the possibilities outlined by Shanahan--whom Lamoriello drafted for the Devils in 1987--but aware of the changes needed to end years of failure.
"To me, this is the New York Yankees environment of the National Hockey League and should be, and yet there hasn't been success," he said last Saturday. "And yet the players are still movie stars after the game is over, win, lose or draw, because of the popularity and that creates, sometimes, an entitlement. That's what you have to get rid of and that's where the culture comes in, that you as a player and everybody else involved, including ourselves, have an obligation and have to be accountable to what our job is, not what people think after the fact.
