Nassau Coliseum: It Might Be a Dump, But It's *OUR* Dump

As much as I have enjoyed going to the old barn, I will not be to unhappy to see a new areneer built. I have been in MSG and the (then) Continental Airlines Arena to see many games and I must say, the NVMC is minor league in comparison. Lets face it, nothing lasts forever, and progres stops for nobody. Our beloved Islanders deserve a new venue ASAP.

but by far the best of the memories for me are just the fact that this was something that my Dad and I did.
My parents were divorced and Dad bought season tickets…….The Islanders and NVMC became something to keep Daddy and his little girl close and something to always bond over.

Besides the obvious clinching the Cups at home and Banner-Raisings, those 2 Game 6’s against Pens and Flyers after being down 3-0 in both series back in ‘75. Watching Nystrom bust his ass every night. Gillies fighting O’Reilly, Bossy 50-50, Not being able to remember where I parked one night when it was about 10 degrees upon leaving after one game and having a Nassau police car drive me around until I spotted it,lol. Games starting @ 8:05….I can go on and on…..But I will say one thing about the Old Barn. I remember it having great sightlines for hockey. Not a bad seat in the house.

But I saw many concerts there as well, the most memorable for me was AC/DC with Bon Scott opening for Ted Nugent sitting 5th Row Center. Couldn’t hear for 3 days. KISS, Rush, BOC….. Saw some Tractor Pulls/ Mud Bog racing there too. Globetrotters, Dr. J with the Nets (when I actually cared about basketball). First time I saw the RB/B&B Circus was there as well.
  
Guess I have been fortunate to have many memories of The Coliseum.

Don’t know if I can do that. It woudl be hard to top my first game, though. It was in the ‘83-’84 season and the Oilers came to visit. Both Bossey and Gretzky scored 4 goals, and the game ended in an 8-8 tie. It was back and forth all the way, Too bad I was only 9 or 10 at the time. I didn’t realize just how special that rivalry was.

I saw the Arrows win the MISL title two out of the four times they won (another dynasty right there, at about the same time the Isles were on top). But again, I was even younger at those games than the first Isles game I just mentioned.

I guess the last ones that stick out were Games 3 and 6 of the Isles/Leafs series. I was first row behind the visitor’s goal for Game 3, and I watched Sedin’s face get smushed into the glass. I remember his nose staying in one place, but the rest of the face moving elsewhere. It was nearly cartoonish. He actually did break his nose, from what I remember. I was in worse seats for Game 6, but watching a young Trent Hunter step up and deliver is an image that will never leave me. It didn’t hurt when Cairns got his pound of flesh either.

I look forward to reading everyone else’s answers when I get home tonight. Back to work for now.

Between Islanders games, concerts, circuses, wrestling, NY Saints games and other assorted gatherings, I spent a significant portion of my early life at the Coliseum. Some quick memories:

1. My favorite, Game 3 2002 playoffs. First home playoff game in seven seasons. Islanders win easily, 6-1, but I’ve never been in a louder, more electric atmosphere in my life. It felt like the place was going to shoot off into space with every goal.
2. Somewhat less exciting but memorable nonetheless, my first concert there: ZZ Top and George Thorogood & The Destroyers in 1994.
3. WWF Bunkhouse Brawl, sometime in the late 80’s. Seats on the floor. Mr. Fuji wore a suit of armor. (I think it was him, anyway)
4. For some reason, I’ll never forget Beniot Hogue scoring an overtime goal against the Islanders literally hours after signing with Tampa Bay in a meaningless game between two very bad teams. Literally a few thousand people all at once said “Aw, c’mon! Him?”
5. Took my wife to her first pro hockey game, last season’s 7-1 Columbus Day drubbing by the Sabres. I was still happy she got to see the place that I love (and hate) so much. Too bad she got locked out when she stepped outside to use her phone.
6. Seeing the final road game in Hartford Whalers history (with Derek King playing for the Whale). The Islanders won and fans pelted the ice with giveaway plastic travel mugs for some reason. I kept mine.
7. Similarly, a few years later, the Islanders gave out squishy “stress pucks” at a game against Godknowswho. Jason Dawe scored the go-ahead goal and the foam pucks rained down. That time, I threw.

Honorable mention: Getting to step on the ice and onto the bench; getting to touch the Stanley Cup during it’s arena tour; getting a Geico-sponsored coffee mug after a game against the Red Wings at least 12 years ago. While a few obnoxious Rangers fans (and even some Islanders fans) scoffed at and passed on the mugs, the Wings fans were mostly elated, saying things like, “Look, honey! Wow, these are so great! Thanks! Gee whiz! That’s real nice!” I still have the mug and use it frequently.

I’m gonna miss that dump.

Now, I have two hockey-related dreams.

1. Get a Fighting Sioux jersey, now that the name is being retired.
2. Get to an Isles game at the Coliseum and finally have a Coli-related memory that isn’t “socks for your eleventh birthday” level-lame.

Poison and Warrant. They had lasers. That’s about all I remember.

Besides a handful of Islander games each year back in the glory years (playoffs only on TV, however, and I was kind of sad about that) I got to go to quite a number of Arrows games, including the very first one against the Cincinnati Kids (IIRC). I remember Steve ZZZungul, Branko Segota, and various other characters like Julie Veee (yes, they spelled it with three e’s as a gag) and Hugh Creaney. That was a lot of fun, and yes, another Long Island dynasty.

Otherwise, I have all sorts of childhood memories from the Coliseum: Globetrotters, Ringling Brothers… I remember the smell of the place (popcorny) even though I haven’t been there in ages. I wonder if it still smells the same…

There are far too many to list…I’ll try to keep this short:

- An Isles-Rags game, probably the ‘91-’92 season (I was born in ‘81), when the Isles scored the winner with 2.7 seconds left (some internet scouring and I found this game’s recap: http://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/29/sports/hockey-islanders-beat-clock-and-rangers.html?scp=1&sq=december%2029,%201991%20rangers&st=cse)

- ’93 Playoffs, Game 2 against the Caps, and this weird guy sitting near us who was apparently keeping and score and alerting us every time the game climbed up the record books as the longest game ever;

- ’93 Playoffs, and my Rangers fan bro-in-law, who should probably be sainted for doing this, taking me to Game 3 against the Habs. I remember Turgeon getting stoned by Roy on a breakaway in OT and also rifling what seemed like a 140mph slapshot that in my eyes knicked the crossbar. Habs scored and the bro-in-law gave a subtle fist pump. Still have not forgiven him for that;

- ’94 Playoffs, Game 3. Ugh. Every fan should experience this at least once in their life. It will make seeing Kyle Okposo handing the Cup over to JT that much sweeter;

- First row seats to seeing Ray Ferraro’s nose broken, and Derek King taking the water bottle and inexplicably spraying the blood with water;

- Turgeon on the Blues scoring against Tommy Salo. Stung less b/c we had $8 student tickets;

-Jose Theodore scoring;

- Watching Bryan Berard fly around the ice in his rookie season and thinking he was the next Potvin;

- Getting goosebumps seeing Roberto Luongo as a rookie. I also remember Theo Fleury scoring on him in a forgettable Isles-Rags game;

- Olli Jokinen penalty shot goal against Hasek…don’t ask me why

- Shawn Bates penalty shot game. Voice did not recover for 3 days;

- JT’s first goal

I can only imagine what the last game at NVMC will be like, but I will do everything in my power to be there for it.

first game i ever went to was november 5th 1995 against the flyers. i still have the ticket stub from the game. all that i can remember from that day, i was 3 at the time, was that my dad said he had a huge surprise for me and the next thing i knew, we were sitting in the coliseum…bought me my first jersey there and got me hooked on watching the isles for life.

also, last season, went to the first isles-rangers game of the season and i got to see jt score the game winner…then this season sitting right behind the bench when we played toronto on march 8th…i told my friend that martinek would end up getting the winning goal seeing as he was due for either a goal or an assist, he ended up getting the assist but still harassing every single maple leaf fans around us made my night

After 30 years of being a fan I finally get to go next year. I doubt highly I will think it’s a dump.

Can’t wait.

Some quick ones off the top of my head. A lot of mine are from my childhood. My pops had season tickets from their first year, so I was going to games even before I was born in 76.

1) Seeing one of the banners raised on opening night. Watching the banner go up and getting to see the Cup in person is one of my earliest memories, so I’m guessing this might have been after the first one, but I’m not at all sure.

2) Falling asleep during many a slow second period, only to wake up to that cold wind that blasts across the parking lots.

3) Horns honking Let’s Go Islanders after wins big and small.

4) The 93 run was the first time I went to all home playoff games in a season. The Penguin series was obviously phenomenal as a whole, and game 7 in Pittsburgh was ridiculous; but games 4 and 6 were actually pretty amazing in their own right. Game 4 had Tommy Fitzgerald scoring shorties on the same PK, one at the end of the second and one at the start of the third. Both games had the Isles taking leads only to have the Pens keep punching back, and the Isles barely holding on to win. They were unusually high scoring, but insanely entertaining, nerve-wracking games. I think because of this the crowd was exceptionally loud for those two.

5) All the characters at the Coliseum. I think I learned every curse word there. The guy who only referred to Wayne McBean as “McIdiot” or “Captain Minus.” The bugle man, who one night fell off the top tier railing at the end of our section down onto the concrete of the first tier (in true hockey fashion he was back for the third). The two rows of fans way up in the rafters that fought each other at an Isles/Rags game, one poor guy being tossed into the aisle and consequently tumbling all the way down those steep stairs. The guy whose cowbell was really just a hunk of metal he hit with a stick.

6) Mostly it’ll be a place I remember for all the times I had with my dad and my brother, watching games. Talking sports. Hanging out. It’s rare we get to do that anymore, so it’s nice to remember when we got to do it at the old barn.

The most memorable for me off the top of my head:
-Pens fight game this year
-The visible sadness and frowns of opponents visiting fans we destroyed here (buffalo fans lately, and pens fans that fight game)
-Cheering for and watching the man we call Palffy for a few years (far too short)
-The playoff games, obviously

Went to see Black and Blue (Black Sabbath and BOC) in the early eighties… Got so high I passed out during the intermission… missed the whole damn Sabbath show (never did get to see Dio, RIP)… then had to listen to how great the show was while scoffing down the back-to-sobriety sack at the Lynbrook White Castle…
If I died that night and they did an autopsy it would have looked like the “wrong shark” scene from Jaws.
Sidenote… I just googled it to see if I could find the right year(1981) and found there is a concert movie… I wonder if I could see myself sleeping through a Sabbath show at 16, could it cure my current insomnia…

Early January 1999 against the Sharks. Isles lost in OT, but Kenny Jonsson scored a nice one-timer. Made the pregame highlight montages for a few years afterward

Only other time I’ve seen the Isles in person was last season when they came down to Dallas. Waiting for their trip next season (and hoping its not over the holidays)

In Fall 2001, my high school band had a competition at Hofstra, and we missed the turn for our parking lot, so the bus drove to the Coliseum parking lot before turning around. Not too many hockey fans in the group, and the ones that were went for the Rangers and Devils. Still, this was in the midst of their hot start en route to the ’02 playoffs. Never been so excited to turn around in a parking lot

This thread was a good read. It’s always eye opening reading other’s stories of experiences in old arenas. Being all over the place, I’ve only gone to a handful of live games, and never in any of the “old” buildings, only the newer generation of “areeners” (that word makes me laugh) – once at GM Place, bunch at the Colliseum Corel Centre Scotiabank place and most recently one at Jobing and Verizon. But all of them are just the same – modern, sterile buildings with no real sense of je ne sais quoi that I assume the old buildings have/had.

One of the Latin teachers at my high school organized trips to Isles games solely on the premise that the venue was the “Colisuem.” We went to a few games under this guise, most notably the Gillies banner one. At one of the games there was a glass shattering check and my buddy and I ran down to observe the scene. We were pushed away by security, but not before we managed to pocket several pieces of the glass. I still have mine stashed away somewhere in my parent’s house.

Fast forward a few years and I’m now about to enter senior year of high school. A few of us go to the infamous draft party where we trade away a king’s ransom for Yashin. At the time we were overjoyed and had no idea that Chara would later be insanely good. One day later the joy continued with the addition of Peca. Four of us bought half season packs for 21 games and shortly before the season was to start we discovered an Osgood under the tree. I still remember being angry at losing to the Red Wings in that first game (5-4 OT). I don’t recall exactly what, but I’m pretty sure I was justifiably angry at a missed call by the refs that would have aided the Isles. My parents were overprotective and wouldn’t let me go to the games with my three friends (something about how we all had just gotten our driver’s licenses and were too young…I’m older and understand now, but at the time I was miffed). I would get driven to the games by my mom or dad and they would hang out in the parking lot or Marriot Bar, reading or doing work (my dad makes physics). There would be occasions where I had to sell some tickets, so of the 4 bobbleheads I could have gotten, I was only able to get Bates and Laviolette, missing out on Yashin and Peca.
Our tix were at the top of a corner right against the wall, but once a dad was there on a business outing and we got to experience the game from a couple rows back of the glass. We watched an incredible 6-5 OT thriller over Montreal and the team celebrated the winning goal right in front of us.
I had thought nothing would compare to the Isles-Rags games we went to and still would have thought so as I would miss out on some playoff games. I was in a pit orchestra and had to miss the first two games due to rehearsals and performances (parents wouldn’t let me out of this, once again, I understand now). For the final game vs Toronto, I finally got to travel with my friends. We had a blast on the ride there and even more so on the way back, but the Coliseum was rocking for the entirety of the game and I could barely hear or talk at the end of it.

I’ll miss the Coliseum.

When I was little my mom and dad worked for what was then EAB across the street. I went to a lot of games then in the later 90s but I was really too young to remember. My best experience at the colliseum was in the 07 playoffs when we played buffalo in game 4. It was the loudest place I have ever been. Every goal the building was shaking, and it was amazing. It was also the game the refs blew a call on a goal, and everyone threw their towels and beer bottles on the ice. it was pretty funn cause when the ref got hit the place went as loud as when we scored a goal. too bad we lost that game.

The first Islanders game I went to in person – I only had radio and Channel 9 up until then – was April 30, 1977, which was Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Semi-finals against Montreal. Those were the Habs of Dryden, Lafleur, Shutt, Lemaire, Robinson, Savard, Lapointe, et al. My father (who was not a hockey fan) and I sat two rows from the ice behind the goal. (I lived – and still live – in Jersey and my dad was nice enough to take me.) The Islanders lost 4-0 and the game wasn’t really that close. But, oh, watching the flying frenchmen on the attack in person. The sound of pucks off the glass. The sound of guys crashing the boards. You couldn’t hear that on TV like you can now.

We got to the game in time for the pre-game skate. A puck flew over the glass absolutely labeled for my dad’s head. A guy in a leather jacket in front of us holding the biggest beer you can imagine calmly took his other hand out of his pocket, caught the puck before it konked my dad’s head, put the puck in his pocket, and never interrupted the conversation he was having. My dad and I just looked at each other like, are you kidding me?

Other notables:

Watching Denis Potvin’s slapper trickle through John Davidson’s pads in OT to win Game 2 of the SC semi-finals against the Rangers in 1979. IMO, the rivalry has never been more intense.

Someone throwing a baby doll on the ice before the drop of the puck in Game 3 of the SC Finals in 1983 mocking cry-baby Wayne Gretzky for his whining about Billy Smith’s slash in Game 2. To this day, many old-time Islanders fans respect, but don’t go all gaga over Gretzky. Younger fans just can’t appreciate how bitter the Islanders-Oilers rivalry was. I am determined to get to Rexhall Place before a new building gets built in Edmonton. And, yes, I’m going to wear my Billy Smith jersey.

The OT games in 1993 when you knew Ray Ferraro was going to score. And then watching that douchebag Hunter cheapshot Turgeon.

Opening Day in 2001, shortly after 9/11, with the unfurling of the giant American flag on the ice for the anthem, wearing my FDNY flying “F” jersey (which will make a re-appearance this fall God willing) watching a revived Islanders team.

Notable moment missed? Bates penalty shot. I banged my knee early in that game and it swelled up terrible. No damage, but I watched Bates shot from Nassau County Medical Center waiting for my x-rays to come back.

Best Non-Islanders Moment? Watching Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on The Full Moon Fever Tour in ’89 from the 10th row.

I never got to see the glory years of the Islanders live, so it would have to be Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” tour in 1980. They only performed it in two venues (LA colliseum and Nassau) in the United States which made it pretty special. It was the second concert I ever attended (the first being Queen). After going to some 100 concerts in my lifetime, this was one of the most awe inspiring shows I’ve ever seen.

I guess i am like many of you no longer live on the Island but keep the torch burning for the Isles no matter where we might live. I have a lot of great memories of the coliseum but here are my favorites.

I think it goes without saying the 93 season was the one i remember the best. I must have gone to a dozen games that year to include all the playoff games. I have been to a bunch of games in LA, Anahiem, Tamoa Bay, and MSG but no place rocks like the coliseum when the Isles are winning. That place sounds like it might crumble some nights from the sound of the crowd! In 93 i was loving every minute of the Caps win and the Pittsburgh Miracle, it was awesome.

Pretty much every Islanders/Ranger game before 94 was epic because we had the ultimate chant in “1940” No matter the score or the dumb chants of Potvin Sucks you could always shut up a Rags fan with 1940! I miss those days.

And finally my Dad and I had season tickets to the New York Saints for like 3 or 4 seasons in a row, we sat in section 203 behind the penalty boxes and those games were awesome. I won a jersey contest one game and got to be out on the field before the game, It was cool to be on the field/ice that the greats played on.

I will miss the old barn greatly, but we can start new traditions and the new place if it really happens!

Zen mentioned the ol’ “1940” chant…man that was fucking awesome…in 1993, as a first year fan, with the 4 Cup banners in my team’s rafters, I felt like the luckiest fan in the world against those evil, corporate, gutless Rangers (I was 16)…

“19-NEVER” against the Devs was fun too…that chant was also taken from us :-(

Darius Kasparaitis…I must say he was the reason I even looked in hockey’s direction. I just wasn’t much of a sports guy then (NERD), my dad tried to get me into it when Patty La was on the team, but it wouldn’t stick… then I saw Kaspar the Un-friendly Ghost – he didn’t care who you were, or whether you were a future HOF’er, if he could hip check you and flip your skates above your head, he fuckin would! Da-ri-us!!! Da-ri-us!! He was why I first went to games…

Then I started to understand the game…King-Turgeon-Thomas…what an honor it was to watch that line play together.

THEN, when the playoffs began against the Caps that year I FELL IN LOVE WITH THE GAME…Overtime heroes…Chicken Parm Ferraro deking Beaupre with ease on a breakaway…Kasparaitis flooring #66, then Lemieux giving Kaspy that funny look like, “Are you really going after ME that hard??” Yeah mother f*cker he WAS!!…then I got in a car accident, was stuck in the hospital for 11 days, got to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs-LA Kings series from my hospital bed, but COMPLETELY MISSED the Habs series and the Isles losing (Yes I blame myself for losing that series)[oh, and wow, Dougie Gilmour…WOW]

Last, but not least, the Booster Club in section 333, with their cat-calls to referees like Paul Stewart, “Hey Stewart, youuuuu suck!!!!!” LMAO I loved those guys…

“Gimme an I!!
I!!
Gimme an S!!
S!!!
Gimme an L!!
L!!
Gimme an A!!
A!!
Gimme an N!!
N!!
Gimme a D!!
D!!
Gimme an E!!
E!!
Gimme an R!!
R!!
Gimme an S!!
S!!
What’s that spell?!!?!
ISLANDERS-LET’S GO ISLANDERS!!
<clap, clap, clap-clap-clap>
[then the whole fuckin place erupted…epic]