The Islanders -- and the ice at Barclays Center -- "had a better showing in their second regular-season game in Brooklyn" yesterday against the Jets, according to Allan Kreda of the N.Y. TIMES. NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly during yesterday's matinee game "addressed complaints that the ice was slow and choppy during the Islanders’ season-opening defeat on Friday." Daly: "There is a new building for the NHL, and it’s going to be a work in progress." Islanders C John Tavares said that the ice "had improved" from Friday to yesterday. Tavares: "It seemed like it wasn’t as choppy today; pucks weren’t bouncing as much. Towards the end, it was starting to get a little slow again, but it was better. On Friday, it was tough to make plays." Meanwhile, Kreda writes the tenor of yesterday's crowd was "different from that of Friday night’s audience, which seemed edgy and not sure what to expect." The afternoon crowd "included many families, creating an atmosphere that was more typical of matinees through the years at Nassau Coliseum." Most of the upper bowl "was full, as it had been for the opener, with a majority of fans wearing blue-and-orange Islanders jerseys." Yesterday's announced attendance was 11,183, "about 4,600 short of capacity" (N.Y. TIMES, 10/13). In N.Y., Brett Cyrgalis writes the "thin but energetic" crowd represented a "much more realistic attendance number than the dreamt-of sellout on opening night Friday." Daly said of Barclays Center, "It’s a gorgeous facility, A-list in every respect, and when you compare it (to) where the Islanders have been playing, they’re finally in a first-rate facility. ... They want the fans in the seats, and my guess is part of that will be how they get out the gate and how they play" (N.Y. POST, 10/13).
