Sports
Islanders Barclays Center Match-up Canceled
Player lockout puts the brakes on first NHL game in Brooklyn.
Brooklyn ice hockey fans will have to wait to see a professional team make their first borough appearance.
The New York Islanders announced Friday that the team had canceled all remaining preseason games at its home rink at Nassau Coliseum—as well as a scheduled Oct. 2 match-up against the New Jersey Devils at Barclays Center.
The decision to clear the entire NHL preseason came as a league-wide lockout of players entered its 12th day, according to ESPN.com.
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Barclays Center had been the subject of talks between CEO Brett Yormark and NHL officials regarding interest in bringing the Islanders from their asbestos-ridden Long Island home to Brooklyn.
But Nets co-owner Mikhail Prokhorov dismissed rumors of an impending move, saying that Barclays should instead focus on making Brooklyn's first major-league professional sports team in more than 50 years a success.
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"First I need to have a championship, so after this I can think—but not before," Prokhorov told the New York Post last week .
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