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Islanders will play all home games at Nassau Coliseum in 2020-21

Philadelphia Flyers v New York Islanders

UNIONDALE, NY - SEPTEMBER 17: Fans arrive for a preseason game between the New York Islanders and the Philadelphia Flyers at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on September 17, 2017 in Uniondale, New York. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

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(UPDATE: The news was made official before Saturday’s Islanders game against the Bruins. According to the AP, “New York State invested $6 million to upgrade to the building’s infrastructure to ease concerns from the NHL. ... The Nassau Coliseum will be brought up to the NHL’s minimum standards for its venues, with improvements going toward the facilities ice plant, broadcast infrastructure and renovating the team locker rooms.”)

March 22 will be the final Islanders’ game at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, according to Newsday.

Randi Marshall reports that New York governor Andrew Cuomo will announce on Saturday that the Islanders will play any home playoff games this season and all of their 2020-21 home schedule at Nassau Coliseum.

The Islanders are currently building a new arena by Belmont Park race track which is expected to be ready in time for the 2021-22 NHL season. The franchise played all of its home games at the Coliseum from 1972-2015 before moving to Brooklyn full-time in 2015. That lasted until 2018 when they split home games at both arenas, with Nassau Coliseum playing host to their Round 1 matchup against the Penguins and Barclays for their second round series against the Hurricanes.

While Barclays Center helped keep the Islanders in New York, it has not been the easiest arena to travel to for fans. The ability to get there via mass transit was a positive that the Coliseum doesn’t have. Yet when the Islanders returned back to Long Island last season, there was plenty nostalgia over the building that was home for the franchise’s glory days.

In September the Islanders broke ground on the new 19,000-seat arena by Belmont Park which is less than 10 miles from Nassau Coliseum.

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Sean Leahy is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @Sean_Leahy.