New York Islanders John Tavares shoots against the Pittsburgh Penguins on SAturday, May 11, 2013 (Photo by Joe Nuzzo)

The Islanders’ Stanley Cup dreams may have been iced by the Pittsburgh Penguins this weekend, but the playoff run also cast a spotlight on their resurgence and impending move from Nassau Coliseum.

Several national print and online news and sports outlets published articles dissecting fans’ renewed faith in the long-struggling hockey team that comes just as it prepares to move from its first home to the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn—stories that at times felt like obituaries for the 41-year-old Uniondale arena dubbed “the old barn.”

“Anybody that watched the games and saw the crowd and the atmosphere obviously in the building…we got some respect around the league,” coach Jack Capuano told reporters after the Islanders abrupt 4-3 Game 6 overtime loss Saturday ended their season. “I think they respect the fact that our guys left it on the ice, they gave it everything that they had and it was great for our guys to hear the response that [fans] had to offer.”

Fans had chanted “MVP” for center John Tavares and “Let’s Go Islanders” despite the disappointing ending. The same chant in the form of car horn honks were heard for miles around the coliseum last week after the Isles won their first playoff game at home in 11 years.

A day prior to that win, Grantland, a sports and entertainment news site, ran a loving portrait of the coliseum, characterizing it as not really all that bad since “the ‘worst’ stadiums in America are often the best, and the ‘best’ are defined as the ones where you can buy sushi.”

Last Friday, the sports news website Deadspin posted a semi-autobiographical, somewhat political historical analysis, declaring “The Coliseum, from the very beginning, belonged to the people. And that was before the people’s hockey team took off.”

The New York Times wrangled a few fans, too, one of whom found out first hand how “this place used to vibrate, back when the Islanders were good.”

The Associated Press noted the Isles’ other rivals, whom fans are now left rooting against in a Game 7 showdown Monday night, usually overshadow the underdogs.

“They still take a backseat in attention to the New York Rangers, but there was that time in the 1980s when the Islanders ruled the league with four straight championships and a fifth consecutive appearance in the finals,” AP reported.

Islanders playoff fever was spreading like wildfire oddly just as four bidders publicly vie to renovate or rebuild the coliseum, including a plan by the Barclay’s Center owners who said if they win the bid, the Isles can still play six games a year at the Uniondale arena.

If the team decides to move to Brooklyn before their coliseum lease is up in 2015 as has been widely reported and what the roster will look like in October remains to be seen. But one thing is sure, reports ESPN’s Katie Strang: “Perception of the Islanders is bound to change after this.”

Kyle Okposo scored the first of two third-period goals at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale on Sunday, May 5, 2013 (Photo by Joe Nuzzo/Long Island Press).

The New York Islanders’ played a rare sold-out playoff game Sunday at Nassau Coliseum—their first since 2007—filling the arena with fans feverishly rooting for their team’s first Stanley Cup since 1983.

Before the Pittsburgh Penguins took a 2-1 series lead with a 5-4 win, a sea of blue and orange flooded the Uniondale parking lot—tailgating parties fueled partly by Cinco de Mayo and die-hards soaking up their team’s last local home games until the Isle’s impending move to the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn in 2015, maybe sooner.

“MVP!” fans chanted for John Tavares, the Isles’ center and alternate captain who led the rebound from a 2-goal deficit to tie it up at 4-4 with his first career post-season goal before the game went into overtime.

Click here to view a photo gallery of NY Islanders’ fans tailgating at the coliseum on Sunday

“It takes four to win,” Islanders Coach Jack Capuano told reporters at a news conference Monday. “We’re confident we will come out and play a strong game tomorrow.”

The Islanders’ last post-season series win was 20 years ago—also against their longtime rivals, the Penguins, in game seven. Isles’ faithful can be forgiven if they weren’t too sympathetic to Knicks’ fans that saw their team win its first post-season series win in 13 years on Friday.

Adding to the spectacle Sunday was the fact that the NHL lockout forced a hockey season so short that May is typically when third-round playoff games are scheduled. And just days prior, four groups of developers—one of which included Jay-Z—pitched Nassau leaders their plans to refurbish and/or rebuild the 40-year-old arena.

Playoff fever breaks out at the coliseum again when the puck drops 7 p.m. Tuesday.

A satellite view of Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale.

Hip hop mogul Jay-Z was among four teams of companies that pitched their visions Thursday for the aging Nassau Coliseum property to a committee that will later pick the winning proposal.

The four ideas were split in two camps: Three groups that suggested refurbishing the 40-year-old arena versus one that wants to demolish it and build anew. All the plans reduce the number of seats from the current 16,800, which Nassau County suggested in its latest request for proposals for the infamously difficult-to-redevelop prime real estate.

“Long a victim of the Long Island ‘no,’ we are encouraged that one of the proposals today holds the key,” County Executive Ed Mangano said during the presentation hosted by his Business Advisory Council, which will decide the winner this summer.

Proposing a new arena is the Blumenfeld Development Group, which made its fourth pitch for the land since the 1970s. Refurbished coliseum plans were unveiled by New York Sports & Entertainment LLC, the Madison Square Garden

Jay-Z, right, shares a laugh with Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano on Thursday, May 2, 2013.

Company and Jay-Z’s group, led by the Forest City Ratner Companies, which built the new Barclay’s Center and lured the Islanders from the coliseum.

“We need to create a new identity for Nassau—one that’s bold and new and fresh,” said Brett Yormark, CEO of the Barclay’s Center and the Brooklyn Nets. The surrounding property would feature a movie theater, restaurants, an exhibition hall and an outdoor amphitheater.

“Programming is really the fuel for this engine,” he said, pointing to plans to host upward of 300 events annually, including six Islanders games, 38 minor-league hockey games and 54 family events among the line up.

MSG, which was spun off from Bethpage-based Cablevision Systems Corp. in 2010, likewise rolled out plans that included creating an “entertainment district” surrounding a refurbished arena.

“We don’t have time to pick a plan that doesn’t work,” said RXR Reality CEO Scott Rechler, who joined the MSG pitch team. He was alluding to his prior plans to redevelop the coliseum in the ambitious Lighthouse project with Islanders’ owner Charles Wang.

Wang has also reportedly been considering moving the Islanders to Brooklyn before their lease is up on their original Uniondale home in 2015—adding even more urgency to the proposal process.

Jim Johnson, who made the presentation for Bernard Shereck, CEO of New York & Sports Entertainment LLC, emphasized their Long Island roots and joked that “the Bernie’s our biggest celebrity” compared to the competition.

“Nobody can ever dispute that Long Island is a hotbed for lacrosse,” Johnson said while touting plans to bring a lacrosse team to the arena and create more space within the existing facility for an exhibition hall.

Starting off their presentation with a video of a Nassau Coliseum lookalike being demolished was Ed Blumenfeld, whose firm joined with SMG, the current Nassau Coliseum management company.

“We think we have something that will be difference and iconic to Long Island,” he said, adding that the company would buy a minor-league hockey team if it won the bid.

Jerry Goldman, the current general manager of the coliseum, expressed his support. “Long Island deserves a brand new arena, not a refurbished arena,” he said.

That’s because the LIRR added four late-night eastbound trains from the transit hub across the street from the new venue to accomodate the 334-percent increase in ridership on the line since Barclays’ debut last September.

“Barclays Center has been every bit the draw we had anticipated it would be, creating a whole new customer stream for the LIRR,” LIRR President Helena Williams said in January.

The last train out of Brooklyn used to be at 11:55 p.m. but the LIRR added trains that ran through 12:41 p.m. after the center opened. Now, after the LIRR new schedule went into effect this week, the latest train from the Atlantic Terminal is 1:42 a.m. on weekends and 1:37 a.m. on weekdays.

That trains mark the restoration of service that was cut years prior during the MTA’s budget crunch. Four westbound trains to Brooklyn were also restored to the schedule.

The LIRR said in January that before the Barclays Center opened, an average of 990 riders to the train to the Atlantic Terminal on a typical Thursday evening and another 430 riders boarded trains leaving the station.

Those figures jumped to 3,135 and 3,835, respectively, on Thursday, Oct. 11, the first of two Barbra Streisand concerts at the center. The biggest night yet—4,852 riders to Brooklyn and 5,377 from—was Dec. 11, when the Nets hosted the Knicks for the first time as crosstown rivals.

Brooklyn-bound LIRR ridership is sure to continue to increase once the New York Islanders move to the Barclays Center from Nassau Coliseum. Big name acts on Barclays’ concert calendar next month include Alicia Keys, Green Day and Bob Seger.

Nassau County police arrested Craig Stanley, 54, who allegedly walked up to a group of people outside the arena following a New York Islanders game Sunday to “touch the victim in an inappropriate manner.”

Stanley was charged with forcible touching. He is due at First District Court in Hempstead on March 19.

The New York Islanders went 4-5 on the power play but lost to the Carolina Hurricane 6-4 on Monday, Feb. 11, 2013. They’re scheduled to face the New York Rangers at home on Thursday.

The blood spilled at the next professional hockey game on Long Island may not be from two stickmen slugging it out on the ice, but should get people cheering nonetheless.

The New York Islanders and the American Red Cross are teaming up for a blood drive at Nassau Coliseum before the NHL club plays the New Jersey Devils this weekend.

Donors will receive vouchers for two tickets to a 2012-13 Islanders regular season home game and a free entrée from Moe’s Southwest Grill as a thank you gift for helping replenish Long Island’s blood supply.

“By rolling up your sleeve, you may help provide lifesaving blood where and when it is needed,” said Donna Morrissey, a spokeswoman for the nonprofit Red Cross’ Northeast Division.

One healthy blood donor can save up to three lives in the half hour it takes to give.

The Islanders said turnout at the third annual event—the first of four planned blood drives at the Uniondale arena this year—is growing.

The Red Cross blood drive will take place in the Lower Box Office of the coliseum from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. before the puck drops at 7 p.m. Saturday, giving fans plenty of recovery time.

Walk-ins are welcome, but donors are encouraged to schedule an appointment by calling 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or by visiting redcrossblood.org.