No one questioned that it would be loud in the old barn Thursday night when the Islanders returned home for Game 3 of their first-round playoff series against the Pittsburgh Penguins before an increased capacity crowd of roughly 6,250 at Nassau Coliseum.
The question for the Islanders was how they would use all that noise to their advantage.
"Well, it helps, definitely,’’ forward Cal Clutterbuck said Thursday, after the Islanders’ morning skate. "It adds energy when you're going out there and making contact and trying to create a buzz. When there's a buzz that follows, it obviously injects energy into ourselves, and the group.