Carolina Hurricanes defenceman and former New York Islander Calvin de Haan said Thursday he believes his new team has benefited from the NHL’s decision to have the Islanders play their second-round series at Brooklyn's Barclays Center and not NYCB Live’s Nassau Coliseum.

The Islanders swept the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of the playoffs with two wins at Nassau Coliseum, where they went 12-9 during the regular season. The NHL announced in February that the Islanders would play their first-round series at the Coliseum, but host all subsequent playoff rounds at the Barclays Center.

“It’s great for us,” de Haan told Newsday. “It’s good for the away team. It kind of negates the home-ice advantage to a certain extent. I’ve played there [the Coliseum] and it’s loud and you do feed off of that. Whether you think of it or not, you do feed off the momentum of the crowd and it seemed to elevate everybody on the bench. But it is what it is. That’s Mr. Bettman’s decision, so, whatever.”

The Hurricanes are up 3-0 in the second-round series on the Islanders after taking Games 1 and 2 on the road in Brooklyn. In order to stay alive, the Islanders will have to defeat the Hurricanes on Friday at PNC Arena in Raleigh, where de Haan believes the atmosphere has mimicked that of the Coliseum,

“Yeah, 100 per cent,” he said. “The support here has been great all season. Everybody is really rallying behind us right now. It’s really fun. Sometimes it feels like when you leave a concert and you’re a little deaf after. You can’t hear stuff on the ice sometimes when the crowd is really going. The lower bowl is massive and it feels like everyone is on top of you. It’s a fun building when it’s rocking. We definitely have home-ice advantage here when the crowd is going.”

The Islanders averaged an attendance of 13,519 at the Coliseum in the regular season to just 11,312 at the Barclays Center, though the arena sold out for both Games 1 and 2 against the Hurricanes.