Don’t be surprised if you’re riding the Long Island Railroad into work one morning this winter and the guy that sits next to you looks a lot like the picture of the hockey player in the newspaper you’re holding.

The Islanders are seemingly taking to their new commute into Brooklyn like many other Long Islanders — by hopping on the railroad.

“We’re on with everybody, with all the commuters,” captain John Tavares said before the team’s first preseason game of the year, against the Flyers on Monday night at Barclays Center, the franchise’s new home after playing their previous 43 years out of Nassau Coliseum in suburban Uniondale. “I think it was two lefts and a right to get to the Coliseum for me, so it’s a lot different now. It’s just a change, and I think we’ll get used to it.

“But I think it’s an experience we’ll all enjoy, and certainly [we] feel like all Long Islanders now.”

Tavares, just like almost all of his teammates, lives on Long Island. With morning skates before games always set for 10:30 a.m., it’s full-bore rush-hour traffic heading into the Prospect Heights section of Brooklyn. So the plan for most players is to get to a nearby train station, pay their peak fare, possibly transfer at Jamaica, and end up at the Atlantic Avenue terminal, right in front of Barclays Center.

“Everyone has a different avenue on how they’re going to map this out and how they’re going to get here,” said coach Jack Capuano, about as superstitious concerning his game-day routine as anyone around the league. “We have three [preseason] games here for guys to figure it out.”

When the skate ends at about 11:15 a.m., the Islanders plan to put the players up in day-rooms at a local hotel, where they can have a pregame nap and relax before returning to the rink. Most players said the temporary plan for after the game is to take a car service back to Long Island, avoiding the rush-and-wait game that comes with commuting.

“There’s a plan with meals and rest for the guys,” Capuano said. “Obviously got a state-of-the-art-facility here, so they have everything they want. It’s all coming together pretty good.”

Yet it’s easy to see how the public transportation of such wealthy celebrity athletes could go awry.

Anders Lee, the big-bodied winger out of Notre Dame who looks to be a possibility to start the season on Tavares’ coveted flank, said he took a 8:26 a.m. train on Monday morning. It was packed. Cal Clutterbuck, who boarded at another suburban station, had to stand for the entirety of the 25-minute ride.

Lee said the players occasionally get recognized, but fans have continued to be respectful. The real test will come during the regular season, when the players are trying to tune out in the morning and focus on the upcoming game while fans might find it impossible not to interrupt them.

“We occasionally get recognized — and the fans are great — but there’s a point when we’re trying to prepare for a game,” Lee said. “But we’re really just regular guys.”

The good news is the locker room at Barclays is all finished, and the clean plastic smell is a easy reminder of how few sweaty pads it has seen in its infancy. Everyone was raving about the facilities — how could they not, coming from the Coliseum?— and now it’s finally time to start breaking it in as their new home.

“It’s great to have it, and it’s going to be very comfortable for the guys,” Capuano said. “But at the same time, I don’t want to use the word ‘comfortable’ because we want to be a tough team to play against. So it’s a great place for us, but now it’s about what happens on the ice.”