On Oct. 9, when the Islanders open the regular season in their new home against the Chicago Blackhawks, the fans in Brooklyn will be able to agree on at least one thing: Barclays Center is not Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

The real question is whether that is a good thing.

The Coliseum, where the Islanders played from 1972 to last season, was dark, cramped—and familiar. For those who saw Al Arbour’s teams win four Stanley Cups between 1980 and 1983, it was akin to watching Bruce Springsteen play a local dive bar.

Barclays Center was primarily built to house the NBA’s Nets, who have played there since 2012. So squeezing a 200-foot-by-85-foot hockey rink into a space that is normally occupied by a 94-foot-by-50-foot basketball court was bound to cause some peculiarities.

That it has—most notably the sections of seats at the west end, which have a steep viewpoint down toward the nearest net. Those notwithstanding, the arena still boasts some of the best seats in the NHL.