“I’m liking most everything so far at Barclays, except I will miss the tailgating,” said Wiatrak, a season-ticket holder along with his friend Paul Malec.

The Barclays Center chief executive, Brett Yormark, who has overseen the Islanders’ transition to Brooklyn, as he did with the Nets when they moved from New Jersey in 2012, is enthusiastic about the team’s debut.

“We’ve been working very diligently to introduce the Islanders the right way,” he said. “We have to be sensitized to the faithful — those that have been there from Day 1. At the same time, for this move to Brooklyn to be successful and viable, we have to complement the fan base that exists. We have to reach out to fans in Brooklyn and beyond and get them engaged.”

The building and its environs have certainly become more visibly connected to hockey in recent weeks. Images of Islanders players adorn the atrium outside the arena, the subway station and a nearby shopping center. Islanders apparel, both the traditional orange and blue sweater and the new black and white third jersey, are stocked in team stores throughout the arena.

“There are 60,000 cars that go through the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush,” Yormark said, referring to the daily traffic flow outside Barclays. “We want to make sure to get people truly engaged. Anyone not aware this team is coming to Brooklyn, hopefully now they are.”

Nearby at the Brooklyn Historical Society, there is an exhibition until March featuring the lineage of hockey in the borough dating to 1925 with the Brooklyn Americans.