Two subway stops from Barclays Center, where the Islanders will play their first regular-season home game Friday, are remnants of the Americans, the hockey team that almost played N.H.L. games in Brooklyn.
An exhibition at the Brooklyn Historical Society recounts the story of the team known as the Amerks, a colorful yet downtrodden franchise that existed from 1925 to 1942, preceding the Rangers by a season and then skating as their co-tenant at Madison Square Garden.
The Americans practiced at the Brooklyn Ice Palace, about a mile from the nexus of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues, where Barclays Center is now perched.