On a balmy night 30 years ago in Uniondale, N.Y., Bob Nystrom denticulate a ambition that affected off an access of joy. It is still a acclaimed arena — Nystrom angled John Tonelli’s augment able Flyers goalie Pete Peeters in overtime of Bold 6 of the Stanley Cup finals; Nystrom leaping for joy in the bend as his Islanders teammates accumulation on to celebrate; the Nassau Coliseum army ecstatic, some admirers complaining tears of happiness.
“It was actually amazing to see it go into the net,” Nystrom said aftermost week, canonizing that moment on May 24, 1980.
Nystrom’s ambition started a dynasty, the aboriginal of four beeline Stanley Cups for the Islanders in a run that included 19 afterwards playoff alternation victories, an accomplishment unmatched, and never absolutely approached, in hockey history. It seems absurd now, on the eve of an 11th beeline Stanley Cup finals that will not aftermath a echo champion.
And yet back allocution turns to the greatest N.H.L. teams, the Islanders of the aboriginal 1980s are hardly added than an afterthought. Why, back they managed a accomplishment able by no one abroad — not the 1950s Montreal Canadiens of Maurice Richard and Jean Beliveau, not the ’70s Canadiens of Guy Lafleur and Ken Dryden, not the ’80s Edmonton Oilers of Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier — are the Islanders so consistently overlooked?
“It’s the one affair that disappoints me,” said Bill Torrey, the accepted administrator who congenital the Islanders and presided over the dynasty. “Yes, we won four Cups, but name me a aggregation that’s won 19 beeline series. The players on the aggregation deserve added acceptance than they’ve been getting.”
Nystrom said: “I do apprehension that back there are conversations or TV shows, the Islanders are array of larboard out. But that doesn’t amount — we did commodity for the association on Long Island, and we’ve got four Stanley Cups.”
The Islanders were consistently a easygoing accumulation — some above players contacted for this commodity were blind that the 30th ceremony of their aboriginal appellation was abutting — and none of them seemed awfully put out by the angle that they are commodity of a abandoned dynasty. But all agreed that what they able did not accept the acceptance it deserved.
Why it does not may be a byproduct of area the best acrimonious discussions on the affair booty place.
Debates over the best teams in N.H.L. history are not about accepted in the United States. They are in Canada, and there, tales of the Canadiens are a accoutrement in the civic psyche, as are the afterwards exploits of the Oilers.
“You accept to bethink that hockey is Canada’s sport,” said Mike Bossy, the Islanders’ top assassin and a Montreal native. “In the end, it doesn’t abruptness me that there is a bent adjoin the Canadian teams who accept bedeviled in acceptable their championships.”
The bristles beeline Stanley Cups the Canadiens won from 1956 to 1960 accomplish up the longest streak, but it was able in the six-team N.H.L., back alone two alternation victories were bare to win the Cup. Like that copy of the Canadiens, Montreal was a juggernaut in the approved division and the postseason from 1976 to 1979. Those Canadiens won 13 beeline series, able-bodied abbreviate of the Islanders’ 19.
The Oilers are accustomed as a absolutism for acceptable bristles Cups in seven years, but they never captured added than two in a row. In the anecdotal of Edmonton’s acceleration to greatness, the Islanders comedy a accessory role as the aggregation that swept the arrogant adolescent Oilers in the 1983 finals, teaching them acquaint about focus and cede that enabled the Oilers to exhausted them in the 1984 finals.
There are added affidavit the Islanders get a bit absent in the discussion.
“Those teams had a little added glamour: Gretzky and the high-flying Oilers; the Canadiens, a aerial franchise,” the ex-Islanders defenseman Ken Morrow said. “We absolutely didn’t advertise our championships. We were array of in the caliginosity in New York. Even back we were winning, the Rangers were the accustomed aggregation that got added of the attention.
“It was acceptable for us: guys’ active didn’t get too big. We aloof went about our business.”
Torrey, who still talks as if he is allotment of the alignment admitting accepting been affiliated with the Florida Panthers back 1993, joked about the Islanders’ abode in the N.H.L. hierarchy.
“We’re a burghal team, so we’re acclimated to actuality slighted,” he said.
A easygoing team, an American team, a burghal aggregation overshadowed by the Rangers, its older, added accepted neighbor. The authorization has additionally had little success in the aftermost 15 years, and alteration is generally mentioned as a possibility. Those may be some of the affidavit they are overlooked, but the altercation for the ’80s Islanders as the best N.H.L. aggregation anytime is strong.
The ammo credibility activate with the 19 beeline alternation victories — 16 while the Islanders won four Cups from 1980 through 1983, and three added in 1984 afore they absent to Edmonton in bristles amateur in the finals. During the streak, they were pushed to a chief bold alone twice.
They accomplished aboriginal over all in the regular-season standings twice. Seven associates of the absolutism are in the Hockey Hall of Fame: Torrey; the coach, Al Arbour; Bossy; defenseman Denis Potvin; goaltender Billy Smith; Bryan Trottier, the team’s career scoring leader; and Clark Gillies, a linemate to Bossy and Trottier.
They were the aboriginal Stanley Cup winners with players from Europe (Anders Kallur and Stefan Persson of Sweden in 1980, abutting by their countrymen Tomas Jonsson in 1982 and Mats Hallin in 1983). In 1981, Bossy became the additional player, afterwards Richard, to account 50 goals in 50 games. Potvin bankrupt Bobby Orr’s career scoring marks for a defenseman and retired as the N.H.L.’s career baton amid defensemen in goals, assists and points. All this from a authorization that came into actuality alone eight years afore its aboriginal title.
“The 19 beeline series, we authority that almanac apparently as proudly as annihilation we anytime did,” Trottier said. “Not alone did we accept to exhausted all those added teams, we had to affected the bad bounces, the hot goaltender, the injuries, the bad calls from the refs — all the things that can exhausted you.”
Other teams were not so resourceful.
“People say if the Oilers hadn’t had that bad animation adjoin Calgary in ’86, they would accept won bristles Cups in a row,” Bossy said, apropos to Steve Smith’s own-goal that disconnected Edmonton’s appellation run. “But they did accept it, and they couldn’t affected it. We did affected bad bounces.”
And in the academic agitation over which aggregation is the best ever, could the Islanders be advised the answer?
“I don’t see why not,” Bossy said. “To accept won 19 alternation in a row and 4 Cups in a row, I don’t see why not. We did what we did, and I’m appreciative of it.”
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