That series was not particularly close, though, as the Edmonton Oilers defeated New York in five games, outscoring the Islanders 21-12. The year after the Islanders won their last championship (1982-83), they made it back to the Stanley Cup Final again. The Islanders have not won the Stanley Cup in 39 seasons. Here's a look at the state of New York's Stanley Cup drought: How long has it been? A fight-filled, five-game quarterfinal win over the Bruins put to rest the notion that the Islanders were a soft team.Ilya Sorokin's elite production has the potential to uplift the Islanders for years to come. His combative personality meshed perfectly with the more physical style the Islanders knew they had to play. In 1980, Smith played in 20 of the 21 postseason games, compiling a 15-4 mark with a 2.70 goals-against average and a. ‘Opponents didn’t want to go near Gordie,’ Morrow told me the other day.”Īfter Resch shared the net with Billy Smith through previous playoff runs, Arbour finally chose a No. No Islanders regular was more intimidating than Lane. The other overlooked add was defenseman Gord Lane. Instead of sending Ken Morrow to the AHL after the Olympic gold, Torrey brought him right up and Morrow starred alongside Denis Potvin. “The Butch Goring add for Billy Harris and Dave Lewis was not the only move that mattered. “The 1980 team succeeded whereas the ’78 and ’79 team failed because of additions made by Torrey,” said hockey historian Stan Fischler, a longtime television analyst on Islanders broadcasts. Ken Morrow joined the Islanders from Team USA immediately after the Miracle on Ice Olympic victory in late February. Defenseman Dave Langevin was acquired in the offseason and gritty defenseman Gord Lane came via a December trade with the Capitals. But Torrey had made other key acquisitions.ĭefenseman Jean Potvin, traded away in 1977-78, was re-signed. Goring was considered the final piece toward building a more balanced four-line team that could play a scrappier and tighter defensive game. And that was the year the Flyers seemed to be unbeatable. “We didn’t end up first overall in the league like we had the year before. “There were very few expectations going into those playoffs,” Potvin said. It culminated in a six-game win over the Flyers in the Cup Final. But we took the lessons we had learned in ’78 when we lost to Toronto and ’79 when we lost to the Rangers and started to apply ourselves a little more.” We finished fifth overall, which wasn’t horrible. “I don’t want to say we floated through the regular season. “We had had tremendous regular seasons and what did we have to show for it when it was all done?” Gillies said. The Montreal Canadiens had won four straight Cups, the Philadelphia Flyers set an NHL record with a 35-game unbeaten streak (25-0-10) during the regular season and the Big Bad Bruins still had the same core that reached the Cup Final in 1978.īut the Islanders finished the season on an 8-0-4 run and won 10 of their first 12 playoff games. They no longer were considered a Cup favorite. They were 31-28-9 - the last category being ties - and were in the midst of a 4-8-1 slide when Torrey acquired second-line center Butch Goring from the Kings on March 10, 1980. The Islanders finished with 116 points in 1978-79 but started 1979-80 by winning only six of their first 21 games. Said goalie Glenn "Chico'' Resch: “I just remember one sign at the Coliseum, ‘Trade Arbour, not our players.’ It was building up where everybody was sick and tired of losing and underachieving.” I’m pretty sure he would have had some pretty good sit-downs with some guys and say, ‘Do you want to win or not?’ ” Would he have dismantled the whole team? I doubt it. I can’t tell you what Bill Torrey was thinking if we didn’t win the Cup in ’80. “There was always a little bit in the back of our minds. “Yeah, I would say so,” Hall of Famer Clark Gillies, who relinquished his captaincy to Potvin just before the start of the 1979-80 season, told Newsday this month. Another playoff failure, and some thought Torrey might consider significant changes.įormer Islanders goalie Billy Smith leads the Islanders onto the ice in a pre-game ceremony on Saturday, November 22, 2014. General manager Bill Torrey had constructed a roster that he and coach Al Arbour considered good enough to lift the Cup. The following year, after the Islanders finished with the most points in the league, the Rangers upset them in a six-game semifinal series. They were beaten and beaten up by the Maple Leafs in a seven-game quarterfinal series in 1978 after winning their first division title. But the anticipation created by three straight berths in the NHL semifinals from 1975-77 had given way to a reputation that the Islanders weren’t clutch or physical enough in the postseason.
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