Their Cup Runneth Over

By B.J. Phillips

Islanders win a second straight Stanley--and dream of more

An embarrassment for the New York Islanders. They led the Minnesota North Stars by a lopsided three games to none in the finals of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Islanders, defending Stanley Cup champions, were simply overwhelming the young, plainly awed North Stars. The champagne (nonvintage California) was waiting in the locker room, chilled and ready for postvictory pouring. Some of the Islanders' wives had even flown out to Minneapolis to be on hand for the inevitable festivities.

The celebration had to wait. Playing with the concentration of condemned men, the North Stars wrestled a 4-2 win from the Islanders. While equipment managers packed up the champagne for the return trip to home ice, the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, L.I., the New Yorkers brooded about their loss. "Of course we wanted the sweep," Coach Al Arbour admitted. "But I know my team, and they'll be ready for the next one." They were ready all right, crushing Minnesota 5-1 to win their second consecutive Stanley Cup. The Islanders were never really in trouble. They scored three goals, two of them within 25 seconds of each other, in first-period play and one each in the second and third periods. Said Defenseman Denis Potvin: "We did it in high fashion."

The victory was nice, but it could have been much nicer. The Islanders did not want just a Stanley Cup; they wanted it in a four-game sweep. Dynasties expect such things, and in the nine years since the team was formed, the Islanders have built hockey's most powerful extended family. They did it right, beating the backwoods for young players rather than trading for stars, running their Indianapolis farm team as if it were a hockey college, not a franchise, and, finally, trading for the finishing touches. The result: twelve wins and 60 losses their first season, a winning record and a playoff berth their third year, and the Stanley Cup in their eighth--and now ninth--year. With an average age of just 26, the New Yorkers might just remain on top for some time to come.

The main forces behind the Islanders' rise are President and General Manager Bill Torrey, 46, and Coach Arbour, 48. Torrey is a bespectacled, sweet-faced former college hockey player and executive of the old California Seals, whose unassuming demeanor camouflages one of the most astute minds in sport. The self-possessed, quietly dressed Arbour, who could pass for a NASA flight controller, is a former defenseman and one of the most innovative coaches in the game. It was Arbour who sent his players to an ophthalmologist to work on hand-eye coordination and hired a figure-skating coach to improve footwork. Torrey kept his team going in the face of bankruptcy for years after the Islanders' former owner, Businessman Roy Boe, overextended himself trying to finance a franchise in the National Basketball Association.

Even in those hectic early days, Torrey and his scouts found time to scour the junior leagues for future talent. They turned up three N.H.L. Rookies of the Year in five seasons--Potvin (1974), Center Bryan Trottier (1976) and Right Wing Mike Bossy (1978). Potvin, three times defenseman of the year, was the first pick in the 1973 amateur draft. But 21 teams passed over Trottier, now the game's most complete player, and 14 clubs had a shot at Bossy, the N.H.L.'s top goal scorer, but chose other players. Of this year's 24-man Stanley Cup team, 16 were taken in the amateur draft. Only once have the Islanders traded away a draft choice, a second-round pick during the team's inaugural season. Says Torrey: "Sure, everybody has scouts. Ours are just better." Torrey's scouts look for special qualities too. Says he: "Whether a player can skate or shoot the puck is obvious. We look for a certain character, players who can fit in with each other and live and grow together for a long time."

Oddly enough, what propelled the Islanders to the top was not their growing success over the years but their worst setback: losing to the rival New York Rangers in the 1979 Stanley Cup semifinals after compiling the best regular-season record in hockey that year (51 wins, 15 losses, 14 ties). Stung by the defeat, the Islanders rolled over the Philadelphia Flyers the following year, four games to two, to win the cup. Says Bossy: "To come back from such a disastrous letdown is what made this team."Adds Torrey: "Sometimes adversity is the best teacher. We let the players absorb it, feel the frustration."

The Islanders learned their lessons well. They shored up some weak spots with a few key trades. The most important acquisition was Center Butch Goring, who leads the Islanders' record-setting penalty-killing unit and was named series M.V.P. While the farm team continues to produce nascent stars (Rookie Billy Carroll stepped into a starting role in midseason), the old guard just gets better (Trottier set a Stanley Cup record by notching either a goal or an assist in every game of the playoffs). Potvin, at 27 the team's elder statesman, insists that the Islanders have earned a long reign: "For so many playoff years, we had to work without much talent and without much success. We got knocked down, but we got back up again next season. The persistence that this team has shown deserves to be recognized."

Of course the Islanders have not yet earned a place alongside the dynasties of hockey's glorious past--the Detroit Red Wings of the 1950s, the Toronto Maple Leafs of the 1960s, the mighty Montreal Canadiens (ten cups since 1965). But Arbour insists that his players have already achieved something equally important: "The kids in the juniors have heard about the Islanders' tradition. In a very short period of time, the Islanders have come to mean a quest for excellence." So far, the quest has not gone badly.

--By B.J. Phillips.

Reported by Jamie Murphy/Uniondale

With reporting by Jamie Murphy

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