As their Fiftieth anniversary season celebration occurred in 2022-23, the New York Islanders recalled all of the superb moments which have occurred since their inaugural season in 1972. With 4 Stanley Cup championships and dozens of stars to have worn the blue and orange, there isn’t any scarcity of great recollections. However how in regards to the not-so-wonderful ones? Don’t all of us have to spend a bit time getting knocked on our butts to really admire our occasions within the solar?
Thus, listed below are the ten worst moments within the Islanders’ 50-year historical past:
10 – First Islanders vs. Rangers Recreation, Coliseum, Oct. 21, 1972Â
The rationale this sport is on this checklist? The sellout crowd that night time needed to be within the neighborhood of 80 % New York Rangers followers. In the event you had closed your eyes when the guests scored the winner with about 13 minutes to go within the third, you’d have guess the home you have been on the Backyard. As a 12-year-old child with my Billy Harris jersey on, it was a impolite awakening to the mountain Isles followers needed to climb to be heard on this rivalry. They finally acquired there, however that night time in Nassau was a tough begin, and the crew’s 12-60-6 file that season didn’t assist.
9 – Dale Hunter Low cost Photographs Pierre TurgeonÂ
The 1992-93 season was a very good one for the Islanders. It may have been an awesome one if not for one of many worst low-cost pictures in NHL historical past. Within the deciding Recreation 6 of the Islanders’ opening-round collection towards the Washington Capitals on the Coliseum, Pierre Turgeon had simply scored a third-period purpose to offer his crew a 5-1 lead with lower than 10 minutes to go, all however clinching the collection for the Isles.
Throughout his purpose celebration, Dale Hunter blindsided Turgeon with a vicious hit to the boards that separated his shoulder and knocked the crew’s finest participant out of the playoffs. The truth that they confronted the eventual Stanley Cup champion Montreal Canadiens within the semifinals in a troublesome five-game collection, left everybody questioning what may need been.Â
8 – Poor Ziggy PalffyÂ
Okay, this wasn’t a “second” however a time frame, however the Ziggy Palffy period was most definitely among the many Isles’ worst recollections. Essentially the most underrated famous person in crew historical past, the previous first-round decide dazzled in entrance of 1000’s of empty seats from 1994 to 1999. That he in some way managed to place up 168 objectives and 331 factors in simply 331 video games, surrounded by minor-league expertise, was Herculean.
As the one cause to enterprise contained in the Coliseum throughout these very darkish years, Palffy usually placed on a present regardless of that he was the one participant the opposition needed to fear about. Consecutive seasons of 43, 48, and 45 objectives have been outstanding amid the particles of those in any other case brutal Islanders groups.
7 – Pierre Turgeon/Kirk Muller Commerce
Within the Spring of 1995, Islanders basic supervisor (GM) Don Maloney wished to alter the route of the crew and traded Turgeon and defenseman Vladimir Malakhov to the Canadiens for heart Kirk Muller, defenseman Mathieu Schneider, and heart Craig Darby. Turgeon had turn out to be the Isles’ coronary heart and soul, whereas Kirk Muller was livid over the commerce and initially refused to report back to the crew. When he lastly did, his detached play compelled the Islanders to deal him away for a negligible return (left winger Ken Belanger and goalie Damian Rhodes). The deal was a catastrophe and marked the start of a 23-year run with no playoff collection win for the franchise.Â
6 – Fish Sticks Jersey
Whereas the colour scheme and jersey itself weren’t unhealthy, the brand new Islanders emblem that debuted earlier than the 1995-96 season was a head-scratcher, with an Aquafresh toothpaste swirl and the Gorton’s fisherman emblem – let the snickering start. Maybe the factor that irked followers most was that the Islanders had probably the greatest logos within the league, and altering it wasn’t on anybody’s radar. That it took two seasons for the Toothpaste Fisherman to go again out to sea needlessly extended the embarrassment.
5 – 1994 Rangers Playoff SweepÂ
The Rangers dominated the Islanders so completely on this collection that when Ray Ferraro scored the crew’s first purpose of the collection towards the tip of the second interval in Recreation 3 – virtually eight full intervals into the collection – he slammed his stick towards the glass behind the purpose as if to say, FINALLY! The Isles have been outscored 22-3 within the four-game sweep in what stays their worst playoff displaying ever. Including insult to damage: the Rangers went on to win their first Stanley Cup in 54 years.
4 – The Dynasty Ends
It needed to finish someday, and finish it did, with a thud on Might 19, 1984, in a 5-2 loss in Recreation 5 on the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton, Alberta. The Drive for 5 was over. This child named Wayne Gretzky led a bunch of different children named Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Paul Coffey, and Glenn Anderson to a 4-1 collection win. They received a number of extra Cups too, and that Gretzky child turned a reasonably stable NHLer.
3 – Lanny McDonald 1978 OT Winner
The 1977-78 season held such wonderful promise. The Islanders had a conference-leading 111-point common season and legit Stanley Cup aspirations. A quarterfinal match-up with the Toronto Maple Leafs was a mere stepping stone because the crew was stacked up entrance and had the third-lowest goals-against complete within the league. In what was a nasty and bitter seven-game collection, Lanny McDonald’s time beyond regulation winner on the Coliseum knocked the Isles out and shocked the group. Roger “Captain Video” Neilson out-coached the nice Al Arbour on this one. It was a shocker.Â
2 – John Spano Debacle
For these of you too younger to recall the havoc John Spano wreaked on the Islanders and the NHL over 25 years in the past, consider George Santos being named proprietor of the crew tomorrow. This mess wants a whole article to correctly recap (or a documentary like ESPN’s Large Shot), however right here’s the Reader’s Digest model:
All of it started in 1997, in the course of the crew’s silver-anniversary season. The 30-something Texas businessman with New York roots in some way managed to connive his approach into signing a deal to buy the Islanders for $165 million from then-owner John Pickett. When Spano didn’t make his first $17 million fee to Pickett (he despatched a $1,700 test, saying he by accident left off a zero as a stalling tactic), issues began to unravel. By July, federal prosecutors charged him with a number of counts of fraud. A crew that was initially of the worst stretch in franchise historical past hit all-time low with this debacle. Â
1 – Rangers Upset in 1979
It merely doesn’t get any worse than remembering a beleaguered Denis Potvin sitting slumped towards the boards in entrance of the Islanders’ bench at MSG in Might of 1979 whereas the Rangers wildly celebrated their upset in Recreation 6 of the semifinals.
The 1979 Islanders have been able to tackle and beat the Canadiens within the Closing that season, however a scrappy, rag-tag Rangers crew led by Phil Esposito and John Davidson had different concepts. While you have a look at that roster (and I don’t advocate it, it solely deepens the ache), it’s troublesome to fathom why the Islanders struggled a lot on this collection. However sure, this ache was soothed (fully) over the subsequent 4 seasons – no want to enter how and why.
Whereas the Fiftieth-anniversary rolls alongside, celebrating all of the “good occasions” the franchise has loved, it’s the moments listed above that make these blissful ones really feel so good.
