Archive for the 'Philadelphia Flyers' Category
Over at Joe Pelletier’s Greatest Hockey Legends blog, Joe’s been recapping every Stanley Cup finals since 1930. I’ve been reading them and just waiting for the day when he got to 1980. Well that day is here. Joe’s recapped all four of the Islanders Stanley Cups.
1980
The year is 1980. With a new decade comes a new champion, and, as it turns out, a new dynasty.
1981
The year is 1981. The New York Islanders successfully defend their first Stanley Cup championship, knocking off the Minnesota North Stars 4 games to 1.
The North Stars were an interesting team blessed with talent that, for whatever reason, never really had much success. But the stars were aligned for them in 1981, as their playoff road was smooth until meeting the Islanders in the finals.
1982
The year is 1982. It has been 65 years since the city of Vancouver celebrated their only Stanley Cup victory, courtesy of Cyclone Taylor and the Vancouver Millionaires. But the city came alive, energized with Towel Power, as the Vancouver Canucks made an unexpected Stanley Cup appearance.
Unfortunately for Vancouverites, the dynastic New York Islanders made sure the beautiful British Columbia city would have to continue their wait.
1983
The Islanders didn’t just win, they completely humbled the high scoring Edmontonians. The Oilers scored 424 goals in the regular season, but could only must 6 in the 4 game finals loss. Wayne Gretzky scored 71 goals in the regular season, and another 12 goals and 38 points in these playoffs. But the Islanders great checking and the belligerent goaltender Billy Smith kept #99 off of the score sheet.
And I know it’s difficult, but if you’re so inclined you can read about 1984 and where the “Drive for Five” fell apart.
The year is 1984. The Edmonton Oilers, in just their 5th year in the National Hockey League, win the Stanley Cup!
With the likes of Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Paul Coffey, Jari Kurri, Glenn Anderson, Kevin Lowe and Grant Fuhr forming a young nucleus, Stanley Cup inheritance was only a matter of time.
But like all great teams, the oilers had to lose in order to learn how to win. That happened in 1983, as the Islanders swept the Oilers.
That would all be forgotten a year later, as the Oilers dismantled the Islanders incredible dynasty and began their own reign.
Of all the nights to have men’s league hockey this week, I’m have to miss TWO game seven’s tonight?? After Ovechkin turned the 3rd period of last night’s game into “Ovietime” to force game 7 tonight, Washington and Philly start the party at 7pm tonight. I should be able to catch the first two periods of that game before mine.
That’s followed by Calgary @ San Jose @ 10pm. If you see a red Jeep hauling ass from New Hyde Park to Woodside tonight around 11:30p…that’s me racing home to catch the end of that game. Go Flames!
Anyways…the point of this post is not my impending speeding ticket tonight. It’s this article in the Globe and Mail about the CAL/SJ tilt tonight. It’s the first trip to the playoffs for the Flames’ Eric Nystrom, who’s famous father knows a thing or two about playoff heroics.
This may be Eric Nystrom’s first visit to the NHL playoff party, but he spent his whole life hearing stories from and about his famous father, Bob Nystrom, a member of the New York Islanders’ four Stanley Cup championship teams.
Nystrom, the Calgary Flames’ rookie left winger, doesn’t remember a whole lot of talk about famous seventh games; mostly because his dad’s most famous playoff heroics came in overtime of a sixth game to give the Islanders the 1980 Stanley Cup.
“But he’s talked to me about the time they were down 3-0 and they came back and won it in seven,” said the younger Nystrom.
That came in 1975, when the Islanders, just an up-and-coming team three years removed from their expansion birth — they came into the league with the Atlanta Flames — rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win a best-of-seven series against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Then they almost did it again next round, overcoming a 3-0 deficit to get it to 3-3 against a Philadelphia Flyers’ team that would eventually win the series and go on to win the Stanley Cup that season.
Only the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs earned a similar distinction.
“He just said, they focused on one game at a time and slowly climbed back,” said Nystrom. “That’s what you need to do in the playoffs. You can’t let one game upset you or rattle you. You’ve just got to keep focused and push the envelope next game.”
The Flyers downed the Isles 4-1 yesterday. Another bad loss to a team serving as a roadblock to a playoff spot for the OrangeAndBlue. The loss puts the Islanders seven points back of Philly for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Islanders now reside in 12th place out of 15 teams in the East.
They have 12 games to play. How likely is it a team can make up seven points in just 12 games? Not bloody likely. Even if the Islanders go 9-3, which would qualify as their best 12-game stretch of the season, the Flyers, who have 13 games left, would have to go 5-8. That would leave the Islanders with 89 points and the Flyers with 88. The Flyers would own any tiebreaker if the teams ended the season with the same amount of points, as they have dominated the season series winning five of six contests.
The two teams play each other two more times - Sunday, March 23 at Philadelphia and Saturday, March 29 at the Old Barn. If the Isles have any chance of grabbing that last seed, they need to win both games in regulation. There’s no other way. They simply cannot afford to lose any more ground to the Flyers.
To make the uphill climb even steeper, using the 9-3 scenario for the Islanders’ last 12 games, the team would still need Buffalo, Washington, and Florida to stumble. If the Isles finish with 89 points, they would need Buffalo to finish no better than 7-6 (for 88 points), Washington no better than 7-5 and Florida no better than 7-4. There’s a good chance that can happen but when you’re talking about the need for three teams to be no better than mediocre, one team, the Flyers, to be pretty bad, and the Islanders to be pretty damn awesome, the odds don’t look good. I wouldn’t take that bet. Would you?
The good thing is the Islanders are saying all the right things. Captain Bill Guerin told Newsday after yesterday’s loss “We’re making it a lot harder on ourselves. Is there enough time? Not a lot, but there’s time.”
Technically, he’s right. But it’s almost last call. No time to waste.
Now that’s more like it. As has been the case many times over the years, the Islanders rose to the challenge and beat the Rangers on the road last night, ending the Rangers’ four-game winning streak and possibly putting an end to their own slump.
Jeff Tambellini, the young forward who has bounced between Bridgeport and Long Island the last two seasons, sealed the victory for the Islanders when he beat Henrik Lundqvist in a shoot-out. The Isles also got goas from Bergenheim, Hunter, and Comeau.
Wade Doobie was one of the big stories of the game, stepping in for an absent Rick DiPietro and beating the Rangers for the second time in two career starts. He shut out the Rangers in the last week of the season when DP was hurt last year. Doobie may be in net again tomorrow night when the Isles face the Rangers at the Coliseum as DP may still me on leave to be with his family.
The win, coupled with a Flyers loss, moves the Isles within three points of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with 14 games to go.
After a lost weekend at the Coliseum in which the Isles scored one lousy goal, the team finds itself five points behind the Flyers for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Islanders, who are currently in tenth place, have 15 games left, one less than Philly and ninth place Buffalo. The Sabres have 71 points, two more than the Islanders.
It doesn’t look good but the lights ain’t out yet. But man did the Islanders lay an egg this past weeked or what? First, they fell to the Flyers 4-1, a game which was pretty much sealed when the Isles gave up yet another short-handed goal. Then on Sunday, after a pretty awesome ceremony marking the “Core of the Four,” the Isles went out and failed to put one of their 53 shots past backup Panther keeper Craig Anderson.
Here’s what some Islanders had to say after the game.
“I looked up at the scoreboard and I turned to Wade [Dubielewicz] and said, ‘I can’t believe we had 52 shots,” newest Islander Rob Davison told Newsday. Asked whether Davison had ever been on a team to register 52 shots that failed to win, he said “Absolutely not.”
Wait a minute, my bad. Davision didn’t say that after yesterday’s game. He said that after the Islanders pulled almost the same stunt and lost to the Penguins just last week after recording 52 shots. At least they scored two goals in that game. Yesterday - nada. 53 shots and no goals and a big loss. I hope this freak occurence ends here. One time is bizarre. Two is suspicious. Any more and we have a trend. The Islanders don’t need bad trends right now. They need goals and points in the standings.
For the season, the Islanders are tied with Columbus for the second-fewest goals in the league with 164. The Blues have the fewest with 161. The Islanders and the Blue Jackets share the worst goals-per-game ratios in the league, however, averaging just 2.44 tallies. The Blues average 2.47. If the season ended today, none of the three would make the playoffs. By contrast, Ottawa leads the league with 216 goals in 66 contests - a 3.27 goals-per-game average. On paper it doesn’t seem like such a huge difference but it is.
The Isles’ lack of scoring has been a major storyline all year. We’re not breaking any new ground but the fact remains, as we’ve said and as many others have said, this team isn’t going to win consistently until a little more firepower can be had. Maybe I need to revise that statement, and exchange “scoring’ for “firepower” because the shots have been coming lately. Shots are great. The Islanders need goals.
They needed four points over the weekend. They came away with zero. The clock is ticking.
Next up, a home-and-home series against the Rangers starting tomorrow night.
All right, that didn’t actually happen. DP is happy with his $67 million-dollar deal. You have to wonder what the Flyers are thinking by giving a 22-year-old forward a 12-year deal reportedly worth $69 million. Don’t get me wrong, Mike Richards is a good player with tons of potential. But 12 years? Really?
Rick DiPietro signed an historic 15-year, $67 million-dollar contract with the Islanders last season. I think the length of both pacts is kind of crazy but I think the Richards’ deal is the crazier of the two. I’d just rather commit to a goalie than a forward. That simple. Obviously, it will be a long time before we find out if either of these contracts work out for the clubs.
Good luck to Mike Richards. Seems like a good guy. Just don’t put too many pucks past DP over the next decade or so.
Isles Down Coyotes
Missed last night’s game. Another holiday party. It’s a great time of year to live in New York, man, but I am looking forward to a quiet night tonight. Putting the beers on hold until the Jets big upset of the Patriots on Sunday. Calling a 19-17 Jets victory, compliments of Mike Nugent and a slew of turnovers in the bad weather. I can dream.
Glad to see the Isles did the job and put the Coyotes down. That was really a game they had no business losing. You have to beat a struggling Western Conference team on your own ice. Good to see Billy Guerin lighting the lamp again. Now the Isles just need to string a few of these together.
Murph’s Take: Where’s the outrage? The shock? The name calling of Flyers’ GM Paul Holmgren? Did Isles’ owner Charles Wang send the Flyers’ owners (Comcast) some “special” holiday egg-nog? People do seem a little surprised by this move, but there is very little of the “this deal is bad for the NHL” sentiment that arose after the DP deal. Is it because the deal isn’t quite as long as DP’s, or is it just because Charles “Crazy Like a Fox” Wang isn’t involved?
Mirtle has a good write up about the deal, looking at the general trend of longer deals in the NHL, and the risks that come with them.
As for last night, a much better effort and a well needed win. The powerplay continues to be Jekyll and Hyde - the Notorious M.A.B gives us a 2-0 lead with a PP goal in the third, and the next PP opportunity results in 0 shots for and a shorthanded goal for Phoenix to negate the insurance goal.
Sorry Wayne, I know losing at the Coliseum probably brings back all sorts of bad memories. *cough*1983*cough*
Saw most of the game last night, but I’m busy at work today and headed to the mighty VAN HALEN show at the Garden tonight. Check our recommended links to the right for Blog Box and more reports from last night. Highlights below.
1979-80, 1980-81, 1981-82, 1982-83, 1983-84, Edmonton Oilers, Minnesota North Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Stanley Cup, Vancouver Canucks
