When
Long Island was awarded an NHL franchise to begin play in
1972, they were instantly resented by the long-established
New York Rangers. In addition to paying a hefty expansion
fee, they also had to pay the Rangers for encroaching on "their"
territory. The Rangers have been the Islanders' biggest rivals
ever since.
In
the first season for professional hockey on Long Island, the
expansion Islanders were one of the worst teams in NHL history
- winning only 12 games and tying 6, while losing 60.
In 1980, the Islanders finally broke through and won the Stanley
Cup. Trottier and Bossy once again provided a 1-2 punch on
offense, but it was Bob Nystrom that proved to be the hero,
scoring in overtime in the sixth game of the Stanley Cup Finals
to defeat the Philadelphia Flyers.
Bossy
scored 50 goals in 50 games in 1981, as the Islanders were
the top team of the regular season and won their second Stanley
Cup, knocking off the Minnesota North Stars in five games.
The Islanders dominated the 1981-1982 season as well, at one
point winning a then-record 14 straight games. They won both
the regular-season title and the Stanley Cup, this time over
the Vancouver Canucks in a four-game sweep. The following
season, the Islanders swept the Wayne Gretzky-led Edmonton
Oilers to win their fourth straight Stanley Cup -- and last
-- also in a sweep.
The
Islanders almost made it five straight, winning a record 19
consecutive playoff matches along the way, but they lost in
five games to the Oilers in the 1984 finals. Only once since
have the Islanders made it out of the second round of the
playoffs.
During their lean years, the Isles' humiliation was hardly
limited to their on-ice product. Dallas businessman John Spano
attempted to purchase the team in 1996, but within a year
it was revealed that he defrauded the team, the NHL, and his
investors. The team reverted to original owner John Pickett,
and Spano went to jail. Pickett them sold the team to a group
that included Howard Milstein and Steve Gluckstern, but this
group ran the team on an austerity budget in an attempt to
make a profit. Milstein repeatedly cried poverty while claiming
that he couldn't, or perhaps simply wouldn't invest more money
in the Islanders' payroll, all while coming up with hundreds
of millions of dollars in aborted attempts to purchase the
NHL's Washington Redskins and Cleveland Browns. Eventually,
under Milstein and Gluckstern, popular players who made more
than $1M US -- Zigmund Palffy, Trevor Linden, Bryan Berard,
and popular enforcer Rich Pilon -- were all traded or released.
In 2000, Milstein and Gluckstern sold the team to Computer
Associates executives Charles Wang and Sanjay Kumar.
With
the ownership situation stabilized, fortunes began to improve.
In time for the 2001-2002 season, the Islanders acquired Alexei
Yashin from the Ottawa Senators, goalie Chris Osgood from
the Detroit Red Wings and Michael Peca from the Buffalo Sabres.
The Islanders made the 2002 playoffs before bowing out to
a physical Maple Leafs team in the first round. They also
lost a first-round series the next two years.
Founded:
1972-1973
Arena: Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
(capacity 16,297)
Uniform colors: dark blue, light blue, orange,
white, silver
Logo design: a circle with "NY",
a map of Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk Counties only), and
the word "ISLANDERS"
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