Isles-Bruins have little playoff history, but two series are very memorable for blue and orange

Boston vs. New York! What could be better, amirite?

"Curse of the Bambino!" "Spygate!" "Helmet Catch!" "Butt Fumble!"

Bucky Dent! Aaron Boone! That "little roller up along first!"

Even in sports other than football and baseball, there have been moments.

Ask any member of the 1973 Knicks the most important event in that year’s championship run, and he will cite the seven-game conference final against the Celtics, not the NBA Finals against the Lakers.

All of which makes this holiday weekend’s goings-on in Boston a little odd, given the sports rivalry between the cities.

The Nets, Celtics, Islanders and Bruins have playoff games scheduled there every night from Friday to Monday.

The four franchises have met in big games in the past – although the Nets were in New Jersey when they faced the Celtics en route to the NBA Finals in 2002 and ’03. And currently Kyrie Irving is a lightning rod up north.

But Yankees-Red Sox, these ain’t.

Considering the relatively short distance between Uniondale and Boston, the Islanders’ lack of history with the Bruins is surprising.

Before the current season, the last time they shared a division was 1973-74, when the Islanders were in their second season and the Bruins were bound for the Stanley Cup Final, where they lost to the Flyers.

After that, the franchises parted ways until being reunited in the pandemic-induced new East Division. The Bruins finished third and the Islanders fourth, but both won first-round series against higher seeds, and here we are.

The last time the teams met in the playoffs was 1983 – before every current Islander other than Andy Greene was born – and they did so only once before that, in 1980.

At least that 1980 series, in the NHL quarterfinals, was a memorable one. The Islanders prevailed in a key step toward their first Cup, and in it they displayed the toughness some believed they were missing in the late 1970s.

The Bruins also had 14 more points in the regular season than did those Islanders.

Bobby Nystrom took the lead in making sure the Islanders would not be pushed around.

In an interview with Newsday last year, he recalled watching a local Boston sportscaster’s pre-series prediction that the Bruins would intimidate the Islanders and win in five.

"This guy said, ‘The Bruins are going to run them right out of the building,’ " Nystrom recalled. "I was so ticked off with it. I said, ‘We’ve got to show them.’ "

Teammate Clark Gillies remembered watching the telecast with Nystrom. "I thought Bobby Nystrom was going to go through the TV after this guy. He turned to me and said, ‘Clarkie, we’re not going to let that happen.’ "

Nystrom took the liberty of actually assigning matchups for the battles to come in. The result was a fight-filled series that did last only five games, but with the Islanders winning four of them.

The Islanders won Game 2 in Boston, 5-4, in overtime, in a game that featured 248 penalty minutes in a first period that included a bench-clearing brawl.

Said Gillies, "We got the rest of the league to take notice that, ‘Holy cow, this team had never done that before.’ We had just pounded the Big Bad Bruins into submission."

The teams met again in the 1983 conference final, again after the Bruins had 14 more regular-season points.

The Islanders won in six games, with goals totals in the four victories of 5, 7, 8 and 8.

Butch Goring opened the scoring less than a minute into Game 6 at Nassau Coliseum and Mike Bossy scored four goals in the clincher, giving him nine in the series.

After Game 6, Bossy spoke to reporters while smoking a cigarette. So, yes, it was a long time ago.

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.