Take a trip down memory lane as the Islanders play their final season at Nassau Coliseum and prepare to move to Brooklyn's Barclays Center.

Sports

Hockey

New York Islanders

spISLESPULLOUT

John Jeansonne

Back up. Long before the Islanders' 2012 announcement that they will move to Brooklyn next season, and before they spent most of the past two decades lamenting the advancing age of their Nassau Coliseum home as an excuse for continued on-ice shabbiness that has sent so many of their hard-core fans into the woodwork, they had been the very model of a professional sports franchise. 
Those four consecutive Stanley Cup victories in the early 1980s -- now so distant that nothing remains but the banners and references to "tradition'' -- were radical. For many residents, those championships soothed a longstanding grievance that Long Island, this identity-challenged sprawl, forever has been in the shadow of New York City. 
So now the Islanders intend to resettle within the city limits. 
But back up. Forty-two years ago -- Oct. 7, 1972, to be exact -- when the expansion Islanders played their first NHL regular-season game at the eight-month-old Nassau Coliseum, they elicited the pronouncement of then-league president Clarence Campbell that the Coliseum was "a magnificent place to watch hockey . . . the sight lines are perfect." 
Campbell then discredited such remarks by describing the game -- a messy, hesitant slog with the Islanders' fellow expansionist Atlanta Flames -- as "very exciting." Which it most decidedly was not. 
Still, the Coliseum was, and remains, a venue with ideal views from throughout the building. And, as the atmosphere during the team's brief 2013 playoff appearance reminded, it can be a raucous house for the home team when the games have meaning. 
Compare that ambience to reports after last month's Islanders-New Jersey Devils preseason game at Brooklyn's Barclays Center that hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- of seats inside Barclays have obstructed views of the ice, because it is an arena designed for basketball. Designed, specifically, for the Nets, who themselves called Nassau Coliseum home in the early 1970s. 
So back up. It was the completion of the $28-million Nassau Coliseum, which had its "unofficial opening" with a Nets game on Feb. 11, 1972, that the NHL used as a gambit to outmaneuver the start-up World Hockey Association's plan to place a flagship team on the Island. With lawyer William Shea, who had played a major role in baseball's decision to create the expansion Mets, greasing the skids, Campbell agreed to hurriedly award an NHL expansion franchise to Nets owner Roy Boe four months earlier. 
That forced the WHA into the less attractive option of being second tenant to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. That team, the Raiders, was gone to Cherry Hill, New Jersey, in a year and folded in 1977, two years before the WHA ceased operations. 
For that first Coliseum event -- the Nets defeated the soon-to-be-defunct Pittsburgh Condors in an American Basketball Association game -- there were 7,892 fans and roughly 7,000 not-yet-installed seats. Ushers worked with mimeographed charts to find seat numbers. Sections were numbered in chalk. A ceiling in the hallway leading to the dressing rooms sprang a minor leak. The teams played on a floor that had been brought from the Nets' previous home at Island Garden in West Hempstead, and Pittsburgh coach Mark Binstein, who had been the Nets' general manager when they debuted as the New Jersey Americans in 1967 in Teaneck, New Jersey, said, "I'm surprised that they built a $28-million arena and still are using the same scoreboard I bought five years ago for $1,800." 
Nevertheless, Nets veteran Bill Melchionni that night declared that occupying the new Coliseum was "like going from the outhouse to a bathroom with plumbing." 
And big-time professional sports had come to Long Island. 
Four days later, Feb. 15, 1972, Boe introduced his choice for hockey general manager (Bill Torrey), the team's logo (more about that later) and the official team name -- the New York Islanders, as opposed to the Long Island (Somethings). Boe said the "New York" title was meant to appeal to potential fans from Brooklyn and Queens, but it became clear that he subscribed to the same theory as the team's first draft choice, Billy Harris, who admitted seldom telling folks from his Toronto home that he would be playing for a team on Long Island. "New York" sounded more spectacular. 
At the time, Long Island still was considered a potato capital, and during much of the team's first season, a large banner was hung in the northeast corner of the Coliseum depicting an anthropomorphic potato on ice skates carrying a hockey stick, with the exhortation, "Go Spuds." A Newsday reporter, who earlier had imagined the team being christened the Long Island Spuds, never was able to identify the fan (or fans) who provided the banner. 
Torrey -- affable, spiffy in his ever-present bowtie, with a spark of hockey genius not yet evident and with the patience and wit of a good parent -- began work that February day for an organization consisting entirely of himself and scout Ed Chadwick. Yet he publicly voiced an expectation of reaching "playoff status in three to five years." 
It took only three. And after only eight seasons, the Islanders were Cup champions. 
But if you really want to hear about it, there was plenty of angst and alienation in that coming-of-age first season after Boe paid $6 million to join the NHL and handed over another $5 million to the Rangers in "territorial" fees. 
The first Islanders training camp opened in Peterborough, Ontario, northeast of Toronto. (Every player in the Islanders' camp then was Canadian, as were 94 percent of all NHL players in 1972.) The team's first preseason game was at the training base of the Atlanta Flames in Drummondville, Quebec, an eight-hour bus ride from Peterborough, during which time Torrey believed his young players could get to know each other. 
They spent more time together than planned when the team bus threw a clutch and was stranded for hours on a country road. And they remained in relative anonymity when they and the Flames took the short trip to Sherbrooke, Quebec, for a second preseason game. That night, prizes for "lucky program winners" were 1) a carton of cigarettes; 2) a pair of tickets to Sherbrooke's first junior hockey game of the season; 3) a case of soda; 4) a box of chocolate candy; and 5) one hockey stick autographed by the Islanders. 
The Islanders' coach was 39-year-old Phil Goyette, who had just completed a 16-year NHL playing career and who -- three wins, 15 losses and two ties into a season spiraling quickly out of control -- said this: "I can't skate for them. I can't use ropes to pull them to positions they should be in. I can't put myself into their persons and move them. I ask myself sometimes, 'Would I play any better than these guys? And what would they expect from me, a goal a game?' I don't know. The idea of me playing again is only something that's been momentarily in the back of my mind. My job is to coach." 
Upon the team's first visit to Boston, a 9-1 loss, Goyette got into a pointed argument with referee John McCauley that went something like this (salty language excluded): 
Goyette: "You're a lousy referee." 
McCauley: "You're a lousy coach." 
Goyette considered that exchange the next day. "Well, gee," he said, "I've only been coaching a little while and McCauley's been around the league for years." 
By the end of January, Goyette was fired and replaced, the team announced then, by "co-coaches" -- Earl Ingarfield (behind the bench) and Aut Erickson (from high in the stands), though official Islanders records soon listed only Ingarfield as coach through the season's final 30 games. 
Before things got better, they got worse. 
That first season, the largest Coliseum crowds showed up for visits by the reigning Cup champion Boston Bruins and the Rangers (when a clear majority loudly backed the city team). On quieter nights, some Coliseum fans began to chant "We're No. 8 [last place in the division]!" and "Let's Go, Mets!" Wire service reports constantly referred to the team as "the hapless Islanders," as if "Hapless" were some unincorporated village on Long Island. 
(Back up a second: When the season opened, there was confusion over where, exactly, the Coliseum was located. Was it Hempstead? Garden City? East Meadow? Westbury? All of which appeared closer, on a map, than Uniondale -- the eventual winner.) 
As matters regressed -- 37 losses in their first 45 games, including 12 straight defeats -- defenseman Ken Murray bemoaned the fact that "sometimes you're fast and sometimes you're slow, and when you're slow, you wish you were fast." Veteran Terry Crisp, who had been picked off the St. Louis Blues' discard pile, grumbled that being an Islander was "just like the first expansion team I was with. They said, 'The St. Louis Blues will sure live up to their nickname.' Now they all say, 'The Islanders? What league are you in?' " 
Defenseman Bryan Lefley found himself increasingly unable to communicate with his mates on the ice, frozen by indecision. "Even my vocal cords have tightened up," he said. Goalie Gerry Desjardins said, "I see pucks in my sleep. And when I wake up, my wife gives me the shots on goal." 
But then, gradually and somewhat remarkably, events indicated that neither the team nor its growing fan base had been given a lethal dose of expansionism. On Jan. 18, the Islanders scored five unanswered goals in the first period -- and twice hit the goalpost -- in Boston before holding on for a stunning 9-7 victory. Torrey chuckled and elbowed his neighbor throughout the game and, overhearing a Bruins fan tell her companion afterward that she had come expecting a rout, Torrey said, "What did she think that was?" 
When asked if he could explain how the Islanders could be so good one moment after having been so awful, Torrey offered a reasonable explanation by asking, "You ever had kids?" 
In early March, Torrey traded for Philadelphia defenseman Jean Potvin, a sound enough hockey move that had the added benefit of lobbying to keep the top amateur prospect -- Jean's 19-year-old brother Denis -- from being tempted to go to the rival WHA. By season's end, Jean said he would tell Denis that "this club has spirit as good as any I've seen. I'll tell you, when I came to this team, I was awfully surprised. They were better than I thought. They didn't quit. I was happy to see that." 
Midway through March, the team put together a season-high winning streak of three straight, and although the overall 12-60-6 record was the worst in NHL history to that point, team captain Ed Westfall -- who had won a Stanley Cup with Boston the previous year -- said, "One thing the folks back home [in Belleville, Ontario] will want to know is what the fan reaction was like on Long Island. I'll tell them that if we were half as good as our fans, we'd have been in first place." 
On May 15, 1973, Torrey, the future Hall of Fame GM, drafted Denis Potvin, the future Hall of Fame defenseman. "Jean tells me the organization is A-plus," Denis said that day. "And he seems to be very happy there." 
Less than a month later, Torrey hired future Hall of Fame coach Al Arbour, whose 19-year run yielded four Stanley Cups and 15 trips to the playoffs. "My philosophy," Arbour said then, "is that some guys need a pat on the back and some guys need a kick in the pants." 
Not quite two years later, after Torrey brought offensive punch by acquiring J.P. Parise and Jude Drouin from the Minnesota North Stars, the Islanders were in a playoff race, a clear danger in NHL waters. And it was becoming clear that they were going to need a bigger bandwagon. 
There was a Levittown salesman named Sam Levy who wore a bowtie to games, fancying himself a Torrey doppelganger. With his two teenaged children -- both former Coliseum ushers -- he rented a helium tank to fill balloons and float them to the Coliseum ceiling with such signs as "Let's Go Islanders" and, when the team played Philadelphia Flyers bully Dave Schultz, "Schultz is a Bum." The Levy kids papered the Coliseum with team-boosting banners before games. 
Then came the second week of April 1975, and the Islanders' bar mitzvah. As an expansion team, the Islanders -- like most of the younger generation on Long Island in the 1970s -- had not come from somewhere else, had not immigrated from Brooklyn or another city borough. They fit the description of all those residents who had been born to suburbia, rather than choosing it. They grew up in the equivalent of Levitt housing: the no-frills, affordable Nassau Coliseum (game tickets originally were $6, $7 and $8). 
What the Islanders represented was an identity separate from Big Town, and that was magnified exponentially when -- in their very first trip to the playoffs -- they dismissed the team of Long Islanders' parents, the bright-lights New York Rangers, in that best-of-three 1975 first-round series, on Parise's goal just 11 seconds into overtime. 
The Islanders began to look and sound like winners, with Denis Potvin preparing for the Rangers series by reading a book titled "Million Dollar Sure Thing," with Billy Harris declaring himself a Yankees fan because "when I was a kid, they were the best, and I'm a front-runner." 
Furthermore, they were embracing their role as the anti-city team, often grousing about what they considered Madison Avenue's illogical embrace of the Cupless Rangers. When the Islanders won that first Cup in 1980 and it was called New York's first hockey title since the Rangers' 1940 triumph, feisty Islanders goalie Bill Smith shot back, "The Stanley Cup is not in New York. It's on Long Island." 
In strict geographical terms, of course, Brooklyn is part of the same land mass as Nassau and Suffolk Counties. But it has been part of New York City since 1898 and therefore -- along with Queens -- distinct from "Long Island" in popular usage. 
Back up. Right at the start of Islanders history, Newsday columnist Joe Gergen, aware of the old hockey insult that a bad team "couldn't put the puck in the ocean," pointed to the team logo -- a hockey stick as part of the "NY," superimposed over a map of the Island, with the puck positioned off the South Shore. "See," he said, "they can put the puck in the ocean." 
Soon enough, they began putting the puck in the net with regularity. In short order, Torrey was filling his offensive toolbox, mostly from the team's farm system: Clark Gillies (another Hall of Famer) arrived in 1974, Bryan Trottier (ditto) in 1975, Mike Bossy (him, too) in 1977. They had Potvin and the goalie pair of Smith (yep: Hall of Fame) and Glenn Resch as primary stars to stop the other guys from scoring, and solid pros at every position. 
By March 1980, the Islanders already had been to the Stanley Cup semifinals four times when, during the stretch drive, Torrey traded for veteran center Butch Goring -- often considered the final piece to the team's championship puzzle. Four consecutive Stanley Cups were followed by a fifth trip to the Cup Final -- a still-unmatched professional sports record of winning 19 straight playoff series -- and consistent playoff contention virtually until Arbour left after the 1993-94 season. 
But then came attempts at reshaping and rebranding the organization, summarized by the misguided switch to the so-called "Fisherman" logo for the 1995-96 season. Islanders fans hated it, Rangers fans ridiculed it (and management reversed course two years later). 
Ownership, meanwhile, went from criminal to shaky. With Torrey forced to resign after 1992, trades didn't pan out so well anymore. The farm system wasn't helpful. Hired to coach in 2001, Peter Laviolette brought the team to its first playoff berth in eight years, repeated that the next season, and quickly was gone. With dwindling crowds, attention turned to replacing the Coliseum amid arguments that no really great player would want to come to such a dump. 
In fact, said Bill Guerin, who signed as a free agent in 2007, the building wasn't the issue so much as the lack of fans. (And fans were staying away because the team wasn't competitive.) "There's a big difference," Guerin said then, "between playing in front of a full house and 5,000 people, and anyone who says there isn't is lying." 
In 2002, four shoulder stripes were added to the uniform, meant to represent the team's long-ago four Stanley Cups, and veteran Mike Sillinger, signed as a free agent in 2006, acknowledged at the time that such a reminder might serve as "motivation. But you can't live in the past," he added. "I don't think [ownership] is trying to pound into our heads, 'Stanley Cup! Stanley Cup!' . . . Well, maybe they are . . . " 
The team's traditional jersey style, which had been replaced by a wavy seasick look during the "Fisherman" era, was ditched again in 2007 for a more gaudy version, then revived. Sometimes the longing for a Stanley Cup inheritance was front-and-center; other times, there was an urge to start over completely. 
The four stripes were taken off the uniform in 2010. Brooklyn is on the horizon. There is no going back.

SPIMAIN12

Islanders led us down a road of highs and lows that now leads to Brooklyn

potvin cropped

Jim Baumbach

The last time the Islanders introduced a pair of new owners, Charles Wang and Sanjay Kumar spoke optimistically about their vision of one day renovating -- or even replacing -- that antiquated barn called Nassau Coliseum. 
It was April 2000 and that message from the new owners, while no doubt appreciated by Islanders fans, came as no surprise to anyone. The same words were said by previous owners and team executives on other days of promise. 
With this team and this home arena, there never was any doubt about the overwhelming challenge facing the owner: 
Find a way to upgrade the team's home arena on Hempstead Turnpike, and surely that would go a long way toward fixing the depressed revenue structure that's been an issue for all but a handful of years of the team's existence. 
That always sounded good in theory. Former owners such as John Pickett, Howard Milstein and, yes, even John Spano, said as much. But making it happen proved to be quite difficult. 
"We love it when people say it's impossible," Wang said on April 26, 2000, the day of their introductory news conference. "That's what drives us. Just watch us.'' 
In the course of Wang's 14 years as Islanders owner -- he bought out Kumar in 2004 -- he went rounds with politicians from Nassau County and the Town of Hempstead. But the road never led to where he trying to go. Finally, he had enough. 
Two years ago this month, Wang decided it was time to give up the longtime fight of Islanders owners and announced plans to move the Islanders to Brooklyn starting next season. 
"When you have a good alternative,'' he said then, "at some point you take the alternative.'' 
In August, Wang reached an agreement to sell a minority stake in the team to a pair of businessmen who will assume majority control of the team in two years. They are Manhattan investor Jonathan Ledecky, a former co-owner of the Washington Capitals, and Scott Malkin, who owns upscale shopping centers across Europe. Wang will remain a minority owner. 
In some ways, the news that the Islanders were only moving a train ride away might have been a relief. If any fan base knows uncertainty from off-the-ice issues, it's this group. 
Consider that before the Islanders truly made their mark on the ice, the team's first owner, Roy Boe, fell into financial woes. This was the late 1970s, and Boe was accused of using money from the Islanders to fund his other professional sports team, the Nets of the NBA and formerly the ABA. 
With the Islanders facing more than $20 million in debt and a bevy of lawsuits because of missed payments, there was talk as early as 1978 that their days on the Island were numbered. Boe had no choice but to sell the team. 
Pickett, a private investor who was an Islanders minority owner from the early 1970s, came to the team's rescue. He purchased the team from Boe and organized its finances. Before long, all the focus was on the Islanders' championship run of the early 1980s. 
As exciting and momentous as the four straight Stanley Cups were, their afterglow was relatively short-lived. Pickett left Long Island for Florida in the 1980s and lost interest in the team. Once ticket prices were raised, fans lost interest, too. The end of an era was near. 
"In sports, it doesn't make sense to own a franchise if you can't go to the games,'' Pickett said in 1991. By then he had announced plans to put the team up for sale, assuring Long Islanders that his goal was to find local owners. 
That didn't happen, so Pickett did what he thought was the next-best thing. He gave four Long Island businessmen -- Jerry Grossman, Steve Walsh, Bob Rosenthal and Ralph Palleschi -- managing control of the organization in 1992 in exchange for a $10-million minority share. That foursome would come to be known as the "Gang of Four.'' 
But finances and the aging Coliseum remained a dark cloud over the franchise, and Pickett was looking to get out. 
Enter Spano, a 32-year-old who fancied himself a rich businessman -- so rich that his bid for the team in 1996 beat out Mets co-owner Nelson Doubleday. Islanders fans know all too well what happened next. Spano failed to pay, was arrested in July 1997 and admitted in January 1998 that he lied to get an $80-million loan to finance the purchase of the Islanders. 
By then Pickett had found another duo to sell to: insurance broker Steven Gluckstern and real estate developer Howard Milstein. 
When the sale closed on Feb. 25, 1998, the public address announcer at the Coliseum announced the news, saying the new owners planned to bring "a fifth Stanley Cup'' to Long Island. 
"The Islanders need a more modern facility,'' Milstein said on his first official day as Islanders owner. "In order to be competitive in today's hockey world . . . you have to be able to afford to pay for talent. In order to afford to pay for the talent, you do need other- revenue kinds of opportunities that cannot be afforded in this current venue.'' 
But hope was lost quickly. Once Milstein and Gluckstern were in control, they saw the road to a new arena was much more bumpy and congested than they had envisioned. So after only 25 months as Islanders owners, they wanted out, and in April 2000, they sold the Islanders to Wang and Kumar. 
And the cycle of Islanders owners dreaming about a better home on Long Island started all over again.

SPIOWN12

Isles ownership changed, but dreams of a better arena did not

Charles Wang Nassau Coliseum cropped

We still have no zoo nor a big-league museum. We don't have metropolitan theater. We don't have a Main Street to link Hewlett Bay Harbor to Huntington Harbor or Elmont to Speonk. We don't have a Canyon of Heroes where we can joyously throw confetti in celebration on our conquering heroes in ticker-tape parades. 
We don't have much need for ticker tape; the Islanders are bound for Brooklyn. They haven't given us reason to celebrate for some time, anyhow. 
And who of us will miss them? 
Surely a handful of fans who took pride in their supremacy will miss them, but they have been a diminishing number. We have some nice memories of the excitement in winning something called the Stanley Cup four times in a row. That was nice. Remember? 
We have nearly 3 million residents within range of something called Nassau Coliseum -- more than Cincinnati or Pittsburgh. We travel west to the city to see "The Lion King'' or the collected works of Picasso; we return east to mow the lawn or go to sleep. Gertrude Stein might have said of our place, "There is no there there.'' 
Our skyline is topped by the Health Sciences Center, soaring to 360 feet at Stony Brook University; that's new since the Islanders won their last trophy. We still have among the highest taxes in the nation -- and growing. 
"Long Island developed when everybody wanted to get away from the city,'' said Stuart Osnow, political consultant at Prime New York. "Now people want things brought to them, not go to them.'' 
Some of us remember being at a place called Dr. Generosity when Bobby Nystrom walked in wearing an Islanders T-shirt at 2 a.m. after his overtime goal in Game 6 gave us our first Stanley Cup in 1980. Joy flowed like wine. 
Nassau County Executive Francis Purcell said it was the biggest thing to happen to Long Island since Lindbergh flew to Paris. The Islanders, Purcell said, "give us an identity we've been striving for for a long time. People won't say, 'Where's Long Island?' '' 
"The Islanders made people feel good about themselves; that increased property values. That was good,'' said Jim Nagourney, then the Islanders executive whose main job was producing more seats and who negotiated the long-term contract that held the team here until now. 
After the Islanders lost Game 5 in Philadelphia that year, Ted Theodoreopolis went to Republic Airport in the middle of the night to cheer the Islanders' return. He said he shook hands with each of them except cranky Bill Smith. Bill Smith never shook hands. "We're not New Yorkers, we're Long Islanders,'' proclaimed Theodoreopolis. 
Barbara Stabiner, the Seer of Seaford, rushed dinner to sit in Section 226 as she had since 1972 and foresaw the Islanders winning. "They lost that energy,'' she laments now. 
In the best of times, they were Long Islanders. Nystrom married a Long Island girl, still lives here. Clark Gillies, from Moose Jaw, stayed. Mike Bossy, then the highest-paid player in the league, wouldn't drive his Mercedes in the rain or park it in public, so he sold it and bought a Pontiac. Butch Goring was traded here and deliberately got himself lost so he could learn his way around. The newlywed wife of Czech David Volek saw the supermarket display of citrus and fled, thinking she must need a permit. 
There were the others. A woman friend of mine heard the playoff excitement and asked me to buy tickets for her. I did and she exclaimed: "Do they have to be on a Saturday?'' 
During the great reign, Bill Torrey, the astute general manager who made Al Arbour coach and patiently built champions from the expansion void, mused that when the winning inevitably ended, "Will they still come?'' 
The rivalry with the Rangers was delicious -- country pups beating and taunting the city dogs with singsong "nine-teen-forty,'' their last championship until they won another in 1994. When Madison Avenue promoted the Rangers in Sasson jeans and the Islanders eliminated them in an early round, Islanders fans chanted, "Oo la la, so soon . . . '' 
Joe Brand was and is a Rangers fan. His mother, father and grandmother owned Islanders season tickets. He would go to Nassau Coliseum when he could get their tickets. He admired the Islanders' artistry, never said a bad word about Potvin. He opened a deli in Long Beach and named it Zamboni's. He has moved up the street to Brand's Delicatessen and recently was appalled at the Coliseum: "We'd look around and see twice as many empty seats as occupied. Holy moley!'' 
When ownership changed and Torrey was pushed out, he built the Florida Panthers into a power. The Islanders floundered and flopped. Three members of their various ownership groups were indicted and convicted. Innovative marketing was rejected recalls Pat Calabria, then a vice president of the Islanders and now a vice president at Farmingdale State. The Islanders and the Coliseum were judged too expensive for the community. In the era when more seats were in demand, the Islanders built and paid for a dozen suites. "The building was run not by arena people but by politicians,'' Torrey said. "There's not a building in the National Hockey League that survives by revenue from the teams. Special events do that. The Garden got the big ones.'' 
The Coliseum was built hurriedly and thriftily, with little access to public transportation -- unlike Madison Square Garden and the new Barclays Center. Joe Brand can put his kids on the LIRR to either arena and never worry about them going outside. With ridiculous hockey management and public money tight, the Coliseum faded and became threadbare and unappealing. "There's a difference,'' Torrey said, "between losing and not giving hope.'' 
Nassau County offered no hope either. "They were shortsighted and missed the opportunity to rebuild the Coliseum,'' political consultant Osnow said, "and they will never get it back.'' 
And will we miss the Islanders? 
If we cared enough, they wouldn't be leaving.

SPIJAKE12

Brooklyn gets the team, but LIers retain the memories

isles fan cropped

The goal that started a dynasty on Long Island began with a play that made Al Arbour wince. 
Lorne Henning recalled a few years ago that his pass to spring John Tonelli into the Flyers' zone about seven minutes and change into overtime of Game 6 of the 1980 Stanley Cup Final was the sort of dangerous neutral-zone play that Arbour "said he would have choked me if we hadn't scored." 
Instead, there were bear hugs, champagne and the start of something the hockey world -- or even the pro sports world -- has not seen since. Tonelli threw a centering pass, Bob Nystrom deflected it past Pete Peeters and at 7:11 of overtime on May 24, 1980, a dynasty was born. 
The names are etched in every Islanders fan's memory: Trottier. Bossy. Potvin. Smith. Arbour. Torrey. One by one they came to an expansion team that suffered through its infancy, grew in stature in year three when J.P. Parise's overtime goal knocked out their big brothers from Manhattan, and then came close to reaching the pinnacle of the NHL in 1978 and 1979, only to be knocked off by inferior teams, including their hated rival Rangers in the 1979 semifinals. 
By 1980, the Islanders were ready to take the mantle from the Canadiens, who had strung together four straight Cup victories of their own. They were not as dominant in the regular season as they'd been in the previous two seasons, but they were battle-tested -- and when Bill Torrey traded original Islander Billy Harris and defenseman Dave Lewis to the Kings for 10-year NHL veteran Butch Goring in March, the Isles added an unlikely weapon to their playoff arsenal. 
The first three rounds were formalities in the 1980 tournament, as the Islanders lost four total games in dispatching the Kings, Bruins and Sabres. The Flyers, who had won the Patrick Division that season, were a different matter; it also was the Isles' first time finally reaching a Final. 
Denis Potvin scored on the power play in overtime of Game 1 -- the Islanders' fourth OT victory of the postseason -- and the Isles dominated Games 3 and 4 at the Coliseum, including a 5-for-5 power play in a 6-2 Game 3 win. 
Back at a sweltering Coliseum for a Saturday afternoon Game 6, the Islanders took a 4-2 lead into the third period. The building rocked in anticipation, but the Flyers tied it up barely six minutes into the third. 
Smith, who took over the starting goaltender's spot from Chico Resch at the start of the playoffs, stood tall to get things to OT. Henning to Tonelli to Nystrom, two of the three original Islanders from a 12-win season back in 1972-73, and the party had begun. 
Did they know it would be a full presidential term before the party would end? 
Let's make it two in a row 
The next season might not stand out so much 33 years later, but that's because the reigning champions were so dominating, so focused. Only 18 losses in 80 regular-season games. Mike Bossy scored 68 goals to lead the league. Bryan Trottier had 103 points. 
And the 1981 playoff was, simply, a foregone conclusion. The Islanders dropped only three games along the way, two to an upstart team from Edmonton with the league's leading scorer, Wayne Gretzky. 
There was a resounding sweep of the Rangers in the semis to allow the Isles to put the 1979 disappointment to bed. And a five-game rout of the Minnesota North Stars, culminating in another skate around the Coliseum ice with the Stanley Cup. Goring, the last piece of the 1980 puzzle, had 10 goals in 18 playoff games to earn Conn Smythe honors. 
There were, of course, changes along the way. Torrey's high draft picks gave way to success and picks later in each round, but growing from within was the core of the Islanders. 
Opening-round trouble, then Cup No. 3 
Rollie Melanson supplanted Resch as Smith's backup by the 1981-82 season. A pair of rugged young brothers from an Alberta farm, Duane and Brent Sutter, provided forward depth and pushed out loyal vets such as original Islander Garry Howatt. 
But the headliners remained the same, better than they'd been. Bossy posted a franchise-record 147 points, second only to that Gretzky kid. The Islanders as a team had a franchise-record 54 wins and 118 points, primed for another dominating run. 
This time, though, the Islanders nearly lost their footing looking ahead for the finish line. The unheralded Penguins, a sub-.500 team in the regular season, had the Isles in serious trouble in the best-of-five opening round. 
It happened at the Coliseum, naturally. A 2-2 series and a 3-1 deficit after two periods threatened the Islanders in a big way. As the minutes ticked on in that third period, the Isles threw everything they had at goaltender Michel Dion, and they finally broke through. Mike McEwen's power-play goal at 14:33 gave the Islanders life and Tonelli tied it with only 2:27 left. 
Tonelli was there again in OT. This time his setup for Nystrom ended up with Tonelli jamming the winner home. 
"We were lucky there,'' Nystrom recalled not long ago, "and thank goodness for that.'' 
There would be no more hiccups that spring. The Islanders dispatched the Rangers in six games -- the new NHL playoff format that season changed from all 16 teams facing off in a big tournament to an East-West format -- and then a sweep of the Quebec Nordiques in the Wales Conference finals. 
The final was the Bossy show. Another sweep, this one over the Canucks. The Isles scored 18 goals in that series and Bossy had seven of them to earn playoff MVP honors. 
Crowning the dynasty 
By 1982-83, other teams were starting to rise. Gretzky and the Oilers were dominant in the Campbell Conference and the Flyers and Bruins were revived in the Wales. The Isles finished second in their division to Philly, focusing more on keeping pucks out of the net than piling them up in their opponent's goal. Bossy had 60 goals for the third straight season, but the bigger honor was Smith and Melanson giving up the fewest in the league. 
That would play a part in the fourth Cup. The Islanders were focused from the outset of the 1983 tournament, dispatching the Caps in four and then the Rangers, yet again, in six. Bossy took charge in the conference finals against the Bruins, scoring nine goals in the six-game win, four in the series clincher. 
Meanwhile, the Oilers had lost only one game on their march to a showdown between the old guard and the new guard of the NHL. 
The Slash is what many remember from that Islanders-Oilers final: Smith, the cantankerous one who felt it was disingenuous to shake hands after a series ended, sweeping his goal stick around to catch Gretzky on the ankle in Game 2. 
Truth be told, it was Smith's goaltending that already had won the Islanders the series. He shut out Gretzky and the Oilers in Game 1 in Edmonton, and Game 2 already was long decided when Smith whacked The Great One in the third period. 
The two games at the Coliseum were more of the same: Smith in top form and the Islanders frustrating Gretzky to no end. The sweep and fourth Cup, staving off the new era, stands as the most impressive of the Isles' dynasty. With no goals and only four assists in the series, Gretzky came back with a vengeance to win in the subsequent years. 
The Epilogue 
The cracks showed a bit more in 1983-84, the drive for five. The Islanders still won the Patrick Division, but only 11 points separated them and the fourth-place Rangers, their first-round opponents. Bossy topped 50 goals for the seventh straight season, but both he and Trottier missed time with injuries. Smith split the regular-season goaltending duties with Melanson. 
One more playoff battle with the Rangers, this time in the opening round, nearly ended the dynasty early. Only Ken Morrow, who went from Team USA's Olympic Miracle on Ice to the dynasty without pause, saved the Islanders with his screened OT winner from off the side boards in Game 5 at the Coliseum. 
Aided by a couple of teenagers, Pat LaFontaine and Patrick Flatley, who joined the team late in the regular season and gave a much-needed jolt of new energy, the Islanders got past the Caps and Canadiens and into a fifth straight Stanley Cup Final. The Oilers were waiting. 
The teams split the first two in Uniondale, with Clark Gillies' hat trick propelling a 6-1 Game 2 win on May 12, 1984, just shy of four years since Nystrom's OT goal started it all. 
The Isles never made it back to the old barn, losing three in Edmonton. The last great dynasty of pro sports -- four straight championships, 19 consecutive playoff series won -- ended. 
And now, 30 years after that last Stanley Cup Final game, the Coliseum fades out this season. The greats of that team will have their banners hanging at Barclays Center next fall, but nothing will be able to replicate what went down in four consecutive glorious springs at Nassau Coliseum.

SPICUP12

Puck Dynasty: Looking back at Islanders' championship seasons

Bobby Nystrom cropped

It makes sense that the Islanders from the early 1980s wished this season -- the franchise's last at Nassau Coliseum -- hadn't come. 
But for the current Islanders, who play in a building that looks very much the same as it did three decades ago, one would think the departure for a more state-of-the-art building in Brooklyn next season would be a welcome change. 
Not so fast. 
"It's home," said Kyle Okposo, who has been kicking around the Coliseum since his first rookie camp in the summer of 2006. "Any time you have a home rink for a long period, you get used to it. I feel like I know every space on the ice. You're just comfortable out there. I've got my routine that I do, that I've done for six, seven years now. You have to go and get used to a new place that'll feel like a road rink for the first few games. I'll miss the routine and I'll definitely miss the old barn." 
The high point for Okposo, John Tavares and the rest of the longer-serving Islanders core was the spring of 2013, when the team made the playoffs for the first time since 2006-07, three seasons before Tavares joined the club in 2009. The three home games during the six-game series loss to the Penguins hearkened back to the good old days -- not just a full building but a building full of Islanders fans screaming their lungs out for the full three hours. 
"I know we shouldn't keep talking about the playoff series, but that series or playing against the Rangers or Philly, it's just loud in here," Travis Hamonic said. "You can hear everything the fans are saying, one way or the other. I'm sure it can be tough on opposing teams when the place is full and the fans are going the way they can go." 
Tavares has enjoyed some special moments in his five seasons on Long Island. He's the unquestioned fan favorite at the Coliseum and has heard from some of the Isles' legends about the raucous dynasty days. And he has his own memories that he'll take away once this last season ends. 
"The Islander-Ranger games are unbelievable here," he said. "Sitting in the locker room, you can hear the fans going back and forth before you get out onto the ice. Those games are a lot of fun. You just hear everything, I guess -- low ceiling, the fans being right on top of you, it creates quite the atmosphere when this place is full." 
And there's still one season left to see if the Islanders can make the old building come to life. 
"There's so much history here," Hamonic said, "it'd be nice to win here one last time."

SPISIDE12

Barclays awaits, but Coliseum still has homey feeling for some players

isles devils barclays full cropped

Neil Best

Mike Bossy still recalls every detail of his first visit to Nassau Coliseum, shortly after a news conference announcing his signing with the Islanders in the summer of 1977. 
Of course, it helps that not much has changed since then. 
"I remember distinctly walking out where the players walk out now on foot, and I do it many times with clients [as a member of the front office in sponsorship and fan development] and remark to them that I walked out here 37 years ago, and it's exactly the same. It hasn't changed at all.'' 
That's good for nostalgia but bad for business, a dual reality that Bossy -- like other former players and longtime fans -- will confront this season as he watches the final season at the Coliseum. 
"Everyone else has changed and everything else has become state of the art, and unfortunately, this place is the same as when I walked out in 1977,'' he said recently after being named a studio analyst for MSG for the coming season. "There are subtle changes, but it's the same arena.'' 
Bossy joked that the polite way of describing the old place is "vintage.'' 
"I will make a great comparison: When the Yankees were playing in their dump and they were winning, no one was calling it a dump,'' he said. "They were calling it vintage. Unfortunately, we haven't been winning, so it makes the place look worse than it is. So we turn it into vintage.'' 
Don't get Bossy wrong. Much as he is a realist when it comes to the outdated state of the arena, he has the same warm spot for its history that Islanders fans do. 
Asked to pick his favorite memories from his time in uniform at the old place, he named three: Winning the team's first Stanley Cup on May 24, 1980, scoring his 50th goal in the first 50 games on Jan. 24, 1981, and winning the Islanders' fourth consecutive Cup on May 17, 1983. 
All of that was a long time ago, and a younger generation is only vaguely familiar with what Bossy, 57, did on the ice. But he said he is OK with that because nothing can erase what those old teams did in the then-young arena. 
"Kids don't know who I am,'' he said, laughing. "Hockey is certainly not as popular as the other major sports are in New York, so I would say the Hall of Famers of the Islanders certainly don't have that continued recognition that Hall of Famers from baseball and football have. 
"But I am one of those who say it is what it is. There's nothing I can do about it. I think as a group, we all know what we accomplished, certainly one of the three best teams in the history of the game, and when you can put yourself there, you don't need anything else.'' 
The memories are tied more to his teammates than to the building in which they played, but it was part of their story, too.

SPIBOSS12

'Vintage' Coliseum helps keep Mike Bossy's Islanders memories fresh

0ND3JX2C.JPG cropped

Nov. 8, 1971: NHL awards expansion franchise to Roy Boe. The Islanders are to begin play in 1972-73 season at Nassau Coliseum. 
Feb. 15, 1972: Bill Torrey introduced as the first general manager. 
June 8, 1972: Billy Harris is first overall player chosen in amateur draft. 
June 20, 1972: Phil Goyette named first coach. 
Sept. 27, 1972: The franchise is transformed from idea into reality with the home debut, an exhibition against the Rangers. Glen Sather of the visitors scores the first goal, but the expansion team ties it 3-3 early in the third period of a 6-4 loss. "I think the Islanders are going to do OK," Rangers center Walt Tkaczuk says. 
Oct. 7, 1972: Islanders lose their home opener and first game in franchise history, 3-2, to Atlanta Flames. Ed Westfall scores Islanders' first goal, at 17:29 of the second period. 
Oct. 12, 1972: Islanders beat Kings 3-2 at home for franchise's first win. Billy Harris takes first penalty shot in Islanders history and is unsuccessful. 
Jan. 18, 1973: One of the highlights of the first season: Islanders beat Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito and the Bruins, 9-7, at Boston Garden. 
Jan. 29, 1973: Goyette fired, replaced by Earl Ingarfeld and assistant Aut Erickson. 
June 10, 1973: Al Arbour named coach. 
June 17, 1973: Islanders select Denis Potvin with first overall pick in amateur draft. 
Oct. 27, 1973: Potvin scores his first NHL goal as Islanders defeat Rangers for the first time, 3-2. 
May 28, 1974: Clark Gillies chosen in first round of the draft, Bryan Trottier taken in second round. 
June 11, 1974: Potvin wins Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL's top rookie. 
April 11, 1975: Islanders win their first playoff series, beating Rangers in three games when J.P. Parise scores 11 seconds into overtime at MSG to give the Isles a 4-3 victory. 
April 26, 1975: Islanders rally from 0-3 deficit to beat Penguins 4-3 in second round of playoffs. Ed Westfall scores with just over five minutes left in regulation and Glen Resch makes 30 saves in 1-0 victory, which made Isles the second team (Toronto, 1942) to complete such a comeback. 
May 7, 1975: Having made history by beating the Penguins in seven games after trailing 3-0, the Isles avoid elimination in Game 4 of the semifinal when Jude Drouin scores at 1:53 of OT. The Islanders win twice more, forcing Game 7 and establishing the franchise's identity. 
May 12, 1975: In semifinals, Islanders fall behind in series 3-0 to Flyers, but force another Game Seven with a 2-1 win at home on Gerry Hart's third period goal. 
May 14, 1975: Westfall presents Philadelphia icon Kate Smith with roses before her performance of "God Bless America," but Flyers eliminate Isles 4-1 in Game Seven of Stanley Cup semifinals. 
June 7, 1976: Potvin wins first of three Norris Trophies. Trottier wins Calder Trophy. 
Feb. 3, 1977: Richie Hansen of Northport becomes first Long Islander to score a goal in 3-2 win over Rangers. 
April 17, 1977: For third consecutive season, Isles advance to Stanley Cup semifinals when they sweep Sabres. But they lose to Canadiens in the semifinals -- third straight season that they fall to the eventual champions. 
June 14, 1977: Isles select Mike Bossy in first round of the amateur draft. John Tonelli taken in second round. 
April 1, 1978: Bossy becomes first rookie in NHL history to score 50 goals in a season, getting No. 50 in a 3-2 win over Capitals. 
April 8, 1978: Islanders clinch their first Patrick Division and Campbell Conference championships with a 7-2 win over Rangers at Coliseum. 
July 31, 1978: John Pickett becomes managing general partner, replacing Boe. The Islanders reportedly are on the brink of bankruptcy. 
Dec. 23, 1978: Trottier scores five goals and three assists against Rangers in 9-4 victory. 
Feb. 19, 1979: Bossy scores 100th career goal in his 129th game, the fastest 100 goals scored in NHL history. 
April 8, 1979: Bossy scores 69th goal of the season against the Rangers, the second-highest total in NHL history. The 5win gives the Isles a 51-15-14 record, best in the NHL. 
May 8, 1979: Rangers eliminate Islanders in classic semifinal, four games to two, with a 2-1 win at MSG. 
June 11, 1979: Trottier wins the Hart Trophy as league MVP. 
Oct. 13, 1979: Norman (One Shot) Weidner of East Islip scores first-time SCORE-O at Nassau Coliseum. 
Nov. 28, 1979: Billy Smith scores goal in 7-4 loss to Rockies becoming first NHL goaltender to do so. 
April 17, 1980: In 5-4 OT win at Boston in Game Two of second round playoff, Clark Gillies and the Bruins' Terry O'Reilly fight twice in the first period. Later on, Duane Sutter and Bruins' Mike Milbury ignite bench-clearing brawl. 
May 10, 1980: Isles advance to their first Stanley Cup Final, beating Sabres in semifinals four games to two. 
May 24, 1980: The perception of the Islanders being chronic underachievers changed forever on that Saturday afternoon, Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final, when Bobby Nystrom converted John Tonelli's cross-ice feed at 7:11 of overtime and <a href="http://www.newsday.com/sports/hockey/islanders/flashback-the-cup-stops-here-1.1931620">the Islanders saluted their fans with the most famous trophy in sports</a>. 
Jan 24, 1981: With two goals in the final 4 minutes, 10 seconds, including one with only 1:19 remaining in a game against the Nordiques, Bossy achieved his goal of becoming the second player in NHL history to score 50 goals in 50 games (matching Maurice Richard of the 1944-45 Canadiens). 
May 21, 1981: Completing a playoff blitz that established a handful of NHL records, the Islanders finished off the North Stars, 5-1, in Game 5 of the Final. Butch Goring, the key trade acquisition the previous spring, won the Conn Smythe. After the second consecutive Cup, Nystrom said, "Why not a dynasty?" 
Feb. 20, 1982: A 3-2 win over Rockies is Isles' NHL-record 15th consecutive victory. 
April 13, 1982: The Islanders trailed the Penguins by two goals in the third period of a climactic first-round Game 5. But Mike McEwen scored at 14:33, Tonelli tied it at 17:39 and knocked home a rebound at 6:19 of overtime. Penguins goalie Michel Dion said of the Islanders, "They have the heart of a lion." 
May 16, 1982: Islanders win third Stanley Cup, sweeping Canucks. Bossy wins Conn Smythe Trophy. 
May 17, 1983: The Oilers would have their day, but it wasn't this day. <a href="http://www.newsday.com/sports/hockey/islanders/the-1980s-islanders-dynasty-1.202711">The Islanders completed a sweep and won their fourth consecutive Cup</a>. Playoff MVP Billy Smith called the Conn Smythe Trophy "something I'll cherish for the rest of my life." Al Arbour said his Islanders had the most character of any team "in any sport." 
March 22, 1984: Trottier scores five seconds into the game against Bruins at Boston Garden, tying record for fastest goal to start a game. 
May 5, 1984: Isles clinch 19th straight playoff series triumph, 4-1 over Canadiens to win Wales Conference Final four games to two. 
May 19, 1984: The dynasty ends as Oilers beat Isles in five games to win Stanley Cup Final. 
Dec. 20, 1985: Potvin passes Orr as NHL's all-time leading scorer among defensemen. 
June 18, 1986: Terry Simpson takes over as coach. 
April 18, 1987: Pat LaFontaine scores at 8:42 of quadruple overtime to beat Capitals, 4-3, in Game 7 of Patrick Division semifinals. Game ends in early hours of Sunday, April 19, and is remembered as the "Easter Epic." 
Dec. 7, 1988: Simpson dismissed; Arbour returns as coach. 
Feb. 26, 1991: Pickett offers the team for sale. 
Feb. 1, 1992: Potvin's No. 5 retired. 
March 3, 1992: Bossy's No. 22 retired. 
Feb. 20, 1993: Smith's No. 31 retired. 
Aug. 17, 1992: A group of Long Island businessmen acquire managing control of the team from Pickett. Don Maloney replaces Torrey as GM. 
April 24, 1993: Isles win third consecutive OT game vs. Capitals, 4-3, in Game Four of Patrick Division semifinals on Ray Ferraro's goal in double overtime. 
April 28, 1993: Pierre Turgeon suffers a shoulder separation and concussion when blindsided by the Caps' Dale Hunter after a goal. Hunter is suspended 21 games and becomes public enemy No. 1 at the Coliseum. Still, years later, as owner/ coach of the London Knights he speaks highly of Long Island to one of his players: John Tavares. 
June 1, 1994: Arbour retires and accepts the position of Vice-President of Hockey Operations. Lorne Henning is named coach. 
April 1, 1995: Bob Nystrom's No. 23 retired. 
June 22, 1995: Isles unveil new uniform with a fisherman's logo that is worn until end of 1996-97 season. 
July 5, 1995: Mike Milbury named coach. 
Oct. 10, 1996: Pickett announces he will sell a "substantial" portion of team to <a href="http://www.newsday.com/from-the-archives-the-dotted-line-spano-near-contract-to-buy-islanders-1.6248329">Dallas businessman John Spano</a>. 
Nov. 26, 1996: <a href="http://www.newsday.com/sports/hockey/islanders/from-the-archives-john-spano-works-on-islanders-1.6422001">Franchise sold to Spano for $165 million</a>, that includes $85 million for cable rights. 
Dec. 7, 1996: Clark Gillies' No. 9 is retired. 
Jan. 22, 1997: Pickett and Spano announce they have completed details on the sale, including the cable rights. 
Jan. 24, 1997: Rick Bowness named coach. 
Feb. 6, 1997: Spano says he met with potential and believes the Islanders will have a new $180-million arena within "three years." 
Feb. 24, 1997: NHL approves sale of team to Spano. 
April 7, 1997: Pickett and Spano close the sale. 
April 12, 1997: Islanders miss playoffs for third straight season. 
June 13, 1997: Spano unveils several concepts to redevelop Coliseum property at a cost of $360 million to $460 million. Spano says he has to line up co-investors and reach agreement with Nassau County. 
June 28, 1997: A lawyer for Pickett asks NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to convene an arbitration proceeding that could result in the team being given back to Pickett because Spano still had not made a $17 million payment as part of the purchase deal. 
June 30, 1997: NHL bars Spano from running day-to-day operations of the team. 
July 10, 1997: Spano gives up claim to Islanders. Ownership reverts to Pickett. 
Feb. 25, 1998: Sale of team to New York Sports Ventures co-chairmen Steven Gluckstern and Howard Milstein completed. 
March 11, 1998: Mike Milbury replaces Bowness as coach. 
Jan. 21, 1999: Bill Stewart named coach. 
April 30, 1999: Butch Goring named coach. 
April 26, 2000: Computer Associates founder and CEO Charles Wang and CA President and COO Sanjay Kumar purchase the team. 
June 24, 2000: Isles take goalie Rick DiPietro with first overall in draft. 
March 4, 2001: Lorne Henning named interim coach. 
May 23, 2001: Peter Laviolette named coach. 
Oct. 11, 2001: Laviolette is first NHL coach to open career with four straight road wins. Islanders are 9-0-1-1 in October. 
Oct. 20, 2001: Trottier's No. 19 retired. 
April 6, 2002: Islanders clinch first playoff berth in eight seasons with 5-4 win over Caps. 
April 24, 2002: The 30-year-old Coliseum rocks in Game 4 of the fiery playoff series with the Maple Leafs, especially when Shawn Bates beats Curtis Joseph on a penalty shot with 2:30 left. Bates inspires the fans, and vice versa. "It was just awesome out there," he said. 
April 30, 2002: Islanders lose to Toronto 4-2 in Game 7 of Conference quarterfinals. 
June 3, 2003: Steve Stirling named coach. 
Sept. 27, 2004: Wang unveils his Lighthouse Project plan to renovate the Coliseum and develop the surrounding area. 
Oct. 19, 2005: Rick DiPietro turns away all three Rangers shooters at MSG and Miroslav Satan scores Islanders' first shootout goal for the franchise's first shootout win. 
Jan. 12, 2006: Wang announces that Milbury will become a Senior Vice President for Wang's sports properties, which includes the Islanders, New York Dragons (AFL), Bridgeport Sound Tigers (AHL) and Islanders Iceworks. Also, Stirling is fired and Brad Shaw named interim coach. 
June 6, 2006: Ted Nolan named coach. 
June 8, 2006: Neil Smith named GM. 
July 18, 2006: Smith is fired, and replaced by Garth Snow. 
Sept. 13, 2006: Goalie Rick DiPietro signed to 15-year contract. 
March 5, 2007: DiPietro sets franchise record with 56 saves in 2-1 shootout loss to Rangers at MSG. 
April 8, 2007: Isles clinch playoff spot with 3-2 win over Devils. 
November, 2007: Wang's The Lighthouse Group applies to the Town of Hempstead for the creation of a planned development district. The initial application is rejected on the grounds of missing maps, typos and other issues; the application is resubmitted in February 2008. 
Nov. 3, 2007: Arbour comes out of retirement for one game (working the bench beside Ted Nolan) because the franchise wants his career total to be a nice round number, and he leads a 3-2 win over the Penguins. More important, the gesture by the Islanders unites generations of fans and players. Captain Bill Guerin says it was like playing for Vince Lombardi. 
Aug. 12, 2008: Scott Gordon named coach. 
April 30, 2009: Town of Hempstead calls for revisions to Lighthouse plan. 
May 1, 2009: Wang, frustrated he can't get the Coliseum refurbished or replaced, or that the $3.7 billion Lighthouse Project has nott been approved, says he wishes he had never bought the team. 
June 26, 2009: John Tavares first overall pick in the draft. 
Nov. 23, 2009: Dwayne Roloson sets team record for saves in an overtime game, 58, in 4-3 victory at Toronto. 
Nov. 15, 2010: Jack Capuano named coach. 
Feb. 11, 2011: Isles set team record for penalties (34), penalty minutes (183) and combined penalty minutes (346) in 9-3 win over Penguins. 
Aug. 1, 2011: Nassau County voters reject proposal to borrow up to $400 million toward a taxpayer-funded new arena. 
Oct. 24, 2012: Wang announces the <a href="http://www.newsday.com/sports/hockey/islanders/islanders-move-to-brooklyn-full-coverage-1.4148734">Islanders will move to the Barclays Center</a> in Brooklyn in 2015. 
Aug. 19, 2014: <a href="http://www.newsday.com/sports/hockey/islanders/charles-wang-sells-stake-in-islanders-to-jonathan-ledecky-scott-malkin-1.9096936">Wang agrees to sell minority stake in the team</a> to Jonathan Ledecky and Scott Malkin, who will gain majority control in two years, pending NHL approval of the deal. 
Sept. 30, 2014: NHL Board of Governors <a href="http://www.newsday.com/sports/hockey/islanders/islanders-sale-approved-by-nhl-board-of-governors-1.9447969">unanimously approves sale to Ledecky and Malkin</a>. 
Source: Newsday research; Islanders

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Islanders' final season on Long Island

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