The 1979β80 New York Islanders season was the
eighth season in the franchise's history. During the season, the Islanders dropped below the 100-point mark for the first time in five years, earning only 91 points.
Before the playoffs, Torrey made the difficult decision to trade longtime and popular veterans
Billy Harris and defenseman
Dave Lewis to the
Los Angeles Kings for second line center
Butch Goring. Goring is often called the "final piece of the puzzle": a strong two-way player, his presence on the second line ensured that opponents would no longer be able to focus their defensive efforts on the Isles' first line of Bossy, Trottier and
Clark Gillies. Contributions from new teammates, such as wingers
Duane Sutter and
Anders Kallur and stay-at-home defensemen
Gord Lane and
Ken Morrow (the latter fresh off a gold medal win at the
1980 Olympics), also figured prominently in the Islanders' playoff success.
[1]Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against Note: Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold.
After easily disposing of the
Los Angeles Kings and the
Boston Bruins in the first two rounds, the Isles faced the
Buffalo Sabres in the semi-finals, who had finished second overall in the NHL standings. The Isles won the first two games in Buffalo, including a 3β2 victory in Game 2 on
Bob Nystrom's goal in double overtime. They went on to win the series in six games and reach the finals for the first time in franchise history, where they would face the NHL's regular season champions, the
Philadelphia Flyers, who had gone undefeated for 35 straight games (25β0β10) during the regular season. In Game 1 in
Philadelphia, the Isles won 4β3 on
Denis Potvin's power-play goal in overtime. Leading the series 3β2, they went home to Long Island for Game 6. In that game,
Bob Nystrom continued his overtime heroics, scoring at 7:11 of the extra frame, on assists by John Tonelli and Lorne Henning, to bring Long Island its first Stanley Cup. It was the Isles' sixth overtime victory of the playoffs. Bryan Trottier won the
Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the playoffs. Torrey's strategy of building through the draft turned out very well; nearly all of the major contributors on the 1980 champions were home-grown Islanders or had spent most of their NHL careers in the Islanders organization. The Islanders would become the first NHL team to win a Stanley Cup with Europeans (Stefan Persson, Anders Kallur, Bob Nystrom) on its roster.[3]
1980 Stanley Cup playoffs
Stanley Cup preliminary round vs. (12) Los Angeles Kings: N.Y. Islanders wins 3β1
^IIHF Top 100 Hockey Stories of All Time, Szymon Szemberg and Andrew Podnieks, p.74, Fenn Publishing, Bolton, Ontario, Canada, 2008,
ISBN978-1-55168-358-4
The 1979β80 New York Islanders season was the
eighth season in the franchise's history. During the season, the Islanders dropped below the 100-point mark for the first time in five years, earning only 91 points.
Before the playoffs, Torrey made the difficult decision to trade longtime and popular veterans
Billy Harris and defenseman
Dave Lewis to the
Los Angeles Kings for second line center
Butch Goring. Goring is often called the "final piece of the puzzle": a strong two-way player, his presence on the second line ensured that opponents would no longer be able to focus their defensive efforts on the Isles' first line of Bossy, Trottier and
Clark Gillies. Contributions from new teammates, such as wingers
Duane Sutter and
Anders Kallur and stay-at-home defensemen
Gord Lane and
Ken Morrow (the latter fresh off a gold medal win at the
1980 Olympics), also figured prominently in the Islanders' playoff success.
[1]Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against Note: Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold.
After easily disposing of the
Los Angeles Kings and the
Boston Bruins in the first two rounds, the Isles faced the
Buffalo Sabres in the semi-finals, who had finished second overall in the NHL standings. The Isles won the first two games in Buffalo, including a 3β2 victory in Game 2 on
Bob Nystrom's goal in double overtime. They went on to win the series in six games and reach the finals for the first time in franchise history, where they would face the NHL's regular season champions, the
Philadelphia Flyers, who had gone undefeated for 35 straight games (25β0β10) during the regular season. In Game 1 in
Philadelphia, the Isles won 4β3 on
Denis Potvin's power-play goal in overtime. Leading the series 3β2, they went home to Long Island for Game 6. In that game,
Bob Nystrom continued his overtime heroics, scoring at 7:11 of the extra frame, on assists by John Tonelli and Lorne Henning, to bring Long Island its first Stanley Cup. It was the Isles' sixth overtime victory of the playoffs. Bryan Trottier won the
Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the playoffs. Torrey's strategy of building through the draft turned out very well; nearly all of the major contributors on the 1980 champions were home-grown Islanders or had spent most of their NHL careers in the Islanders organization. The Islanders would become the first NHL team to win a Stanley Cup with Europeans (Stefan Persson, Anders Kallur, Bob Nystrom) on its roster.[3]
1980 Stanley Cup playoffs
Stanley Cup preliminary round vs. (12) Los Angeles Kings: N.Y. Islanders wins 3β1
^IIHF Top 100 Hockey Stories of All Time, Szymon Szemberg and Andrew Podnieks, p.74, Fenn Publishing, Bolton, Ontario, Canada, 2008,
ISBN978-1-55168-358-4