The1979–80 New York Islanders season was theeighth 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 veteransBilly Harris and defensemanDave Lewis to theLos Angeles Kings for second line centerButch 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 andClark Gillies. Contributions from new teammates, such as wingersDuane Sutter andAnders Kallur and stay-at-home defensemenGord Lane andKen Morrow (the latter fresh off a gold medal win at the1980 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.
bold – The top 16 teams in the league qualified for the playoffs, regardless of division or conference. x – Won division;y – Won Conference (and division);p – WonPresidents' Trophy (and conference and division)
After easily disposing of theLos Angeles Kings and theBoston Bruins in the first two rounds, the Isles faced theBuffalo 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 3–2 victory in Game 2 onBob 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, thePhiladelphia Flyers, who had gone undefeated for 35 straight games (25–0–10) during the regular season. In Game 1 inPhiladelphia, the Isles won 4–3 onDenis Potvin's power-play goal in overtime. Leading the series 3–2, 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 theConn 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.[4]
^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