May 24, 1980, 40 years ago today: The New York Islanders win their 1st Stanley Cup. It was the conclusion of their 8th season of play, and after close calls in the Playoffs in 1975, '78 and '79, they went all the way. The reached the Finals by beating the Los Angeles Kings 3 games to 1, the Boston Bruins 4-1, and the Buffalo Sabres 4-2.
In the Finals, they faced the Philadelphia Flyers, who had won the Cup in 1974 and '75, lost in the Finals in '76, and, earlier in the 1979-80 season, with a few holdovers from their Cup-winning teams including Captain Bobby Clarke, set a North American major league sports record by going 35 games unbeaten: Won 26, tied 9, lost exactly none. They had swept the Edmonton Oilers 3-0, beaten the New York Rangers 4-1, and beaten the Minnesota North Stars 4-1. They had also beaten the Islanders in the 1975 Playoffs.
In Game 1 of the Finals, Islander Captain Denis Potvin scored in overtime to give the Isles a 4-3 win at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. The Flyers made them pay dearly for that, pounding them 8-3 in Game 2.
On May 17, the Nassau Coliseum, having already hosted the Nets in the ABA Finals in 1974 and '76 (the team now in the NBA, and in New Jersey, winning both), hosted its 1st Stanley Cup Finals game, and the Isles won 6-2. They won Game 4 5-2. The series went back to Philly for Game 5, and the Flyers won it 6-3.
Game 6 was crucial for the Isles: As was the case with the Flyers in '74, facing the Boston Bruins, they did not want to lose Game 6, and give themselves the task of going on the road in Game 7 against the far more experienced team that already knew how to win.
Reggie Leach opened the scoring for the Flyers, but Potvin soon equalized. A little over 2 minutes later, Clark Gilles made a drop pass to Butch Goring, and the instant replay showed that it was offside. But referee Leon Stickle missed this, and Goring passed to Duane Sutter, who scored at 14:08 of the 1st period, giving the Isles a 2-1 lead.
This was not enough to stop the Flyers, as Brian Propp scored at 18:58, and the game went into the 1st intermission at 2-2. Mike Bossy scored midway through the 2nd period, and Bobby Nystrom did so with 14 minutes left, and it was 4-2 Islanders. But within 6 minutes and 2 seconds of the 3rd period, Bob Dailey and John Paddock scored for the Flyers, and the game was tied. It went to overtime.
At 7:11 of overtime, Nystrom scored the most important goal in Islander history, past Pete Peeters. The New York Islanders had won the Stanley Cup. A franchise had grown up.
Morrow had gone from an Olympic Gold Medal, with the U.S. team, to the Stanley Cup in exactly 3 months. Denis Potvin, Gillies, Trottier, Bossy and Smith have been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Those 5, and also Nystrom, Tonelli and Goring, have had their numbers retired by the Islanders. Resch and Tambellini would be original 1982-83 New Jersey Devils.
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The Flyers and their fans were outraged. They were sure that this goal was offside as well. The instant replay was inconclusive, but if they'd gotten the earlier call right, the game never would have gone to overtime: The Flyers would have won 4-3, and forced a Game 7 in Philadelphia. Instead, it was 5-4, and the Islanders were World Champions.
Did Stickle really cost the Flyers the title?
Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Leon Stickle for the Philadelphia Flyers Losing the 1980 Stanley Cup Finals
First, some reasons that didn't make the final cut: The Best of the Rest.
Leon Stickle. He had already been an NHL referee for 11 seasons, and had previously worked the Stanley Cup Finals in 1977 and 1978. Each was a victory by the Montreal Canadiens over the Boston Bruins.
What's more, in spite of his apparent mistakes, the NHL continued to assign Stickle to big moments, including the Stanley Cup Finals again in 1981, 1984 and 1985; the Canada Cup, then hockey's version of the World Cup, in 1981 and 1984; and Rendez-vous '87, the Canada vs. Soviet Union "summit series" that took the place of that year's All-Star Game.
He kept officiating until he retired after the 1997-98 season, and Game 6 of the 1980 Stanley Cup Finals remains the only game, out of the 2,069 regular-season and 206 postseason games at which he officiated in 28 years, for which anybody complains about him.
Which doesn't mean he didn't make a mistake or two during the game in question. But you should also consider:
The Linesmen. They missed the Gillies-Goring offside as well. And linesmen are supposed to look out for offside.
Now, for the Top 5:
5. The Flyers' Reputation. If they hadn't done the things that got them nicknamed the Broad Street Bullies from 1969 onward, maybe they would have gotten the benefit of the doubt on close calls. Many times, the Fly Guys dug their own graves. That's no excuse for getting calls wrong; but it is, however flimsy, an explanation.
4. Bernie Parent's Injury. In both 1974 and 1975, Parent won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL's best goaltender of the year, and the Conn Smythe Trophy as Playoff Most Valuable Player. Those are the only 2 seasons in which the Flyers have ever won the Stanley Cup.
He was a 5-time All-Star, and in spite of a career that wasn't as long as it should have been, he was listed as 63rd on The Hockey News' 1998 list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players, and was also named to the NHL's 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players in 2017, which only listed players, and didn't rank them.
As far as I know, no one has ever made a list
of the NHL's all-time greatest mustaches.
None of them have been able to protect the net like Parent. Few goalies ever have. But in 41 years, they're still looking for that Cup-worthy goalie. And it certainly wasn't Parent's immediate replacement:
3. Pete Peeters. It's not that he was a bad goalie. He was a 4-time All-Star. He won the Vezina Trophy in 1983, while with the Bruins. He won the Canada Cup as Canada's starting goalie in 1984. He had an unbeaten streak of 25 or more games with the Flyers, and had another 25-game unbeaten streak with the Bruins.
When Peeters retired after the 1990-91 season, he had won 246 regular-season games, losing 155 -- but his Playoff record was dead-even at 35-35. His goals-against average rose from 3.08 to 3.31 in the Playoffs. No, he was never going to be the guy.
And even if he had saved Nystrom's shot, and the Flyers had gone on to win Game 6...
2. There Would Still Have Been a Game 7. Yes, it would have been at The Spectrum. But look at what the Islanders had already done in the Playoffs:
* They won 5 road games in 1975: Both games at Madison Square Garden, Games 5 and 7 in Pittsburgh, and, yes, Game 5 in Philadelphia.
* They won 2 in 1976: The clincher in Vancouver and Game 6 in Buffalo.
* They won 3 in 1977: Games 3 and 4 in Buffalo and an overtime Game 5 in Montreal.
* They didn't win any in 1978. But...
* They won 3 in 1979: Games 3 and 4 in Chicago, and Game 4 in overtime at The Garden.
* And they had already won 7 in 1980: Games 3 (in overtime) and 4 in Los Angeles, all 3 games (1 in overtime) in Boston, and Games 1 and 2 (the latter in overtime) in Buffalo. And this was before they had the label of "Champions," let alone that of "Dynasty."
In other words, had this series gone to a Game 7 in The Spectrum, there's no guarantee that the Flyers would have won it. You think the Islanders were going to be intimidated by the Philly crowd? They weren't intimidated by Ranger fans, or Boston fans, or Montreal fans, all hard-core hockey fans, rooting for "Original Six" teams. Compared to that, Philly fans were going to be a piece of cake.
Which brings us to...
1. The Islanders Were Better. They did win all those road Playoff games. And a bunch of home Playoff games. And would go on to reach 5 straight Stanley Cup Finals and win 4 straight Stanley Cups. The Flyers? From 1976 to 1987, 12 seasons, they would make the Finals 4 times, and lose them all.
VERDICT: Not Guilty. Did Leon Stickle make mistakes? Sure, he did. Is he a reason why the Flyers lost the 1980 Stanley Cup Finals? Certainly. Is he the biggest reason why? No.
Of the 1980 Stanley Cup Champion New York Islanders: Head coach Al Arbour died in 2015, at age 82. Team president and general manager Bill Torrey died in 2018, at 83. Team owner John Pickett is 85.
The players are all still alive: Chico Resch and Jean Potvin are 71; Butch Goring is 70; Billy Smith is 69; Lorne Henning and Wayne Merrick are 68; Bobby Nystrom, Gary Howatt, Bob Bourne, Gord Lane and Anders Kallur are 67; Denis Potvin, Clark Gillies, Bob Lorimer and Dave Langevin are 66; Stefan Persson is 65; Bryan Trottier, Mike Bossy, John Tonelli, Ken Morrow and Alex McKendry are 63; Steve Tambellini is 61; Duane Sutter is 60.
UPDATE: Gillies died on January 21, 2022; Jean Potvin on March 15, 2022; and Bossy on April 15, 2022.
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