October 7, 1972: The New York Islanders Debut

October 7, 1972: The NHL's 2 new expansion teams, the New York Islanders and the Atlanta Flames, play their 1st regular-season games, against each other, at the Nassau County Veterans Memorial Coliseum, 30 miles east of Midtown Manhattan.

Original Captain Ed Westfall scores the Islanders' 1st goal, and Morris Stefaniw scores the 1st for the Flames, who win, 3-2. Stefaniw's goal is the 1st in the Coliseum's history, and it turns out to be the only one he scores in the NHL: Aside from 13 games with the Flames that season, he turns out to be a career minor leaguer.

The Isles' 1st season will be very rough, giving no indication as to the consistent excellence they will produce from 1975 to 1987, and the 4 straight Stanley Cups they will win from 1980 to 1983.

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October 7, 1972 was a Saturday. There were 6 other games played in the NHL that day:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Detroit Red Wings, 5-3 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Minnesota North Stars, 3-0 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Philadelphia Flyers and the St. Louis Blues played to a tie, 4-4 at the St. Louis Arena.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the California Golden Seals, 3-2 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

The World Hockey Association played its 1st games 4 days later. The NBA and the ABA were a few more days away from debuting. In baseball, both Leagues' Championship Series began:

* In the American League, the Oakland Athletics beat the Detroit Tigers, 2-1 at the Oakland Coliseum. Al Kaline and Norm Cash hit home runs off Catfish Hunter, and Mickey Lolich went the distance, but ran out of gas in the 11th inning, as Gonzalo Marquez got the winning hit for the A's. The A's would win the Pennant in 5 games.

* In the National League, the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-1 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Al Oliver homered for the Pirates, Joe Morgan for the Reds. In spite of this loss, the Reds would win the Pennant in 5 games. Game 5 would be the last game for Roberto Clemente of the Pirates, who was killed in a plane crash the following New Year's Eve.

The NFL played the next day, but there were big college football games played on this Saturday:

* The Number 1-ranked University of Southern California beat Stanford, 30-21 at Stanford Stadium in the San Francisco suburb of Palo Alto, California. This was the closest that USC came to losing a game that season.

* Number 4 Alabama beat Georgia, 25-7 at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia.

* Number 7 Notre Dame beat Michigan State, 16-0 at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Michigan.

* Number 10 Penn State beat Illinois, 35-17 at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois.

* Princeton and New York's Columbia played to a 0-0 tie at Palmer Stadium in Princeton, New Jersey.

* And Rutgers lost to Cornell, 36-22 at Schoellkopf Field in Ithaca, New York.

Also, what would become my high school, East Brunswick in Middlesex County, New Jersey, beat Woodbridge, 19-13 at Woodbridge Stadium (now Nicholas A. Priscoe Stadium) in Woodbridge.

And Arsenal lost to Sheffield United, 1-0 at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, Yorkshire.

Atlanta's 10 Greatest Teams

This week, the Mets are in Atlanta to play the Braves.

Atlanta's Top 10 Teams

Honorable Mention to the Georgia Institute of Technology. Georgia Tech's football team has won 4 National Championships, in 1917, 1928, 1952 and 1990; and 16 Conference Championships, most recently in 2009. Their basketball team has made the NCAA Final Four in 1990 and 2004. Their baseball team is also renowned, having made 3 College World Series.

Honorable Mention to Atlanta United, which made the Playoffs as an MLS expansion team last year.

Honorable Mention to the 1991 Atlanta Falcons. The Deion Sanders team was the only Falcon squad in a 20-year stretch (1978-98) to win a Playoff game, but they couldn't follow it up.

Dishonorable Mention to the 2016-18 Atlanta Falcons. Back-to-back Playoff berths, and the 2016 NFC Championship, and there could be more to come. But who the hell blows a 28-3 2nd-half lead in the Super Bowl? I don't care how much the New England Patriots cheat: This Falcon team is, thus far, a joke, and will remain a joke unless and until they win the big one.

10. 2006-07 Atlanta Thrashers. They played 11 seasons in the Peach City -- 3 more than the Flames -- but only made the Playoffs once, as Southeast Division Champions. And they got swept in the 1st round by the New York Rangers. Just 4 years later, they were gone. The franchise now known as the Winnipeg Jets wouldn't win a postseason series until this season.

9. 1968-73 Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks arrived in St. Louis in 1968 as defending regular-season Division Champions, and won the NBA Western Division again in 1969 and 1970. And then Pete Maravich arrived, and helped them reach the Playoffs 3 more times. But they couldn't put it together, losing in the Playoffs first to the Los Angeles Lakers, and then, after being moved to the Eastern Conference, to the Knicks and the Boston Celtics.

That's as good as it's gotten for the Hawks. They've usually been a Playoff team (the 2000 to 2007 drought being a nasty exception), but only once since 1970 have they made the Conference Finals, in 2015, and they got slaughtered by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 4 straight.

8. 1969 Atlanta Braves. They won the 1st National League Western Division title, but couldn't follow it up. The 93 games they won were the most by the Braves franchise between 1957 (95, leading to the Milwaukee title) and 1991 (94, leading to the 1st Atlanta Pennant).

7. 2010-13 Atlanta Braves. 4 seasons, 1 Division title and 2 Wild Card berths, but 2-7 in postseason games.

6. 1973-80 Atlanta Flames. In 8 seasons in the South, the team named for the burning of Atlanta during the American Civil War made the Playoffs 6 times, so they weren't a bad team. But they won only 2 Playoff games: In 1977 against the Los Angeles Kings, and in 1980 against the New York Rangers (which, alone, was more than the Thrashers could later do). They lost that Preliminary Round series, and were sold and moved to Calgary.

5. 1982-83 Atlanta Braves. They won 89 games and the NL West, then 88 and finished 2nd, making them a better overall team than their 1969 forebears. But they didn't win the Pennant. In fact, between October 5, 1958 and October 10, 1991, the Braves played 10 postseason games and won exactly none of them.

4. 1978-82 Atlanta Falcons. "The Grits Blitz" made 3 Playoffs in 5 years, including the 1980 NFC Western Division title. But they only won 1 Playoff game, losing 3 others by a combined total of 16 points. Atlanta's 1st great pro football team was good, but not lucky.

3. 1998-2004 Atlanta Falcons. In 7 seasons, they made the Playoffs 3 times, won 2 Division titles (1998 NFC West, 2004 NFC South), reached 2 NFC Championship Games, and won the 1998 NFC title, but lost Super Bowl XXXIII. Michael Vick's arrest put an end to it.

2. 1991-93 Atlanta Braves. The city's 1st 2 Pennants, and then an NLCS shocker at the hands of the Philadelphia Phillies. They couldn't quite win the big one, though.

1. 1995-2005 Atlanta Braves. I was tempted to break this into 2 periods, the way I separated the 1991-93 team, which really was different. But this team mostly stayed together, winning 11 straight NL East titles. In the 1st 5 of those seasons, 1995 to 1999, they won 3 Pennants. But only the 1 World Series, 1995.

The joke was that they had become the Buffalo Bills of baseball, but it would be more accurate to say that they were a redneck version of the old Brooklyn Dodgers, who also won just 1 World Series before getting moved.