Incoming: Resurgent Flyers
by Dominik on Oct 30, 2008 5:00 AM EDT
in New York Islanders Previews
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New York Islanders at Philadelphia Flyers
7 p.m. | MSG+
[some such cable-or-bank] Center | in championship-hangover Philadelphia
With a 7-0 win Tuesday in Atlanta, the Flyers now have a ridiculous 4.0 goals/game average, tops in the league. Half of their 36 goals so far came at 5-on-5 even strength, 10 came on the power play, and an absurd 4 have been shorthanded. Incidentally, the rest of the Patrick Atlantic Division, including the Rangers, sit in the bottom third of the league in goals/game. Hopefully Joey McDonald makes the Flyers conform to our fine division's standards. Failing that, hopefully the city-wide Phillies party took the Flyers out to strange bars at strange hours.
Before the Atlanta mercy-killing, the Flyers snapped out of their six-game winless start to the season by sweeping New Jersey last weekend. They now sit at an enviable (yes, it's come to that) 3-3-3. The goaltending and an injury-depleted blueline has appeared to settle down -- though Fiitty-Niittymaki got the shutout, while Biron still carries a near-4 GAA and .868 sv%. One more offensive note: Their top seven forwards have all but 3 of their 36 goals. Usual suspects Richards, Gagne (boy, is he back), Carter, Briere, Hartnell, Lupul and Knuble are spreading out the bushels of scoring.
Scott Gordon has given his own forward lines a little stir, but if we see the same assignment breakdowns we've seen during this four-game losing streak, it won't matter: the Flyers are poised to punish.
In & Out: On the Flyers side, if young Italian-born Luca Sbisa plays, it will be the 2008 first-rounder's 10th game, meaning he's with the club for good. For the Isles, Andy Sutton makes his season debut, with Jack Hillen demoted to make room. Towering Mitch Fritz may make an enforcer's appearance, a long-craved bone for bloodthirsty fans. Rick DiPietro is still in street clothes.
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1979-80
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May 24, 1980: Tonelli to Nystrom. At long last, the steady build of the New York Islanders from expansion doormat to surprise semifinalist to annual contender reaches the promised land: Buoyed by a late season trade for Butch Goring that gave the team the depth up the middle GM Bill Torrey had been seeking, the Islanders knock off the Philadelphia Flyers in six games.
The victory justified the faith in coach Al Arbour who guided them from their second season to their first Stanley Cup seven seasons later. The Islanders would not be the first expansion team to win the Stanley Cup, but they would be the only one capable of a dynasty.
1980-81
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May 21, 1981: This time it was much easier. After falling to "only" 91 points in the 1979-80 season, the Islanders returned to their division title tradition, piling up 110 points -- a whole 13 points over second-place Philadelphia.
Between the quarterfinals (where they beat the upstart Oilers in six games) and the finals, the Islanders reeled off eight consecutive wins -- with a four-game sweep of archrival Rangers in between. As they defeated the Minnesota North Stars in five games for their second Cup, their goal difference in the final was a combined +10.
1981-82
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May 16, 1982: Another year, another landslide title. The Islanders won the Patrick Division by a whopping 26 points over the second-place Rangers, and were seven points clear of their nearest competition for the President's Trophy, the still-not-quite-ripe Edmonton Oilers.
A first-round scare against the Pittsburgh Penguins turned in the Isles' favor thanks to John Tonelli's heroics, and a true dynasty was on its way: Past the Rangers in six games, then an eight-game sweep of the Quebec Nordiques and Vancouver Canucks to run away with the Stanley Cup.
1982-83
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May 17, 1983: Not so fast, whipper-snappers. The Edmonton Oilers' steadily rising challenge for league supremacy took them all the way to the finals for the first time, where the New York Islanders summarily dispatched them in a four-game sweep. For the Islanders, the Dynasty was secured. For the Oilers, it was a powerful lesson in where talent ends and the demands of playoff hockey begin.
Four years, four Cups, 16 consecutive playoff series wins (a record that would grow to 19 until the rematch with the Oilers the following year). Mike Bossy scored 60 goals yet again, and Wayne Gretzky became acquainted with Billy Smith's crease.
