Legends of Hockey - Denis Potvin (via HockeyWebCast)

Everyone is going to say "Well, of course we need a defenseman like Denis Potvin--the greatest player in Islander history." Getting a truly great defenseman would be wonderful of course...Cam Fowler comes to mind. But that is not what I am talking about.

Watch the video. We need players who take losing even little battles, much less games, seriously. We need players like Denis who get mad when an opposing player beats them to the puck and will want to make the opponent pay. We need players with a passion for winning and a hatred of losing.

If you watch Phil Esposito's video and compare it with Denis', Espo actually says that he, Orr, and the others could have won a bunch of Cups too but they liked to have fun. Of course, this is a lot of coulda, woulda, shoulda, but there is truth there. To really be winners, talent is not enough. You have to want it really bad. The Islanders of that era probably were not any more talented than the Orr--Espo Bruins, but they had that fire in their bellies that the Bruins lacked. That was the difference between four Cups and one.