The 1992-93 Islanders, Turgeon trade, and dashed hopes
by Chickendirt on Aug 27, 2009 2:06 PM EDT
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PrintEditor's Note: Sorry I missed this last night. Front-paging Chickendirt's FanPost on the need to heal an old wound...
Chris Botta's latest piece (See he's much more than just blogger. Usually that word is reserved for journalists) poses an interesting question regarding honoring Pierre Turgeon. I agree with him that there is a very large section of the fan base that his clamoring for him to have his night and a generation of newer Islanders fans that have no idea who he is much less ever seen him lace 'em up.
But there is a much larger context that is missing and unexplained. Something that has not been expressed is what Turgeon represents to us besides just a '93 Islanders team that pulled off one of the greatest upsets of the last 20 years. And it doesn't go back to a playoff series win and a conference finals appearance.
It goes back to the day Turgeon was traded.
You ask anyone where they were when they heard the news of that trade they will be able to tell you exactly where they were and who and what delivered the news to them. Me, I was in my first year of college, coming home from class on my way up the stairs to my dorm room. It was my first year living in Boston and my dorm was mobbed with nothing but Bruins fans. I was between the second and third floor when one of em came up to me laughing at how stupid Don Maloney was as he had just traded Turgeon to Montreal for Kirk Muller. This was the beginning of a fiasco that would live in infamy in Islanders lore. Without rehashing all of it lets just say even the folks in Boston who rarely followed this team knew that Muller was going to hold out and refuse to play for them.
Upon hearing the news I felt my guts just sink to the floor and I swear my heart stopped beating. Don Maloney, ever the teflon GM, had dashed the last and perhaps only glimmering hope we had. Turgeon was the Islanders.
Before that Maloney made a boneheaded move exposing Healy to the expansion draft. This was probably the beginning of a long list of foibles with this team but the Turgeon trade just confirmed it.
Anyways. Should the Islanders have a night to honor Turgeon? Nope. Not just Turgeon but that entire '93 team that was inexplicably ripped apart and torn asunder by a GM that didn't know what he was doing and an owner that just didn't give a hoot. That 92/93 team was not a world-beater by any stretch of the imagination, but in mind, for what they represent to the fans, they are just as important as the Cup teams and honoring them is the right gesture to the fans.
What it means?
I'M SORRY!!!!
WE GET IT!!!!
NEVER AGAIN!!!
That's exactly what it means. And it would go a long way to healing a wound that has never healed with the fans. We can go back and rehash the foolish trades of Bertuzzi, McCabe, Chara, Luongo etc. The circus didn't begin there. It began with the Turgeon trade.
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Turgeon
Of all the ’90s-era wounds, that one hurts me the most because we were losing a star I already loved rather than a prospect or malcontent.
I could talk about it (and have) for hours. But I’d never considered it quite in this context, as the beginning of a dark period that is hopefully over now. You’re right, honoring him and that team would nicely close the lid, symbolically apologizing for that era.
(Speaking of Maloney, it’s interesting that he’s making sense as GM in Phoenix now. Lessons learned, perhaps.)
Lighthouse Hockey: Side effects may include Weight gain and frequent game loss.
“There is a long standing story that claims Phil Esposito, the Lightning GM, claimed Healy with the intent to trade him back to the Islanders. However, legend says that Islanders GM, Don Maloney, put Esposito on hold for so long that he became enraged and hung up. He called the rival Rangers, who were looking for a backup goalie to Mike Richter, and a trade agreement was reached.”
Incredible story if its true. If I remember right, wasn’t Healy pissed that he was the lowest paid starting goalie in the league (or close to it) and was stirring the pot saying he wanted to be paid more after the 93 Playoffs. I can’t blame him.
The Trifecta of bad Maloney moves 1. Trading Turregon 2. Trading Healy, we didn’t have another #1 goalie till Salo 3. Drafting Little Lindros.
Incredible story if it’s true.
Wow. I wonder.
Yeah, I don’t remember about Healy’s contract talk — but I also wouldn’t blame him after that run. It’s funny how all contract squabbles from back then sound like small potatoes considering the salaries today.
Lighthouse Hockey: Side effects may include Weight gain and frequent game loss.
Even funnier
Healy wasn’t so much pissed about the money as he was about the snub. To this day he stills holds it over the Islanders heads that they left him exposed in the expansion draft. He really wanted to stay here mainly cause he had lots of close friends on the team. He didn’t want Patrick Roy money at the time. Just enough to recognize that he was more than a backup.
Healy was another one of those guys that wanted to retire an Islander. Strange to even read myself writing that. Even stranger when you consider all the guys on that team that never wanted to leave.
Remember Darius Kasparaitus crying when he found he was dealt to Pittsburgh? I think that was like a thank you deal to the pens owner by Spano as that guy vouched for him to buy the team.
The Kaspuritis trade was much more a Milbury deal then anyone else. It was for Smolinski who was a former Bruins first round pick. I swear half of Milburys deals during the 90s were for former Bruins.
Milbury always traded/mistreated fan favorites. Schnider, Green, Palffy, Johnsson, Salo, King, the list goes on. Seemingly anyone that managed to last long enough to become popular got traded or Milbury endlessly bashed.
And I totally agree that Healy deserved some money.
Remember Darius Kasparaitus crying when he found he was dealt to Pittsburgh?
Heh, oh man, stirring up these memories will land me in therapy.
Lighthouse Hockey: Side effects may include Weight gain and frequent game loss.
I thought I was the only one who still thought about that year and how it looked like the Isles had turned a corner. Then it was all crushed by some damn Ranger cast off, thank you Don Maloney. Still to this day I can’t play NHL2K with out putting that team back together and then crying about it. :( Oh and who the hell signed off on drafting Brett Lindros?? I wish I had those drugs!
I thought I was the only one who still thought about that year and how it looked like the Isles had turned a corner.
Oh, man, not at all. You’re among friends here. Pull up a chair.
Speaking of video games, that was the other thing: They really wrecked the Islanders roster for NHL95.
(And welcome: thanks for joining!)
Lighthouse Hockey: Side effects may include Weight gain and frequent game loss.
Oh and who the hell signed off on drafting Brett Lindros?? I wish I had those drugs!
But… His name is Lindros, he must be good! searches for bong
SHOOOOOOOT IT!!!! Anon
by burpchelischili on Sep 6, 2009 7:29 AM EDT up reply actions
“If he can just be half the player Eric is … and surely he won’t have the same concussion luck…”
Lighthouse Hockey: Side effects may include Weight gain and frequent game loss.
What’s the odds of that?
SHOOOOOOOT IT!!!! Anon
by burpchelischili on Sep 7, 2009 7:15 AM EDT up reply actions
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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.
