Marian Hossa and the Demise of a Would-be Dynasty
Will The Kid ever get the glory back or are Cole Harbour's best days behind it?
about 2 years ago
BCISLEMAN
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Reading too much into it
I’m not really buying that the Pens’ loss this year is some sort of cap result — it’s not like they were a juggernaut to begin with. Did they miss Gill and Scuderi? Probably, but they had younger guys they wanted to take their place anyway.
Meanwhile, the razor-thin loss to Montreal wasn’t a product of lacking defense (well, with the exception of multiple inexplicable defensive brainfarts in Game 7 by guys who should know better).
The cap is definitely a challenge for them now and in the next few years, but so is the fact that playoff series are hard, and only one team can win it all each year.
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I think the piece is right about Hossa though
Not a good move for them. They should have focused more on developing their own talent. Building a dynasty or even a dominant franchise like the Devs or the Wings takes patience.
That was a risky move
I guess it paid off — they got a run to the finals, Esposito’s injuries continued, and Christensen has been weak as ever — but yeah, that was a big price, and he walked. And they won the Cup without him anyway. It smacked of rushing their rebuild. I hope the Isles don’t do that when they start to get close; they can afford rentals even less that Pittsburgh.
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I guess its knowing when the right time comes
to make a Goring-type move. Of course, Anders might prove to be our Goring. If he has enough AP and DL credits, maybe he graduates from ND in 2013. If he does spend a year by invitation in Oxford, maybe he’s with us for the 2014-15 season. Isles patiently waited for Kenny to finish his four years…and then look what happened.
On that note, going back to their defense
I’m probably too simplistic to say it’s not cap-caused. I mean, the cap is what forced them to place their bets on the young D over the departing free agents in the first place, so of course that’s a big factor.
But that bet may even prove to be good; they had a good team this year, they might have an even better team next year (or in two years) if those guys improve while Gill and Scuderi decline. Hard to project. With that much money tied up in Crosby and Malkin they’re always going to have that challenge. I just thought that article made it sound a little too much like they’d built this great team that the cap tore apart.
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I expected Ponikarovsky to work out much better for them, especially with the chance to play next to Malkin. Boy did that fall short.
Ironically, their best wing was the one they spent the most assets to get and who scored a lot in the playoffs without actually winning the Cup. So it goes.
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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.
