1984 – One more devastating loss
The Islanders lost the Stanley Cup Finals in 1984 as the Edmonton Oilers began their run of championships, but even in losing the Isles dealt another death blow to their New York City rivals. The two teams met in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Semi-Finals.
The Islanders still finished first in the Patrick Division with 104 points while the Rangers were fourth with 93 points. The two teams had split their regular season series and Herb Brooks and the Rangers were determined to end the Islanders Cup reign.
It looked like it was going to happen as the Rangers took a 2-1 series lead. They lost the first game 4-1, but Glen Hanlon shut the Isles out in Game Two 3-0 and the Blueshirts won Game Three by a 7-2 score, jumping out to a 6-0 second period lead.
The Islanders traveled to Madison Square Garden for Game Four and it looked grim for the Isles, trailing 1-0 going into the third period. John Tonelli scored to tie the game in the first minutes and the Isles piled on three more goals for a 4-1 win to force a fifth and final game.
Game Five of this playoff series will be remembered as possibly the best game between these two rivals. The Rangers had lost Barry Beck to a separated shoulder and had to dress Dave Maloney who hadn’t played in the series. Before a raucous Coliseum crowd, the teams traded first period goals.
Tied in the third stanza, the Islanders took a 2-1 lead on a Tomas Jonsson at the 7:56 mark setting up a wild finish to the period. The Rangers relentlessly attacked, desperately trying to tie the score. With 39 seconds left, Don Maloney batted a puck out of the air and past Billy Smith. It was the rebound of a shot by Mark Pavelich that Smith saved and deflected up and away from danger. Maloney used his stick to chop the puck out of the air and into the net.
Once more in this epic rivalry, there was bedlam. The Islanders argued first that Pavelich was offside on the play when the Islanders’ Greg Gilbert forced Hedberg into the zone before Pavelich. Their better argument was that Maloney had hit the puck with a high stick, but referee Dave Newell signaled a good goal and the game was tied.
That set up the final gut punch in the rivalry. At the 8:56 mark of overtime, Herb Brooks’ former blueliner, Ken Morrow, took a shot that broke the spirit of all Ranger fans. The puck made its way through a mass of players to beat Glen Hanlon.
The irony was that Morrow found the puck on his stick after a Ranger had deflected a Brent Sutter shot that hit the boards and came right to Morrow.
If there was any series in the four years that the Rangers should have won it was this one. Billy Smith did not usually take part in the handshake line, but this year he embraced Glen Hanlon. The Rangers had killed off all 21 Islander power plays in the five games. They had the Islanders on their heels repeatedly in the series and with the controversial Maloney tying goal, it seemed like the hockey gods were finally on their side. It was not to be
After the disappointment
The series loss marked the beginning of the end of Herb Brooks tenure as coach as he was fired the next season. It was also the last time that the Islanders beat the Rangers in a playoff series. The Blueshirts won their Division Semi-Finals series 4-1 in 1990 and swept the Islanders in the 1994 Quarter-Finals en route to the Stanley Cup.
It’s been over a quarter century since the two teams have met in the playoffs and in that time the Islanders have been awful, missing the playoffs sixteen out of 25 years and before this season, winning only two playoff series in 24 years.
That may be why younger Rangers fans may feel kindly towards their rivals. However, anyone who remembers those four years of disappointment will never feel kindly towards the New York Islanders. History lesson over.
Feel free to share your favorite Rangers-Islanders memory below. It doesn’t have to be from the 1980’s!