1979–80 New York Islanders season

Offseason

Clark Gillies resigns the team captaincy and is replaced by defenseman Denis Potvin.

Regular season

Season standings

Record vs. opponents

Playoffs

After easily disposing of the Los Angeles Kings and the Boston Bruins in the first two rounds, the Isles faced the Buffalo Sabres in the semi-finals, who had finished second overall in the NHL standings. The Isles won the first two games in Buffalo, including a 3–2 victory in Game 2 on Bob Nystrom's goal in double overtime. They went on to win the series in six games and reach the finals for the first time in franchise history, where they would face the NHL's regular season champions, the Philadelphia Flyers, who had gone undefeated for 35 straight games (25–0–10) during the regular season. In Game 1 in Philadelphia, the Isles won 4–3 on Denis Potvin's power-play goal in overtime. Leading the series 3–2, they went home to Long Island for Game 6. In that game, Bob Nystrom continued his overtime heroics, scoring at 7:11 of the extra frame, on assists by John Tonelli and Lorne Henning, to bring Long Island its first Stanley Cup. It was the Isles' sixth overtime victory of the playoffs. Bryan Trottier won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the playoffs. Torrey's strategy of building through the draft turned out very well; nearly all of the major contributors on the 1980 champions were home-grown Islanders or had spent most of their NHL careers in the Islanders organization. The Islanders would become the first NHL team to win a Stanley Cup with Europeans (Stefan Persson, Anders Kallur, Bob Nystrom) on its roster.

Schedule and results

Regular season

|- |1||October 11, 1979||2–5 || align="left"| @ Philadelphia Flyers (1979–80) ||0–1–0 || |- |2||October 13, 1979||2–5 || align="left"| Buffalo Sabres (1979–80) ||0–2–0 || |- |3||October 16, 1979||5–1 || align="left"| Atlanta Flames (1979–80) ||1–2–0 || |- |4||October 18, 1979||2–3 || align="left"| @ Boston Bruins (1979–80) ||1–3–0 || |- |5||October 20, 1979||6–1 || align="left"| Hartford Whalers (1979–80) ||2–3–0 || |- |6||October 23, 1979||3–3 || align="left"| Edmonton Oilers (1979–80) ||2–3–1 || |- |7||October 26, 1979||2–1 || align="left"| @ Hartford Whalers (1979–80) ||3–3–1 || |- |8||October 27, 1979||6–4 || align="left"| Chicago Black Hawks (1979–80) ||4–3–1 || |- |9||October 31, 1979||2–2 || align="left"| @ Vancouver Canucks (1979–80) ||4–3–2 ||

| Legend:

Playoffs

|- | 1 || April 8, 1980 || Los Angeles Kings (1979–80) ||8–1 || || Smith || 13,862 || 1–0 || |- | 2 || April 9, 1980 || Los Angeles Kings (1979–80) ||3–6 || || Resch || 14,047 || 1–1 || |- | 3 || April 11, 1980 || @ Los Angeles Kings (1979–80) ||4–3 || OT 6:55 || Smith || 11,690 || 2–1 || |- | 4 || April 12, 1980 || @ Los Angeles Kings (1979–80) ||6–0 || || Smith || 11,089 || 3–1 ||

| Legend:

Player statistics

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Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/- = plus/minus; PIM = Penalty minutes; PPG = Power-play goals; SHG = Short-handed goals; GWG = Game-winning goals

  MIN = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GA = Goals-against; GAA = Goals-against average; SO = Shutouts; 

Awards and records

• Bryan Trottier, Conn Smythe Trophy

Draft picks

References

References

1. IIHF Top 100 Hockey Stories of All Time, Szymon Szemberg and Andrew Podnieks, p.74, Fenn Publishing, Bolton, Ontario, Canada, 2008, {{ISBN. 978-1-55168-358-4
2. "1979-80 New York Islanders Schedule".
3. "1979-80 New York Islanders Statistics - Hockey-Reference.com". hockey-reference.com.