Each franchise can rightly boast some of the greatest players, not only of their generation, but to ever pull on an NHL sweater.

The Islanders claim five Hall of Fame players that performed for the club during its four-year championship run. Mike Bossy, Clark Gillies, Denis Potvin, Billy Smith and Bryan Trottier all competed in all four title-winning seasons. In essence, that "Big Five" -- a combative goalie in Smith, a point-producing defenseman in Potvin, an intimidating winger in Gillies, a two-way center extraordinaire in Trottier and an explosive winger in Bossy -- served as the franchise's foundation.

The team's coach, Al Arbour, formed and nurtured that foundation. He, too, is in the Hall of Fame.

"The fact that I'm in the Hall of Fame is really part and parcel that we had such a great team," said Gillies, who had his No. 9 retired by the Islanders on Dec. 7, 1996. "That's all part of the whole great big picture. It was a thrill to be associated with such a fine group of players for so many, many years. It's that old cliche that you couldn't have got there without your buddies and I really feel strongly about that.

"If you could put all 20 in there, it would be wonderful. Unfortunately there are only a few of us that are going to get the recognition," Gillies said. "But to have won four and have lost on the fifth try was a run that very few teams have been able to put together. And if you look at our total run of 19-straight series without a loss and then losing in the 20th one, I think that's the greatest feat that any hockey franchise has ever pulled off by far. I feel that I was part of arguably the best group to have ever been assembled."

On the other side of the ledger, the Oilers have just three Cup-winning players currently in the Hall of Fame. But, what players they were!

Gretzky, without argument, remains among the greatest, if not greatest, player to play the game. He owns almost every offensive record in League history. He won four Stanley Cups before his blockbuster trade to Los Angeles.

The Islanders claim five Hall of Fame players that performed for the club during its four-year championship run. Mike Bossy, Clark Gillies, Denis Potvin (above), Billy Smith and Bryan Trottier all competed in all four title-winning seasons.

Finnish phenom Jari Kurri defined the two-way game that is so in demand today, yet remained one of the most explosive scorers of his generation. Goalie Grant Fuhr, often lost in all that offensive firepower, won just about every big game in which he was asked to man the crease. Each of those players won five Stanley Cups.

Plus, it is safe to assume that other players from those Oiler teams -- Mark Messier, Paul Coffey and Kevin Lowe, to name three -- will find their way into the Hall once they become eligible.

Glen Sather, who coached Edmonton's collection of disparate personalities and presented the team as a successful and unified team, is also in the Hall of Fame.

It becomes abundantly clear after all of this, that the teams were eerily equal in both their playing talent and on-ice results.

For that reason, it seems the argument about who was the team of the 1980s may well wage, undecided, until 2080 and beyond!