A Salute to The Maven

Even at 86, Stan Fischler still leads the pack in the locker room after New York Islanders games.
With his microphone in hand, the white-haired reporter darts around the room, doing what he's always done - asking questions and breaking down the game with the players who played it. A large swarm of journnalists, cameras and recorders, follow from stall to stall.

Fischler asks the first question when the coach takes the podium, usually with his foot propped up on a chair and an inquisitive expression on his face. He's earned the first question after 60 years of writing and broadcasting hockey. He also happens to be the first onne in the interview room and the first to grab one of the two microphones.
Hockey players come and go, as do coaches, arenas and even jerseys. On Long Island, there's been at least one constant throughout the years - Stan Fischler's in-depth coverage.
"The Hockey Maven" was at the Islanders' first game in 1972 and joined the broadcasts in 1975, spending the next 43 years covering the team. He's always had a special connection to the Islanders - he boasts about having slept on the training tables at Nassau Coliseum - and has seen it all, from the 3-0 series comeback to four Stanley Cups, Bossy's 50-in-50 to John Tavares OT series-clincher.
But even for a hockey lifer, whose writing and broadcast career spans over 60 years, everything must come to an end. When the Islanders start up again next October, it'll be the first time since 1974 that Stan was not a part of the broadcast.
"You can't not be a fan and be associated with the team as long as I have," Fischler said.

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Ask any Islander, past or present, and they'll tell you a Maven postgame interview doesn't follow a recipe, but always has some extra flavor. This is of course, coming from a man who may wind up on a Brooklyn carousel or in a haunted house during the Isles pregame shows. Above all, he's a student of the game and a walking hockey encyclopedia.
"The thing that impressed me so much was his memory," said Jiggs McDonald, the Islanders retired play-by-play voice. "Even today, he can recall stories of who said what and who played what, who scored what and assisted on what. And you can go check and he'll be bang on. You can google it and pull up the score sheet from whatever and yeah, that's what happened. He's just an incredible human being."
Fischler's preparation was evident in his questions. There's no coasting through a Fischler interview, even if some of his lead-ins take a roundabout way to arrive. It's earned him the respect of some of the best players in the game.
"He asks good hockey questions," said Denis Potvin, who co-authored Power on Ice with Fischler in 1977. "For Stan, it was never about a ridiculous, obvious question. It was always deeper and I liked that. A little more cerebral."
"We all as athletes - you always have that guard up that somebody is trying to get you to say something that will be used in a quote in the wrong way," Potvin said. "I don't think you ever have to say that about any of the times that Stan has interviewed someone."

Fischler had a way of disarming players. It's not easy to approach someone after a tough loss, but Stan could cut right through the tension in a room. Sometimes, it was as simple as asking 'what happened?' and 'how do you fix it?'
"He gets right to the point, kind of gives you the mic and lets you take care of it," Anders Lee said. "It's a style that definitely separates him from everyone else you do interviews with. You always know when you see Stan coming up, what kind of interview it's going to be."
Fischler has interviewed too many players to count, but some stand out to him.
"Even on the Cup teams, there were some wonderful, wonderful guys to talk to," Fischler said. "Billy Smith was the most candid guy ever. Billy Smith told you what was on his mind, uncensored."
"Denis Potvin was the most insightful of the guys. Denis was always kind of uptight before the first question, once the first one was out everything was wonderful. Other than Billy Smith the guy I loved to talk to was Bob Bourne, as was Clark Gillies. He was funny. You could go up and down the line."
After the dynasty Fischler highlights his interviews with Pat LaFontaine. In the 1990s, he was close with Travis Green. As for the current Islanders, his favorite interview is Anders Lee.
Watch: Youtube Video
Fischler's most memorable interview took place on May 14, 1993, minutes after David Volek's OT goal in the Islanders' stunning game seven upset win over the two-time Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins.
Stan found himself in the hallway outside the Islanders' locker room after the game. Ray Ferraro, who had set up Volek's winner, burst through the door looking for relatives rather than interviews, but the Maven saw his chance to get the charismatic and fired up Ferraro.
Ginger Killian, the Islanders PR Director wasn't keen on this development, as Ferraro and Stan were blocking the entrance to the locker room. Stan didn't care, after the Islanders biggest win of the decade, he had his man.
"I'm one-on-one with Ferraro, the rest of the people are blocked off and Ginger couldn't do anything about it," Fischler said.
It's a memorable interview, with Ferraro ranting and raving about how no one believed in the underdog Islanders. It's a passionate moment and easy to see why that one sticks out among the thousands.
"Ray being Ray and that was the best interview I've ever done," Fischler said.
Stan certainly had a schtick over the years. Not too many people in the 2010s can get away with bringing up Irving Berlin or golden oldies in a hockey locker room. If anyone else had tried it on Evegni Nabokov, it would have probably yielded a different result. But not Stan, who forged an unlikely, but unforgettable connection with the Russian goalie.
"My all-time favorite," Fischler said of Nabokov. "We had chemistry like I never had with anyone else."
Stan would usually start his postgame interviews - after a win - by asking Nabokov what the song of the game was and the goalie - who often had no idea - would dutifully tee up Stan. Two of Stan's go-to songs were the 1956 Steve Allen hit "This Could be the Start of Something Big" and 1946 classic show tune "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly." After that, they were off.
"We'd do a whole schtick. It was like a Vaudeville team we were like Abbot and Costello. Martin and Lewis," Fischler said. "It was so much fun with him and what's so amazing about it is that he'd have a seat reserved for me, I'd sit down and then the rest of the media would gather around like they wanted to hear the act and see what we were going to do that night. Nabby, my all-time."
It should have come apart like a toupee in a tornado, but Nabokov had a respect for Stan and pretty good sense of humor.
"He's obviously a guy that knows hockey and he's very knowledgeable and a great human being," Nabokov said. "It wasn't hard to connect with him and have fun with that too."
Nabokov said one of Stan's best attributes wasn't how he handled himself after wins, but how he conducted interviews after losses.
"He knew what buttons to push and would never make you feel uncomfortable and I really appreciated that," Nabokov said. "He'll find a way to ask uncomfortable questions, but make you comfortable to answering them."
They exchanged emails after Nabokov left the team in 2014 and still keep in touch. Nabokov said he wished Stan wasn't retiring.
"As a group of hockey players we need those people around and we want to learn from them to sometimes how to handle ourselves," Nabokov said. "As much knowledge as he had he never been cocky or he never would make you feel like you're a youngster and you don't know and he always has respect for the players."

Stan said his schtick with Nabokov was tested, tried and refined over the years with different players. He's forged connections throughout the years and ex-players still keep in contact with him including Travis Green, who played for the Islanders from 1992-98.
Green, who uses the shorthand "Mave" to refer to the Maven, developed a relationship outside the rink with Fischler. The reporter as touched when Green sent his well wishes to his family when Fischler's youngest son Simon was in the hospital with a severe case of cardio myopathy.
The two kept in touch after Green's playing career ended, meeting for coffee in Portland, OR when Fischler was out visiting his oldest son Ben.
"As great of a hockey man as he is, he's an even better person away from the rink," Green said. "He's a good friend of mine, I have a lot of admiration for Stan."
Green is now in his first year as the Vancouver Canucks head coach and when the Canucks played the Islanders back in November, the coach only did one sit-down TV interview to talk about the Islanders. He did it with Stan.
"He loves the game, really loves doing his job," Green said. "I think he'll end up being in the Hall of Fame."
If Green is right, the question becomes, would Stan get inducted as a writer (the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award) or a broadcaster (the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award). There's a case for both.

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The reaction to Fischler's retirement announcement has surprised him. Fans have approached the MSG studios at Barclays to thank him and reporters - many of which he taught or mentored including John Giannone and Arthur Staple - have written thanks and tributes.
"People come over to me in the studio and say I want to thank you for everything. I said what are you thanking me for?" Fischler said. "The vice was versa and this is what it's all about, me doing my thing with the fans."
Of the players, Billy Smith was the first Islander to reach out to him and since then the likes of Potvin, Nabokov, Green and more have wished him well.
Stan's last game will be Thursday, when the Islanders host the New York Rangers. An Islander-Ranger game still fills Stan with excitement and anxiousness, even after watching them for over 40 years. This isn't the start of something good - that song he's used to preface interviews - but rather the end of it.
He'll drop the puck at center ice before the game and go back to his usual routine after it, leading the pack around the room one last time.

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THE AL IAFRATE CIGARETTE STORY

There's an old photograph of Stan Fischler interviewing Washington Capitals defenseman Al Iafrate, though old time hockey may be more appropriate.
Fischler and Iafrate - known for his thunderous slap shot - were having a chat one morning and Iafrate wanted to show Fischler his new tattoo, but the defenseman's hands were full - a lit cigarette in one and a can of coke in the other.
Fischler took Iafrate's morning smoke and coke as a courtesy, but did so just as team photographer Bruce Bennett came in the room. Thanks to the candidness and circumstance of the picture, the picture gives the impression that Stan conducted his interviews with a soda and a cigarette, but the Maven insists they aren't his.
Never one to lack a joke or a sense of humor, Fischler joked with Iafrate he wanted a six pack of Manhattan Specials and a pack of Camels the next time they did an interview.