Meanwhile, angst bubbled internally on the Seventh Avenue side. Failing to live up to glorious pre-season expectations, the Herb Brooks-coached Rangers prepped for the Nassaumen by fighting among themselves.
A January 1985 New York Times piece by Craig Wolff claimed two sources heard Brooks call his crack defenseman Barry Beck a coward.
A stiff internal verbal battle ensued until general manager Craig Patrick fired Brooks and put himself behind the bench. Roused by the unrest, the Rangers became a fighting mad team; more so when they met the Islanders.
One of the smallest Blueshirt forwards, George McPhee, proved the biggest Islander tormentor. In an early 1984-85 season encounter, McPhee decisioned the Isles larger Dave Langevin. But the best -- or "beasts" -- were yet to come.
On February 7, 1985 McPhee and the Islanders redoubtable Bob Nystrom escalated their differences up to a one-on-one physical confrontation that some observers later would label "The (Hockey) Battle of the Century."
Fists flew through the Coliseum air like pistons on a speeding locomotive. The flurry ended with Ny head-butting McPhee. That was out of character for Bobby and, frankly, it looked bad for Nystrom's image. but not for long.
Give McPhee credit for his candor -- George confessed, "I head-butted him first!"
If anything could top that bout, there was one just ten days later when the teams came, saw and once again tried to conquer each other.
What made this particular Garden main-event so fascinating is that the chief protagonists were none other than the two starting goaltenders.
The Rangers puck-stopper, John Vanbiesbrouck, was in no mood to sign a Treaty of Manhattan with Kelly Hrudey. Meanwhile the Islanders guardian of the goal didn't have any special warmth for Beezer. Quite the opposite.
At first, while a Pier Six brawl erupted at mid-ice, the respective pad-men seemed to be non-belligerents; mere onlookers wondering what the fuss was all about. Then, it all came to Kelly.
