Maven's Memories: Isles-Rangers Rivalry 1975-78

The Islanders' stunning upset of the Rangers in the 1975 playoffs would have arresting reverberations for both teams.
Trouble is, nobody knew how or when.
A first clue was available at the Isles training camp in September 1975. A baby-faced center named Bryan Trottier showed up and captured the imagination of coach Al Arbour and staff.

"You wouldn't have known at the time," said Islanders chief scout Jim Devellano, "But Young Trots would turn into a [New York Rangers]-killer. Bryan would lead us up while the Rangers went down."
Exhibit A was available on October 25, 1975 at Nassau Coliseum. As the Islanders punched home goal after goal, fans chanted, "Hang it up, Ran-gers, hang it up."
At the final buzzer, the Blueshirts limped off, victims of a 7-1 drubbing.
Irrevocably, as the calendar turned, the pendulum kept swinging away from the Manhattanites. At season's end, the Islanders had taken the crosstown series for the first time, 4-2-0.
The goal differential was even more favorable to the Nassaumen, 28-14.

But nothing was more emphatic in terms of the widening quality gap than the rivals' final meeting on April 3, 1976 in Nassau.
Not only were the visitors pummeled, 10-2, but Rangers fans most-hated Islander broke the bank. Denis Potvin scored a goal and added three assists.
Against the Rangers over the entire season, he tallied 14 points, six goals and eight assists.
"The crowd taunted and teased the last-place visitors from the moment they arrived until the final horn," was the way one reporter wrote about the top-heavy scene. "They hoisted signs reminded Manhattan-men of their agony."
Arbour's skaters maintained their dominance not only by making the playoffs, but taking out Vancouver and Buffalo before bowing out to the defending champion Canadiens, but not without a fight.
With Rangers boss Emile (The Cat) Francis having been replaced by John (King Fighter) Ferguson, the Seventh Avenue skaters of 1976-77 fared no better than before the regime change.
MAVEN'S MEMORIES
WRITTEN COVERAGE
Denis Potvin's Road to the Isles
Ziggy Palffy, Underrated Islanders Hero
Bill Torrey's Origin Story
The Heals and Flats Show
1993 Run Ends in Montreal
Unusual Draft of 1979
Isles Upset Pens in 1993
Prelude to Penguins Upset
Isles Beat Caps in 1993
Maven's Haven
This time the Isles captured the cross-county series 4-1-1. Boasting a 106-point season, bragging rights stayed in Uniondale. Meanwhile the Rangers missed the playoffs for the second-straight season.
A highlight -- or lowlight as the case may be -- of the rivalry took place as the curtain lowered on the regular season.
This was April 3, 1977 at [Madison Square] Garden. Hockey night turned into fight night as a bench-clearing brawl had its two unusual protagonists; goalies Bill Smith and John (J.D.) Davidson.
Beside himself with all the losses, General Manager Ferguson figured he had an edge on Bow Tie Bill Torrey in 1977.
"We were concerned," Torrey recalled, "Because the Rangers had two picks in the first round of the draft, eighth and 13th. We didn't pick until 15th and there was a guy we figured to lose to New York."
Devellano: "We had our eyes on a terrific scorer in Juniors; Michael Bossy. He was from Montreal and the Canadiens had the 10th pick. Between the Rangers and Canadiens and a few other teams we didn't think we had a shot."
In fairness to Fergy, he wanted to pick Bossy, but his Quebec scout Tony Savage kept turning thumbs down on Bossy. Still, Ferguson persisted.
"Coaches have been calling me every day," Ferguson told Savage. "All they do is tell me how good this Bossy kid is."
Savage: "Bossy is too skinny. He won't fight. They'll chase him out of the NHL."
Well, the Rangers had two shots; and shot themselves in the foot. First, they picked Lucien DeBlois and then Ron Duguay. The Habs also bypassed Bossy and picked Mark Napier.
"We couldn't be happier," Torrey remarked. "First, we lucked out a few years earlier with one Rangers nemesis in Trots, and then we get Boss who would really devastate them."
That devastation was evident to Ferguson on January 28,1978 as his Rangers were tarred and feathered by a rookie named Bossy.
When the dust had cleared, the Isles skated off with a 6-2 decision fortified by Bossy's dozen shots on goal; not to mention his 32nd and 33rd goals of the season."

The Rangers own Steve Vickers analyzed the rivalry and candidly admitted the see-saw was sawing off the Blueshirts.
"We're in a state of chaos," Vickers allowed. "We've got to play the same way the Islanders do. The trouble is, we don't!"
If a coda had to be affixed to the Isles-Rangers War through the Spring of 1978 it began with a nationally-televised Saturday matinee in Uniondale on April 8.
Once again the Nassumen took the series, 4-2-0 en route to their first Patrick Division and Campbell Conference titles in club annals.
BAM! The end resounded like the incessant thuds of a bass drum in a John Philip Sousa military march. 5-0 Islanders at the end of the first period. 7-0 early in the second. The final march was 7-2.
Most embarrassing for John Ferguson, Inc., Bossy scored his 53d and final goal of the season. That set a rookie record.
As for the Rangers pair of first-round picks -- DeBlois and Duguay -- their combined goal total was 42 red lights.
Bossy had topped them by a Baker's Dozen and would for the rest of his career.
"I guess we settled the question of who won the Draft," Devellano concluded, "and it wasn't the Rangers!"