It looked like it would be by a whole lot. On January 18, 1973 the Nassaumen were scheduled to visit Boston Garden to play the defending champion, the Big, Bad Bruins, starring Bobby Orr.
By contrast, the Visitors strolled down Causeway Street to the Players Entrance in no mood for optimism.
"My guys had lost a dozen games in a row," Torrey remembered. "Out of our 45 games so far, we'd only won four."
The Isles chief scout, Devellano, was just as realistic. Now Executive Vice president of the Detroit Red Wings, Jimmy D suffered the growing pains alongside his boss
"We weren't being called 'The Hapless Islanders' for nothing," Devellano said. "But I always believed that with every negative situation there's usually a silver lining somewhere if you look hard enough."
The unlikeliest place to look before the opening face-off was the Garden ice in Beantown. Islanders captain, Ed Westfall, knew all about it. He had played on Boston's most recent Cup teams in 1970 and 1972.
"They had Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Johnny Bucyk and the other big guys from the Cup team," Westfall recalled. "They were loaded."
But somewhere in old Boston Garden those Islanders went from hapless to happiness over a period of two-plus hours.
Tim Moriarty, who covered the game for Newsday and later wrote "The Incredible Islanders," already had a potential "losing" lead for his story. But there was time for that; a game still had to be played.
"The Bruins naturally expected to toy with their visitors," wrote Moriarty. "Coach Tom Johnson must have been caught up in his team's surge of overconfidence. That's why he started his backup goalie, John Adams.
MAVEN'S MEMORIES
WRITTEN COVERAGE
From Doghouse to Penthouse in 1975
Al Arbour's Trifecta
Giving Away the Banks of Gifts -- Almost
Ken Morrow's Moments
First Isles-Rangers Game
Rangers Invade Isles TV Studio
How Chico Resch Became A Goalie
Roland Melanson, Forgotten Hero
Maven's Haven
"When Adams fanned on an early Islanders shot by Don Blackburn, the Boston fans giggled. So did Adams. But neither the fans nor Adams were giggling when the first period ended."
Incredible, it seemed, but true. The Islanders were leading, 5-1!
In the following goal-scoring order, the Visitors had built a 5-0 lead before goalie Bill Smith gave up the first Bruins goal.
1. Don Blackburn from Craig Cameron and Tom Miller.
2. Billy Harris from Jim Mair and Germain Gagnon.
3. Lorne Henning from Arnie Brown and Brian Spencer,
4. Ed Westfall from Harris
5. Blackburn from Bob Cook.
Spencer added another red light in the second period after which the Bruins responded to coach Johnson's wake-up call
Still, at the end of the second period, New York still was well ahead, 7-4.
Moriarty: "Torrey was chuckling and jamming his elbow into his neighbor's side with each Islander goal, fully aware of the novelty of it all."
In those days, reporters such as Moriarty would file their reports by telegram to Western Union with "running stories" and another at the game's end.
With that in mind, Torrey quipped, "Western Union is going to have all kinds of queries when they send out this score."
But the game wasn't over and, in the third period, the Isles showed signs of succumbing to the "Dreaded Three-goal Lead."
Boston scored twice to make it a 7-6 nail-biter but the Islanders held fast and when the final buzzer sounded, Torrey's team had prevailed, 9-7.
As Bow Tie Bill fairly danced down the Garden steps at the end of the game an obviously annoyed Bruins fan said to her companion, "I came here expecting to see a rout."
Overhearing the complaint, Torrey whispered to Devellano: "What did she think that was?"
For one night at least in that harsh opening season, the Islanders found "The Silver Lining" Jimmy Devellano had been talking about!
