That, by the way, is good pandemonium.
The hometown Penguins remarkably had been deleted as Stanley Cup champions; subdued in a monumental 4-3 overtime upset delivered by The Nassaumen.
A dozen-plus Champ-slayers were personally telling their victory stories to the newshounds who had absolutely no issue finding heroes. The surplus of medalists was downright overwhelming.
Easily the most obvious hero-- and least likely ace entering the tournament -- was David Volek. His ticket to Game Seven had belonged to captain Patrick Flatley. The Czechmate, Volek, got Patrick's rain check because of Flats injury.
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Volek's series-winning overtime goal was so out of character for the perennial bench-warmer that David's boss Al Arbour quipped, "I still don't think David is my best friend."
Actually, the often-anonymous Czech suddenly had become every Islanders' best friend and everyone wanted to reflect on Volek's out-of-nowhere clutch game.
"At the end of the second period," recalled Volek's linemate Ray Ferraro, "I said, 'Dave, you think you got the 'winner' on your stick?' He said, 'Maybe, and if I do it'll be justice for me.'"
As it happened, Volek got one goal in the third period and, of course, the biggie -- via a seismic Ferraro pass -- in the overtime.
"Ray made it easy for me," Volek explained, "and I got off my shot as fast as I could. After all the time I had spent in the press box during the regular season, I can't believe my luck; I just can't believe this has happened."
Volek's drive had good velocity -- generously estimated at 90 m.p.h. -- to have elude goalie Tom Barrasso. The time was five minutes and sixteen seconds of the first sudden-death overtime period.
Ferraro, who was the first Islander to open the visitors' dressing room door, post-game, betrayed the ecstacy of an underdog-turned-top-banana.
"All through the playoffs we had gotten no respect from anybody," lamented Ferraro. "Got no respect from the Penguins. And now we're going to the semi-finals and they're going to play golf.
"They had Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr and all the other stars but we gutted it out and we got tremendous goaltending from Heals. As Muhammed Ali said after he knocked out Sonny Liston, 'We shook up the world.'"
Glenn Healy: "When someone tells you that you can't accomplish something -- like people telling us we couldn't beat Pitt -- it motivated us to go out and do it. For our club, it doesn't get much better than this."
Motivation had overflowed for 60 minutes-plus at all ends of the Islanders' bench, especially the sight of wounded Pierre Turgeon who dressed to play.
Far from being fully recovered from the Washington series and Dale Hunter's assault, Turgeon nevertheless dressed although he admittedly was a shadow of his former starry self.
Didn't matter. What mattered was Pierre's inspirational element.
"The big thing was that Pierre gutted it out," said Ferraro. "When a player like him comes back before he's ready, it has a positive effect on everyone. It was a great lift for the guys."
That, my friends, was the good news.
Then, came the bad news.
Like a burning candle, its last drops of wax dripping off the side, so did the joy diminish in the Winner's room as coach Arbour hustled his charges to their waiting bus.
It was late on a Friday night when the team's motor coach wheezed its way toward Pittsburgh's airport. The charter jet to Montreal would not land until the wee hours of Saturday morning.
The Islanders brass fumed over the fact that Game One of the next (semi-final) round with the Canadiens was pegged for Sunday afternoon at the fabled Forum.
Not only did Radar's charges have little time to exhale but the injured stickhandlers had precious little clock room to regain mint condition.
Travis Green's eye issues made his availability doubtful while Turgeon, Flatley and Marty McInnis were far from 100 percent healthy.
By contrast the Habs were loaded, healthy and as well-motivated as their visitors who had become accustomed to their underdog -- but no longer under-confident -- role.
