Maven's Memories: Isles Sweep Rangers En Route to 1981 Final

There's always a good reason for an Islander to be angry at the Rangers; or Blueshirts fans like New York City's mayor Edward Koch. And here's why.
After the Islanders had won their first Stanley Cup in the spring of 1980, the duly elected boss of the Five Boroughs, Koch, banned the Isles from holding their victory parade up Manhattan's majestic Canyon of Heroes.
An avowed Rangers fan, Koch rationalized that since the Islanders did not play within the five boroughs, he was not responsible for their parade.

Now, as the chances for a second straight Cup seemed likely, the Koch edict remained in effect. Meanwhile, the rampaging Rangers were dead-set against allowing another Cup celebration on Hempstead Turnpike.
The Broadway Blueshirts already had good practice. During the regular 1980-81 season they split a "hard-fought, competitive, four-game regular season set with the Islanders," according to Rivalry co-author Zachary Weinstock.
"It became so catty that referee Bryan Lewis handed out 148 penalty minutes one night in The Garden in February, including nine misconducts."
No sir, the Rangers were not kidding around. They were aiming for a repeat of the 1979 tourney when they upset the favored team from Uniondale.
MAVEN'S MEMORIES
WRITTEN COVERAGE
Road to 1981 Cup, Round 2
First Steps Towards 1981 Cup
From Viking to Uniondale, the Sutter Bros
Bob Bourne's End to End Rush
Mikko Makela: The Flying Finn
Stan's 17 Birthday Memories
Jason Blake Played Big
Shirley Fischler Breaks Gender Barriers
Jim Devellano, The Other Architect
The 2003-04 Season
Mike Bossy's Road to the Islanders
The 2002-03 Homestretch
Maven's Haven
What's more, they entered the 1981 playoff cavalcade as hot as a Coney Island knish. (Potato, not plain.)
For starters, the Rangers had knocked off the Los Angeles Kings who had surpassed the Blueshirts by 25 points during the regular season. Next up was the St. Louis Blues who were 33 points better than New York.
The two straight Rangers playoff wins leading up to Round Three were not flukes.
"What we had done during the regular season didn't matter anymore," said Rangers goalie Steve Baker. "We looked at the playoffs as a new chance for us. We wanted The Cup as much as the Islanders did."
Two-out-of-two Cinderella Series wins was not bad for the underdogs. But beating the defending Champs was another tale that the Islanders were determined not to be told.
It was more than mere Met Area bragging rights that were at stake. Although the Nassaumen had won hockey's world title, the Rangers still were getting the goodies.
The Seventh Avenue skaters even had won a lucrative Sasson Jeans commercial that would have brought home a pretty penny for the likes of Denis Potvin, Mike Bossy and Bryan Trottier had the Isles been chosen.
"We were thinking another upset," said Ron Duguay, one of several Rangers headlined in the Sasson video. "It happened in 1979 -- Rangers in six -- and it could happen again."
Game One at Nassau Veterans' Memorial Coliseum opened on a Tuesday night, April 28, 1981, and the upset that Duguay was talking about looked to have a dose of reality.
Anders Hedberg, an Islanders-killer in '79, lifted the Manhattan six to the lead and teammate Ed Hospodar illuminated another red light. Early in the second period the Rangers bench was chirping about the 2-1 advantage.
"Enough already!" seemed to be the collective retort from the Islanders pew. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Just like that, the Islanders fired back with four goals. They won 5-2 prompting a Bob Bourne squelch: "This isn't '79!"
Mike Bossy: "We had something to avenge. I hadn't forgotten 1979 either."
Then, again, it was only one game.
Game Two -- also at The Coliseum -- on Thursday, April 30, 1981, had a Rangers look to it for the first 20 minutes. The Challengers scored three while the Champs had only one, but that would change as fast as a finger-snap.
In a very short time, the roof fell in on Rangers goalie Steve Baker. His migraines began with Butch Goring's shorthander, followed by Bossy's power play that quickly tied the count.

Goring came right back at even strength to put the Hosts ahead to stay. And all of this in a span of 4:33. The brace of red lights was dubbed a "manpower natural hat trick."
The trick was repeated in the third period only this time the perpetrators were Clark Gillies on the power play followed by Anders Kallur's short-hander and Bossy's at even strength.
This time it required a "long" 4:48 to complete leading to a final count of 7-3 and a two-game series lead for the Champs.
"The only similarity between this series and '79," explained Bob Bourne, "is that we're expected to win it. The difference now is that we're not wavering. We don't want to let them get started. And we won't."
And they didn't.
While Madison Square Garden could be interpreted as a "hostile" arena for the Islanders, they converted hostility into an asset. "We just wanted to shove it to them," snapped Bill Smith. "But good."
The shove was more like a big push or, if you will, a slap in the face. The newly-coined slogan was like giving Rangers fans a stiff, verbal thwacking.
Weinstock: "It began during the 7-3 win when somebody in the Coliseum hollered, 'NINE-TEEN-FOR-TY' and the thing took off like a Blackbird jet. Eventually the chant followed the Rangers for years.
"It was catchy. It was mean. It crammed four decades of Rangers heartbreak into four syllables and five claps of the hand, while implicitly boasting the champion Islanders as well. It was the perfect chant."
The Islanders reinforced it in Game Three despite a shower of rubber chickens and dead fish hurled specifically at Denis Potvin among assorted other of the Visitors.
"I guess I have to view their reaction to me as a compliment," said Potvin. "I mean just to preserve my own sanity."
Denis had the proper prescription. He pressed forward on a power play by craftily skimming a pass to Clark Gillies who relayed the rubber to Mike Bossy and the Isles were off and running.

Bob Bourne then punctuated the Islanders point with another power-play goal. Ken Morrow and Bobby Nystrom added two more G's in the second, "leaving the MSG audience miserable, lifeless and defeated," as one reporter scribbled.
A Rangers 5-1 playoff loss to the Islanders at The Garden will do that.
"We were roaring," said Bossy who was scoring goals the way Rumpelstiltskin spun gold out of straw.
Down by three games, Rangers coach Craig Patrick searched for an answer. He could have yanked Steve Baker in goal but the Blueshirts blunders extended far beyond the goal crease
One of Patrick's unsolved problems was Bossy. In one flip of his backhand in the first period of Game Four, Bossy set three NHL playoff marks simultaneously.
It was his eighth power-play goal of the 1981 postseason and the Islanders 26th, both records as well as Bossy's 81st overall goal of the year -- regular season and playoffs combined -- topping Reggie Leach's five-year-old record of 80.
The final score of the clincher was 5-2.
"As far as consistency goes, this is the best series we've played since I've been here," Bossy allowed and nobody challenged him.
The only challenging was being done by coach Al Arbour.
"We're not there yet," Radar reminded the troops. "One more series to go."
Fair enough. There was no disputing Radar. Nor Torrey.
One of Bow Tie Bill's best friends was Lou Nanne, manager of the Minnesota North Stars. Before the Final round, they had dinner together and agreed that the winner of the 1981 Stanley Cup would pick up the tab the next time they dined.
Both agreed that the odds favored New York, but Nanne shook hands on it anyway!
"That's why someone invented the word 'upset'," someone heard Nanne say; and then Lou picked up the tab!