Nobody can ruin a Pittsburgh spring like the Islanders.
“Well, you’re right with that one,” said Pierre Larouche, who played on the first of three Penguins clubs that lost Stanley Cup playoff series to the New York Islanders. “We finally took one from them a few years ago, but I wouldn’t say we’re even.”
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It’s not even close, actually.
Not until 2013, almost 40 years after their first postseason meeting, did the Penguins finally finish a playoff series against the Islanders on the winning side of a handshake line. And even then it required the most unlikely of scenarios — unless you had predicted Brooks Orpik to score in overtime of Game 6 at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in 2013 — for the Penguins to finally find the winning formula.
“It was a relief,” said Tyler Kennedy, who was Orpik’s teammate in 2013. “You could see it on everybody’s faces in our room after he scored. We had all the pressure. They just played.”
How tortuous have the Penguins had it against the Islanders in the playoffs?
Well, consider that they once blew a 3-0 series lead and it might not have been the most gutting defeat dealt by the Islanders. Or have you forgotten about David Volek?
We caught up with participants from every Penguins-Islander series to remind everybody what this rivalry has been like as these famous franchises renew their postseason hostilities in Round 1 of the 2019 playoffs.
Mission: Impossible (1975)
History lesson
The Penguins raced to a 3-0 lead in a best-of-seven Stanley Cup quarterfinal series and were a victory from setting up an all-Pennsylvania semifinal with the Philadelphia Flyers. They had outscored the Islanders 14-9 heading into Game 4, which the Penguins dropped 3-1. They would score only three goals in losing Games 5 and 6 to set up a Game 7 at the Civic Arena. The Islanders won that decisive game 1-0.
Larouche (Penguins, 1974-77)
“I remember when we went up 3-0, we had a day off or two on Long Island, and there was a feeling we had that the series was over with. I remember looking around, and everybody was like, ‘Yeah, it’s pretty much done.’ We played in that fourth game. We lost. We played in that fifth game. We lost. And then there was a sixth game, and the next thing you know we’re at home in a Game 7. The funny part of it is — and I guess it’s not funny — but in the history of the Penguins, we’ve lost a lot of Game 7s at home, and I guess we started the trend.
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“I remember it very well. I had an open net, (but) I was hooked. Denis Potvin hooked me, and then I looked at the ref; it was late in the third period, and he was like, ‘Well, I can’t call it.’ And then (Ed) Westfall went down and scored. But before that, I hit a post dead-on. I was so mad that we lost; the next day I was at home, and I still couldn’t believe it.
“It’s Game 7, anything can happen. Well, like I said: I had an open net, I got hooked, they didn’t call it — and then I hit a post. We lost 1-0 because Westfall scored the goal. That was it.
“I was young, so I don’t think I approached Game 7 any differently. I remember that Pete Flaherty was our mayor, and he had a big sign hanging outside his window, and the (Civic Arena) was packed and our fans were going crazy. And we played a good game. I felt like we outplayed them. We just didn’t win.
“I remember they changed goalies, too. (Glenn) ‘Chico’ Resch came in (after Game 3). And, you know, it doesn’t take too much. We’d always talk about Game 4 being the hardest one to win. Well, I’d never been part of that before. I’d never led a series 3-0 and not won.
“Ugh, it’s just an awful feeling. We had a great team. That could have changed the whole hockey scene in Pittsburgh. We had to wait for Mario (Lemieux) to change everything. He took the team to the Cup. But we put the franchise in a deep state by losing. I remember after I left they weren’t playing to too many people and (former Penguins general manager Eddie Johnston) telling me one year at camp that he had 22 guys, and they all were going to make the team because they didn’t have much money.
“I still think about it. You know, if we had made a better run in ’75 — even if we didn’t win it, if we had gone a little deeper — everything great that happened in Pittsburgh could have started earlier than it did. But you can’t change history.”
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Postscript
After their giveaway against the Islanders in 1975, the Penguins would win only one postseason series until 1989. It wasn’t until 2010 that another NHL team lost a best-of-seven series after taking a 3-0 lead. Though, Larouche said he took no comfort in watching the Boston Bruins blow it against the Flyers that postseason.
Thriller (1982)
History lesson
Two titles into their run of four consecutive Cup wins, the Islanders rolled to a 2-0 series lead in a best-of-five Patrick Division semifinal. So dismayed by the collective 15-3 drubbing was Penguins owner Edward DeBartolo Sr. that he refused to attend Game 3 at Civic Arena and promised a refund to any fan who was interested. Only 200 fans accepted, and the 14,000-plus Pittsburghers who did attend watched the Penguins win 2-1 on Rick Kehoe’s overtime goal. Another home victory in Game 4 forced a Game 5 at New York, and to the shock of the hockey world, the Penguins carried a 3-1 lead into the third period. Goals by Mike McEwen and John Tonelli — the latter with fewer than three minutes remaining in regulation — pulled the Islanders even. Tonelli ended the game and series in overtime.
Bryan Trottier (Islanders, 1975-90)
“That creepy Rick Kehoe scored a ripper from No Man’s Land. That’s what changed everything.
“You know, there was no home team having the last (line) change. (Islanders coach) Al (Arbour) was looking for certain matchups. Every time we’d get on the ice, (Johnston) would throw out his scoring line, so out would come our checking line. We were like, ‘Oh, my God! These guys are getting all the ice time, and we’re getting none.’ It wasn’t my thing to figure out; I just knew I wasn’t getting any ice time. You play when the coach tells you to play.
“It was also the Penguins’ goaltender (Michel Dion). We had power-play chances and power-play chances, but the goalie was standing on his ear. It turned out to be a hell of a series.
“You know, the first round — it doesn’t matter if it’s a five-game or seven-game series — everybody’s fresh, everybody’s eager; you don’t have the wear and tear or grind of the playoffs. That first round, everybody’s dangerous. And it sure makes everything interesting. I mean, just look at later on in 1993 with the Islanders and Penguins.
“DeBartolo offered that refund, and it was almost like (the fans) wanted to show the owner — and the league — that Pittsburgh’s not gonna die, that Pittsburgh’s not gonna go out. It felt like it rallied their players. And I loved that old building, that Civic Arena. To me, that was a hockey arena. I saw my first game there when the Islanders and Penguins played in 1974, and then every game after that was special for me. And, you know, I was a big Pierre Larouche fan. So it was always really kind of fun for me to play in that arena. It just had a great, great atmosphere for a long, long time. And I think that crowd was intimidating to our team. Those moments, as much as you want to try to block it out, the home team’s fans can have a big impact on the opposition. Their players looked for it from their home fans, and as the opposition, we always tried to block it out. But those crowds made it almost impossible for us.
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“In Game 5, it just seemed like everything was going against us. Then, all of a sudden, the tide turned. As much as things were going against us — you know, Mike Bullard goes down and hits the post, and right after that we get the tying goal — it was just one of those things where nothing was going right and then all of a sudden it was ‘boom!’ Al called a timeout when we were on a power play, I think it was with our goaltender, just to give our power play a little blow, and we go and score a goal. A puck hops over Randy Carlyle’s stick and onto Tonelli’s stick for the tying goal. For whatever reason, all those little things started going for us and everything kind of like clicked, clicked, clicked.
“Holy cow! That series has to be right there among the most fortunate, scary, unique that we played. There’s not just one way to describe it because a lot of those guys turned out to be good buddies of mine over the years. Rick Kehoe and I — look, I don’t know if I hold anybody in higher esteem. I love the guy. So that series, it’s really kind of nice we all talk about it all these years later, no matter how it went.”
Postscript
The Islanders went on to win the Cup in 1982 and 1983. The Penguins did not qualify for another postseason until 1989. Trottier signed with the Penguins after the 1989-90 season and served as a veteran presence on Pittsburgh’s back-to-back title teams in 1991 and 1992.
Everybody Hurts (1993)
History lesson
As the two-time reigning Cup champions, the Penguins arrived at the 1993 playoffs as heavy favorites. They had won the Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL’s best team on the strength of a record 17-game winning streak and Lemieux’s astonishing in-season return from Hodgkin’s disease. But in a Patrick Division final, the Islanders won Game 1 at Pittsburgh and Game 4 at New York to turn a best-of-seven series into a best-of-three, which became a coin-flip Game 7 after the clubs each held serve at home. Early in Game 7, Kevin Stevens — the soul of Pittsburgh’s dominant early 1990s teams — was rocked on a collision with Rich Pilon. Stevens’ face connected with Pilon’s visor, knocking out the Penguins’ leading scorer in the series and leaving Stevens in a pool of blood on the ice. The Penguins appeared mortally wounded by the loss of Stevens but rallied late in regulation with a couple of goals from Rick Tocchet and Ron Francis to force overtime. There, though, Volek bested Tom Barrasso to secure one of the NHL’s greatest postseason upsets.
Stevens (Penguins, 1987-95, 2000-02)
“They always gave us problems. I honestly think we just didn’t hate them the way we hated the Rangers, the Flyers, the Caps. There wasn’t quite as much emotion in those games, and it probably hurt us.
“We were way better than they were in 1993. We were better than everyone by a mile. But everyone knows what happened.”
Postscript
Stevens told The Athletic’s Josh Yohe that he was awake at a Pittsburgh hospital when the Penguins forced overtime in Game 7. A nurse turned on the radio for him. He recalled hearing broadcaster Mike Lange’s call of Volek’s goal before being taken into an operating room for a facial reconstruction that would last four-plus hours. Neither Stevens, arguably the NHL’s premier power forward at the time, nor the Penguins, presumed as the 1990s version of the 1980s Edmonton Oilers, would realize their seemingly historic potential after that loss to the Islanders.
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Pain & Gain (2013)
History lesson
A lockout-shortened season had gone swimmingly for the Penguins until star centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin each missed the final month of the regular season because of injuries. Still, the Penguins finished atop the Eastern Conference and — perceived to be boosted by in-season additions of several veterans, including Jarome Iginla — entered an Eastern Conference quarterfinal best-of-seven series as huge favorites against the Islanders. However, the series returned to Pittsburgh tied 2-2 for Game 5, and there was considerable tension inside Consol Energy Center because coach Dan Bylsma had already turned to backup goalie Tomas Vokoun. A breakaway goal near the midpoint of the second period by Tyler Kennedy, who had been a healthy scratch in Games 1 through 4, sparked the Penguins to a 4-0 win and a series lead. They would rally and win Game 6 at New York on big goals from a couple of defensemen — Paul Martin late in regulation and Orpik in overtime.
Kennedy (Penguins, 2007-13)
“Look, nobody wants to be a healthy scratch. I never expected to be a healthy scratch. But all the guys supported me. Sid, Geno, ‘Flower’ — they texted me and checked on me, kept me up. I kept working. I knew that when I got back in the lineup, I’d have to leave it all out there. And that’s what I did in Game 5. I told myself, ‘Just empty it.’
“That game was so emotionally charged. It was another one of those situations where people ask me what was my favorite goal of my career, and obviously my Game 6 one (in the 2009 Cup final) was huge, but that one was the one I feel changed a series.
“I just remember the energy — even from the drop of the puck, I think we had, like, a big scrum with Matt Martin’s line and my line — and it was, again, everybody was so charged, nobody wanted to take a penalty. It was unbelievable. That environment was one I’ll never forget.
“When we won that game, I think it pushed us to get over the top a little bit, to really kind of bring it to them. But they kept playing. All the pressure was on us, and that was a scary thing. They had no pressure. They were playing like how I was playing, but their whole team was playing that way. We felt pressure. We had brought in some ‘playoff guys,’ and they were, but there was a lot of pressure on those guys to perform.
“For the Islanders to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins at that time would have been a huge deal — especially with how (Penguins general manager) Ray (Shero) had built the team. He had built a ‘playoff team.’ So for us to win that round was a real relief.
“I knew I wanted to go upstairs for my goal (in Game 5). My thought was, ‘Look low-blocker, shoot high-glove.’ I always had a real quick shot, so I knew I could beat (Evgeni Nabokov). His glove was down, and as soon as I saw his glove was down, I knew I could beat him low-blocker. You know, I was shooting in practice on (Marc-Andre) Fleury for a lot of years. I knew how fast Marc’s glove was, so I had practiced quite a bit shooting that shot. I knew exactly what I wanted to do once I got past that blue line.
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“It’s funny. Now that I teach kids, I’m always saying, ‘That goalie’s reading your eyes; he’s reading your shoulders, your eyes, a lot of stuff.’ So I knew that. I knew that if I glanced low-blocker, (Nabokov) would follow my eyes. As soon as I looked low, I knew I had him.”
Postscript
The Penguins finally won a series from the Islanders. They also advanced to the Eastern Conference final, where they were shockingly swept by the Bruins. A year later, Shero and Bylsma were fired as part of an overhaul that would eventually lead to the back-to-back Cup wins in 2016 and 2017.
(Photo: Gene Blyth / Associated Press)