Hockey was in the suburbs of New York long before the NHL decided to open up a franchise there. In fact both NHL referee Bill Chadwick and goalie Eddie Giocomin are products of that area's hockey. Teams like the Sands Point Tigers, Long Island Ducks, and the Rovers all played in the area. Professional hockey appeared after the second World War when suitable arenas were built. The New York Rangers were one of the first teams to realize the potential there and moved their farm team the Rovers to the newly built Long Island Arena where Ed Giocomin was a member of the original team. The team was sold to Al Baron who changed the name to the Long Island Ducks whose success and popularity paved the way for the construction of Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

With the construction of the new facility, the NHL decided to put a team into Long Island and Atlanta. A businessman by the name of Roy Boe persuaded 19 other investors to put up the $6 Million required to purchase the franchise, and an additional $4 Million to pay off territorial rights to the New York Rangers. He then hired Bill Torrey as his general manager.

Torrey had a huge task ahead of him as the fledgling WHA was set to start play the same year as his franchise. The one advantage Torrey had over his Atlanta counterpart is that Torrey did not have to sell hockey itself in Long Island. Torrey hired former Montreal star Phil Goyette as his coach and built the rest of the club around the nucleus of Billy Harris, Ed Westfall and Gerry Hart. He surrounded them with newcomers like Gerry Dejardins, Terry Crisp, Denis Dejordy, Germain Gagnon and a host of other. The focal point of the Islanders club was goalie Glenn "Chico" Resch who had played for the Muskegon Mohawak after finishing with the University of Minnesota.

The first game of the Islanders was against the other expansion team, the Atlanta Flames. On October 7, 1972 before 12,221 the Flames downed the Islanders 3-2, with Ed Westfall scoring the first Islander goal ever. The Islanders first win came 5 days later when they defeated the Los Angeles Kings 3-2 in Inglewood. The first half of the season was not kind to the Islanders and after 25 games they had only 3 wins and 20 losses. This was enough for Torrey who replaced Goyette with Earl Ingarfield. But the change didn't do much good for the Islanders who ended up the season with only 12 wins and set a new NHL record for the most losses by a team in one year with 60. However the news was not all bad. Out of the chaos rose two promising rookies in Bob Nystrom and Garry Howatt who the fans took to immediately.

With a guaranteed first pick in the Amateur Draft the following year, the Islanders secured future defensive star Denis Potvin. Despite numerous offers from the Montreal Canadiens, Torrey resisted the urge and kept Denis. When Earl Ingarfield asked to be removed as coach, Torrey offered the position to former NHL defenseman, Al Arbour. Arbour had seen duty with the Detroit Red Wings, Toronto Maple Leafs, Chicago Black Hawks and St Louis Blues and had 4 Stanley Cup rings to his name. Prior to Arbour coming to the team were undisciplined an often disobeyed the rules. Not so with Arbour. Arbour was a strict coach and began imposing fines to players who broke curfew or the rules. Then he would double them for second time offenders. The players soon got the message.

Even with the new discipline in effect the second year for the Islanders proved not much better than the first, winning only 19 games, finishing 8th in the Eastern Division. In 1974 Torrey selected Clark Gilles as his first draft pick and later added Bob Bourne. During the season he also managed to acquire J.P. Parise and Jude Druin from Minnesota. Torrey added Ed Westfall to his two new acquisitions and he now had a line the could score as well as check.

In their third year the Islanders edged out the Flames for a playoff berth, and ended up winning a respectable 33 games to finish 3rd in the Patrick Division. In their first playoff season most expected the Islanders to be eliminated early, as they faced the New York Rangers. However, the Islanders weren't consulted on that issue and took the Rangers by surprise and beat the Rangers in sudden death overtime on a goal by J.P. Parise. In the second round the Islanders faced the Pittsburgh Penguins. Pittsburgh opened up what seemed to be an insurmountable 3-0 game lead. The Islanders battled back to tie the series and in a move that endeared Resch to the New York fans forever he kissed the goal post after a Penguin's shot rattled off the post and Resch smothered the rebound. The Islanders won the game and were now in the company of the Toronto Maple Leafs who are the only two teams to win a 7 game series after being down 3-0 in games.

The Philadelphia Flyers were next and the two teams again battled to a 3-3 tie in games. In the final game the Flyers brought out singer Kate Smith who sang God Bless America at all home games, giving the Flyers a 40-3-1 record when she did so. The Islanders Eddie Westfall tried to break the streak by giving her a bouquet of flowers before the game, but, the attempt did not work and the Flyers won the Stanley Cup.

This did not stop Torrey who kept building his club. He added Bryan Trottier in 1975-76 and future star Mike Bossy in 1977. He teamed up these two with Clark Gilles and three of them made up the line, Trio Grande. Torrey made other changes but one of the most notable was the acquisition of Butch Goring who came from Los Angeles for Billy Harris and Dave Lewis. By now, the Islanders were making the playoffs consistently, and no surprise, they were finishing 1st or 2nd in their division.

In the 1980 finals the Islanders were once again facing the Philadelphia Flyers and led them 3-2 in games. In the sixth game Tonelli, and Nystrom combined for a perfect tape to tape pass as Nystrom deflected the puck past Pete Peeters giving the Islanders their first Stanley Cup. They followed that up with three more Stanley Cup victories with Minnesota, Vancouver and Edmonton as victims. In the "Drive for Five" was heard throughout the NHL. The only other club to have won 5 consecutive Stanley Cups were the Montreal Canadiens.

The Islanders were poised with a host of players who would try to bring the 5th Cup home. However, it was not to be. Despite the "hacking" of goalie Billy Smith on anyone who came near his net, and the grit of the Sutter brothers, Arbour's troops could not overcome the powerful Edmonton Oilers and the string was broken in 5 games.

Torrey added forwards Pat LaFontaine and Patrick Flatley and goaltender Kelly Hrudey the following year, but while he was adding players, coach Al Arbour had decided it was time to retire. Terry Simpson replaced Arbour and he was on the bench during the Islanders longest overtime game ever against the Washington Capitals. About half way into the 4th overtime period, LaFontaine took a pass from Gord Dineen and fired it from the blueline past Washington goalie Bob Mason.

Although competitive in the late '80's the Islanders results in the standings were waning, and they were starting to finish in 4th, 5th and 6th place. Denis Potvin also announced his retirement and in 1988-89 they won just 28 games, the 3rd lowest since the franchise began. Billy Smith also retired from the game leaving Mark Fitzpatrick and Jeff Hackett to fight it out for the top goaltending spot.

Torrey managed to convince Al Arbour to come out of retirement but there was little change. The Islanders managed to make it into the playoffs in 1989-90 on the final night of the season defeating the Philadelphia Flyers.

Throughout the rest of the '90's the Islanders continued to struggle and slip lower in the standings and out of the playoffs. They have seen Al Arbour, Lorne Henning, Rick Bowness, Mike Milbury, Bill Stewart and currently Butch Goring as coaches. Mariusz Czerkawski led the team in scoring in the 1999-2000 season and Roberto Luongo leads the team in net. Mike Milbury currently holds down the general manager position. He has made some excellent trades in the past for players like John Vanbeisbrouck, Roman Hamrlik and Robert Reichel. Undoubtedly he will have to continue to make some excellent trades and draft picks if the Islanders are to once again have a "Drive for Five."

Until the mid '20s that hockey began to flourish on Broadway. In 1924 the New York Life Insurance Company decided to demolish the old Madison Square Garden in favour of an office tower. A Kansas City-born, and Texas bred entrepreneur George Lewis Rickard and a group of "600 Millionaires" organized the Madison Square Garden Corporation and put up the "new" MSG, with its only NHL tenant, the New York Americans.