Maven's Memories: The Pivotal Summer of 50 Years Ago

Islanders General Manager Bill Torrey looked to the postseason 1973 as a summer of salvation.

Granted the club's first-season last place finish-- a meager 30 points -- was a National Hockey League joke but for Bow Tie Bill it left him with a curious mixture of disgust and delight.

"On the one hand," Torrey later would chuckle, "we earned the (media-inspired) nickname, 'Hapless Islanders' but, on the other hand we now had first pick in the '73 Draft -- and some other selections -- for us to start building a winner."

Bow Tie Bill took the easiest way to build by drafting superstar-to-be-defenseman Denis Potvin.

But Denis wasn't the only prize. Torrey also plucked Davd Lewis, who would become a remarkably efficient defender, along with Bob Lorimer who featured a similar style.

For grit he added pugnacious forward Andre St. Laurent and -- to orchestrate the symphony -- maestro Torrey pulled off the best move of his life. Instead of signing two coaches being urged on him, Bow Tie -- at the last moment -- switched and hired Al Arbour.

"The brilliance of that move was not immediately evident," said then scout Jim Devellano who persuaded Bill to bypass Johnny Wilson and John McLellan for Al. "But it sure was later on as our team grew."

Although Arbour's only NHL head coaching experience had been limited to a short stint in St.Louis, he was a commanding skipper from the moment he came to Uniondale. Torrey had scored again.

Like fiddling with pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, Torrey juggled names who might be available in the future. He already executed a fruitful move by trading for Denis Potvin's older brother Jean. Granted that Bill gave Philadelphia a good forward in Terry Crisp but Jean proved a gem.

Jean Potvin: "There's no doubt that when Bill made the deal for me, he knew darn well that Denis and I were as tight as could be and that my being an Islander would be good for him; good for me and good for the Islanders."

Covering the team at the time, I really couldn't discern how much better they would be. Talk was cheap before the second training camp opened a half-century ago. As far as the players were concerned, the chief protagonist was Arbour.

Team captain Ed Westfall had played for two Stanley Cup-winners in Boston and was not impressed with first year coach Phil Goyette. Al was a 90-degree turn for the better.

"Al made sure that every player knew where he had to be," Westfall remembered. "We had to know our responsibilities."

Bob Nystrom: "The discipline level changed from mediocre to tense."

Even though he was quickly nicknamed "Sergeant," Al had a rich sense of humor. He could take a joke and give one and if there was something funny going on in his dressing room, Al would join in the laughter.

One day veteran goalie Gerry Desjardins sneaked up behind Westfall and stuck a pumpkin pie in his face along with the greeting, "Happy Birthday!"

Having hit age 33, Westfall accepted the face-wash in good humor. "I've had a lot of things thrown at me during my career," said Easy Ed, wiping the goo off his mug, "but never a pumpkin pie."

Arbour couldn't stifle a dozen chuckles. "That's what you want to see once in a while. A little fun. It's not like being in church you know. I want the guys to work hard, but they should enjoy what they're doing. And if they have a little fun, too, they work that much harder."

They did work hard and when they opened their second major league season in Atlanta they played the Flames to a 1-1 tie. They didn't win until their eighth game but it was like a playoff victory -- 3-2 over the Rangers thanks to Denis Potvin's pair of red lights.

Was it the start of something big?

Not quite.

They finished with a 19-41-18 record, moving from 30 points to 56 and trimmed their goals against by 100. Arbour was the answer and so was Potvin.

As for Bow Tie Bill Torrey, he was smiling twice as much as he had in the maiden year.

"I'm confident," The Boss said, "that everything will work out."