“POTVIN POWER” and “PLAYOFF POISON”
#736/#735
736. NEW YORK ISLANDERS VS EDMONTON OILERS
STANLEY CUP QUARTERFINALS
GAME TWO
APRIL 17, 1981
NASSAU COLISEUM
QUALITY OF PLAY—7.63
DRAMA—7.06
STAR POWER—7.65
CONTEMPORARY IMPORT—6.25
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE—7.77
LOCAL IMPACT—7.93
TOTAL: 44.39
“POTVIN POWER”
The 1981 New York Islanders were a fearsome machine, defending Stanley Cup winners and possessors of the league’s best record. They were heavy favorites to repeat as champs. Little noticed that season, except by hockey cognoscenti like this young Strat-O-Matic hockey fanatic who had tracked them as a World Hockey League franchise, was an extremely young but insanely talented club far out in the prairie of the Canadian Northwest .
The 1981 Edmonton Oilers were only in their second season in the NHL after the WHA folded. They were a meh franchise in that fledgling and short-lived league, but in the final season of the WHA the Oilers made the Avco World Trophy finals (the not-so-equivalent of the Stanley Cup), thanks to a precocious—nay, genius—teenage phenom named Wayne Gretzky.
Many thought the Oilers were absorbed by the NHL in 1979 just to ensure Gretzky would stay on a nothingburger team instead of finding his way to one of the league’s better clubs, thus altering the balance of power for years to come. As it happened, that is precisely what happened, only it was Edmonton that became a dominant team, thanks to Gretzky and a cohort of young superstars that were assembled in the oil drilling town.
They were still so young in those days. Gretzky turned 20 in January of 1981, and his great pal and co-conspirator on the ice, Mark Messier, one day to play an outsized role in New York hockey lore, was likewise just a 20-year old babe in the woods—he even still had hair on his bullet-shaped head. Also in their age-20 seasons were Finnish sharpshooter Jari Kurri and power forward Glenn Anderson. Paul Coffey, a future Hall of Fame defenseman, was, incredibly enough, even younger, just 19. It was the most breathtaking collection of great players who didn’t yet need to shave in puck history.
In 1981 The Great One piled up 55 goals and a league-leading 109 assists in winning his second straight MVP award (Gretzky would later shatter the records in all categories, with 92 goals the following season and his Ruthian 153 assists and 215 points in ’85-86). The first round of 1981 playoffs was his true coming out moment. The Oilers took on NHL royalty, the Wales Conference champs in Montreal. The Canadians, winners of 24 Stanley Cups in their illustrious history, were the three-seed, Edmonton just the 14th, despite Gretzky’s brilliance. Montreal was a heavy favorite.
But Number 99 shocked the haughty fans at the Montreal Forum with an incredible display in Game One, setting up five goals in a 6-3 Edmonton win. The Oilers won again on the road in Game Two, and a Gretzky hat trick finished off the shell-shocked Habs in a three-game sweep. It remains one of the bigger upsets in NHL playoff history.
That set up a mouthwatering clash between the defending champs and the young but highly talented neophytes. New York had crushed Toronto in the opening round, winning three straight by a combined 20-4 score. The Isles and the Oilers would become the matchup that defined hockey in the coming seasons, but this was their first ever encounter in a playoff setting.
It was experience over youth in Game One, held on the Island. New York pushed the Oilers all over the ice, scoring at will and intimidating the newbies with their grown-man strength in an 8-2 rout. Denis Potvin, New York’s brilliant defenseman, scored twice and added an assist while hounding Edmonton’s forwards all night. Potvin summed up his team’s apex predator approach after the game.
“We got a lead, we padded it, and then moved in for the kill.”
It was just a warmup act for Potvin’s Game Two performance, held on Friday night, April 17, 1981 at the Nassau Coliseum.
The Isles had cruised to the league’s best record despite Potvin being mired in a terrible slump for much of the regular season. Since his debut season, also at age 20, in 1973-74, when he was named the league’s Rookie of the Year, Potvin had been a mainstay among the league’s best blueliners. Now 27, he mysteriously played poorly for several months, even as 1980 turned to 1981. But he rallied late in the campaign to put up 76 points and finish second in the Norris Trophy voting, as much on reputation as actual play, to be fair. But he was at his best now that winning time was at hand, and that was a scary thought for the opposition.
Game Two would be Potvin’s masterpiece. After a staid first period that saw Anderson score the only goal, set up per usual by power play line mates Gretzky and Messier, the second period turned nasty. Edmonton was determined not to let the Isles push them around in this second encounter. Goon Dave Semenko challenged New York’s Gerry Howatt in an early brawl. There was also a "why not?” fight between lightweights Coffey and Bob Bourne. Even Gretzky was called for a rare tripping minor. The teams combined for nine penalties (27 minutes worth) in a rambunctious twenty minutes.
Unfortunately, it meant New York was often on the power play. Soon enough, Edmonton’s power play would become lethal, but at the moment it was Potvin, Bryan Trottier, and Mike Bossy that formed the core of the league’s scariest man advantage (at the time three of the top four seasons by power-play percentage in league history belonged to the Islanders from 1977-81).
Oilers coach Glen Sather’s strategy to foil the Isles 5-on-4 tactics was to clog the middle of the ice, where New York made most of its hay. But in so doing, he forgot about Potvin, and he made them pay. Before five minutes were played in period number two, Potvin had scored a goal and set up another to give the home team the lead. Edmonton tied the game, on the power play, natch. But Potvin then scored another goal with an Oiler in the sin bin.
Anderson tied it up, however, and with 17 minutes left, it was 3-3. Kurri was called for holding, and the Islanders power play took over yet again. Clark Gillies was set up beautifully by Trottier but somehow missed the net. Fortunately, Bossy corralled the puck and slid it to Potvin, who was alone ten feet out, slapping his stick on the ice to get Bossy’s attention.
“First, I prayed that Mike would see me,” Potvin said. “Then, I was there so long, I prayed no one else would see me and come over to hammer me.”
No one did, and Potvin completed his hat trick by sliding the puck past Andy Moog to give New York a lead it would not relinquish. The Islanders owned third periods in those days, and shortly thereafter Potvin collected his fifth point by setting up Bossy (albeit on a deflection) for a hammer blow of a goal, worthy of a player who scored 68 times that season, to make it 5-3. Trottier whipped past Gretzky to snag a loose puck and score a late clincher, and New York won 6-3 to go up 2-0 in the series.
The Isles had now scored 34 goals in their five playoff games, all easy wins. There was little doubt about who the best team in the NHL was.
As for Potvin, his five points was a Gretzky-like performance that fully silenced his doubters from earlier in the season.
AFTERMATH:
To their immense credit, Edmonton sowed some doubt in the series, winning Games Three and Five, the only home loss in the postseason for New York, and forcing overtime in Game Four, won on a Kenny Morrow goal for the Islanders. New York finished the series in six with a resounding 5-2 win, and went on to repeat as Cup champions with an easy defeat of Minnesota in the finals. Their two losses to Edmonton were one more than they suffered against their three other playoff opponents combined.
WHAT THEY SAID:
“We overcompensated on their big guys, and Potvin really nailed us.”
—Glen Sather
FURTHER READING:
99: Gretzky, His Game, His Story by Al Strachan
VIDEO:
735. NEW YORK JETS VS NEW YORK GIANTS
DECEMBER 18, 1988
GIANTS STADIUM
QUALITY OF PLAY—6.62
DRAMA—8.30
STAR POWER—7.06
CONTEMPORARY IMPORT—7.65
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE—6.22
LOCAL IMPACT—8.65
TOTAL: 44.40
“PLAYOFF POISON”
On December 16, 1835, a fire broke out in a warehouse at the corner of Pearl Street and Exchange Place in lower Manhattan. It started when a gas pipe burst due to the extreme cold that iced in the City for several days, and the flammable fluid was ignited by a coal stove. Whipped by high winds, the fire quickly spread through the neighborhood, which was packed with hundreds of warehouses and a congested maze of narrow streets.
The fire swiftly grew out of control. It proved impossible to fight. Bitterly cold temperatures froze the water in the hoses. Firemen were forced to chop ice in order to get at the flow in the river. The blaze burned so brightly that fire fighters in Philadelphia were mobilized.
The warehouses in the path of the flames held a concentration of some of the most expensive goods on earth, including fine silks, lace, glassware, coffee, teas, liquors, chemicals, and musical instruments. Everything was consumed. Also destroyed was the Mercantile Exchange, where a statue of Alexander Hamilton stood in the cupola. Several sailors tried to carry the statue away, but it wouldn’t budge, and the entire structure gave way shortly thereafter. The sailors barely escaped; the statue of Hamilton was destroyed.
At one point it appeared the entire island would be obliterated by the flames. In a moment of extreme heroism, in the wee hours of December 17, a company of U.S. Marines, the holocaust at their heels, leveled several buildings on Wall Street using gunpowder procured from the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The firebreak kept the damage from proceeding uptown.
Nevertheless, the damage was incomprehensible. Lower Manhattan was almost totally destroyed. Some 700 buildings and 23 blocks of the prosperous mercantile district were completely burnt to the ground. The estimate was about $20 million in 1835 dollars worth of damage—some $600 million in today’s money.
In a development that won’t bring a tear to anyone’s eye nowadays, the disaster was also a crushing blow to the City’s insurance industry—nearly all of the 26 companies in operation then were bankrupted by the fire.
The events of December, 1835, might be better remembered today if not for the Chicago Fire of 1871, which stole some of its “large city suffers terrible blaze” mojo. Nevertheless, the Great New York Fire of 1835 was not just a terrible moment for the City, but it became a cultural touchstone for Americans of the period, much as 9/11 would for modern New Yorkers—a traumatic event that was recounted, mythologized, and memorialized for decades afterwards.
One hundred fifty-three years and two days later, on a similarly frigid and windy Sunday afternoon, December 18, 1988, the New York Giants saw their season go up in flames, albeit in New Jersey, across a river that wasn’t quite frozen but carried chunks of ice on its current—the Hudson. As with the Great Fire of ‘35, there wasn’t far to go to look for the culprit.
The 1988 NFC playoff chase came down to the final weekend. Bill Parcells' Giants were hot, having won three straight and seven of nine, and sat at 10-5. A victory in the finale would win them the NFC East and clinch a playoff spot. But the race was crowded with alternative teams who would box out the Giants if they fell. With just five teams qualifying for the postseason per conference (a far more palatable number than today’s seven), the G-Men desperately needed to defeat their last opponent of the regular season, who in a quirk of brilliance from the league schedule-makers happened to be their timeshare lessee, the Jets.
Gang Green had been eliminated from the playoffs, but were 7-7-1 and still a frisky group, and for this game, at least, they would have the benefits of being the designated home team—the end zones were painted green and white, the players dressed in the home locker room as usual, and the fans came out to bury the Giants, not to praise them. It was’t a complete Jets crowd—plenty of Giants fans paid $40-80 bones to get inside, but to the credit of all in attendance, there was precious little fighting between fans.
The Jets had the best of the early action, with two Pat Leahy field goals sandwiching a short TD pass from Ken O’Brien to Mickey Shuler. The Jets led 13-0, and the home fans were savoring the idea of ruining Big Blue’s season.
Giants kicker Raul Allegre had been hurt early in the campaign, and his replacement, Paul McFadden, had been quite reliable, making 14 of 17 field goals. But on this day, the Hawk (Parcells’ nickname for the infamous Meadowlands winds) got the better of him. He missed an easy 31-yarder in the first quarter with the Hawk screeching in his face. Then, with the wind at his back, he still came up short on a 49-yard attempt.
Meanwhile, the Jets defensive front was all over Giants QB Phil Simms, sacking him eight times (Ken Rose had three, Marty Lyons two) and making life miserable for the passing game. Simms spent much of the contest either on his back or screaming at his linemen. One, guard Billy Ard, was benched because Lyons was whipping him repeatedly.
Still, Simms was an extremely tough hombre, and he bounced back, finding Stephen Baker (The Touchdown Maker) for a short TD pass late in the first half. That put the game at 13-7 Jets after thirty minutes.
It became 20-7 early in the third, when usually reliable Phil McConkey fumbled a punt inside his own ten, and the Jets recovered. “I got the ball and put it under my right arm,” said McConkey, "and it squirted out. I couldn't put it away.” Freeman McNeil scored on the next play, and the Green were up 20-7.
But the G-Men rallied to chase the division title. Simms hit Baker for another TD early in the fourth to cut the lead to six, and the defense forced a quick punt. A pounding ground attack, led by Ottis Anderson, then took over. OJ converted three consecutive third down runs on a six-minute drive, and with 4:54 to play, Simms found Lionel Manuel, who made a juggling catch in the end zone to tie the game. That set up a critical extra point.
Everyone was scoreboard watching, and the Eagles, a game back of the Giants, were pulling away from the Cowboys. The division title was squarely on the line. McFadden had ironically been cut by the Eagles in the preseason before coming to New York. Now he watched in horror as Jeff Hostetler fumbled the PAT snap. But Mac stayed with it, and managed to punch a low liner through the uprights for the go-ahead point. 21-20, Giants.
McFadden was in position to turn in his goat horns for the hero’s cap. “I thought that it was over at that point,” he admitted.
So did the usually snarling Big Blue Wrecking Crew defense. “All we had to do was stop them,” said Jim Burt, the nose tackle. But a huge kick return by Bobby Humphrey set the Jets up near midfield. On third and two from the Giants 27, the safe choice was a run and a field goal try by Leahy, even with the wind swirling. The Giants sent everyone on a run blitz, but were burned by a play-fake, with O’Brien tossing a pass through the breeze to Shuler for 16 yards and a huge first down.
The clock ticked under a minute to go. The Jets faced third down again, this time from the five. Coach Joe Walton sent in a run play, but when the G-Men again lined up to stop it, O’Brien audibled and threw a quick hitter to Al Toon for the touchdown and a 27-21 lead with 37 seconds left. Parcells grimaced but remained stony on the sideline, while Walton smiled, although after the game he said he was happy only because the changed play had worked.
A Hail Mary attempt by the Giants bounced tantalizingly around a couple of times but hit the turf, and the Jets held on for the win. They stole the Giants tradition of dumping Gatorade on the victorious coach, with Walton, not Parcells, getting the icy green bath. The Eagles took the NFC East title, and now the Giants had to hope the 49ers could defeat the Rams and sew up a wild-card berth for NY.
AFTERMATH:
The Rams buried the 49ers on Sunday night, sacking Joe Montana nine times, and thus the Giants missed the postseason entirely. After the 1987 strike season disaster of a 6-9 record, missing out because of the Jets was a particularly grievous blow. Maybe not as bad as the Great Fire of 1835, but in relative football terms, a disaster nonetheless.
WHAT THEY SAID:
“Yeah, I’m blaming myself. I missed two field goals and we lost by six points.”
—Paul McFadden, Giants kicker
FURTHER READING:
Gang Green by Gerald Eskanazi
VIDEO: