Much like the team that went on that surprise run 27 years ago, the current Islanders, who are the No. 6 seed in the East, have exceeded expectations, knocking off the No. 3 seed Washington Capitals in the first round and the No. 1 seed Flyers in the second round after defeating the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Qualifiers.
The Islanders play Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final against the No. 2 seed Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVAS) at Rogers Place in Edmonton, the hub city for the conference finals and the Stanley Cup Final.
“I actually have a feeling they’re going to win the Cup,” said Rich Pilon, a defenseman on the 1992-93 team. “It’s not necessarily the best players that win championships, it’s the best team.”
The Islanders didn’t win the Cup in 1993, but their run was memorable nonetheless following a third-place finish in the Patrick Division. Holding a 3-2 lead in their best-of-7 series against the Capitals in the first round, center Pierre Turgeon, New York’s leading scorer with 132 points (58 goals, 74 assists) during the regular season, was blindsided by Washington center Dale Hunter while celebrating a goal in the third period of Game 6 at Nassau Coliseum that gave them a 5-1 lead.
Turgeon sustained a separated shoulder from the hit. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman suspended Hunter for the first 21 games of the 1993-94 season, the longest in League history at the time.
“At the Coliseum, the dressing rooms were about 60 yards apart,” said goalie Glenn Healy, who started all 18 playoff games for the Islanders in 1993. “We tried to get down to that locker room to inflict our sense of revenge. We didn’t quite get there; New York’s finest got in the way of that.”
The Islanders advanced in the playoffs, but they would do so without their best player.
With Turgeon out, the Islanders were faced with what seemed to be an impossible task in the second round. They were up against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins, who were led by Hockey Hall of Fame coach Scotty Bowman and four players who were later inducted — forwards Mario Lemieux, Ron Francis and Joe Mullen, and defenseman Larry Murphy (a fifth, forward Jaromir Jagr, will join them soon enough). They won the Presidents’ Trophy with 119 points, highlighted by an NHL-record 17-game winning streak.
“That Pittsburgh team was beyond loaded,” center Ray Ferraro said. “That was a team. Like, holy crap. If you looked at the two teams side by side on the whiteboard, you would laugh. You’d be like, ‘You mean that team on the left’s going to beat that team on the right?’ There was zero people that picked our team to beat Pittsburgh, and if anybody did, they were out to lunch.”
Al Arbour, the Hall of Fame coach of the Islanders, didn’t have a star-studded lineup. But he did have veteran leaders in goal, with Healy, and up front, with forwards Patrick Flatley, Steve Thomas and Ferraro. His defense was mostly young, sparked by rookies Darius Kasparaitis, who was 19 years old, and Vladimir Malakhov, who was 24.
So how could the Islanders possibly defeat the Penguins, who were seeking their third straight Stanley Cup championship? Arbour challenged his players prior to Game 1.
“He asked us individually, starting with Pat Flatley, ‘Can you tie one shift against Mario Lemieux? I don’t need you to score, just tie the shift,'” Healy said. “And then the next guy. … The exercise went on.”
“The hair was standing on the back of my neck. It was amazing,” Pilon said. “When he would do his pregame speech, you were almost frothing at the mouth. It was unbelievable how he could get you motivated and focused. It was something to feel and be part of.”
The Islanders trailed 3-2 in the best-of-7 series, but Thomas scored two goals and two assists in a 7-5 win in Game 6 at Nassau Coliseum.
“To my recollection, we didn’t have flights back to Pittsburgh for Game 7; they booked them the day we had to go,” Ferraro said. “We were all flying commercial. We’re all jammed in middle seats and stuff. It’s a short flight, but still.”
David Volek, a forward who scored eight goals in 56 games during the regular season and hadn’t scored in the playoffs, gave New York a 2-1 lead at 6:10 of the third period in Game 7. Forward Benoit Hogue made it 3-1 less than three minutes later, and the Islanders appeared to be on their way to the conference final, especially after Lemieux and New York defenseman Uwe Krupp took coincidental slashing penalties with 4:05 remaining.
“I remember being on the bench and going, ‘What an unbelievable trade.’ Not that we’re not going to miss [Krupp], but oh my God, one of the best players in the history of the game is not going to be able to play,” Ferraro said.
But the Penguins didn’t go away quietly. Francis made it 3-2 with 3:47 left, and forward Rick Tocchet tied it 3-3 with one minute remaining.
“It was like someone taking away your meal when you’re really hungry,” Pilon said. “You’re like, ‘Really?’ It was devastating, but I remember Al saying, ‘If you could’ve asked us at the beginning of this series that we were going to be going into overtime [in Game 7], would you not have taken it?’ He told us not to be devastated.”
Healy made three of his 42 saves in overtime, and Volek finished a 2-on-1 with Ferraro at 5:16 to complete what is still the most improbable playoff series win in Islanders history.
“The owners desperately wanted to trade Volek all year,” Healy said. “I remember standing by the bus with Al and [we] were celebrating a pretty big win. … The owners came up and they were all ecstatic we had won and Al just looked at them and said, ‘What do you think of David [bleeping] Volek now?’ That’s Al Arbour.”
The ’93 playoff run ended for the Islanders in the Wales Conference Final, where they lost to the eventual Cup winner, the Montreal Canadiens, in five games. Montreal won Games 2 and 3 in overtime.
“After we lost to Montreal, a bunch of us went on vacation together in Ireland,” Healy said. “As if we hadn’t had enough time together for the six weeks of our ride, we decided to go for a longer ride. To this day, we’re still friends. We talk all the time.”
Led by coach Barry Trotz, the current Islanders have learned to share a similar bond, one that center Jean-Gabriel Pageau called “a brotherhood” earlier this postseason. It’s a big reason why they’ve matched that run from 1993.
“They’ve got so much depth, and Barry does such a good job managing that bench and getting everybody ice time,” Pilon said. “Everybody feels part of it, and that’s why they play so hard for a guy like him and his coaching staff. Kudos to them.”
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
