Thread by @BrooksDSimpson

Forty years ago it was a Saturday afternoon in Madison, Wisconsin. I had just finished my first year of graduate school.

I turned on my television to CBS. To my surprise, CBS had decided to televise Game 6 of the 1980 Stanley Cup Final.

Of course, to me this was no typical Stanley Cup Final. This year my New York Islanders were battling for the Cup in the Final for the first time.

Theme song?

I had grown up a New York Rangers fan through the 1972 Stanley Cup Final, when they had lost to Bobby Orr's Boston Bruins. That was my first year of prep school in New Hampshire. I was crushed. I had gone to a hockey camp run by @rodgilbert7 and Brad Park, so it felt personal.

That was really the high point of my Rangers fandom. The #Isles, an expansion team, started play that fall.

For two years I followed both teams. The Isles struggled; the Rangers fell short in the playoffs.

But by 1974-75, one had to make a choice. The #Isles and Rangers battled during the regular season, and I chose the boys in orange and blue ... who then went on to oust the Rangers in OT in 1975, commencing a near-miracle payoff run.

The following season the Isles added a center, Bryan Trottier, who played the game the way I (as a center) liked to play it, only far, far better. I was already an admirer of defenseman Denis Potvin. So Trottier and Potvin replaced Gilbert and Park (who was now a Bruin, anyway).

Two years later the Isles added a right winger, Mike Bossy, who was the cousin of two hockey-playing Bossys I had known in prep school. There were other favorites as well: Parise, Resch, Nystrom ...

Those Islanders lost in the playoffs in 1976 and 1977 to a better Montreal team, although they put up a battle. Still, something was being built. Or so it seemed.

For in 1978 the Leafs upset them (damn Lanny McDonald); in 1979 none other than the Rangers beat them.

For me the Stanley Cup playoffs had become a predictable annual ordeal of excitement followed by dashed hopes and occasional bitterness.

Don't give up until you drink from the silver cup, indeed.

The 1979-80 season was a rough one for the #Isles. Potvin was out for half the year; Trottier barely got 100 points; the Isles fell off from being regular season champs in 1978-79. Two long-time Isles, including the original Islander, Billy Harris, were traded ... for @91Goring.

Yes, folks ... as a hockey fan, I knew who Butch was. :)

The big hockey story in Madison that year was the 1980 Olympic men's hockey team, with Badger Mark Johnson scoring critical goals to realize that miracle ...

... and a defenseman, Ken Morrow, who joined the #Isles.

That spring the fifth-place Isles beat Goring's old Kings, fought their way past Park's Bruins, and then triumphed over a Sabres team coached by their old Montreal nemesis, Scotty Bowman. Ahead waited the hated Philly Flyers ... and I mean hated.

(Well, except when they beat Red Army.)

This Isles team seemed different, of course. Trottier and Potvin were dominant; Bossy was flourishing; Nystrom liked OT (see the Buffalo series).

Maybe this year ... but I balanced hope with fear and foreboding. I'd been disappointed before. I hated losing. Dreaded it.

Game One went to the Isles in OT ... Potvin (on the power play from ... Tonelli and Nystrom.

Flyers take Game Two, but Trottier, Bossy, and Potvin dominate in Games Three and Four.

Flyers bounce back to win Game Five. Oh no ...

You see, as a Rangers fans I often heard that my team tended to choke. I thought it was an unfair characterization ... but once you have that label, the only way you can remove it is by winning it all.

The Islanders inherited the label following the 1978 and 1979 playoffs.

Would it happen again?

Now, I had no idea Game Six was going to be televised by CBS, and that Dan Kelly would be calling the game. So it was just by dumb luck that I learned about it in time to turn on the television.

After a first period marked by controversy over two Islander goals ... 2-2.

Then the Islanders machine got going. Bossy (from Trottier, naturally) and Nystrom scored. 4-2 after two. Twenty minutes.

And you don't want to go to Philadelphia for a Game Seven.

Well, it would be more than twenty minutes. The Flyers scored twice in the third. The #Isles looked panicky.

Oh no. Not again. This can't be happening. It can't.

Of course, the #Isles had dominated in overtime that playoff year, winning five times (and losing once). But it was all back and forth with close calls ... Philly had the edge in play during the early minutes.

Then it happened.

Most replays of what happened next start too late, with the puck in the neutral zone, eventually making its way to Lorne Henning. But you're smarter. Watch Bob Nystrom's hard forecheck force the Flyers to dump the puck out of their zone. That's when it began.

Watch the whole shift ... and don't forget that Stefan Persson first played the puck to Henning.

As Tonelli and Nystrom criss-cross and enter the Flyer zone, I rose from my seat. We used to do these drills all the time. But you usually don't look to set up Nystrom and his banana blade curve on the backhand. Even Tonelli goes forehand on the pass.

There's Pete Peeters, who had enjoyed a terrific rookie season, sliding across. Oh, if only Nystrom can get the puck up ...

I have watched what happens next countless times. But when it happened, all I can remember that it seemed to be in slow motion.

And then it was in. Nystrom was in the corner, going crazy. So was I. So was everyone on Long Island.

By the way, this is how I heard it ...

In days to come, there would be reports that this was New York's first Cup in forty years. Of course, in a sense, that was true. But those years of Rangers frustration didn't count, and I'm sure Ranger fans didn't see it as cause for celebration.

1940 ... 1940 ... until 1994.

But for me, it remains the highlight of my life as a sports fan, a hockey fan, and, of course, as an Islanders fan.

It meant so much.

Little did I know it would be the first of four in a row.

To this day, and especially today, I relieve that moment every time that replay comes on.

No, the gf hasn't seem me react yet. She will.

And, every time I see the Stanley Cup, I think about that moment.

I hope everyone who roots for a sports team has such a moment. I had them as a player and as a fan. There are other great and memorable moments in life, but this was one for me.

Happy 40th, #Isles!

*playoff

And ... don't give up until you drink from the silver cup ...

You'll never know until you try.

Enjoy, @NYIslanders!