Thread by @BrooksDSimpson

We are days away from the first round of the #StanleyCupPlayoffs. In many ways the first round is the one that is special and different. All that breaking news ... all those updates ... all those upsets.

Today is the anniversary of my favorite first round day ... in 1982.

In those days the first round was a best of 5 round, and on April 13, 1982, there were three such games to be played to finish that first round.

Each of the three series had come down to deciding games with the three best teams in the league playing at home.

In Montreal, the Canadiens, the third best team in the regular season, faced off against the Quebec Nordiques.

In Edmonton, the Oilers, the second best team in the regular season, were confronting the LA Kings.

Finally, on Long Island, the New York Islanders, who had been the league's best team that season, battled the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Of the three challengers, only the Nordiques had won more than they lost during the regular season.

None of that mattered now.

The games on Long Island and in Montreal would start 90 minutes before the puck would be dropped to start the game in Edmonton, where the Oilers were coming off a win to tie the series the previous evening. Montreal had also won game 4 to tie their series.

After crushing the Pens in the first two games on Long Island, the Isles had dropped both games in Pittsburgh, with Game 3 going to overtime.

So it was an evening of suspense and ripe for upsets.

I was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin. I was not in a great frame of mind, because the Islanders had let things slip after a great regular season.

So how did the evening unfold?

Let's just say it did not start out well.

After a scoreless first period, the Isles scored first in the second period, with Bob Nystrom, who was returning from injury, performing his usual playoff heroics.

Then the Pens scored three straight goals, and the period ended 3-1.

Quebec broke out to a 2-0 lead in the first period, and it remained that way after two periods.

The Edmonton game started later, with the Kings breaking out to a 2-0 lead in the first, but it was 3-2 Kings after one period.

So, as the Islanders-Penguins game entered the third period, all three favorites were behind in their games.

Montreal rallied first, tying their game in the middle of the third period.

It did not seem that the Islanders would be so lucky.

Then Pittsburgh's Randy Carlyle, that year's winner of the Norris Trophy as the league's best defenseman, was called for holding.

However, the Islanders' power play was struggling.

With about six minutes to go, Al Arbour replaced Billy Smith with Rollie Melanson in goal. Back then you could use this as a time out: this move bought time for players to rest and gather themselves to try to take advantage of the power play.

It worked. Mike McEwen, set up by Bryan Trottier and Mike Bossy, brought the Islanders to within one goal.

But the clock kept moving, counting down the last minutes in what seemed to be the end for the two-time defending Cup champions.

With about 2 1/2 minutes to go, the Islanders dumped the puck in the Penguins' end. Carlyle went back to retrieve it. The puck bounced over Carlyle's stick. John Tonelli gathered it and fired in one motion.

3-3. 2:21 to go in the third.

The third period ended with the score tied -- in both Montreal and on Long Island. Both games were headed for overtime. In each case the home team had stormed back from a two-goal deficit to tie things up.

Would Edmonton do the same?

What happened next remains a bit of a blur. The Penguins-Islanders game was on television in Madison. Overtime began.

It also began in Montreal. There it lasted only 22 seconds.

Quebec fails to convert on a 2-on-1 but wins when a falling Dale Hunter backhands the puck in the net. It takes a few moments for the referee to signal that it's a goal.

Meanwhile, on Long Island, the contest continues.

Anxiety. Desperation.

And Randy Carlyle. Again.

It all started when McEwen blocked a shot from Carlyle. He gets up and passes up ice to Tonelli, who's skating in his typical flailing windmill fashion.

Pittsburgh's Paul Baxter drags Tonelli down as the two enter the Penguins' zone. The puck slides to the end boards.

Penguins netminder Michel Dion, who has been magnificent in the series, decides not to play the puck and scrambles back to his crease. Tonelli gets to his feet, turns, and backhands the puck to Nystrom.

We've seen this magic before. May 24, 1980.

Once more Nystrom plays the puck to his backhand. It's almost there.

But Carlyle knocks Nystrom down from behind.

The puck is loose. So is Tonelli. The windmill winger backhands the puck over a fallen Nystrom ...

... and into the net.

4-3. 6:19 into OT. Bedlam.

Now, for most people, certainly for #Isles fans, the story ends here, with celebration mixed with relief. It's a wild moment in Uniondale. It's a wild moment in Madison.

At the same time, however, something else is happening to the west ...

... as word comes that the Kings have scored three unanswered goals in the second period at Edmonton, opening up a 6-2 lead.

Wow. The two teams most likely to dethrone the Islanders may be gone.

And they were. Final: Kings 7, Oilers 5.

Now I know this wasn't a great moment for @bigmouthsports ... although the Oilers, just like the Isles before them would suffer through playoff growing pains before winning it all. But this was quite a day in NHL history.

One former dynasty was now clearly going to have to work to reclaim its standing (and did in 1986, helped by another upset of the Oilers). Another was still on the way up. A third survived on its way to four Cups and 19 consecutive playoff series wins.

Think about it: between 1976 and 1988, these three teams claimed all the Stanley Cups won during that period. All of them.

And yet their fates were intertwined on that unforgettable April 13, 1982.

What a day ... my favorite non-SCF playoff memory.

Well, actually Los Angeles Kings 7, Edmonton Oilers 4. It was even worse than I remembered.

(Carlyle had won the award in 1980-81.)