Al Arbour’s 1500th game
By Stan Fischler
His nickname is "Radar."
Al Arbour earned the monicker because he was among the precious few -- Hal Laycoe being another -- National Hockey League players who wore glasses in ice action.
"I needed the specs," Radar once explained, "because if I didn't wear 'em, I might miss my check, miss the puck and cost my team a goal."
Arbour didn't miss much of anything, as a player or a coach. While many have called him "The Journeyman NHL Player's Journeyman Player," he survived and even thrived in the Original Six.
The proof is in the record book. The Sudbury, Ontario native played on four Stanley Cup-winners. The first was the 1954 Red Wings, followed by 1961 Blackhawks. Under Maple Leafs GM-Head Coach Punch Imlach, Al sipped Champagne again in 1962 and 1964.
"Being just an 'average' player, I could understand how the regular grunt guys thought the game," Arbour revealed, "and eventually that helped me as an NHL coach."
Although he got his basic training behind the St. Louis Blues bench, Radar's coaching didn't reach its full potential until the summer of 1973 when Bill Torrey's aide, Jim Devellano, talked Bow Tie Bill into hiring Arbour as the Islanders’ head coach.
"Before coming to the Island, I had worked for the Blues,” Devellano said. “From that perspective, I could tell what Al did as a player and, even better, as a coach. I urged Bill to reconsider, talk to Radar and then make a decision.
It evolved as one of the best bits of advice that Torrey ever received. Beginning with the 1973-74 season and through the 1993-94 campaign, Arbour flowered into what his former goalie Glenn “Chico” Resch described as "the greatest coach in NHL history."
Arbour retired from coaching in 1994, but early in 2007 Isles Head Coach Ted Nolan realized that the Master had left the game with a record of 1,499 games on his ledger calling the shots. Something had to be done; and it was.
"I asked (GM) Garth Snow if we could bring coach back for one more game and to ask the NHL office to recognize it,” Nolan said. “They did, Coach Arbour emphatically said he was on board, and now I can't wait. It's going to be an amazing night, I can guarantee you that. To me, Al Arbour and Scotty Bowman are the two greatest coaches in NHL history."
The franchise's high command decided that Radar deserved to be behind the bench one more time and reach the mark of 1,500 games running the club. He would be the only coach to total 1,500 games with the same team.
When Arbour agreed to the rare request, the game against the Penguins on November 3, 2007 was designated as the one to turn the remarkable trick.
And on that thrill-packed night, the greatest coach in hockey history responded as only Radar could -- and would.
With the Coliseum Faithful roaring their approval, Al Arbour coached his Islanders to a 3-2 comeback victory over Pittsburgh. Or, as one press box observer so aptly put it:
"This was like old times and the Coli rocked as it once did for Al's four Stanley Cup victories!"
