Coach Goring and the 99-00 isles
By Stan Fischler and zach weinstock
Coaching the Islanders at the close of the 20th Century was roughly equivalent to driving down Migraine Highway -- with an unexpected "Stop!" sign every few miles. Owners came and went while prospective others emerged only to leave a saccharine taste in the mouth. There was one persistent headache – a challenging budget.
By 1999-2000, the cost-cutting had carried on until there was nearly no cost left to cut. The Isles shed the bulk of their most talented players from 1998-99, including former Calder Trophy winner Bryan Berard and starting goalie Tommy Salo, not to mention their top-four point producers – Ziggy Palffy, Robert Reichel, Trevor Linden and Bryan Smolinski – who happened to score nearly 40% of the team's goals that season.
In their absence it was "all hands on deck." Mariusz Czerkawski would have to play leading man. Teenagers Tim Connolly and Mathieu Biron would have to skip the minors. Fellow pups Zdeno Chara, Olli Jokinen and Brad Isbister would have to graduate to front-line roles. Even captain Kenny Jonsson's brother Jorgen hopped over from Sweden for the year. As for the rest – it was mostly more youngsters, foreign imports and other journeymen in which teams with deeper pockets weren't interested.
In other words, the 1999-2000 Islanders had puck-size chips on their shoulders, much like their new bench boss Butch Goring, the erstwhile Dynasty VIP who had since spent 11 seasons coaching in the minors.
Goring had the credentials and zeal to be successful, and a keen understanding of the tremors all around him. The payroll, for instance, had dropped to $15 million, lowest of the 28 NHL teams. Trooper that he was, Goring adopted a grin and bear it philosophy and courageously marched into battle for the 1999-2000 campaign.
With Butch at the helm, one thing became clear early on - the underdog Isles were playing their hearts out. And as sports fans know, when underdogs play their hearts out, it can make for darn good television.
The proof came in the proverbial pudding called local cable ratings, as Islander viewership rose drastically from 1998-99. Long Islanders tuned in to see the rookies develop. They tuned in to see the fighters fight and the checkers check. But more than anything, fans tuned in to see the looks on opponents' faces when they realized the no-name team they overlooked would not be going down quite so easily.
One such opponent was the New York Rangers, who General Manager Neil Smith couldn't resist taking a jab at his cross-town rivals before the season, noting how three of his players had a higher collective salary than the entire Islanders team put together. "I don't know if that's something to be proud of," quipped his Islander counterpart, Mike Milbury. Sure enough, Smith's well-paid crew failed to put their money where his mouth was, as the youngest team in the NHL scored a dramatic tie and two big wins against the Blueshirts, securing local bragging rights for the year.
In the final game of the cross-town series – February 13, 2000 – Goring's collection of anonymous skaters derailed the Rangers' homestretch bid with a massive 4-2 victory at MSG, igniting a 5-17-4-0 Blueshirt belly flop that dropped the Seventh Avenue Gang out of the playoffs for the third straight year.
Fun as that was, the Rangers were far from the most powerful Goliath to be felled by Goring's skating Davids. Twice the Isles faced the great Patrick Roy in net for the mighty Avalanche, and twice left Roy and the Avs shaking their heads with a regulation sweep of the season series.
Fellow legend Martin Brodeur knew the feeling. The upstart Isles defeated him and his soon-to-be champion Devils on two shocking occasions, before picking off the defending champion Stars in a crucial late-season match in Dallas.
And imagine how sick the East-leading Flyers might have felt to watch Butch's Boys party on their ice, with Brotherly Love to spare, after Czerkawski's overtime tally capped a stunning comeback for the Islanders' first win in Philadelphia since 1996.
"People can look at us and go, 'What the hell are they so happy about?'" Mariusz mused. "I think we are a team coming together."
"Early in the season, we heard all the jokes," echoed Jokinen. "People were saying we were a minor league team. We want to prove we can play."
And so they did.
It was a career year for Czerkawski, but he was not the only Islander commanding eyeballs. Wonder-Boy Connolly dazzled with magician-like stick handling and creativity, while Chara began to show flashes of the form that eventually would have him starring for two decades. The same could be said of 20-year-old Roberto Luongo, whose 43-save win on November 28, 1999 remains one of the most exciting debuts in the Islander litany.
So when the buzzer marked one more improbable victory in the final game of the season, Goring's Go-Getters leaped over the boards and celebrated together like big winners. And no one could blame them.
The 1998-99 Islanders had posted a record of 24-48-10. The 1999-00 Islanders? 24-48-9-1. Somehow, discarding all those household names did not cost a single point!
What they lost in talent, they made up with heart. And in what could have been a year of despair, the Islanders instead played the game with genuine joy, which made them a joy to watch, and a joy to remember.
Even better – the threat that the Isles might be purchased and moved from Uniondale to another city eventually was proven wrong. For those of us who were there at the time, the threat was real, and scary. But the final result was good.
For Goring, he could justifiably quote from William Shakespeare's "All's well that ends well." Even after losing so much talent, the intrepid Butch guided the team through a delightful and inspirational season.