An NHL team on Long Island, formed hurriedly for the 1972-73 season to combat the new World Hockey Association's New York Raiders (got dibs on Nassau!). They were awful, which gave them the #1 draft pick - Denis Potvin, who would captain them to four Stanley Cups. NYI have fallen on hard(er and harder) times ever since, and can't afford the free-spending payrolls of top clubs - in 1999, they had to trade Zigmund Palffy. Currently coached by Butch Goring, a star alum of the glory days.

Founder Roy Boe and the Islanders paid the NHL a then-record $6 million franchise fee, and also a $4 million indemnity to the New York Rangers for territorial infringement. The Isles have as many Stanley Cups as their crosstown rivals, but don't hold your breath waiting for another.

The team started out by naming Bill Torrey as GM. Torrey's eventual naming of Al Arbour as head coach in 1973, as well as years of astute draft picks such as Denis Potvin, would pay off less than 10 years later. First came a stunning run in the 1975 playoffs that featured a defeat of cross-town rivals the New Your Rangers and then a comeback from a 3-games-to-0 decifit against the Pittburgh Penguins to take the 7 game series. While the team did not make the Stanley Cup finals that year, it was an indicator of things to come. The team won the Stanley Cup for four straight seasons: 1980, 1981, 1982, and 1983. The Islanders lost the 1984 cup in the finals, giving way to the opponents who would form the next hockey dynasty - Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers.

in 1979, goaltender Billy Smith became the first NHL netminder ever to be credited with a goal. In a game against the Colorado Rockies, a Rockies player put the puck in his own net - Smith had been the last Islander player to touch the puck.

In addition to Goring and Potvin, other all-time Islander greats were Mike Bossy and Bryan Trottier. The Isles play in the NHL: Atlantic Division.

Team colors: Orange, blue, white, silver, Atlantic green. These colors include the orange and blue of Nassau County. The circular blue logo features the white initials 'Ny' in lower-case. The stroke of the 'y' becomes a hockey stick. Long island crosses the middle of the logo in orange, and 'Islanders' arcs across the bottom of the logo, also in orange. John Alogna designed the logo over a weekend before the Islander's first press conference. A brief experiment in 1995 with an alternate fisherman-in-a-hockey-net logo, who looked remarkably like Captain Highlander, was quickly abandoned.

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