New York Islanders NHL App Disrespects 1980’s Dynasty Teams

The NHL App sent out a push notification that was pretty laughable. They asked if the 1994 New York Rangers could beat the 1980’s New York Islanders.

It was pretty difficult to not topple out of my chair laughing when I got this notification on my phone today. The NHL app asked if the 1994 New York Rangers could beat the 1980’s New York Islanders team.

Let’s investigate here folks.

I took a look at the statistics from the 1993-1994 New York Rangers and I decided to use the 1981-1982 Islanders for this exercise even though I could’ve picked any of the Islanders teams from their four Stanley Cups and the results would be the same.

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The Records

New York Rangers: 52-24-8 (112 points)

New York Islanders: 54-16-10 (118 points)

The first test, the regular season record. This year the Isles finished with six more points than the Rangers did. The Isles also had a much easier time in the playoffs. They breezed to their third Cup victory with a 15-4 record. The Rangers had a 16-7 record on the way to their cup.

The Players

We’ll start with the Islanders. Mike Bossy and Bryan Trottier both had over 100 points on the regular season. Bossy had 64 goals 83 assists for 147 points while Trottier rocked an impressive 50 goals 79 assists for 129 points.

That’s only the beginning, the Isles had a total of seven players with over 50 points on the season. Now it’s very tough to compare era’s but let’s look at the Rangers.

They had no players with over 100 points, their point leader was Sergi Zubov with 89. Although if you want to continue the trend of looking at players with 50 or more points the Rangers had eight.

The Legacy

When you look at these two teams they have much different legacies. The Rangers just won that one cup. They made the playoffs the following three years after their cup win but couldn’t reach the Cup Final again.

As for that Islander team, they went to five Stanley Cups in a row. FIVE! Winning 19 series in a row isn’t even thinkable in today’s game, but the Isles made it happen all those years ago.

The fact of the matter is as may have said that Islanders could play any style of game you’d like and beat you at it. That Rangers team, although very talented (I know it’s tough to admit) couldn’t hold a candle to that team. The amount of depth those Isles teams had was ridiculous.

Twitter Reaction

Of course fans took to twitter:

Next: Islanders Internet Game

Man the hockey offseason is fun. Gotta love the NHL trying to stir up debates. Except this one wasn’t much of a debate.