For the second part of my look at the New York Islanders “Core of the Four” I’m looking at Swedish player Anders Kallur and his impact on the Isles dynasty.
The “Core of the Four” are 17 players that were part of the New York Islanders core of players that helped them win four straight Stanley Cups between 1980 and 1983. In my first review, I looked at player-coach Lorne Henning and his two cups as a player and two as an assistant coach.
While there’s debate about whether or not Henning is actually part of the Core of the Four, there is no question that Anders Kallur is part of the elite group. Henning didn’t play on all four cup teams, Kallur certainly did.
Getting to Isles
Unlike a number of players from the Isles core, Kallur wasn’t drafted by Bill Torrey. Instead, Kallur was signed straight out of Europe in 1979. At the end of the 1978-79 season, he was awarded the Goldenpucken after an impressive 47 points in 36 games for Djugardens IF.
According to Kallur, when he arrived at Isles training camp in 1979 he was so focused on making the team that he didn’t notice players were taking runs at him to test his toughness:
"The funny thing is, people have told me that when I first came to Long Island guys tested me. They were running me to make sure I was tough enough to play, and I really didn’t notice because I was so motivated to make the team. I was so concentrated on my job, it never occurred to me they were trying to run me through the boards!"
Kallur would clearly pass the test and establish himself with the Isles full-time that season.