15 Years Ago: NY Islanders legendary coach Al Arbour coaches 1,500th game

It was a night where one banner went up, and another went down.

On November 3, 2007, legendary coach Al Arbour returned to the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum for his 1,500th game at the behest of the current head of Ted Nolan to reach the milestone number he was one game shy of after a historic run behind the Islanders bench.

"Every day last season I would walk by that big board outside our locker room at the Coliseum that lists the franchise's award winners and milestones. And every day it would kill me when I'd see Coach Arbour made it to 1,499 games."

Ted Nolan

The ceremony and photo-op lowering Arbour's banner recognizing his 739 and replaced with one celebrating his 1,500 games happened after a come-from-behind 3-2 win over the high-powered Pittsburgh Penguins in 'never-say-die' Islanders fashion, reminiscent of the teams he coached.

Miro Satan scored twice in the third period, netting the deciding goal with just 2:41 left when he put in a rebound of Marc-Andre Bergeron's shot. "Just by him being here won the game," Nolan said after the game. "Al said he didn't know all the names of the players, but they sure knew him."

"We had a bad five minutes in the second period, but otherwise, we played really, really hard, I talked a little bit, not a lot. It was nothing spectacular. I bit my tongue a little bit."

Al Arbour after the game

"It feels very good but I really didn't do that much," Arbour said. "It was all the players and coach Ted Nolan." " Arbour's 740 wins with the Islanders are the most in NHL history with one team. Overall, he is sixth all-time in wins (782) and games coached (1607).