With the new hockey season just beginning, a born and bred Islander fan can?t help but remember what it was like 25 years ago on Long Island. We on the island finally had a reason to cheer our hometowns. Sure, we had Billy Joel as a heroic islander, but he was an individual. Here was a team. A group of people. The New York Islanders. On May 24, 1980, original Islander Bobby Nystrom's goal at 7:11 of overtime ? a redirected pass from John Tonelli that got past Mel Bridgeman and beat goalie Pete Peeters - defeated the Philadelphia Flyers and gave the Islanders the first of what would be four straight Stanley Cups. They were champions. Imagine that. We on Long Island were always playing second fiddle to New York City. The city had the glamour, the spotlight, and the more popular teams in the Yankees, Knicks, and Rangers. Long Island sports fans who rooted for teams closer to home had suffered through countless losing Mets seasons following the Tom Seaver trade in June of 1977. But here were the Islanders. They were our team. We didn?t share them with the five boroughs as we did with the Mets and other teams. They were ours alone. And they were hockey champions of the world. As we knew by heart, it had all begun in 1972-1973 where they just won 12 games. They were the laughingstocks of hockey in the early 1970s (much like the Mets in the mid-1960s). But in 1973, Denis Potvin arrived. Then came Bryan Trottier in 1975. Two years later, Mike Bossy blasted onto the scene. By the 1978-1979 season, the Islanders were the best team in the league. But an unstoppable Ranger goalie ? John Davidson ? ended our hopes that season in the playoffs, and a comparatively lackluster 1979-1980 regular season gave us pause. But they scorched in the playoffs, setting up the unlikely final series against the league?s best team, the Flyers. Islander fans too young to remember 1980 would be thrilled to know the likes of that unstoppable team. To watch the prolific scorer in Bossy was to watch grace and lightning speed. Even though Wayne Gretzky later broke most of Bossy?s records, he was the best goal scorer in the NHL during the late 1970s and early 1980s. He was our secret weapon. We all knew that when Bossy was on the ice, we had a reasonable chance of scoring. Double that with Bryan Trottier, a great center with fluid passing and sharp scoring ability, and the Bossy-Trottier tandem was a can?t-miss one. Sure, their stats might pale in comparison to those of Gretzky and Mario Lemieux in the mid-to-late 1980s, but the game surely became more offensively-oriented with time. Defensively, the Islanders outshone all others. They were master penalty killers, and Potvin, though he was an offensive-minded captain of the team, would take out a player with a hip check just as soon as getting a goal or assist. We also had Clark Gillies, a tall intimidating forward who could score 30 goals, but more relentlessly and routinely check players into the boards. Then there was battling Billy Smith, an arrogant, tenacious, and tough-as-nails goaltender. You didn?t stand in front of the crease when Billy was in the net, especially if you didn?t want to get hit from behind. Smith?s formidable presence in goal led the Islanders in those great playoff series of the early 1980s. He was as strong and dominant as Martin Brodeur and Dominic Hasek later became. Of course, the team had its intangibles: both US Olympic gold medalist, defenseman Ken Morrow, and aggressive forward Butch Goring had arrived in time for the 1980 playoffs. In addition, the Isles had the aforementioned invaluable Tonelli, the hardworking Nystrom, and speedster Bob Bourne. A very young Duane Sutter (of the legendary Sutter family) anchored the middle lines of the offense. Though he was hardly used in the playoffs, they had a capable backup goalie in Glenn ?Chico? Resch. With certainty, one cannot exclude Al Arbour, the coach from 1973 through the 1985-86 season. Arbour was a great manager of people in addition to a keen hockey strategist. Considering the changes in all major sports over the past quarter-century, the only coach to whom he could be compared is Phil Jackson. Arbour?s four straight Stanley Cup wins with an expansion team were unprecedented and are still unmatched. After that victory in late May of 1980, we all had a reason to celebrate the new decade. To feel the thrill of victory and for once be heralded as much as the teams in NYC was hard to describe in words. You were on a cloud ? your little suburban expansion team was the king of the NHL. After the win, the victory celebration at the Nassau Coliseum (we didn?t get a ticker tape parade) was pure pandemonium. All of the players came out to address the crowd, but we were so loud, it was too deafening to hear the PA system. As a fan, I had so many unforgettable nights at the Coliseum, but this afternoon outside of the building was one of my favorites. Sure, we went on to expect victory with the three teams that succeeded the 1980 team with Stanley Cup victories, but somehow they weren?t as special as that first taste from the Cup. It was so unique, so unpredictable, and so foreign to the typical Long Island suburban experience, it made all of those freezing nights watching the team on SportsChannel well worthwhile. Even 25 years later, it?s still a crystal clear memory, hopefully one that others can recall and share with a new generation of fans. Scott Essman was born in Oceanside, Long Island, in 1966 and went to high school in Plainview. He now lives in the Los Angeles area as a freelance writer and video producer. He can be contacted at scottessman2005@yahoo.com.