Go ahead, Bill Torrey told Bryan Trottier, take it. Just don’t tell anybody.
Which is how the Conn Smythe winner as the playoff MVP wound up with the sun streaming through his window, reflecting off the Stanley Cup at the foot of his bed after the Islanders won the first of four straight championships in 1980.
Now, it’s part of the NHL culture that each member of the winning team gets a day with the Cup. Forty years ago, Trottier needed the tacit approval of Torrey, the Islanders’ Hall of Fame general manager, to get his special moment.