Attention: This episode immediately follows the Billy Smith/Roland Melanson Jennings Trophy episode posted last week. If you have not yet, please stop this episode and listen to that one.
For much of the 1982-83 regular season, the Islanders did not look like three-time defending Stanley Cup champions, let alone a team that could win the Cup again. They were old and occasionally leaky, and sometimes they seemed downright disinterested.
But once the playoffs started, the “real” Islanders showed up again, led by the man they called “The Money Goalie.”
Billy Smith didn’t take losing lightly.