The championships are all equal in the objective, cut-and-dried record books. The Islanders lifted four straight Stanley Cups from 1980 to 1983, and no other franchise has won more than two in a row since. A remarkable 16 players played for all four Cup winners.
Yet it all starts with that first Cup, with the 1980 title being just a little bit more equal to Islanders fans. John Tonelli’s feed to Bobby Nystrom for the series-deciding, birth-of-a-dynasty overtime winner in Game 6 against the Philadelphia Flyers on a Saturday afternoon at Nassau Coliseum during Memorial Day weekend is the most iconic moment in team history.