Bill Torrey had to work hard to convince Al Arbour that he'd be the right man to coach the second-year New York Islanders.
Once he did, it turned into a marriage made in hockey heaven.
"We had a very special relationship, one I never regretted for a day," Torrey said of Arbour, who died Friday at age 82 in Sarasota, Fla. "Al Arbour was a special person. He was a special man. He was a great family man. He was a great hockey man. Outside of his family, nothing was more important to him than his players and his team.