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- A place among the greatest head coaches in NHL history will always be held by Alger Joseph "Radar" Arbour. His career totals of 1,606 games behind the bench and 781 victories trail only the legendaryScotty Bowman in the record ledger. Arbour's guidance contributed significantly to the New York Islanders' rapid ascent to competitive status in the 1970s and the club's subsequent run of four consecutive Stanley Cup wins from 1980 to 1983, as well as a record 19 consecutive playoff series wins from 1980 to 1984.
The Sudbury, Ontario, native played defense on the junior Windsor Spitfires of the OHA. After distinguishing himself as an amateur, he was signed by the Detroit Red Wings and joined the pro ranks with the EdmontonFlyers of the Western Hockey Leaguein 1952-53. He split the next fouryears between Alberta, the Motor City and Sherbrooke in the Quebec senior loop.
In 1957-58, Arbour played his first full NHL season in the red and white of the Wings. Following that season, he was claimed by the Chicago Black Hawks, where he toiled for three years including 1961, the year of the franchise's Stanley Cup triumph. Arbour next played five seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs and earned his second Stanley Cup ring in 1962. After spending the 1966-67 season in theAHL, he returned to contribute experience and stability to the defense corps of the expansion St.Louis Blues in 1967-68. Early in 1970-71, he retired as a player after 600 games over 14 years. Arbour was also one of the few players in league history to wear glasses while playing.
Upon retiring, Arbour was immediately hired to stand in as coach of theBlues for the remainder of the 1970-71 schedule. During the last 50 games of the season, the team responded well by posting a 21-15-14 mark before falling to the Minnesota NorthStars in the quarterfinals of the playoffs.
Arbour guided St. Louis on an interim basis over the next two seasons but jumped at the greatest challenge of his young coaching career in 1973. Prior to the 1973-74 schedule, the New York Islanders were coming off a difficult expansion season in which they'd accumulated a mere 30 points. The organization felt it had some promise and required a young, ambitious figure to steer the team in the right direction. Arbour's positive impact on the team was immediate. The squad improvedits total to 56 points and began building around talented defenseman Denis Potvin.
The 1974-75 season saw the arrival of Arbour's Islanders as a competitive NHL franchise. They won 33 regular-season matches before enjoying a memorable playoff run. They defeated Pittsburgh in a seven-game quarter-finals after losing the first three games. In the semi-finals, they fell one game short of doing the same thing to the defending champion Philadelphia Flyers.
During each of the next four seasons, the Islanders finished with more than 100 points. This didn't translate into a Stanley Cup triumph, but the team did gain valuable experience. Following the 1978-79 campaign, Arbour was presented the Jack AdamsAward as the NHL's top coach. In 1979-80, the Islanders attained their ultimate goal by defeating the Philadelphia Flyers in six games to win the Stanley Cup in their eighth season. They repeated this accomplishment in each of the next three yearstobecome only the second NHL club to win four straight titles (Montreal did it twice). Their drive for five consecutive championships fell short when they lost to the Edmonton Oilers in the 1984 finals.
Afterward, Arbour marshaled the Islanders to solid if unspectacular results before stepping down following the 1985-86 season. He served as the organization's vice-president of player development before returning as the team's bench boss partway through the 1988-89 season. Arbour's contribution to the development of hockey in the United States was acknowledged in 1992 when his name was engraved on the Lester Patrick Trophy.
The pinnacle of his second installment behind the New York bench occurred in 1992-93 when the Islanders upset the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins to reach the semi-finals. Arbour retired in 1994as the second-winningest coach of all time, with 781 regular-season victories and 123 post-season triumphs to his credit. One of the major foundations in the history of the New York Islanders, Arbour was an obvious choice to enter the Hockey Hall of Fame Builders category in 1996. "Its behind the New York bench occurred in 1992-93 when the Islanders upset the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins to reach thesemi-finals. Arbour retired in 1994 as the second-winningest coach of all time, with 781 regular-season victories and 123 post-season triumphs to his credit. One of the major foundations in the history of the NewYork Islanders, Arbour was an obvious choice to enter the Hockey Hall of Fame Builder category in 1996.Even as a player, Al Arbour distinguished himself from the rest of the National Hockey League. A defensive defenceman par excellence, the Sudbury, Ontario-born Arbour was at his best protecting his netminder by blocking shots, in spite of the fact he wore glasses while playing.
Signed by the Detroit Red Wings, Al joined the junior Windsor Spitfiresjust shy of his seventeenth birthday. The goaltender he protected there was Glenn Hall, while teammates included other future Red Wings Earl Reibel, Glen Skov and Eddie Stankiewicz. During his four seasons in Windsor, Al would also play with Cummy Burton, Don Cherry, Larry Hillman, John Muckler and Dennis Riggin.
After winning a WHL championship with the Edmonton Flyers in 1952-53, Arbour saw his first NHL action the next season, playing 36 games with the Red Wings in 1953-54. Although he saw no action duringthe playoffs that spring, Al got his name engraved on the Stanley Cup for the first time following the Wings' seven-game series with the Montreal Canadiens in the final.
During that dynastic era for Detroit, the Red Wings had a surplus of fine defenceman, with Warren Godfrey, Bob Goldham, Larry Hillman, Red Kelly and Marcel Pronovost all earning time on the blueline,and Arbour anxiously waited for his chance, biding his time predominantly with the Edmonton Flyers. In 1954-55, he was named to the WHL's Second All-Star Team, but it wasn't until the playoffs of 1955-56 that Al saw NHL action again.
By 1957-58, Arbour had finally cracked the Red Wings line-up full-time.But in June 1958, he was plucked from Detroit's line-up by Chicago in the Intra-League Draft. Shoring up the Black Hawks blueline, Al spent three seasons in Chicago, including asecond Stanley Cup championship in1961.
After winning the Cup with Chicago, Al may have been disappointed to beselected from the Hawks by Toronto in the June 1961 Intra-League Draft, but it was fortuitous timing for the bespectacled defenceman, as he was part of the Toronto dynasty thatwon the Stanley Cup in 1962 and 1964(he missed Toronto's 1963 Stanley Cup championship as he spent most ofthat season with the Leafs' AHL affiliate,the Rochester Americans, where he was named to the league's First All-Star Team. He made the All-Starsquad again in 1964 and 1966, and was named the AHL's best defenceman in 1965). Championships became de rigueur to Arbour, who assisted Rochester to Calder Cup championships in 1965 and 1966.
With the NHL's expansion to twelve teams in time for the 1967-68 season, Al was left unprotected by Toronto and was grabbed by the St. Louis Blues. The veteran defenceman added much to the expansion franchise. TheBlues secured a number of stars inthe twilights of their careers that helped make St. Louis a formidable opponent to challenging teams. Besides Arbour, St. Louis boasted an inaugural season defence that included Doug Harvey, Noel Picard, Bob and Barclay Plager and Jean-Guy Talbot.Old pal Glenn Hall was in goal, while Red Berenson, Don McKenny, Gerry Melnyk, Dickie Moore and Ron Stewart added veteran presence to the offense. In four seasons with the Blues, Arbour played in the Stanley Cup Final three times.
I enjoyed the fun of it (playing); the feeling that you had after you won a hockey game," stated Arbour in Dick Irvin's book, 'Behind the Bench'. "There's no greater feeling than the one you get whenyou're a player and you go out and win a real tough game. I've had great feelings coaching and winning the Stanley Cup, but it never seemed to be the same feeling I got when I was a player."
In 1970, with the end of his playing career imminent, the thirty-eight-year-old Arbour was introduced to the idea of coaching. "Scotty Bowman was the one who got me interested in coaching," explainedAl. "I was playing for him in St. Louis atthe endof my career. He wanted to step aside and become the general manager and he wanted me to take over."
Arbour coached until February 1971, but returned to playing when Bowmanreturned behind the bench. Bowman was fired at the end of that season."There was controversy all the time," admitted Arbour.
Al, who was under contract to the Blues, assumed the position of assistant general manager with St. Louis beginning with the 1971-72 season. At Christmas, with the team struggling, the coach, Bill McCreary, was fired and Al was asked to coach once again, and helped guide the Blues into the playoffs. By the following season, the situation changed once again. "I got into a conflict with Sid (Solomon III, the Blues' owner). We weren't hitting it off very well. I knew I was a markedman. I coachedthirteen games and I was gone."
After scouting briefly for the Atlanta Flames, Arbour was approached with another offer to coach. "Bill Torrey asked me if I would be interested in coaching the (New York) Islanders. I told him no. Isaid I had four kids and wouldn't want to move them to New York." But after visiting Long Island for the first time, Al acquiesced and accepted the position. "You could see a good team in the making," said Arbour. "We got DenisPotvin for the defence, Trots (Bryan Trottier) at centreand other young bucks like Clark Gillies, Bob Bourne and John Tonelli. Then came the arrival of Mike Bossy."
The Islanders finished first overall in 1978-79, but were eliminated bythe Toronto Maple Leafs in the playoffs. "We changed our format arounda bit during that regular season," explained Arbour. "Everyone said toforget about the playoff losses totheMaple Leafs in 1978 and the Rangers in 1979. But I said, 'No, I don't want them to forget about it. Just remember that so it will never happen again.' We carried those lossesinto the season a little longer than I thought it wouldbe and I couldn't really get them going." Nevertheless, Al was chosen as coach of the year, winning the Jack Adams Trophy.
The next season, the Islanders added a significant piece to the puzzle."At the trading deadline, we got Butch Goring from L.A. We had a very young team and he was the guy we needed with just the right kind of experience. We needed somebody that wasgoing to have that calming influence. He had that affect on the team immediately and we were on our way from there forward," nodded Arbour.
Arbour was correct. The New York Islanders won the Stanley Cup for the first time in 1980, then proceeded on an extraordinary streak that saw the franchise win the championship four seasons in a row.In 1980, the Islanders defeated the Philadelphia Flyers in six games to win the Stanley Cup. The next spring, the victim was the Minnesota North Stars, whomthe Islanders took in five games. It was afour-game sweep of the Vancouver Canucks in 1982 and in 1983, another four-game sweep, this time over the Edmonton Oilers.
At the conclusion of the 1985-86 season, Al retired as coach of the Islanders. But two and a half years later, after holding a management position with the team, Arbour was coaxed to return behind the bench. "I had never given any thought tocoaching again," said Arbour. Replacing Terry Simpson, he took over a team depleted of much of the talent he had enjoyed in the early-1980's. "When you're not accustomed to losing, it certainly does a job on you. It eats you up." In his second tenure coaching the Islanders, Al was behind the bench from 1988-89 to 1993-94. Thezenith of his second installment coaching the Long Island squad took place when the Islanders reached the semi-finals by upsetting the Pittsburgh Penguins,defending Stanley Cupchampions. Following the 1993-94 season, Al Arbour retired
Arbour retired having coached 1,499 games for the Islanders, more by 487 than any coach had been behind the bench with one franchise. Current coach Ted Nolan had an idea that Arbour should coach one more Islanders' contest to make the total a nice round figure. With the permission ofgeneral manager Garth Snow and owner Charles Wang, Arbour was approached about coaching again, just one more game,to bring his total with theIslanders to 1,500. "I haven't coached a game in 15 years," said an astounded Arbour. "I haven't seen a game in person in three years."
Or so he thought. On November 1, 2007, Al celebrated his seventy-fifth birthday. The next day, he signed a one-day contract to coach the Islanders and on Saturday, November 3, Arbour was behind the bench as his beloved Islanders were challenged by the Pittsburgh Penguins. "This is anincredible gesture by Ted and the Islanders," said Arbour at the time."I am flattered that Ted thought of me and I wouldn't miss this night for the world. I told the team that I do not want any pre-game fanfare.I'm there to coach the game and help Ted and my Islanders try to earn two points against a very toughteam."
Commenting on the way the game had evolved, Al stated, "It's a totally different game now, a European game with skating and winding up and moving the puck. I really like the way they opened the game up."
Arbour and the Islanders defeated Pittsburgh 3-2, with Miroslav Satan scoring the game-winner. The victory gave Al a lifetime record of 782 career regular seasons win, 577 losses and 248 points in 1,607 regular season games, making him the second-winningest NHL coach of all time. With the Islanders alone, Arbour coached 1,500 regular season games, with 740 wins, 537 losses and 223 ties. In playoff action, Arbour's career record is 118 wins and 83 losses in 201 games.
As a coach, Al led his teams to four Stanley Cup championships, was named coach of the year in 1979 and was awarded the Lester Patrick Trophy for contributions to American hockey in 1992. On January 25, 1997, Al was honoured by the New York Islanders with a special night. For his incomparable dedication to the sport, Al Arbour was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in the Builder Category in 1996.
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1932 - 2015 (82 ans)