Al Arbour Alger Joseph Arbour ( born November 1 , 1932 in Sudbury , Ontario ) is a retired Canadian player and later a coach and executive in the National Hockey League . Playing career . Arbour started his playing career in 1954 with the Detroit Red Wings winning the Stanley Cup . He later skated for the Chicago Black Hawks , Toronto Maple Leafs , and St . Louis Blues . Arbour also won the Stanley Cup as a player in 1960 – 61 Chicago Black Hawks and the 1961 – 62 and 1963 – 64 Toronto Maple Leafs . Arbour , along with teammate Ed Litzenberger , is one of eleven players to win consecutive Stanley Cup s with two different teams . . Arbour was the also the first Captain of expansion St . Louis when they lost in finals in 1968 , 1969 , 1970 ( all in 4 straight games ) One of the few professional athletes to wear eyeglasses when competing . Arbour was the last NHL player to wear them on the ice . Coaching . Arbour began his coaching career with St . Louis in 1970 , taking over as coach after playing for the Blues for parts of four seasons . Following two additional seasons with St . Louis , he was recruited by GM Bill Torrey to take over a young New York Islanders team that had set a then - NHL record for futility by winning only 12 games in their inaugural season , 1972 – 73 . New York Islanders , 1973 – 1986 . In his first season as Isles coach , Arbour taught his young squad how to play defence . While they finished last in the league for the second year in a row , they gave up 100 fewer goals and earned 56 points , up from 30 the year before . New York Rangers defenceman Brad Park said after the Islanders beat their crosstown rivals for the first time , " They have a system . They look like a hockey team . " Arbour ' s coaching laid the groundwork for future success . The 1974 – 75 Islanders , on the back of talent additions and Arbour ' s coaching , finished third in their division with 88 points , which qualified them for the playoffs , where they defeated the heavily - favored Rangers in overtime of the deciding third game of their first round series . In the next round the Isles found themselves down three games to none in a best of seven quarterfinal series against the Pittsburgh Penguins . Prior to game four , Arbour challenged his team : he told them that anyone who didn ' t believe that the Islanders could come back and win the series should pack their gear and never return . The Islanders rebounded with three straight victories to tie the series and then prevailed in Game 7 by a score of 1 – 0 . It was only the second time in major sports history , and the first since 1942 , that a team won a series after trailing 3 – 0 . Since then , only the 2004 Boston Red Sox have matched the feat . The Isles then faced the Philadelphia Flyers in the next round , again fell behind 3 – 0 , and once again tied the series . Although the Flyers prevailed in Game 7 and went on to win the second of 2 straight Stanley Cups , the Islanders had established themselves . The team quickly rose to the rank of contenders , then favorites , over the next four years , but they weren ' t able to break through and become champions . Despite achieving great regular season success , culminating in the 1978 – 79 campaign in which they finished with the best record in the NHL , the Islanders suffered a series of letdowns in the playoffs . In 1976 and 1977 , they lost to the eventual champion Montreal Canadiens , and then suffered an upset to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1978 . Then , in 1979 , the rival Rangers , considered by journalists and commentators to be an inferior team , defeated Arbour ' s Islanders in a six game semifinal series . Arbour won the Jack Adams Award for the team ' s stellar regular season , but he determined that he had the wrong set of priorities in place . After the loss , he no longer placed much emphasis on the regular season finish and instead devoted his team ' s energy and focus to how they will perform in the playoffs . During the 1979 – 1980 season , the Islanders struggled . However , following the acquisition of Butch Goring in March , the Islanders completed the regular season with a twelve - game unbeaten streak . The regular season run carried over to the playoffs and the Islanders captured their first Stanley Cup championship on May 24 , 1980 by defeating the Philadelphia Flyers in overtime of game six . Arbour and the Islanders went on capture three more consecutive Cups , a record for an American hockey club . Along the way , his team set records for consecutive regular season victories , consecutive Finals victories , and playoff series victories , cementing the team as one of the greatest dynasties not only in hockey , but professional sports . By the time the Islanders were dethroned by the Edmonton Oilers in the 1984 Stanley Cup Finals , the club had strung together nineteen consecutive playoff series victories , a professional sports record . No team in any of the four major sports has strung together four straight championships since . Arbour retired from coaching following the 1985 – 86 season and accepted a position in the Islander front office . New York Islanders , 1988 – 1994 . Following a disappointing start to the 1988 – 89 season , Torrey fired Terry Simpson , and Arbour returned to the bench . Most of the veterans of the dynasty had since left the team , and the Islanders missed the playoffs for the first time in 14 years . Arbour had one more run deep into the playoffs in 1992 – 93 , where he led an overmatched Islanders team past the two - time defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins and to the Prince of Wales Conference Finals . Islanders star Pierre Turgeon , who was seriously injured after Dale Hunter hit him from behind in the previous round , missed all but a few shifts of the second - round series against Pittsburgh . The Mario Lemieux - led Penguins had finished first in the regular season and seemed primed for a third straight Stanley Cup victory . Journalists gave the Islanders no chance : Jim Smith of Newsday , Long Island ' s hometown newspaper , predicted that without Turgeon , the defending champions would sweep the Islanders out of the playoffs in four games . Instead , Arbour ' s Islanders defeated Pittsburgh in overtime of the seventh game of a hard - fought series . The Islanders lost to the Montreal Canadiens in the conference finals . Arbour retired after the 1993 – 94 season , having led the Islanders to a second playoff berth where they lost to the eventual champion New York Rangers . At that time Arbour had won 739 games as an Islander coach , and a banner with that number was raised to the rafters at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on January 25 , 1997 . New York Islanders , 2007 . On November 3 , 2007 , Al Arbour returned , at the request of Islanders coach Ted Nolan , to coach his 1 , 500th game for the Islanders . Arbour said , " Ted is going to do most of the coaching , I think . " At age 75 , he became the oldest man ever to coach a National Hockey League game . The Islanders beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3 – 2 , giving Arbour his 740th win . The 739 win banner was brought down , and replaced with one with the number 1500 , representing the number of games coached . When the banner was lifted to the rafters , Arbour was joined by the entire Islanders team , his family , and Islander Alumni , including Mike Bossy , Bryan Trottier , Pat LaFontaine , and others . Awards and honors . He is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame , Legacy . Arbour is currently second in wins and games coached behind Scotty Bowman in NHL history . Many hockey publications rank Bowman as the best coach in hockey history and Arbour as number two . This ranking is not without controversy , however , and those who believe Arbour to be the best ever point to his work turning struggling teams into champions , while Bowman usually took over teams that were already championship contenders . Arbour ' s team won the final playoff matchup between the two coaches in 1993 . External links .