Ed Westfall

Rogie Vachon, the Hall of Fame goalie for the Kings, is their goalie for this one, and LA took a one-nothing lead on a goal by Randy Rota.

Ed Westfall ties it at one in the second period.

Then the Kings go up on a goal by Bob Berry, and then it's the Bob Nystrom show.

On the power play with Frank St.

Marche in the box for tripping, Nystrom from Westfall and Denis Potvin.

Then two minutes and one second later, Nystrom from Denis Potvin and Ed Westfall.

And then with two and a half minutes left in the game, Nystrom from Westfall and Jean Potvin.

Islanders go on to win it four to two.

And you want the captain to be someone who plays a major role on the team.

And, you know, one thing that I remember, Ed Westfall gave up the C because he just didn't feel he was contributing enough at that stage in his career.

He was, you know, clearly in his last year or two, and he was not getting the same number of minutes.

And so you want your captain to be someone who is on the ice playing a big role.

They're down 3-2, but less than a minute later, Howitt completes the hat trick.

Ed Westfall with the helper.

Later goals by Billy Harris and Jude Drouin.

Clinch a 5-3 win for the Islanders.

It also made his hip checks especially violent, because he could go underneath larger players coming through the neutral zone.

Former Bruins teammate Ed Westfall said Boivin was one of the few players who turned body checking into an art form, adding that his hits were generally clean, but they really hurt.

[laughs]

That distinction matters.

And that's another question that will evolve over time, but the timeline's a lot shorter because we're less than two weeks away from opening night of Islanders hockey.

Time now for our Islanders birthday of the day, and Saturday will be the 86th birthday of former Islanders winger, captain, and broadcaster Ed Westfall.

The Bellevue, Ontario native, 6'1", 197 pounds, won two Stanley Cups with the Boston Bruins in 1970 and 1972. and then was selected by the Islanders in the expansion draft, came over and was the first captain of a young, inexperienced team, led them from being an expansion horror show with the worst record at that point in NHL history to a team that made the Stanley Cup semifinals in its third season, And he was a big part of that, had 220-plus goal seasons with the Islanders and remained on the team through the 78-79 season, played 1,226 games in his NHL career, 231 goals, 625 points, 544 penalty minutes, add 22 goals, 59 points in 95 playoff games with...

A lot of those actually coming in an Islanders uniform.

Michelle Bunny-LaRock.

the late great goalie for the Habs.

And in this game, our Islanders birthday of the day, Ed Westfall opens up the scoring four minutes and nine seconds in JP Parise, Jude Druan on the assist Islanders up one, nothing.

They go up to nothing, but then Serge Savard scores twice on the power play less than a minute apart early in the second.

And Look, the Islanders have had some great captains.

They've had Ed Westfall, who was the first captain who got this team through their two very difficult expansion years and who helped them develop by their third season, which back in the seventies was unheard of into a team that was one game away from the Stanley cup final in just its third year of existence.

You had, you know, Clark Gillies, who didn't feel comfortable with the sea and voluntarily gave it, you know, relinquished it to Dennis Potvin, who was a great captain.

Anders Lee, who was a captain for what, eight years.

Chico Resch said he was the best captain for the team at that time.

I've got to remember they had Eddie Westfall at the beginning, who was marvelous, who should be in the Hockey Hall of Fame because he was as good as Bob Ganey was, and Ganey is in the Hall of Fame.

Very strong for Eddie.

I worked with Eddie.

He's been, you know, we, we, we use the, we use the name, Mr. Islander a few times in their history.

You know, first it was Eddie Westfall.

And then obviously, you know, Bobby Nystrom took over that moniker, especially after the Stanley cup winning the goal in 80.

But Casey Zizekas, for lack of a better term, over the last 15 years or so, has been Mr. Islander.