stan jonathan - billy smith

[juiceman1965]

why is that Jonathan smacks a goalie and an entire team does nothing but stand around and look at him???

[lakeerie90s]

@juiceman1965 teammates knew smitty was diving

[gtrefghuk]

Billy always was a good diver.

[bluelinerjr]

@gtrefghuk and you were always good at sucking dick

[meanwiddlekid]

@bluelinerjr

I guess you would know.

[kevindlinc]

Smith was known as ''The money golie'' he did whatever it took to win.He wasn't what you'd call a class act, but he did in fact win.

[akaredcrossbow]

Nice Dive lol

[KarmicOmen]

Smith had a caged face -- that must have been one hell of a shot to the head by Jonathan.

[NPRMc]

Billy Smith knew how to get under his opponents skin, his dives were so animated and cartoonish that they just bothered the hell out guys and made refs look foolish for falling for it, often times (like w/ the Oilers) it was payback for one of their dives. You didn't mess w/ Billy. You never knew what he'd do to beat you.

[Kivstev]

Everyone knew Smith took a dive except the ref. grrr :P

[puck30]

Billy should have been a wrestler after his hockey days. He sure could sell his moves.

[XXCrimsonFoxXX]

It's obvious that Smith embellished that but I'm surprised that nobody on the Islanders flattened Jonathan.

[roaringchicken92]

9.8, Billy. You were f***ing awesome.

[diviamush]

dive

[nyc50lifire]

Ahhh, the NY Isles, the real Islanders. Yes, it was a tie re: Gillies / O'Reilly,,,,,,,,and Nystrom whipped Wensick,,,,,,,,,he cried the rest of his career after that beating. Howatt was like a baby pitbull, bark was bigger than his bite.

[leafyutube]

Billy did the same acting job against Glenn Anderson in the '83 Cup Final.

[IslandersFan25]

@leafyutube Greztky's imitation dive!

[malawri67]

fake

[malawri67]

fake

[5inthehole]

If you look at that video closely, Smith may have been play-acting, trying to get the 2 min penalty against Johnathan. I wonder what Smith was talking to his defenseman about afterwards. The Islanders of the late 70's had a hell of a team esp. with one of the best goal scorers of all time, Mike Bossy. But we still owned them in the fighting dept. Bruins fans!

[Forsure3333]

It was obviously fake. I play hockey and do the same trick as often as possible. And it works!

[morningman33]

hello

[gcdcjccc]

jonathan hardly touched smith lol

[Keoughan]

"Two minutes, Unsportsmanlike Diving.... Islanders #31..."

[Kainnmaul]

If anything it shows the respect players had for eachother back then. The isles knew that smith dove, hence why nobody went after jonathan.

[nyerinmo]

Their was a good reason nobody went after Jonathan..... the Islanders were done in this game and Billy baited Jonathan BIG TIME! If you look at the replay, he barely touched Smith and Billy went flying! Smith wasn't a pussy, he knew EXACTLY what he was doing. He did it a few years later to Glen Anderson in the 83 finals, costing Anderson a five minute major!

Smith was awesome, the true definition of a money goalie!

[puck30]

I use to have a Islanders/Capitals playoff game. Smitty did it in that game, gave the Islanders a PP.

[LKjonathan]

no body even made a move on stan your supposed 2 fight any one who hits your goal tender just goes 2 show stan kicked ass go uncle go

[medaman69]

Markstrom can take acting/diving lessons from battlin' Billy.

[rydon]

lol, such a dive.

[starving4thecup]

Lol yea but its a skill you no, somtimes when u have the chance to dive u take the chance lol and the idiot dosnt no how to spell its fake not fack

[pklmlynn]

I notice that Nystrom was mentioned alot in recent comments.Nystrom could have been possibly the toughest man in that era.Gillies was definetly no slouch.Howatt sucked plain and simple.O `Reilly,Jonathan,Wensink,Secor­d,Cashmen(past his prime)done well in those series.The Bruins were a tougher team if you look at every fight without bias.The Flyers were also a tougher team.My opinion.

[Envelope86]

I thought that those theories about the Bruins and Flyers being "tougher" than the Isles were put to rest in 1980. There are several fights on YouTube from both playoff series that year, when it was obvious that the Bruins and Flyers were trying to win by intimidation. (Their only hope) The Isles just kept standing right up to them, toe to toe.

[dome1972]

Ya, those questions were answer in the 80's but you know Bruin and Flyer fans. Those teams, and their fans, revel in the mystic that they are tougher than everyone else. Even when time moves on and that isn't the case anymore.

[BoSoxnation1972]

What are you talking about? O'Reilly kicked Gillies ass when Clark didn'y jump him. Cashman killed Howatt after getting suckered, Jonathan pounded Lorimer, Milbury pounder Sutter, Secord POUNDED Gordie Lane...the only fight NY salvaged dignity on was Nystrom beating Wensink pretty handily!

NY won because they had more talent..plain and simple...not because they were tougher.

[lakeerie90s]

one other fight in favor of NY, Gillies had an easy win over Secord, right after Milbury pounded Sutter.

[huntercalgary]

@BoSoxnation1972

geek....lol

[pullshtter]

I love this video because it shows what pussies the Islanders really were.I know you won 4 cups. Lets get this out of the way, I see on all these videos the Hab and NYI fans can't win the fight dicussion so they tell you how many cups they won. From 75 - 85 the two best teams were the Habs and NYI, nobody with a brain is going to agrue that. The two best fighting teams were the B's and Flyers. Both Howatt and Nystrom are on the ice when this happens and neither of them even looked at Jonathan !

[Envelope86]

Tell that to the following Bruins and Flyers that got their asses kicked by Islanders on YouTube videos: Hoyda (Gillies), Milbury (Nystrom), Wensink (Nystrom), Cashman (Howatt), Jonathan (Gillies), Melnyck (Nystrom), Baithe (Nystrom), Kelly (Nystrom), Schultz (Gillies), of course O'Reilly (Gillies), and others. Howatt even fought the much bigger Wilson to a draw, and didn't back down from Schultz! The Isles did it all: scoring, speed, toughness, and of course the great team chemistry.

[pullshtter]

Gilles is legit no question about that, as far as the Jonathan fight anything can happen in one fight, Gilles won but I would have like to see them go a few more time,the Gilles / Taz fights I'd say it was 2-2-1.Nobody else on the Ilse would fight Taz. Cashman beat Howatt's ass after the sucker punch, plus Cash was real old at that time. You can't deny Howatt and Nystrom wanted nothing to do with Stan ! If that had happend to a B's or Flyers goalie, it would have been a 5 alarm fire !!

[Envelope86]

Howatt clearly won round 1 against Cashman. Check out the 5 minute video (not the 9 minute one).

[pullshtter]

I checked it out, I guess he got a slight edge , not much of a fight, again Cash was an old man at this point.I'm just saying if Howatt was so bad he would have been all over Jonathan, he thought better of that. Gilles was the only Ilse that could match Stan.

[Envelope86]

And why would Nystrom and Howatt want to screw up Smith's dive? Smart hockey beats dumb-ass hockey any day of the week.

[pullshtter]

Stan still would have gotton the 2 min if there had been a fight after the dive . (wink, wink) lol

[jcyt0511]

The three or four Isles tough would absolutely drive the Bruins "tough" through the ice! Plain and simple. Stop trying to come up with angles all the time you one handed basement pro hunchback of a Bruin fan!

[BoSoxnation1972]

Gillies won 3 of his 5 fights against Terry, but jumped him in one of them, so they were 2-2, and Terry beat Clark's ass far worse in the 2 he won. Nystrom got the better of Wensink no doubt, but it was a rare loss for John.Cashman OWNED Howatt, and Jonathan could beat up the rest of the Islanders by himself! LOL

Were the Isles the better team? Sure! Slightly better on the top line, and more depth. But if they were tougher AND better, there's no way the series would have gone more than 4 games!

[darkoanton5]

Maybe this is the post of the year. It's so funny and true.

[Envelope86]

FYI, on the video "Garry Howatt v. Dave 'Tiger' Williams" Steve Albert (the announcer) refers to a fight that he had with Stan Jonathan "the other night." Maybe someone will post it. Also check out the Wikipedia entry for Howatt: he apparently fought Semenko, Beck, Plett, Holmgren, O'Reilly and other big guys. Not bad for a guy 5'9", 170 lbs. He was certainly not a "pussy."

[pullshtter]

I have the Howatt/ Jonathan fight on video tape, it isn't much of anything, howatt jumps on Stan as their skateing and they both go to the ice. I mean come on man, do you think for a second that if Howatt had done that to Cheevers and Stan and Taz were on the ice they both wouldn't have pounced on him ?? I'm mean that's almost funny lololol. I mean he wanted NO PART of Stan !

[Envelope86]

Hey pullshtter, someone just posted the Howatt-Jonathan fight. My man Howatt was NOT backing down. In fact, he was acquitting himself quite well until he fell down, and ultimately was on top in the scrum with the refs. So, now we have proof that you are wrong to say that he wanted "no part" of Jonathan.

[aljanadcob]

what an embarassing spelling job-lol

no, i just hate to see dives and stuff and i know that everyone does it.doesn't make it right.

[pklmlynn]

I think there was a guy name Ken Dryden if you want to talk about playoff goalies.

[Envelope86]

Sorry you feel that way, WellSpokenNegro. I was actually replying to a series of posts by a Boston fan, but they have been deleted for some reason. Now it looks as if I am having a dialogue with myself.

[nyerinmo]

Billy Smith = Money Goalie! Yeah, he took a dive here, but it was to give his team a power play. He took a dive against the Oilers too, but that was strictly in retaliation for Gretzky taking his dive in Edmonton against Smith. Call that one pay back.

HOWEVER, Smith was also the goalie that would fight other players and not let his teammates fight for him. He would even take off his mask before fighting. Smith was the best PLAYOFF goalie in the NHL!

[dadblair]

nice dive

[Envelope86]

Neither Dale Hunter nor Ron Hextall have cup rings. Smith, on the other hand, held Gretzky to nary a point over four games. Needless to say, he dominated the three other cup runs as well. People may not have liked his methods, but they were damn effective. When another goalie leads his team to 19 playoff series wins, stopping virtually every puck in sight, then we can entertain some discussion about who's the greatest playoff goalie ever. Until then, it's BILLY, BILLY!

[Envelope86]

Roy and Brodeur are (were) great, but the "greatest" distinction is reserved for Billy. While many goalies have put on great playoff performances, nobody psyched his team into the playoff mentality as Smith did -- eg, not shaking hands with opposing teams, taking dives to draw penalties, fighting, etc. Smith's influence went way beyond the crease, across the blue and red lines and into the locker room. Brodeur, Roy, etc. stopped pucks, but they didn't do all the rest.

[Envelope86]

Dives are part of "smart" hockey -- Isles beat Edmonton 4-0 in '83 by playing smarter than they did. And yes, Billy did dive on Gretzky. Smith was the greatest playoff goaltender in NHL history, for a myriad of reasons!

[dadblair]

billy was great at that he burn the oilers in the playoffs with a great act

[aljanadcob]

academy award winning on the part of smith.how can anyone respect a guy like that?i would be ashamed if i was nystrum or gilles or trottier.

[JimR541]

Yeah, WHo could respect guys like Gretzky, Lemieux and Messier? All of those guys took dives now and then too. What embarressments to Hockey. HOFer and 2 time cup winner Bill Barber was known as "The Swan" for his frequent diving. He was an embarrassment too. What were those guys thinking in trying to give there team an edge? Jerks.

[jcnyut000000000000]

I believe that Howatt beat Jonathan once. Anyone have a video of this?

[6969ok69]

Howatt wanted no part of Jonathan.

[LilHawk33]

HAHA that was funny

[boston487744]

clear dive by Smith. Players that took dives were the biggest pussies. Phil Barber of the Flyers was notorious for taking dives.