Maven's Memories: Bill Mikkelson on the Original Islanders

No matter how you look at it, Bill Mikkelson was a pioneer.

Along with a bevy of other hopefuls, the Brookdale, Manitoba native showed up in 1972 at the New York Islanders first-ever training camp in Peterborough, Ontario, seeking a job with the NHL's brand-new franchise. He eventually passed GM Bill Torrey's audition and was assigned to a starting defense role.

That was the good news. The not-so-good news was that every single game was a challenge from the curtain-raiser at Nassau Veterans' Memorial Coliseum to the finale the following April.

Like many NHLers, Bill would later pass his love of hockey on to his children. His son, Brendan had NHL stints with Anaheim, Calgary and Tampa Bay. His daughter Meaghan won Gold Medals in 2010 and 2014 and a silver in 2018 with the Canadian National Women's hockey team and currently is color voice for the Calgary Flames on Sportsnet 960.

Like his teammates, Mikkelson struggled in that maiden season along with captain Ed Westfall, defense teammates Gerry Hart and Jean Potvin as well as coach Phil Goyette, who never made it to the finish line in April 1973, but Bill did.

Many of Mikkelson’s experiences are captured in Long Islander Greg Prato's new book, "Hapless Islanders: The Story Behind the New York Islanders Infamous 1972-73 Season."

Now 76 and living in Calgary, Mikkelson fondly -- and vividly -- remembers that notorious hockey year in Uniondale. The following are his answers to an assortment of topics raised by The Hockey Maven.

TRAINING CAMP, 1972: "This was my fourth NHL training camp, so I expected it to be physically and mentally draining like all the previous ones. I knew that I had a chance to make the team because the Islanders already had lost some defensemen to the new World Hockey Association. I was a bubble player, which made the camp a grueling affair. Once camp started there were two practice sessions a day for a week or two before we got into playing exhibition games."

NERVOUSNESS ABOUT MAKING THE TEAM: "The most vivid and memorable aspect was the posting of the next-day lineups on a bulletin board in the hotel lobby. It would list the two teams -- the big team and the minor league team for the next day's practices. Naturally I approached the board with great apprehension, but I got lucky.

The greatest feeling for me, at the end of the camp, was to be on the NHL team roster. It was one big mind game throughout camp trying to guess how I was doing and what management thought of me."

UNIQUE CHALLENGES: The emergence of the World Hockey Association caused seismic alterations in the hockey landscape. All of a sudden there was a competitive landscape for players as the NHL no longer had a monopoly on talent. We felt that there was almost double the number of 'major league' jobs.

Thanks to the WHA siphoning off players there was an opening for me. On the Islanders Draft list I was the sixth defenseman selected by Bill Torrey. But of the five selected ahead of me three chose to go to the WHA. Only Chuck Lefley and Gerry Hart chose to stay with the Islanders. As the sixth guy, I ordinarily would have been in a tough spot to make the team. But thanks to the WHA I moved up to third."

THE MAKE-OR-BREAK MOMENT: "The best day of all was when I was told that I'd be going to New York and to look for accommodations. Once Bill Torrey told me to find a place, it meant that I had made the big team. I ended up living on Long Island and my roomies were Lorne Henning and Ralph Stewart because we were all single. In those days salaries were so low it was imperative for me to split rent with two other guys."

PRE-OPENING NIGHT EXPECTATIONS: "We knew we'd be in a tough spot. There were established teams. Montreal still had a lot of guys who were winners and the Bruins had won the Stanley Cup the previous spring. Frankly, I didn't spend too much time thinking about the opposition because I was primarily thinking about my status and just making and sticking with the team. How well the team would do, would make no difference if I was not a part of it."

NO COMPLAINTS: "Despite the inequity of the system, I had no complaints because we had an opportunity to live out our dreams of playing in the NHL. Hence, the league's ineptitude in the management of staffing their new teams gets no complaints from me. After all, when comparing the powerful Habs with our lineups, really,

what did they expect from us but what they got -- the Hapless Islanders and we were just that as Greg Prato pointed out in his book of the same name."

REACTION TO COACH PHIL GOYETTE: "I don't know the circumstances around Bill Torrey selecting Phil as a coach. I remember Goyette when I was younger and a Canadiens fan. He had been an excellent player; a silky-smooth center, but unfortunately, I don't think that translated to being successful at arguably the most challenging coaching position in the NHL. But he was a likeable guy who wanted to be liked and who seemed not to want to upset or offend the players. He probably sacrificed respect from the players for that desire to be liked. I remember him congratulating us after a loss for just 'coming close.'"

WHAT HE LEARNED: "Unfortunately, Goyette, being a centreman his whole career, knew very little about playing the defense position. As a result he wasn't able to teach me or any other D-men the role of playing defense at the NHL level. I don't recall being taught anything about improving my play at my position. Anything I learned, I learned on my own by studying other good players. For all of us that season, it should have been a learning year. We should have advanced and improved. But I don't blame Phil. If I were to blame him for anything, it was for accepting the job. In fact, I have a feeling that the job was offered to others who declined. Coaching an NHL team, especially THAT team, is an extremely difficult job that, from my perspective, demands an experienced coach, someone who has honed their coaching skills in lower leagues. I would not say either that even an experienced coach could have wrung better results out of our group.”

HIS FEELINGS ABOUT 'HAPLESS' AS A BOOK ABOUT THE TEAM: "I don't take offence about being called 'hapless.' I probably was at the time, so the label is accurate. I know that Goyette said he couldn't go out and play the game for the players. The reverse is also true. We couldn't go behind the bench and do the coaching for him that needed to be done. After all, Phil is part of that 'hapless' bunch as well."

THE ZANY PRACTICE SITUATION: "Our practices turned out to be one of the biggest negative issues. We hardly ever could practice on Coliseum ice because of the Nets, concerts and other arena events. The practice arena we used was way out on Long Island and didn't even have showers. Our non-game days turned out to be as long and grueling and challenging as the game days.

From our home on Long Island we'd get up and travel 30 minutes to the Coliseum. Then, we'd get dressed there,

carry our sticks and skates, hop on a bus and travel approximately an hour 'way out on the Island. We'd practice for an hour or an hour and a half, then jump back on the bus, head back to the Coliseum where we would shower and dress and head home. Those were long, long days -- spending two and a half to three hours in cars and buses. Not counting the time we spent on the ice."

The only benefit of all that was that we really looked forward to game days. Thinking back, those onerous

practice days made it tougher for what already was a severely challenged, under-talented team. Really, it was an unnecessary burden on the players and in a sense we never had a day off -- but there were no alternatives. We had to grin and bear it."

BILL'S FIRST BIG NHL BLUNDER: "I played primarily with Ken Murray, but also with Arnie Brown and even some of the forwards who dropped down to defense like Ed Westfall and Ron Stewart. Then, Jean Potvin arrived at the end of the year, which was good because I had played with him in Springfield when we won the Calder Cup. In fact, Jean was on the ice with me for my first NHL goal against. We were playing Toronto at Maple Leaf Gardens and I tried to make a cross-ice pass to Potsy at our blue line. But I flubbed the pass and it dribbled into the middle where Dave Keon picked it up and went in and scored. That was my NHL baptism and would be a portent of things to come!"

THE TWO SIDES OF GERRY HART: "I have negative and positive. The minus part was when I played Junior against him and Gerry was on the Flin Flon (Manitoba) Bombers. It was the dirtiest team in Junior hockey and Hart was one of the toughest, meanest players. As an Islander teammate, I liked Gerry. For his size, he was a fearless, very tough player who would never back down nor give an inch. Away from the rink he was outgoing and personable. He was the only one of our D-men that year to survive the purge that followed."

ABOUT ED WESTFALL AS CAPTAIN: "He truly was the captain on-ice and off-ice -- the leader of the team. Nobody else was more appropriate than #18. We all were aware of his background, him having won two Stanley Cups with the Bruins. Despite the comedown -- Bruins to Islanders -- Eddie always seemed to be smiling, upbeat and positive. Think about it, one year he was skating alongside Bobby Orr and a season later he's playing on a team with Billy Mikkelson. If being the captain of such a hapless group ever weighed on him, you'd never know it; that's how positive he was about everything."

THE PRIZE ROOKIE, BILLY HARRIS: "If being the Number One Draft pick weighed on him, you'd never have known it either. Billy was an upbeat, happy-go-lucky guy and a very mature 20-year-old. He was a good-looking guy. I often thought it would have been more appropriate if he'd been on Broadway. As for his playing ability, he was an excellent skater -- arguably the best on the team -- and a good shot as well. He far exceeded any offensive expectations that were set for him."

HARRIS AS THE WUNDERKIND: "The fact that he could score 28 goals on that team at that time was phenomenal. You must remember that this was a time when 20-goal seasons were the standard of success for an experienced, established forward, let alone a raw rookie. Billy didn't have anyone else on the team with similar offensive skills who could get him relief from other team's pairings and checking lines. Westfall was a great mentor and influential presence for Harris. Unfortunately, his legacy as a top Islander pick has been overshadowed by the best string of Draft picks in history. The likes of Denis Potvin, Bryan Trottier, Mike Bossy and Clark Gillies all show up."

THE 9-7 UPSET OVER THE CHAMP BRUINS: "To tell you the truth I had forgotten all about it. But to call it an outlier game in our season would be an understatement. The Bruins, like most of our opponents that year, went into the game having already counted the two points before the game had started. All I know is that I came out of the game with a Plus-One!"

HIS FONDEST MEMORIES OF THE SEASON: "I liked almost everything about the whole experience. That is, playing on an NHL team and all that goes with that. Plus living near the most influential metropolis in the world. I liked Long Island and the old New England feel to it. We lived in a nice neighborhood in East Norwich and I have fond memories of many players on the team. They were all good guys who managed to keep a sense of humor through the duress that we endured. When all is said and done -- looking backward -- what I miss most of all are all the good people I had worked with!"

HIS FAVORITE TEAMMATES: "Bill Torrey made a trade late in that first season. He dealt our forward, Terry Crisp -- quite a character, himself -- to Philadelphia and we got defenseman Jean Potvin who became one of my favorite teammates. I previously had played with Jean in Los Angeles for a couple of months in the previous year when I was called up to the Kings. But even before that we were teammates in the AHL in Springfield when we won the Calder Cup as league champs."

JEAN POTVIN AS A SPECIAL PERSON: "I was especially happy when Potsy was traded to us even though it made my job security precarious. He was a fun guy to be around and quite a joke-teller. He liked to kiddingly refer to himself as 'The Bait.' It was a reference to the fact that Torrey figured that with Jean being an Islander, kid brother Denis would be more likely to sign with us than the World Hockey Association. In 1973, Denis was the most highly-sought prospect and first to go in the NHL Draft."

ON BEING CHOPPED OFF THE SECOND YEAR ROSTER: "I knew coming into camp that the writing was on the wall for me. In the front door came Denis Potvin, Bert Marshall and Dave Lewis. Out the back door went the rest of us, except for Gerry Hart. To this day I tell people that Denis Potvin took my job. Makes sense: Denis Potvin would have taken anyone's job!"

HOW THE ISLANDERS LED TO HIS MARRIAGE: "When the second training camp opened in the Fall of 1973, I still had hopes of another year with the big club, but when they cut me at the second camp, Torrey sent me to Baltimore of the AHL. It was while I was playing for the Clippers, I met a schoolteacher named Betsy and that was the beginning of our romance. We got married in 1980. Thank you, Bill Torrey!"

HIS RECONNECTING WITH THE ISLANDERS: "Actually, it happened a couple of times in the last few years. The first was on a 'Fathers' Trip' with the Anaheim Ducks a few years back. My son Brendan had been called up and was on the trip with the Ducks. That trip was to New York and to games with the Rangers and Islanders. It was to be back in old Nassau Coliseum. I spent a period with the Islanders announcers in their booth and had a chance to reminisce about that first year. It was a fun time."

CONNECTING WITH ANDERS LEE: About three years ago when Lee suffered a torn ACL in his knee, my daughter Meaghan had a similar injury. When she saw how quickly Anders got back on skates, she wondered what magical things Anders was doing. I contacted Islanders PR and he very graciously enabled a conversation between Anders and Meaghan and that greatly aided her rehab. They are still friends today and, after all these years, I still have a connection to the team. Every morning I still check the NHL scores to see how the Islanders fared the night before."

FINAL THOUGHTS: "I want to make it clear, I am not complaining. I'm grateful for my Islanders season because it wound up being one of the best years of my life -- for the chance to play in the NHL. In a sense we were innocent bystanders and my wish here is to provide a perspective from the players' side; my perspective and how I experienced the events. In the end I was proud and happy to be an Islander and -- in a sense -- a pioneer in getting the franchise going. It was -- as they say -- my pleasure!"