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Clark Gillies At 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds Clark Gillies was a power forward before anyone knew what the term meant. Gillies had the size and strength of an NHL heavyweight--and he was more than willing to take on anyone who dared to get too rambunctious with the likes of long-time linemates Mike Bossy and Bryan Trottier. The 1986 Islanders media guide had an interesting note about Gillies: "Turns into a raging bull when challenged by the opposition." Clark never had as many as 100 penalty minutes in a season, yet was known throughout the NHL as one of the league's best fighters and most physical players--someone who could beat you any way you wanted to play him. |
In his second season, Gillies wound up on left wing with Trottier and Billy Harris, the Islanders' No. 1 pick in their first draft in 1972. The line was a near-perfect fit, and Gillies raised his goal total to a team-high 34. In 1976-77, with Bossy taking Harris' place, the stage was set for the best line in Islanders history.
Now wearing the captain's "C," Gillies knocked in 33 goals in his third season while providing protection for his linemates, especially Bossy, whose skills quickly made him the target of every thug in the league. Gillies also set an NHL playoff record by scoring the game-winner in four consecutive contests. In 1977-78, he fired home 35 goals, many of them by using one of hockey's hardest wrist shots, and added 50 assists to earn First-Team All-Star honors.
A year later, he was even better-scoring 35 goals and 91 points to repeat as a First-Team All-Star and leading the "Trio Grande" into Madison Square Garden as the NHL's No. 1 unit in the Challenge Cup against the Soviet Union (perhaps the only time in his career Gillies was cheered in the Garden).
After beating Los Angeles in the preliminary round, Gillies & Co. opened the quarterfinals against a Boston team that had decided the Islanders wouldn't stand up when challenged. They were wrong. Gillies personally stood up to everything the Bruins (notably Terry O'Reilly) tried to do. He whipped O'Reilly in a series of scraps that established once and for all that the Isles couldn't be intimidated. After battering O'Reilly in the first game, he showed he could play hockey, too--scoring the game-winner in overtime, sparking the Isles to a five-game triumph and newfound respect around the NHL.
No. 9's scoring touch returned in 1980-81, as he rang up 33 goals and followed that with 39 the next season, both times helping the Islanders retain their Cup. Most opponents still knew better than to provoke him, but those who did paid the price. One rival who learned the hard way was Ed Hospodar, a Ranger defenseman who spent the better part of a 1982 game trying to get under Gillies' skin. At long last, Gillies had had enough and proceeded to teach "Boxcar" a lesson with a two-punch demolition that ranks as one of the worst thrashings ever seen on Seventh Avenue Gillies' last hurrah came in the 1984 playoffs, when he had a career-best 12 goals, including a hat trick in Game 2 of the finals. He finished his 11 seasons on Long Island in 1986 with 304 goals and 663 points, still among the top five in both categories. Those totals are impressive, but it was his leadership, his toughness, and his willingness to stand up for his teammates, as much as his offensive numbers, that earned him the banner hanging over the Nassau Coliseum and his induction into the NHL Hall of Fame in 2002.