title: Al-Ghazali

text: He is considered to be the 5th century's "mujaddid", a renewer of the faith, who, according to the prophetic hadith, appears once every 100 years to restore the faith of the Islamic community. His works were so highly acclaimed by his contemporaries that al-Ghazali was awarded the honorific title "Proof of Islam" ("Ḥujjat al-Islām").


title: Al-Ghazali

text: Al-Ghazali believed that the Islamic spiritual tradition had become moribund and that the spiritual sciences taught by the first generation of Muslims had been forgotten. This belief led him to write his magnum opus entitled "Iḥyā’ ‘ulūm ad-dīn" ("The Revival of the Religious Sciences"). Among his other works, the "Tahāfut al-Falāsifa" ("Incoherence of the Philosophers") is a landmark in the history of philosophy, as it advances the critique of Aristotelian science developed later in 14th-century Europe.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: Modern estimates place it at AH 448 (1056/7), on the basis of certain statements in al-Ghazali's correspondence and autobiography. He was a Muslim scholar, law specialist, rationalist, and spiritualist of Persian descent. He was born in Tabaran, a town in the district of Tus, Khorasan (now part of Iran), not long after Seljuks entered Baghdad and ended Shia Buyid Amir al-umaras. This marked the start of Seljuk influence over Caliphate. While the Seljuk dynasty's influence grew, Abu Suleiman Dawud Chaghri Beg married his daughter, Arslan Khatun Khadija to caliph Al-Qa'im in 1056.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: A posthumous tradition, the authenticity of which has been questioned in recent scholarship, is that his father died in poverty and left the young al-Ghazali and his brother Ahmad to the care of a Sufi. Al-Ghazali's contemporary and first biographer, 'Abd al-Ghafir al-Farisi, records merely that al-Ghazali began to receive instruction in "fiqh" (Islamic jurisprudence) from Ahmad al-Radhakani, a local teacher and Abu ali Farmadi, a Naqshbandi sufi from Tus. He later studied under al-Juwayni, the distinguished jurist and theologian and "the most outstanding Muslim scholar of his time," in Nishapur, perhaps after a period of study in Gurgan. After al-Juwayni's death in 1085, al-Ghazali departed from Nishapur and joined the court of Nizam al-Mulk, the powerful vizier of the Seljuq empire, which was likely centered in Isfahan. After bestowing upon him the titles of "Brilliance of the Religion" and "Eminence among the Religious Leaders," Nizam al-Mulk advanced al-Ghazali in July 1091 to the "most prestigious and most challenging" professorial position at the time: the Nizamiyya madrasa in Baghdad.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: He underwent a spiritual crisis in 1095, which some speculate was brought on by clinical hysteria, abandoned his career and left Baghdad on the pretext of going on pilgrimage to Mecca. Making arrangements for his family, he disposed of his wealth and adopted an ascetic lifestyle. According to biographer Duncan B. Macdonald, the purpose of abstaining from scholastic work was to confront the spiritual experience and more ordinary understanding of "the Word and the Traditions." After some time in Damascus and Jerusalem, with a visit to Medina and Mecca in 1096, he returned to Tus to spend the next several years in "'uzla" (seclusion). The seclusion consisted in abstaining from teaching at state-sponsored institutions, but he continued to publish, receive visitors and teach in the zawiya (private madrasa) and khanqah (Sufi lodge) that he had built.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: Fakhr al-Mulk, grand vizier to Ahmad Sanjar, pressed al-Ghazali to return to the Nizamiyya in Nishapur. Al-Ghazali reluctantly capitulated in 1106, fearing rightly that he and his teachings would meet with resistance and controversy. He later returned to Tus and declined an invitation in 1110 from the grand vizier of the Seljuq Sultan Muhammad I to return to Baghdad. He died on 19 December 1111. According to 'Abd al-Ghafir al-Farisi, he had several daughters but no sons.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: Al-Ghazali contributed significantly to the development of a systematic view of Sufism and its integration and acceptance in mainstream Islam. As a scholar of Sunni Islam, he belonged to the Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence and to the Asharite school of theology. Al-Ghazali received many titles such as "Sharaf-ul-Aʾimma" (), "Zayn-ud-dīn" () and "Ḥujjat-ul-Islām" ().


title: Al-Ghazali

text: He is viewed as the key member of the influential Asharite school of early Muslim philosophy and the most important refuter of the Mutazilites. However, he chose a slightly different position in comparison with the Asharites. His beliefs and thoughts differ in some aspects from the orthodox Asharite school.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: A total of about 70 works can be attributed to Al-Ghazali. He is also known to have written a fatwa against the Taifa kings of al-Andalus, declaring them to be unprincipled, not fit to rule and that they should be removed from power. This fatwa was used by Yusuf ibn Tashfin to justify his conquest of al-Andalus.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: His 11th century book titled "The Incoherence of the Philosophers" marks a major turn in Islamic epistemology. The encounter with skepticism led al-Ghazali to investigate a form of theological occasionalism, or the belief that all causal events and interactions are not the product of material conjunctions but rather the immediate and present will of God.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: In the next century, Ibn Rushd (or Averroes) drafted a lengthy rebuttal of al-Ghazali's "Incoherence" entitled "The Incoherence of the Incoherence"; however, the epistemological course of Islamic thought had already been set. Al-Ghazali gave as an example of the illusion of independent laws of cause the fact that cotton burns when coming into contact with fire. While it might seem as though a natural law was at work, it happened each and every time only because God willed it to happen—the event was "a direct product of divine intervention as any more attention grabbing miracle". Averroes, by contrast insisted while God created the natural law, humans "could more usefully say that fire caused cotton to burn—because creation had a pattern that they could discern."


title: Al-Ghazali

text: The "Incoherence" also marked a turning point in Islamic philosophy in its vehement rejections of Aristotle and Plato. The book took aim at the "falasifa", a loosely defined group of Islamic philosophers from the 8th through the 11th centuries (most notable among them Ibn Sina or Avicenna and Al-Farabi) who drew intellectually upon the Ancient Greeks.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: George Saliba in 2007 argued that the decline of science in the 11th century has been overstated, pointing to continuing advances, particularly in astronomy, as late as the 14th century.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: On the other hand, author and journalist Hassan Hassan in 2012 argued that while indeed scientific thought in Islam was stifled in the 11th century, the person mostly to blame is not Al-Ghazali but Nizam al-Mulk.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: The autobiography al-Ghazali wrote towards the end of his life, "Deliverance From Error" ( "al-munqidh min al-ḍalāl"), is considered a work of major importance. In it, al-Ghazali recounts how, once a crisis of epistemological skepticism had been resolved by "a light which God Most High cast into my breast ... the key to most knowledge," he studied and mastered the arguments of kalam, Islamic philosophy, and Ismailism. Though appreciating what was valid in the first two of these, at least, he determined that all three approaches were inadequate and found ultimate value only in the mystical experience and insight he attained as a result of following Sufi practices. William James, in "Varieties of Religious Experience", considered the autobiography an important document for "the purely literary student who would like to become acquainted with the inwardness of religions other than the Christian" because of the scarcity of recorded personal religious confessions and autobiographical literature from this period outside the Christian tradition.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: Another of al-Ghazali's major works is "Ihya' Ulum al-Din" or "Ihya'u Ulumiddin" ("The Revival of Religious Sciences"). It covers almost all fields of Islamic sciences: fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), kalam (theology) and sufism.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: It contains four major sections: "Acts of worship" (), "Norms of Daily Life" (), "The ways to Perdition" () and "The Ways to Salvation" (). The became the most frequently recited Islamic text after the Qur'an and the hadith. Its great achievement was to bring orthodox Sunni theology and Sufi mysticism together in a useful, comprehensive guide to every aspect of Muslim life and death. The book was well received by Islamic scholars such as Nawawi who stated that: "Were the books of Islam all to be lost, excepting only the Ihya', it would suffice to replace them all."


title: Al-Ghazali

text: The Alchemy of Happiness"The Alchemy of Happiness" is a rewritten version of " The Revival of the Religious Sciences." After the existential crisis that caused him to completely re-examine his way of living and his approach to religion, Al-Ghazali put together "The Alchemy of Happiness" to reassert his fundamental belief that a connection to God was an integral part of the joy of living. The book is divided into four different sections. The first of these is Knowledge of Self"," where Al-Ghazali asserts that while food, sex, and other indulgences might slake humans appetites temporarily, they in turn make a human into an animal, and therefore will never give true happiness and fulfillment. In order to find oneself, people must devote themselves to God by showing restraint and discipline rather than gluttony of the senses"." The second installment is called Knowledge of God, where Al-Ghazali states that the events that occur during one's life are meant to point an individual towards God, and that God will always be strong, no matter how far humans deviate from His will. The third section of "The Alchemy of Happiness" is Knowledge of the World. Here he states that the world is merely a place where humans learn to love God, and prepare for the future, or the afterlife, the nature of which will be determined by our actions in this phase of our journey to happiness"." The final section is Knowledge of the Future World, which details how there are two types of spirits within a man: the angelic spirit and the animal spirit. Al-Ghazali details the types of spiritual tortures unbelievers experience, as well as the path that must be taken in order to attain spiritual enlightenment"." This book serves as a culmination of the transformation Ghazali goes through during his spiritual awakening.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: One of the key sections of Ghazali's "Revival of the Religious Sciences" is "Disciplining the Soul", which focuses on the internal struggles that every Muslim will face over the course of his lifetime. The first chapter primarily focuses on how one can develop himself into a person with positive attributes and good personal characteristics . The second chapter has a more specific focus: sexual satisfaction and gluttony. Here, Ghazali states that indeed every man has these desires and needs, and that it is natural to want these things. However, the Prophet explicitly states that there must be a middle ground for man, in order to practice the tenets of Islam faithfully. The ultimate goal that Ghazali is presenting not only in these two chapters, but in the entirety of "The" "Revival of the Religious Sciences", is that there must be moderation in every aspect of the soul of a man, an equilibrium. These two chapters were the 22nd and 23rd chapters, respectively, in Ghazali's "Revival of the Religious Sciences""." It's also important to note here that Ghazali draws from Greek as well as Islamic philosophy in crafting this literary staple, even though much of "The Incoherence of the Philosophers," his most well known work, takes a critical aim at their perspective.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: Al-Ghazali crafted his rebuttal of the Aristotelian viewpoint on the creation of the world in "The Eternity of the World ." Al-Ghazali essentially formulates two main arguments for what he views as a sacrilegious thought process. Central to the Aristotelian approach is the concept that motion will always precede motion, or in other words, a force will always create another force, and therefore for a force to be created, another force must act upon that force. This means that in essence time stretches infinitely both into the future and into the past, which therefore proves that God did not create the universe at one specific point in time. Ghazali counters this by first stating that if the world was created with exact boundaries, then in its current form there would be no need for a time before the creation of the world by God. The second argument Ghazali makes is that because humans can only imagine the time before the creation of the world, and your imagination is a fictional thing, that all the time before the world was created is fictional as well, and therefore does not matter as it was not intended by God to be understood by humans.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: Al-Ghazali lays out in "The" "Decisive Criterion for Distinguishing Islam from Clandestine Unbelief" his approach to Muslim orthodoxy. Ghazali veers from the often hardline stance of many of his contemporaries during this time period and states that as long as one believes in the Prophet Muhammad and God himself, there are many different ways to practice Islam and that any of the many traditions practiced in good faith by believers should not be viewed as heretical by other Muslims. While Ghazali does state that any Muslim practicing Islam in good faith is not guilty of apostasy, he does outline in "The Criterion" that there is one standard of Islam that is more correct than the others, and that those practicing the faith incorrectly should be moved to change. In Ghazali's view, only the Prophet himself could deem a faithfully practicing Muslim an infidel, and his work was a reaction to the religious persecution and strife that occurred often during this time period between various Islamic sects.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: Al-Ghazali wrote most of his works in Arabic and few in Persian. His most important Persian work is "Kimiya-yi sa'adat" (The Alchemy of Happiness). It is al-Ghazali's own Persian version of "Ihya' 'ulum al-din" (The Revival of Religious Sciences) in Arabic, but a shorter work. It is one of the outstanding works of 11th-century-Persian literature. The book was published several times in Tehran by the edition of Hussain Khadev-jam, a renowned Iranian scholar. It is translated to English, Arabic, Turkish, Urdu, Azerbaijani and other languages.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: Another authentic work of al-Ghazali is the so-called “first part” of the Nasihat al-muluk (Counsel for kings), addressed to the Saljuqid ruler of Khurasan Ahmad b. Malik-shah Sanjar (r. 490-552/1097-1157). The text was written after an official reception at his court in 503/1109 and upon his request. Al-Ghazali was summoned to Sanjar because of the intrigues of his opponents and their criticism of his student's compilation in Arabic, al-Mankhul min taʿliqat al-usul (The sifted notes on the fundamentals), in addition to his refusal to continue teaching at the Nizamiya of Nishapur. After the reception, al-Ghazali had, apparently, a private audience with Sanjar, during which he quoted a verse from the Quran 14:24: “Have you not seen how Allah sets forth a parable of a beautiful phrase (being) like a beautiful tree, whose roots are firm and whose branches are in Heaven.” The genuine text of the Nasihat al-muluk, which is actually an official epistle with a short explanatory note on al-Manḵul added on its frontispiece and the title given to it later, discloses the verse image of the “beautiful tree” ("shajara tayyiba") consisting of ten roots and ten branches.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: Faza'il al-anam min rasa'il Hujjat al-Islam is the collection of letters in Persian that al-Ghazali wrote in response to the kings, ministers, jurists and some of his friends after he returned to Khorasan. The collection was gathered by one of his grandchildren after his death, under five sections/chapters. The longest letter is the response to objections raised against some of his statements in "Mishkat al-Anwar" (The Niche of Light) and "al-Munqidh min al-dalal" (Rescuer from Error). The first letter is the one which al-Ghazali wrote to Sultan Sanjar presenting his excuse for teaching in Nizamiyya of Nishapur; followed by al-Ghazali's speech in the court of Sultan Sanjar. Al-Ghazali makes an impressive speech when he was taken to the king's court in Nishapur in 1106, giving very influential counsels, asking the sultan once again for excusing him from teaching in Nizamiyya. The sultan was so impressed that he ordered al-Ghazali to write down his speech so that it will be sent to all the ulemas of Khorasan and Iraq.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: "Zad-e Ākhirat" (Provision for the hereafter) is an important Persian book of al-Ghazali but gained less scholarly attention. The greater part of it consists of the Persian translation of one of his Arabic books, "Bidayat al-Hidaya" (Beginning of Guidance). It contains in addition the same contents as the Kimiya-yi Sa'adat. The book was most probably written during the last years of his life. Its manuscripts are in Kabul (Library of the Department of Press) and in Leiden.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: Another Persian work is Hamāqāt-i ahl-i ibahat or Radd-i ebāhīyya (Condemnation of antinomians) which is his "fatwa" in Persian illustrated with Quranic verses and Hadiths.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: The majority of other Persian texts, ascribed to him with the use of his fame and authority, especially in the genre of Mirrors for Princes, are either deliberate forgeries fabricated with different purposes or compilations falsely attributed to him. The most famous among them is Ay farzand (O Child!). This is undoubtedly a literary forgery fabricated in Persian one or two generations after al-Ghazali's death. The sources used for the forgery consist of two genuine letters by al-Ghazali's (number 4, in part, and number 33, totally); both appear in the "Fazaʾil al-anam". Another source is a letter known as "ʿAyniya" and written by Muhammad's younger brother Majd al-Din Ahmad al-Ghazali (d. 520/1126) to his famous disciple ʿAyn al-Quzat Hamadani (492-526/1098-1131); the letter was published in the "Majmuʿa-yi athar-i farsi-yi Ahmad-i Ghazali" (Collection of the Persian writings of Ahmad Ghazali). The other is ʿAyn al-Quzat's own letter, published in the "Namaha-yi ʿAyn al-Quzat Hamadani" (Letters by ʿAyn al-Quzat Hamadani). Later, "Ay farzand" was translated into Arabic and became famous as "Ayyuha al-walad", the Arabic equivalent of the Persian title. The earliest manuscripts with the Arabic translation date from the second half of the 16th and most of the others from the 17th century. The earliest known secondary translation from Arabic into Ottoman Turkish was done in 983/1575. In modern times, the text was translated from Arabic into many European languages and published innumerable times in Turkey as Eyyühe’l-Veled or Ey Oğul.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: A less famous Pand-nama (Book of counsel) also written in the genre of advice literature is a very late compilatory letter of an unknown author formally addressed to some ruler and falsely attributed to al-Ghazali, obviously because it consists of many fragments borrowed mostly from various parts of the Kimiya-yi saʿadat.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: During his life, he wrote over 70 books on science, Islamic reasoning and Sufism. Al-Ghazali distributed his book "The Incoherence of Philosophers", set apart as the defining moment in Islamic epistemology. The experience that he had with suspicion drove al-Ghazali to shape a conviction that all occasions and connections are not the result of material conjunctions but are the present and prompt will of God.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: Another of al-Ghazali's most prestigious works is "Ihya' Ulum al-Din" ("The Revival of Religious Sciences"). The work covers all fields of Islamic science and incorporates Islamic statute, philosophy and Sufism. It had numerous positive reactions, and Al-Ghazali at that point composed a condensed form in Persian under the title "Kimiya-yi sa'adat" ("The Alchemy of Happiness"). Although al-Ghazali said that he has composed more than 70 books, attributed to him are more than 400 books.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: Al-Ghazali likewise assumed a noteworthy part in spreading Sufism and Sharia. He was the first to consolidate the ideas of Sufism into Sharia laws and the first to give a formal depiction of Sufism in his works. His works fortify the position of Sunni Islam, contrasted with different schools of thought.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: Al-Ghazali had an important influence on both later Muslim philosophers and Christian medieval philosophers. Margaret Smith writes in her book "Al-Ghazali: The Mystic" (London 1944): "There can be no doubt that al-Ghazali’s works would be among the first to attract the attention of these European scholars" (page 220). Then she emphasizes, "The greatest of these Christian writers who was influenced by al-Ghazali was St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), who made a study of the Arabic writers and admitted his indebtedness to them, having studied at the University of Naples where the influence of Arab literature and culture was predominant at the time." In addition, Aquinas' interest in Islamic studies could be attributed to the infiltration of ‘Latin Averroism’ in the 13th century, especially at the University of Paris.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: The period following Ghazali "has tentatively been called the Golden Age of Arabic philosophy" initiated by Ghazali's successful integration of logic into the Islamic seminary Madrasah curriculum.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: Al-Ghazali also played a major role in integrating Sufism with Shariah. He was also the first to present a formal description of Sufism in his works. His works also strengthened the status of Sunni Islam against other schools. The Batinite (Ismailism) had emerged in Persian territories and were gaining more and more power during al-Ghazali's period, as Nizam al-Mulk was assassinated by the members of Ismailis. In his "Fada'ih al-Batiniyya" ("The Infamies of the Esotericists") Al-Ghazali declared them unbelievers whose blood may be spilled, and wrote several books on criticism of Baatinyas which significantly weakened their status.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: Al-Ghazali succeeded in gaining widespread acceptance for Sufism at the expense of philosophy. At the same time, in his refutation of philosophers he made use of their philosophical categories and thus helped to give them wider circulation.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: His influences and impact on Sufi thought and Islam at large during the 11th century has been a subject of debate in contemporary times. Some fifty works that he had written is evidenced that he was one of the most important Islamic thinkers of his time. Three of his works, Ihaya' Ulum ad-Din (Revival of Religious Sciences), Tahafut al-Falasifa (The Incoherence of Philosophers), and al-Muniqidh min a-alal (Al-Ghazali's Path to Sufism: His Deliverance from Error) are still widely read and circulated among Islamic scholars today. After the death of Al-Ghazali, it is believed there followed a long era in which there was a notable absence of Islamic philosophers, contributing to the status of Ghazali in the modern era.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: The staple of his religious philosophy was arguing that the creator was the center point of all human life that played a direct role in all world affairs. Al-Ghazali's influence was not limited to Islam, but in fact his works were widely circulated among Christian and Hebrew scholars and philosophers. Some of the more notable philosophers and scholars in the west include David Hume, Dante, and St. Thomas Aquinas. Moses Ben Maimon, a Jewish theologian was deeply interested and vested in the works of Al-Ghazali. One of the more notable achievements of Ghazali were his writing and reform of education that laid the path of Islamic Education from the 12th to the 19th centuries. Al-Ghazali's works were heavily relied upon by Islamic mathematicians and astronomers such as At-Tusi.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: Early childhood development was a central focal point of Al-Ghazali. He worked to influence and develop a program to mold the young minds of children at an early age to develop their mind and character. He stressed that socialization, family, and schools were central in the achievement of language, morality, and behavior. He emphasized incorporating physical fitness such as games that were important in the development of young minds to attract the idea of attending schools and maintaining an education. In addition, he stressed the importance of understanding and sharing cultures in the classrooms to achieve a civic harmony that would be expressed outside the classroom and kindness to one another.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: In his writings he placed this responsibility upon the teachers. His treatise on early education centered on Islamic laws, God, and memorizing the Qur'an to achieve literary skill. Ghazali emphasized the importance that there should be a dual respect in regard to the teacher and the pupil. Whereas the teacher guides the student and takes the role of a father figure and offers council to the student, and the student respects the teacher as a patriarch. He stressed that the teacher needed to pay attention to the learning paces of his students so that he could help them be successful in academic achievements.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: Al-Ghazali was by every indication of his writings a true mystic in the Persian sense. He believed himself to be more mystical or religious than he was philosophical however, he is more widely regarded by some scholars as a leading figure of Islamic philosophy and thought. He describes his philosophical approach as a seeker of true knowledge, a deeper understanding of the philosophical and scientific, and a better understanding of mysticism and cognition.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: In the contemporary world, Al-Ghazali is renowned not only for his contribution to Sufism, Islam, philosophy, or education but his work and ethical approach transcends another boundary into the Islamic business practice. In the "Journal of Business Ethics", authors Yusif Sidani and Akram Al Ariss explain how Islamic business ethics are governed by the writings of Abu-Hamid Al-Ghazali and even posit that Al-Ghazali is the greatest Muslim since the prophet Muhammad. Traditional Islamist's are influenced by Ghazali's writings since he was indebted to writing about and incorporating Sharia Law. They emphasize, "His mastery of philosophical logic and reasoning earned him the title of philosopher without losing his status as a religious scholar." Al-Ghazali's reasoning on the use of intellect in combination with the rational and spiritual is an integral part of Muslim society today. Therefore, they approach the business perspective with the same ideology and organizational thought.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: Al-Ghazali mentioned the number of his works "more than 70" in one of his letters to Sultan Sanjar in the late years of his life. Some "five dozen" are plausibly identifiable, and several hundred attributed works, many of them duplicates because of varying titles, are doubtful or spurious.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: The tradition of falsely attributing works to Al-Ghazali increased in the 13th century, after the dissemination of the large corpus of works by Ibn Arabi.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: Bibliographies have been published by William Montgomery Watt ("The Works Attributed to Al-Ghazali"), Maurice Bouyges ("Essai de chronologie des oeuvres d'Al-Ghazali") and others.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: According to William Montgomery Watt, Al-Ghazali was considered to be the mujaddid ("Reviver") of his age. Many, perhaps most, later Muslims concurred and, according to Watt, some have even considered him to be the greatest Muslim after Muhammad.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: This statement is refuted by scholars who came after him for it was witnessed that he was giving strengths to weak narrations[sheikh Albani silsilatul huda wan Noor]


title: Al-Ghazali

text: Also a widely considered Sunni scholar, Al Dhahabi in, his praise of Al Ghazali, wrote: "Al-Ghazzaali, the imaam and shaykh, the prominent scholar, Hujjat al-Islam, the wonder of his time, Zayn al-Deen Abu Haamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Toosi al-Shaafa’i al-Ghazzaali, the author of many books and one possessed of utter intelligence. He studied fiqh in his own town, then he moved to Nisapur in the company of a group of students. He stayed with the Imaam al-Haramayn and gained a deep knowledge of fiqh within a short period. He became well-versed in ‘ilm al-kalaam and debate, until he became the best of debater."


title: Al-Ghazali

text: Ibn Rushd (Averroes), a rationalist, famously responded that "to say that philosophers are incoherent is itself to make an incoherent statement." Rushd's book, "The Incoherence of the Incoherence", attempted to refute al-Ghazali's views, but the work was not well received in the Muslim community.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: According to historian Firas Alkhateeb, "When one reads Imam al-Ghazali's works at a very superficial level, one can easily misunderstand what he is saying as anti-scientific in general. The truth, however, is that al-Ghazali's only warning to students is to not fully accept all the beliefs and ideas of a scholar simply because of his achievements in mathematics and science. By issuing such a warning, al-Ghazali is in fact protecting the scientific enterprise for future generations by insulating it from being mixed with theoretical philosophy that could eventually dilute science itself to a field based on conjecture and reasoning alone."


title: Al-Ghazali

text: Al-Ghazali has been seen by Orientalist scholars as causing a decline in scientific advancement in Islam, because of his refutation of the new philosophies of his time. He saw danger in the statements made by philosophers that suggested that God was not all-knowing or even non-existent, which strongly contradicted his conservative Islamic belief. This position has been challenged, however. The following statement made by Al-Ghazali has been described as evidence that he was not against scientific advancement: "Great indeed is the crime against religion committed by anyone who supposes that Islam is to be championed by the denial of mathematical sciences."


title: Al-Ghazali

text: Most aspects of Al-Ghazali's life were heavily influenced by his Islamic beliefs, and his economic philosophy was no exception. He held economic activity to a very high level of importance in his life and thought that others should as well, as he felt that it was not only necessary for the overall benefit to society but also to achieve spiritual wholeness and salvation. In his view, the worldly life of humanity depended on the economic activity of people and so he considered being economically active to be a mandated part of the Sharia law.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: He established three goals of economic activity that he believed were part of one's religious obligation as well as beneficial to the individual: "achievement of self-sufficiency for one's survival; provision for the well-being of one's progeny; and provision for assisting those in economic need." He argued that subsistence living, or living in a way that provides the basic necessities for only one's family, would not be an acceptable practice to be held by the general population because of the detrimental results that he believed that would bring upon the economy, but he acknowledged that some people may choose to live the subsistence lifestyle at their own will for the sake of their personal religious journey. Conversely, he discouraged people from purchasing or possessing excessive material items, suggesting that any additional money earned could be given to provide for the poor.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: Al-Ghazali thought that it should not be necessary to force equality of income in society but that people should be driven by "the spirit of Islamic brotherhood" to share their wealth willingly, but he recognized that it is not always the case. He believed that wealth earned could be used in two potential manners. One is for good, such as maintaining the health of oneself and their family as well as taking care of others and any other actions seen as positive for the Islamic community. The other is what Al-Ghazali would consider misuse, spending it selfishly on extravagant or unnecessary material items.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: In terms of trade, Al-Ghazali discussed the necessity of exchanging goods across close cities as well as larger borders because it allows more goods, which may be necessary and not yet available, to be accessible to more people in various locations. He recognized the necessity of trade and its overall beneficial effect on the economy, but making money in that way might not be considered the most virtuous in his beliefs. He did not support people taking "excessive" profits from their trade sales.


title: Al-Ghazali

text: In 1993, Karen Harding's paper "Causality Then and Now: Al Ghazali and Quantum Theory" described several "remarkable" similarities between Ghazali's concept of occasionalism and the widely accepted Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. She stated: "In both cases, and contrary to common sense, objects are viewed as having no inherent properties and no independent existence. In order for an object to exist, it must be brought into being either by God (al-Ghazili) or by an observer (the Copenhagen Interpretation)." She also stated:In addition, the world is not entirely predictable. For al Ghazali, God has the ability to make anything happen whenever He chooses. In general, the world functions in a predictable manner, but a miraculous event can occur at any moment. All it takes for a miracle to occur is for God to not follow His ‘custom.’ The quantum world is very similar. Lead balls fall when released because the probability of their behaving in that way is very high. It is, however, very possible that the lead ball may ‘miraculously’ rise rather than fall when released. Although the probability of such an event is very small, such an event is, nonetheless, still possible.


title: New York Islanders

text: The New York Islanders (colloquially known as the Isles) are a professional ice hockey team based in Elmont, New York. The Islanders compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference, and play their home games at UBS Arena. The Islanders are one of three NHL franchises in the New York metropolitan area, along with the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers, and their fanbase resides primarily on Long Island.


title: New York Islanders

text: The team was founded in 1972 as part of the NHL's maneuvers to keep a team from rival league World Hockey Association (WHA) out of the newly built Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in suburban Uniondale, New York. After two years of building up the team's roster, they found almost instant success by securing 14 straight playoff berths starting with their third season. The Islanders won four consecutive Stanley Cup championships between 1980 and 1983, the seventh of eight dynasties recognized by the NHL in its history. Their 19 consecutive playoff series wins between 1980 and 1984 is a feat that remains unparalleled in the history of professional sports. They are the last team in any major professional North American sport to win four consecutive championships, and to date the last NHL team to win more than two consecutive Stanley Cup championships.


title: New York Islanders

text: Following the team's dynasty era, the franchise ran into problems with money, ownership and management, an aging arena, and low attendance. Their woes were reflected on the ice, as the team has not won a division title since 1987–88, and went 22 seasons without winning a playoff series prior to the 2016 playoffs. After years of failed attempts to rebuild or replace Nassau Coliseum in suburban Long Island, the Islanders relocated to Barclays Center in Brooklyn following the 2014–15 season. In the 2018–19 and 2019–20 seasons, the Islanders split their home games between Barclays Center and Nassau Coliseum. The Islanders played all their home games in the 2020–21 season at Nassau Coliseum. Their new arena near Belmont Park was opened in 2021.


title: New York Islanders

text: Eight former members of the Islanders have been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, seven of whom—Mike Bossy, Clark Gillies, Denis Potvin, Billy Smith, Bryan Trottier, coach Al Arbour, and general manager Bill Torrey—were members of all four Cup-winning teams. Post-dynasty players Pat LaFontaine and Roberto Luongo were also inducted.


title: New York Islanders

text: In fall 1972, the emerging World Hockey Association (WHA) planned to place its New York team, the New York Raiders, in Nassau County's brand-new Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. County officials did not consider the WHA a major league and wanted to keep the Raiders out. William Shea, who had helped bring Major League Baseball's New York Mets to the area a decade earlier, was enlisted to bring an NHL team to Long Island. Although Shea had previously worked with upstart rival leagues including the aborted Continental League, the American Football League and the American Basketball Association, his ultimate goal in these efforts had always been to try to persuade the established leagues to grant second franchises to New York as had been the case with the Mets (and also with the New York Jets and New York Nets, as a result of those teams' leagues merging with their established rivals).


title: New York Islanders

text: In contrast, Shea decided there was no need to work with the WHA since unlike the initial results of his previous approaches to established leagues in the other major sports, Shea immediately found NHL president Clarence Campbell to be receptive to adding a second team in New York. Nevertheless, the Islanders' bid faced opposition from the New York Rangers, who did not want additional competition in the New York area. Eventually, Campbell and Shea persuaded the Rangers' owners, Madison Square Garden, to reconsider. Rangers' president Bill Jennings weighed pros and cons. Another local NHL team would be compelled to pay the Rangers compensation for sharing their NHL territory. On the other hand, the only realistic scenario in which a WHA rival might have eventually been forced to pay the Rangers anything would be if the NHL had agreed to merge with the new league, a prospect to which both Campbell and Jennings were adamantly opposed. Finally, consenting to the establishment of an NHL franchise in suburban Nassau County would help to ensure the vast majority of the Rangers' fanbase within New York City proper would continue to support the older franchise, and reduced the prospect of a rival league eventually establishing a team and fanbase there. Perhaps remembering the crucial role the Jets had played in ensuring the success of the AFL just a few years earlier as a challenger of the National Football League, Jennings decided to help bring a new NHL team to the New York metropolitan area.


title: New York Islanders

text: Despite expanding to 14 teams just two years prior, the NHL hastily awarded a Long Island-based franchise to clothing manufacturer Roy Boe, owner of the American Basketball Association's New York Nets, on November 8, 1971. The terms included $6 million ($ million in dollars) franchise fee plus a $5 million ($ million in dollars) territorial fee to the Rangers. An expansion franchise was also given to Atlanta (the Flames) to keep the schedule balanced and to prevent the WHA from entering the growing market at the newly built Omni Coliseum.


title: New York Islanders

text: The franchise chose New York Islanders as its name, although many expected it to use the "Long Island Ducks", after the Eastern Hockey League team that played from 1959 to 1973. The team was soon nicknamed the "Isles" by the local newspapers. The Islanders' arrival effectively doomed the Raiders, who played in Madison Square Garden under difficult lease terms and were forced to move to Cherry Hill, New Jersey in the middle of their second season.


title: New York Islanders

text: On February 14, 1972, Bill Torrey, executive vice president of the NHL's California Golden Seals, was named as the team's general manager. The Islanders secured veteran forward Ed Westfall, defenseman Gerry Hart, and goaltender Billy Smith in the 1972 Expansion Draft, along with junior hockey stars Billy Harris, Lorne Henning, and Bobby Nystrom in the 1972 Amateur Draft. Soon after the draft, Phil Goyette was named as the team's first head coach, however he was fired halfway through the season and replaced with Earl Ingarfield and assistant coach Aut Erickson. Unlike most other expansion teams' general managers, Torrey made few trades for veteran players in the early years, as he was committed to building the team through the draft. Torrey stated, "I told the owners that we're not going to beat this team next door by taking the castoffs from others teams. We'd have to develop our own stars." Before the season began, Westfall was named the team's first captain.


title: New York Islanders

text: By September 1972, the Islanders were waiting for the Nassau Coliseum to be completed as well as their practice facility "The Royal Ice Rink" in Kings Park. The team was forced to practice as late as October 6, the day before their first game, at the Rangers practice rink in New Hyde Park.


title: New York Islanders

text: The Islanders' first win came on October 12, 1972, in a 3–2 game against the Los Angeles Kings. In the team's first season, young players such as Smith, Nystrom, and Henning (all of whom would be part of the Islanders dynasty of the early 1980s) were given chances to prove themselves in the NHL. The young and inexperienced expansion team, however, posted a record of 12–60–6, setting an NHL record for most losses and worst overall record in a season. A rare highlight occurred on January 18, 1973, when they defeated the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins 9–7.


title: New York Islanders

text: Finishing last in the standings that season, they received the right to select first in the 1973 draft. Off the ice, the Islanders struggled financially, a situation that was exacerbated by the then-unprecedented $11 million in franchise and territorial fees. Montreal Canadiens' general manager Sam Pollock was keen to acquire the Islanders' pick so he could draft French Canadian junior star defenseman Denis Potvin, who had been touted as "the next Bobby Orr" when he was 14 years old. Pollock made several lucrative trade offers including cash to the Islanders, but Torrey turned the Canadiens down and selected Potvin with the first overall pick. During the off-season, Torrey convinced former St. Louis Blues coach Al Arbour to come coach the Islanders. Even with Arbour as the team's head coach and Potvin, who won the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year, the team again finished last in the East Division that season, but allowed 100 fewer goals than the previous season. The season included their first win against the Rangers, on October 27, 1973, which also happened to be the game where Potvin scored his first NHL goal. Although they failed to make the playoffs, their 56 points represented a 26-point improvement from the previous season.


title: New York Islanders

text: With the 4th and 22nd picks in the 1974 draft, the Islanders added young forwards Clark Gillies and Bryan Trottier to continue Torrey's building plan. In the 1974–75 season, the Islanders made one of the biggest turnarounds in NHL history. Led by Potvin, forwards Westfall, Harris, Nystrom, Gillies, and goaltenders Smith and Glenn "Chico" Resch, the team earned 88 points, 32 more than the previous season and two more than their first two seasons combined, earning their first playoff berth. They defeated the rival New York Rangers in a best-of-3 first-round series as J. P. Parise scored just 11 seconds into overtime of the third game. In the next round, down three games to none in a best-of-seven series against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Islanders rallied to win the next four and take the series-winning Game 7 on a late third-period goal by Westfall. Only four other major North American professional sports teams have accomplished this feat (the 1941–42 Toronto Maple Leafs, 2004 Boston Red Sox, the 2009–10 Philadelphia Flyers, and the 2013–14 Los Angeles Kings). They were close but not as lucky in the following round, rallying from another 3–0 deficit to force a seventh game against the defending Stanley Cup champion Philadelphia Flyers before the Flyers took the decisive seventh game at home and went on to win the Cup again. Despite a disappointing playoff finish, Arbour remained complimentary of the team's attitude and maturity, saying "If I called a practice next week, every one of them would show up."


title: New York Islanders

text: The Islanders continued their climb up the standings in 1975–76, earning 101 points and the fifth-best record in the league. It was the first 100-point season in Islanders history, in only their fourth year of existence. Rookie center Trottier finished the season with 95 points and won the Calder Memorial Trophy; his points and assists (63) totals set a new league record for most in each category by a rookie. It would be the first of four consecutive 100-point seasons, including the first two division titles in franchise history. Despite the emergence of young star players and regular season success between 1976 and 1979 the Islanders suffered a series of playoff disappointments. In 1976 and 1977, the Islanders were knocked out in the semi-finals by the eventual Stanley Cup champions, the Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens posted a 24–3 record in the playoffs during those two seasons with all three losses coming at the hands of the Islanders.


title: New York Islanders

text: In the 1977 draft, Torrey had the 15th overall pick and was deciding between forwards Mike Bossy and Dwight Foster. Bossy was known as an emerging scorer who lacked physicality. Foster was known as a solid checker with marginal offensive ability (despite having led the Ontario Hockey League in scoring). Arbour persuaded Torrey to pick Bossy, arguing it was easier to teach a scorer how to check. In the 1977–78 season, Bossy became the third Islander to win the Calder Trophy, and scored 53 goals that season, a rookie record at the time. The team earned their first Patrick Division and Campbell Conference championships. Six players finished the season with 30 goals scored or more, with five of them Islanders draft picks, showing the success of the draft building process. The season ended with a familiar result in the playoffs, as the team lost in overtime in Game 7 of the quarterfinals against the Toronto Maple Leafs; Billy Harris failed on a breakaway which was followed by a Lanny McDonald goal to complete an upset.


title: New York Islanders

text: In 1978–79, the team finished with the best record in the NHL, clinching it with three goals in the third period of the season's final game against the Rangers. Trottier won the Hart Memorial Trophy as league MVP and captured the Art Ross Trophy for the most points, while sophomore Bossy scored 69 goals, which also led the league. Despite their regular season dominance, the Islanders exited the playoffs with another upset playoff loss, this time to the Rangers in the semi-finals. As the team was leaving Madison Square Garden following their Game 6 elimination, Rangers fans rocked and threw objects at the team's bus. Hockey professionals and journalists generally questioned whether the Islanders were capable of winning the important games needed to win a Stanley Cup championship. Islander players would cite fear of repeating the pain of this loss as spurring their later success. After surrendering the captaincy to Gillies the season before, Westfall retired and shortly thereafter became a color commentator on the team's telecasts.


title: New York Islanders

text: Off the ice, the Islanders were on shaky ground. Boe was losing money on both his franchises, even as the Islanders quickly surged to NHL prominence and the Nets became an ABA power. The Islanders were still far behind on the $10 million they had paid in startup costs, and the expansion and territorial fees associated with moving the Nets to the National Basketball Association threw Boe's finances into a tailspin. Eventually, Boe was forced to sell both his teams. He readily found a buyer for the Nets, but had less luck finding one for the Islanders. Torrey orchestrated a sale to one of the team's limited partners, John Pickett. In return, Pickett promoted Torrey to team president, though Torrey had already been operating head of the franchise before then. Soon after purchasing the team, Pickett signed a very lucrative cable television contract with the fledgling SportsChannel network as their owner, Charles Dolan, thought the up-and-coming Islanders would be a perfect centerpiece for his new network. Dolan gave Pickett a long-term guaranteed contract intended not only to keep the team on Long Island, but give area governments an incentive to renew his cable contracts. The Islanders have remained on the network, now known as MSG Sportsnet, for over four decades.


title: New York Islanders

text: After the Islanders' regular season dominance and playoff disappointment in 1979, Arbour decided that he would no longer concern himself too greatly with his team's finish in the regular season. Instead, he focused his team's energy on how they would perform in the playoffs. In 1980, the Islanders dropped below the 100-point mark for the first time in five years, earning only 91 points. However, they finally broke through and won the Stanley Cup.


title: New York Islanders

text: Before the playoffs, Torrey made the difficult decision to trade longtime and popular veterans Billy Harris and defenseman Dave Lewis to the Los Angeles Kings for second line center Butch Goring. Goring's arrival is often called the "final piece of the puzzle", a strong two-way player, his presence on the second line ensured that opponents would no longer be able to focus their defensive efforts on the Islanders' first line of Bossy, Trottier and Clark Gillies. Contributions from new teammates, such as wingers Duane Sutter and Anders Kallur and stay-at-home defencemen Dave Langevin, Gord Lane, and Ken Morrow (the latter fresh off a gold medal win at the 1980 Olympics), also figured prominently in the Islanders' playoff success.


title: New York Islanders

text: In the playoffs, the Islanders defeated the Los Angeles Kings 3–1 in the preliminary round, then beat the Boston Bruins 4–1 in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, the Islanders faced the Buffalo Sabres, who had finished second overall in the NHL standings. The Islanders won the first two games in Buffalo, including a 2–1 victory in game two on Bob Nystrom's goal in double overtime. They went on to win the series in six games and reach the finals for the first time in franchise history, where they would face the NHL's regular season champions, the Philadelphia Flyers, who had gone undefeated for 35 straight games (25–0–10) during the regular season. In game one in Philadelphia, the Islanders won 4–3 on Denis Potvin's power-play goal in overtime. Leading the series 3–2, they went home to Long Island for game six. In that game the Islanders blew a 4–2 lead in the third period but Nystrom continued his overtime heroics, scoring at 7:11 of the extra frame, on assists by John Tonelli and Lorne Henning, to bring Long Island its first Stanley Cup championship. This was the most recent Stanley Cup-clinching game won in overtime by the home team until the Los Angeles Kings did it in 2014. It was also the Islanders' sixth overtime victory of the playoffs. Bryan Trottier won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the playoffs. Torrey's strategy of building through the draft turned out very well; nearly all of the major contributors on the 1980 champions were home-grown Islanders or had spent most of their NHL careers in the Islanders organization. The Islanders were the first NHL team to win the Stanley Cup with Europeans (Stefan Persson and Kallur) on its roster.


title: New York Islanders

text: The Islanders dominated the next two seasons. Bossy scored 50 goals in 50 games in 1981 and the Islanders lost only three playoff games en route to defeating the Minnesota North Stars in five games to win the Stanley Cup. Goring won the Conn Smythe Trophy. During their semi-final sweep of the Rangers, Islander fans began taunting the Rangers with a chant of "1940!" – referring to the Rangers' last Stanley Cup win in (the Rangers would not win the cup again until 1994). Fans in other NHL cities soon picked up the chant.


title: New York Islanders

text: In 1981–82, the Islanders won a then-record 15 straight games en route to a franchise-record 118 points, while Mike Bossy set a scoring record for right-wingers with 147 points in an 80-game schedule. The Islanders won the Presidents' Trophy, yet once in the playoffs against the Pittsburgh Penguins they found themselves down late in the third period of deciding game 5 before John Tonelli scored both the tying goal and the overtime winner. After defeating the Rangers in six games they swept both the Quebec Nordiques and the Vancouver Canucks in the first-ever coast-to-coast Stanley Cup Finals for their third straight championship. During that series Bossy, upended by a check from Tiger Williams and falling parallel to the ice, managed to hook the puck with his stick and score. Bossy netted the Stanley Cup-winning goal and was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy.


title: New York Islanders

text: The next year, although the Islanders had won the Stanley Cup three straight times, more attention was being paid to the upstart Edmonton Oilers, whose young superstar Wayne Gretzky had just shattered existing scoring records. In 1982–83 the Oilers had a better regular season, but the Islanders swept them in the Stanley Cup Finals to win their fourth straight championship. Billy Smith was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner after shutting down the Oilers' vaunted scoring machine. Gretzky failed to score a goal during the series. Duane and Brent Sutter scored 7 and 5 points respectively in the first 3 games, while Bossy again scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal in game four. After that game, the Oilers players walked past the Islanders' dressing room and were surprised to see the champions exhausted. Oilers players such as Gretzky and Mark Messier said that they realized at that moment how much it would actually take to win the Stanley Cup.


title: New York Islanders

text: The Islanders finished the 1983–84 regular season tied atop the Prince of Wales Conference while successfully defending their Patrick Division title. The "Drive for Five" got off to a tense start. Late in the deciding game of their first-round series against the Rangers, Don Maloney tied the game with a controversial goal as the Islanders believed Maloney's stick was too high. They ultimately eliminated the Rangers for the fourth consecutive year. The team then defeated the Washington Capitals in five games and the Montreal Canadiens in six to set up a finals rematch with the Oilers. The series featured rookie Pat LaFontaine scoring two third-period goals in 38 seconds. This time, the Oilers dethroned the Islanders to win the first of what would be five Stanley Cup victories in seven years. For the 1984 playoffs, the NHL changed the home and away schedule for the finals, which provided the Islanders home-ice advantage in the series based on winning a regular season game against the Oilers, despite finishing lower than them in the overall standings. The new format had them play three straight games in Edmonton, where the Oilers managed to lock up the series. Bossy cited the team's hard time winning an away game as their downfall in the series. The Oilers also ended the Islanders' 19 series playoff winning streak. It remains the longest streak in the history of professional sports (one more than the 1959–67 streak by the Boston Celtics of the NBA). Unlike the 1976–79 Canadiens, who needed to win three series in the 1976 and 1977 playoffs under the playoff format in place at that time, the Islanders had to win four series in each of their Stanley Cup seasons.


title: New York Islanders

text: The Islanders remained competitive for the rest of the decade, even as some of the stars from the Cup teams departed. As the decade wore on, Pickett began to keep the money from the team's cable deal rather than reinvest it in the team as he had done in years past. Although it did not become clear immediately, the lack of funds limited Torrey's ability to replace all of the departing talent. In the 1984–85 NHL season, the Islanders slipped to third in their division, followed by similar results in the 1985–86 and 1986–87 seasons. They began facing stiff competition from division rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers, who eliminated the Islanders in the Patrick Division Finals in 1985 and 1987, and the Capitals, who swept the Islanders' 1986 first-round series, the team's first exit without winning a playoff round since 1978.


title: New York Islanders

text: In 1986, Nystrom retired due to a serious injury and Clark Gillies was picked up on waivers by the Buffalo Sabres. Arbour retired as coach following the 1985–86 season and was replaced by longtime junior hockey coach Terry Simpson. During the first round of the 1987 playoffs against the Capitals, the Islanders had fallen behind in the series three games to one but were not eliminated due to a playoff format change from a best-of-5 series to a best-of-7. The Islanders evened the series, which set the stage for one of the most famous games in NHL history: the "Easter Epic". Kelly Hrudey stopped 73 shots on goal while Pat LaFontaine scored at 8:47 of the fourth overtime—and at 1:56 a.m. on Easter Sunday morning. The win came even though the Islanders had been outshot 75–52. They were eliminated in the Patrick Division finals in seven games by the Flyers. Chronic back pain forced Mike Bossy to retire after the season.


title: New York Islanders

text: The following season, the Islanders captured another division title, but were defeated in the first round of the playoffs by the upstart New Jersey Devils. Potvin retired after the playoffs, holding records for most career goals (310), assists (742) and points (1052) by a defenseman, though he has since been passed in these categories by Ray Bourque and Paul Coffey. Around this time, the team's run of good luck in the draft began to run out. Of their four top draft picks from 1987 to 1990, they lost one to a freak knee injury and two others never panned out.


title: New York Islanders

text: The 1988–89 season saw the Islanders win only seven of their first 27 games. Torrey fired Simpson and brought Arbour back. Arbour was unable to turn things around, and the team finished with 61 points, tied with the Quebec Nordiques for the worst record in the league. It was their first losing season and the first time missing the playoffs since their second season. Smith, the last remaining original Islanders player, retired after the season to become the team's goaltending coach. Not long after the end of the season, Pickett moved to Florida and turned day-to-day operations over to a committee of four Long Island entrepreneurs: Ralph Palleschi, Bob Rosenthal, Stephen Walsh, and Paul Greenwood. In return, they each bought a 2.5% interest in the team. In the next season, the Islanders rebounded to get back into the playoffs, but fell to the Rangers in five games of the opening round. The team bought out the remaining years of Bryan Trottier's contract, sending him off with a team record of games played. The 1990–91 season had the team finish well out of the playoffs after winning only 25 games.


title: New York Islanders

text: LaFontaine, the Islanders' remaining superstar, was frustrated with the team's lack of success and the progress of his contract negotiations, and held out rather than report to camp before 1991–92. In response to the holdout, Torrey engineered a rebuilding project with two blockbuster trades on October 25, 1991. He dealt LaFontaine, Randy Wood and Randy Hillier (along with future considerations) to the Buffalo Sabres in return for Pierre Turgeon, Benoit Hogue, Uwe Krupp and Dave McLlwain. He also sent longtime captain Brent Sutter and Brad Lauer to the Chicago Blackhawks for Steve Thomas and Adam Creighton. With these additions and a talented core of players such as Derek King, Ray Ferraro, and Patrick Flatley, along with incoming Soviet players Vladimir Malakhov and Darius Kasparaitis, the Islanders had a new foundation in the early 1990s. The management committee, however, was not nearly as patient as Boe and Pickett had been, and forced Torrey to resign after the Islanders missed the playoffs again that season. Assistant general manager Don Maloney was hired in Torrey's place, while Torrey quickly resurfaced with the expansion Florida Panthers.


title: New York Islanders

text: In Maloney's first year, 1992–93, the Islanders rebounded to make the playoffs, in the process surpassing the 80-point mark for the first time in six years. The LaFontaine-Turgeon trade proved successful for both the Islanders and Sabres, as both players hit career highs in points and Turgeon won the Lady Byng Trophy.


title: New York Islanders

text: Ray Ferraro emerged as a playoff hero, scoring a pair of overtime winners in the first-round series against the Capitals. Instead of celebrating after winning Game 6 at Nassau Coliseum, however, the Islanders were both irate and despondent. Turgeon, the team's star center and leading scorer, suffered a shoulder separation when Dale Hunter checked him from behind as he celebrated the series-clinching goal. Turgeon was believed to be out for the entire second round, if not longer. He returned only for spot power-play duty in the last game of the second round. Hunter received a then-record 21-game suspension.


title: New York Islanders

text: The Islanders' next opponent, the Pittsburgh Penguins, were twice-defending Stanley Cup champions and full of stars such as Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, and Ron Francis. The Penguins had roared through the regular season with 119 points, as well as recording a record 17 consecutive wins towards the end of the season, and were overwhelmingly favored to win a third straight championship. Jim Smith of "Newsday" predicted that with Turgeon on the sidelines, the Penguins would sweep the Islanders out of the playoffs, however on the strength of outstanding goaltending from Glenn Healy and contributions from all four lines, the Islanders achieved a huge upset when David Volek scored at 5:16 of overtime of the deciding seventh game. "Newsday"'s front page the day following the win was a picture of Healy with a headline reading, "It's a Miracle!" This was the last playoff series won by the Islanders for 23 years, until the 2015–16 season. Turgeon returned to the Islanders' top line for the Wales Conference Finals against the Montreal Canadiens, though he was not in peak form as he had not fully recovered. The Islanders bowed out of the playoffs after a hard-fought five games, two of which went to overtime. After beating the Islanders, the Canadiens went on to win the Cup.


title: New York Islanders

text: Maloney had avoided making many personnel changes his first year, but on the eve of the 1993 Expansion Draft he traded backup goaltender Mark Fitzpatrick to the Quebec Nordiques for Ron Hextall. The clubs also exchanged first-round picks in the deal. Able to protect only one netminder in the Expansion Draft, the Islanders left Healy exposed. He was claimed by the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, then was claimed by the Tampa Bay Lightning in Phase II of the draft the next day, and finally had his rights traded to the Rangers, where he became the backup.


title: New York Islanders

text: The Islanders barely squeezed past the Panthers to make the 1994 playoffs before being swept in a lopsided opening series by the first-place Rangers, who went on to win the Cup, it would be the Islanders last playoff appearance until 2002. Arbour retired for good as coach and was succeeded by longtime assistant Lorne Henning. Hextall, who allowed 16 goals in three games, drew most of the criticism for the failed playoff campaign and was shipped to Philadelphia for Tommy Soderstrom in September. In the lockout-shortened 1994–95 season, the Islanders not only failed to qualify for the playoffs, they finished ahead of only the third-year Ottawa Senators.


title: New York Islanders

text: By the end of the 1994–95 season, Maloney was under considerable heat from the press and fan base for his handling of the team. Since taking over in 1992, the only noticeable attempt he made to upgrade the roster was the acquisition of Hextall. Near the end of the failed 1995 campaign, Maloney decided that the core of players he had left alone for three seasons needed to be revamped, leading to a rebuilding project. He traded Turgeon and Malakhov to the Montreal Canadiens for Kirk Muller and Mathieu Schneider, while Hogue was sent to Toronto for young goaltender Eric Fichaud. Additionally, Maloney allowed the team's leading scorer, Ferraro, to depart as an unrestricted free agent at the conclusion of the season. Fans' displeasure at Maloney for trading the popular Turgeon was magnified when Muller balked at joining a rebuilding team. He played 45 games for the Islanders before being sent to Toronto as well.


title: New York Islanders

text: Before the 1995–96 season, Maloney fired Henning and named Mike Milbury head coach. The same year, the Islanders' attempt at updating their look resulted in the unveiling of a new team logo of a slicker-clad fisherman holding a hockey stick. Islanders fans disliked it, and rival Rangers' fans mockingly called the Islanders "fishsticks"—mocking how the logo resembled the Gorton's Fisherman. The team reverted to a modified version of the old logo as soon as the league allowed them to do so. The year was a disappointment on the ice as well, as the Islanders finished in last place with a record of 22–50–10. During the season, team management fired Maloney, whom fans blamed for the team's downfall, and gave Milbury full control of hockey operations as both a coach and general manager. Milbury went on to resign as head coach during the following season and elevated assistant Rick Bowness to the position. After another unsuccessful season with little improvement, Milbury took over as coach again during the 1997–98 season. The team improved to fourth place in their division but again failed to make the playoffs. Milbury followed by once again stepping down as coach during the following season while retaining his job as general manager.


title: New York Islanders

text: During the continued playoff drought, instability in the front office mirrored the Islanders' substandard performance on the ice. Pickett sold the team to Dallas businessman John Spano in 1996. However, three months after the 1997 closing, Spano had only paid Pickett a fraction of the first installment on the cable rights deal. Several Islanders executives tipped off "Newsday" that something was amiss about their new boss. In July, "Newsday" exposed Spano as a fraud who did not have the assets required to complete the deal. The investigation showed that Spano had deliberately misled the NHL and the Islanders about his net worth, and also had two lawsuits pending against him. Within days of the report, Spano was forced to relinquish the team to Pickett. Federal prosecutors turned up evidence that Spano had forged many of the documents used to vouch for his wealth and to promise payment to Pickett, and even appeared to have sent many of the documents from his own office in Dallas. He was sentenced to 71 months in prison for bank and wire fraud. The NHL took additional heat when reports surfaced that the league spent well under $1,000 (depending on the source, the league spent either $525 or $750) to check Spano's background. It subsequently stiffened the process for vetting future owners. The incident and its aftermath were covered in the ESPN "30 for 30" documentary, "Big Shot". Pickett finally found a buyer, a group led by Howard Milstein and Phoenix Coyotes co-owner Steven Gluckstern, a deal which almost fell through when Spectacor Management Group, which managed the Coliseum for Nassau County, tried to force Pickett to certify that the Coliseum was safe. Pickett refused, since the Coliseum had fallen into disrepair in recent seasons. SMG backed down under pressure from the Islanders, the NHL, and Nassau County officials.


title: New York Islanders

text: Initially, the team made numerous trades and increased their payroll in an effort to assemble a better team. In one transaction, young players Todd Bertuzzi and Bryan McCabe were traded for veteran Trevor Linden. After the Islanders finished 12 points short of the playoffs in the 1997–98 season, however, Milstein and Gluckstern decided to run the team on an austere budget in an attempt to make a profit. They also complained about the condition of the Nassau Coliseum and made noises about moving the team elsewhere. They began trading or releasing many popular players to avoid paying their salaries, including star scorer Zigmund Palffy, team captain Linden, former rookie of the year Bryan Berard, and rugged defenseman Rich Pilon. Losing the highly regarded players, the team finished with similar results the next two seasons. Attendance, which had been in a steady decline over the past few years, decreased even further to under 12,000 per game. Around that time, Milstein bid hundreds of millions of dollars in unsuccessful attempts to purchase the National Football League's Washington Redskins and Cleveland Browns.


title: New York Islanders

text: In 2000, Milstein and Gluckstern sold the team to Computer Associates executives Charles Wang and Sanjay Kumar. The sale cost $187.5 million ($ million in dollars) and gave fans hope for the team to turn its lack of success around. The new owners allowed Milbury to spend money and invest in free agents. His first attempt proved unpopular with fans, as he traded away future star players Roberto Luongo and Olli Jokinen to the Florida Panthers for Oleg Kvasha and Mark Parrish. Milbury then further surprised the hockey world when he took Rick DiPietro with the first selection in the 2000 draft, ahead of consensus picks Dany Heatley and Marian Gaborik. Reporters and fans were alternately confused and enraged by the moves, which Milbury acknowledged, saying, "As dangerous as this may be, we think Mad Mike maybe has something going for him." Establishing a record of controversial decisions, Milbury held onto the "Mad Mike" nickname for years to follow. He remained adamant that his moves were to immediately improve the team, whose poor winning percentage that year was ahead of only the franchise's first season. The team's uninspired play led Milbury to fire head coach and past player Butch Goring. Fans vocalized their dislike of Goring taking the fall rather than Milbury, which was further worsened when Milbury passed on hiring Ted Nolan as Goring's successor; Instead, Boston Bruins assistant coach Peter Laviolette was hired.


title: New York Islanders

text: Three key personnel acquisitions were made prior to the 2001–02 season, Laviolette's first. Alexei Yashin was acquired from the Ottawa Senators in exchange for forward Bill Muckalt, defenseman Zdeno Chara and the Islanders' second overall pick in the 2001 draft. Next, Islanders prospects Tim Connolly and Taylor Pyatt were traded to the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for Michael Peca, who became the team's captain. By virtue of finishing with the worst record in the previous season, Detroit Red Wings goaltender Chris Osgood was the next addition, taken as the first pick in the September 2001 waiver draft, adding a former Stanley Cup championship goaltender without giving up any players in exchange. The additions proved to be a great help, as the team opened the season with a 9–0–1–1 record, the best in franchise history. They finished the season with new broken records; their 96 points marked the fourth biggest one-year turnaround in the league's history (44 points higher than the previous season), while Osgood's 66 starts surpassed Billy Smith's previous record of 65. During the 2002 Stanley Cup playoffs, they were seeded fifth and faced the fourth-seeded Toronto Maple Leafs. The Islanders lost in a very physical first-round series in seven games; the home team won every game of the series. Notably, Game 5 featured Gary Roberts charging Islander defenseman Kenny Jonsson, and Darcy Tucker submarining Peca with a questionable check that tore the Islander captain's anterior cruciate ligament, sidelining both players for the series' final game. The situation between Tucker and Peca caused a bit of outrage, with speculation that Tucker had intended to injure Peca before the game had begun, which Tucker denied.


title: New York Islanders

text: Despite the promise shown in the Toronto playoff series, the Islanders had a slow start to the 2002–03 season. They rebounded to make the playoffs, but lost a five-game series in the first round to the top-seeded Ottawa Senators. Milbury continued his controversial move-making by firing Laviolette after the season, citing postseason interviews with the players in which they expressed a lack of confidence in the coach. He was replaced with Steve Stirling, who had previously been coaching the team's top minor league affiliate, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. In the following season, the Islanders again lost in the first round of the playoffs, this time to the eventual champion Tampa Bay Lightning.


title: New York Islanders

text: Following the 2004–05 NHL lockout, which eliminated that season of play, the Islanders made several player moves to increase offense for following season. Peca was traded to the Edmonton Oilers for center Mike York, freeing up room under the NHL's new salary cap. The same day, the team signed winger Miroslav Satan to play alongside Yashin. Milbury also worked on remaking the team's defense, adding Alexei Zhitnik, Brad Lukowich and Brent Sopel to replace the departed Adrian Aucoin and Roman Hamrlik, who left as free agents, and Jonsson, who left the NHL to play in the HockeyAllsvenskan in Sweden. In the aftermath, Yashin was named as the team's new captain. The team's inconsistent play led to Stirling's dismissal midway through the season.


title: New York Islanders

text: On the day of Stirling's firing, January 11, 2006, Milbury also announced that he would step down as general manager once a successor was found. He served as vice president of Wang's sports properties for one year before resigning in May 2007. Wang proceeded by hiring Neil Smith as general manager and Ted Nolan as head coach, following a brief stint by Brad Shaw as the team's interim head coach. Smith, however, was fired after approximately one month and quickly replaced by the team's backup goaltender Garth Snow, who retired from his playing career to accept the position. Before his dismissal, Smith made several free agent acquisitions, including defensemen Brendan Witt and Tom Poti, and forwards Mike Sillinger and Chris Simon.


title: New York Islanders

text: On September 12, 2006, the Islanders signed DiPietro to a 15-year, $67.5 million ($ million in dollars) contract, which was believed to be the longest contract to date in the NHL and the second-longest in North American sports, behind a 25-year contract for National Basketball Association player Magic Johnson. DiPietro, Wang and Snow all spoke confidently and felt it was the best move for both sides, despite the mixed reactions it received from the rest of the hockey world. Specifically, Wang stated, "This is not a big deal. You have to have a commitment to who you're working with." As speculation began as to whether other teams would follow suit and give lengthy contracts to star players, Atlanta Thrashers' general manager Don Waddell felt that, "It's highly unlikely that you will see teams go beyond that. This is a once-in-a-lifetime contract. Ownership must feel very strongly that he's their guy for the next 15 years."


title: New York Islanders

text: The new-look Islanders were picked by most analysts to languish towards the bottom of the standings. Eyeing a playoff spot, Snow traded for forward Ryan Smyth from the Edmonton Oilers at the trade deadline on February 27, 2007. Injuries to DiPietro and a distracting stick swinging incident that resulted in Simon's suspension for the rest of the season provided extra setbacks, but not enough to drop the team from playoff contention. They qualified for the playoffs, assisted by a late-season winning steak and a 3–2 shootout victory against the New Jersey Devils in their final regular season game. Despite DiPietro's return to the team in time for the playoffs, the team lost their first round matchup in five games to the Presidents' Trophy-winning Buffalo Sabres.


title: New York Islanders

text: Management announced in June 2007 that they would buy out captain Alexei Yashin's contract, which had four seasons remaining on it. Free agents Smyth, Poti, Viktor Kozlov, Jason Blake, and Richard Zednik also left in July 2007. During that month, the Islanders signed Bill Guerin to a two-year contract as he immediately assumed team captaincy. Also in the off-season, free agents Mike Comrie, Andy Sutton and Jon Sim joined the team. That summer, it was announced that Nolan extended an invitation to Al Arbour to return as a coach for one game in order to bring his total number of games coached to 1,500. Arbour signed a one-day contract, the shortest in league history, on November 3, 2007; it put him behind the bench the following day as the Islanders defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 3–2, raising his career coaching win total to 740. The team remained in the playoff hunt through the trade deadline as they resigned Comrie to a one-year contract and traded away Simon and Marc-Andre Bergeron. A rash of injuries saw them plummet to the fifth-worst record in the league by the end of the season.


title: New York Islanders

text: At the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, the Islanders made two trades to move down from the fifth to the ninth overall pick, with which they selected center Josh Bailey. They also added free agents Mark Streit and Doug Weight. The team dismissed head coach Ted Nolan over alleged philosophy differences, and later that summer replaced him with Scott Gordon. Near the trade deadline, Snow traded Comrie and Chris Campoli to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for forward Dean McAmmond and the San Jose Sharks' first-round draft pick in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft and sent captain Bill Guerin to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for a conditional draft pick.


title: New York Islanders

text: In the 2008–09 season, the Islanders finished in last place in the league with a record of 26–47–9, which was the team's worst record since the 2000–01 season. After the conclusion of regular season, they won the draft lottery to retain the first overall pick in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.


title: New York Islanders

text: Beginning an effort to rebuild the team with new and young talent, the Islanders selected John Tavares with the first-overall pick of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft. Tavares went into the draft as the top prospect in the majority of scouting reports, and it was widely expected that the Islanders would select him after they secured the first overall pick by winning the draft lottery, although there was plenty of competition between Tavares, Victor Hedman, and Matt Duchene. NHL Central Scouting Bureau's Chris Edwards spoke highly of him, stating, "[Tavares] is phenomenal at getting the puck through traffic to his linemates, getting to opening. The way he reads the play and can get to where he figures the rebounds will be and bangs in the rebound. He's a real smart player." They traded up twice in the first round to also select defenseman Calvin de Haan with the 12th overall pick, as well as Casey Cizikas and Anders Lee in later rounds, all of whom would go on to play consistently on the main roster by the 2014–15 season.


title: New York Islanders

text: The 2009–10 season started out slow, with the team winless its first six games. The team continued to play inconsistently due to injuries as many wrote them off as potential playoff contenders. The team hit a mid-season hot streak, however nine losses in 11 games before the Olympic break set them right back. They ultimately ended up at bottom of the standings again, finishing the season 26th in the league. The placement led to a fifth overall pick in 2010. Continuing with their rebuilding process, they used the first round to draft young forwards Nino Niederreiter and Brock Nelson with picks five and 30, respectively. As the 2010–11 season got underway, the team quickly fell into a ten-game losing streak, leading to the firing of head coach Scott Gordon. He was replaced on an interim basis by Jack Capuano, who had been coaching the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Early in the season, they also acquired Michael Grabner from waivers, who went on to score 34 goals and was selected as a finalist for the Calder Memorial Trophy; he would go on to sign a five-year contract with the team at the end of the season. This year also featured the infamous Penguins–Islanders brawl, which resulted in a combined 346 penalty minutes and a $100,000 fine to the Islanders for "failure to control their players".


title: New York Islanders

text: The following season was a breakout year for Tavares. The newly named assistant captain gained 31 goals and 50 assists, in addition to being selected to play in the 59th NHL All-Star Game at the age of 21; his 81 points were seventh-best in the league. Tavares' left-winger Matt Moulson also had a strong season, finishing with career highs of 36 goals, 33 assists and 69 points. Despite strong seasons from their top players, the team finished 27th in the league with a record of 34–37–11, continuing their pattern of racking up top prospects with early picks at the drafts. They used the first round of the 2012 draft to select defenseman Griffin Reinhart with the fourth overall pick.


title: New York Islanders

text: On August 1, 2011, voters in Nassau County rejected a proposal for a new arena to replace Nassau Coliseum. This followed the failed decade-long attempt by owner Charles Wang to build a mixed-use development called The Lighthouse Project, which would have renovated the arena. In the wake of the vote, speculation began that the team would eventually move to Barclays Center in Brooklyn, new arenas in Queens or Suffolk County, the Sprint Center in Kansas City, or the Videotron Centre in Quebec City, the last of which was coincidentally set to open at the same time as the expiration of the Islanders' lease on the Nassau Coliseum in 2015.


title: New York Islanders

text: On October 24, 2012, the Islanders made the announcement that the franchise would indeed be moving to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the 2015–16 NHL season, after signing a lease that would keep the team in the arena until 2040. The team retained its name, logo and colors as part of the move. As part of the deal, the management of Barclays Center took over the team's business operations once the Islanders moved to Barclays Center. The decision to move to Brooklyn didn't require the Rangers' approval. Under a longstanding provision of the agreement that allowed the Islanders to share the New York area with the Rangers, the Islanders are allowed to play their games anywhere on Long Island, including the two city boroughs on the island, Brooklyn and Queens.


title: New York Islanders

text: Beginning on April 1, 2013, of the 2012–13 season, the team went on a near month-long unbeaten streak in regulation time, posting a 12-game streak of earning points until falling to the Philadelphia Flyers later that month. During that streak, on April 23, 2013, they clinched their first playoff berth since 2007 with a 4–3 shootout loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, ending a six-year playoff drought. Behind goaltender Evgeni Nabokov, the team was ultimately eliminated in six games by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of the playoffs, continuing their winless streak in playoff series.


title: New York Islanders

text: On September 10, 2013, Tavares was introduced as the 14th captain in New York Islanders history, replacing former Islander Mark Streit of the Philadelphia Flyers, who served as team captain since 2011. After posting a 4–4–3 record in their first 11 games, the Islanders made a trade, sending fan favorite and three-time 30-goal scorer Matt Moulson, their 2014 first-round draft pick and their 2015 second-round draft pick to the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for Thomas Vanek, a highly regarded and dynamic goal scorer. Despite chemistry with linemates Tavares and Kyle Okposo, however, the overall lack of on-ice success and his desire to test free agency led to Vanek being dealt to the Montreal Canadiens at the trade deadline for Sebastian Collberg and a second-round pick in 2014. After a season of player swapping and goaltending issues, they failed to qualify for the playoffs, finishing with a record of 34–37–11.


title: New York Islanders

text: In the 2014 off-season, the Islanders made several moves to improve the team before their final season at Nassau Coliseum. In May, the Islanders acquired the rights to Jaroslav Halak from the Washington Capitals in exchange for a fourth-round pick in 2014, which was then dealt to the Rangers, who drafted Igor Shesterkin. Halak was then signed to a four-year contract. The Islanders also signed Mikhail Grabovski, Nikolai Kulemin and goaltender Chad Johnson as free agents. Additionally, on October 4, the Islanders acquired Johnny Boychuk from the Boston Bruins for two-second round picks in 2014 and 2015 and a conditional third-round pick in 2015, as well as Nick Leddy from the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for prospect Ville Pokka, T. J. Brennan and the rights to Anders Nilsson.


title: New York Islanders

text: The NHL Board of Governors approved the Islanders' sale to businessmen Jon Ledecky and Scott D. Malkin in October 2014. Ledecky and Malkin served as minority partners during a two-year transition period. At the end of the 2015–16 season, they formally took majority control from Wang, who will retain a share of the franchise.


title: New York Islanders

text: The Islanders finished the 2014–15 regular season with a record of 47–28–7 for 101 points, and met the Washington Capitals in the first round of the 2015 playoffs. The Capitals held home-ice advantage in the series after the Islanders lost their final regular season game to the Columbus Blue Jackets, 5–4, in a shootout, as the Islanders lost the season series to the Capitals after posting a 2–1–1 record in the season series. On April 19, 2015, in the third game of their first-round series against Washington, John Tavares scored 15 seconds into overtime to win the game for the Islanders, 2–1. It was the second-shortest overtime playoff game in Islanders history, and was the first overtime, game-winning goal for the Islanders in the playoffs since 1993. The Islanders lost the fourth and fifth games of their series before rebounding in the sixth game to force a seventh game in the series. However, they were denied entry into the second round by a single goal and would ultimately fall to the Capitals in seven games. As a result, Game 6 was the Islanders' last game at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum; the Isles' Cal Clutterbuck scored the final NHL goal in the building.


title: New York Islanders

text: In June 2015, the Islanders selected forward Andong Song in the 6th round of the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, making him the first Chinese player to be drafted by an NHL team.


title: New York Islanders

text: The Islanders played their first regular season game at Barclays Center on October 9, 2015, losing 3–2 in overtime to the Chicago Blackhawks. Artem Anisimov scored the first regular season goal, while Tavares scored the first regular season Islanders goal. The Islanders posted the fourth-best penalty kill rate and allowed the fewest power-play goals during the season. However, in the last quarter of the regular season, some players, including Halak and defenseman Travis Hamonic, suffered key injuries. The team finished the regular season fourth in the Metropolitan Division with 100 points, enough to clinch the first wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. In the first round of the playoffs, they faced off against the Florida Panthers; goaltender Thomas Greiss only played in 40 minutes of playoff hockey with the San Jose Sharks prior to this series. Both teams split the first four games of the series. The fifth game of the series proved to be a major turning point, as late season call-up Alan Quine scored the game-winning goal on the power play with four minutes left in double overtime to end the second-longest game in franchise history; that goal gave them a 3–2 series lead and a chance to clinch the series on home ice. In the sixth game, the Islanders trailed 1–0 for much of the game, but Tavares tied it late in the third period. Tavares would score again with the series-clinching goal in double overtime to give the Islanders their first playoff series win since 1993. In the second round of the playoffs, they faced the Tampa Bay Lightning for the first time since 2004. Despite winning the first game of the series, the Islanders lost their series to the Lightning in five games.


title: New York Islanders

text: Summer of 2016 saw free agents and longtime Islanders Kyle Okposo, Frans Nielsen, and Matt Martin all depart the team, joining the Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings, and Toronto Maple Leafs, respectively. Snow signed free agents Andrew Ladd from the Winnipeg Jets and Jason Chimera from the Washington Capitals to help fill the gaps left behind. After an underwhelming first half of the 2016–17 season, posting a 17–17–8 record through 42 games, head coach Jack Capuano was relieved of duties, with assistant general manager Doug Weight being named interim head coach. Having coached the team since 2010, Capuano was the second-winningest coach in the team's history with 227 wins, also leading the team to their first playoff series win since 1993. Prior to Capuano's release, goaltender Jaroslav Halak was placed on waivers, and eventually sent down to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Having carried three goaltenders for the second consecutive season, the decision was made to stick with the tandem of Greiss and back-up Jean-Francois Berube after Halak posted a 6–8–5 record with a .904 save percentage through the beginning of the 2016–17 season.


title: New York Islanders

text: In late January 2017, following a report by "Bloomberg News" which speculated that Barclays Center was considering removing the Islanders due to poor attendance and effects on the venue's profit margins (reception to Barclays Center as a hockey venue was mixed, and the Islanders had the third-worst average attendance in the entire league while playing at the venue), "Newsday" reported that Nassau County executive Edward Mangano had met with one of the team's co-owners, and told the paper that it was possible that the Islanders could return to the renovated Nassau Coliseum. However, commissioner Gary Bettman considered the concept to be "unviable" (the renovation reduced the capacity of the arena to just under 14,000, which is smaller than any NHL arena), and noted that Ledecky and Malkin were pursuing a possible arena project at Belmont Park.


title: New York Islanders

text: Despite winning their last six games of the 2016–17 season, the Islanders finished in ninth place in the Eastern Conference; they missed the playoffs by only one point when the Toronto Maple Leafs clinched the final playoff spot on the penultimate day of the season.


title: New York Islanders

text: On February 9, 2018, rookie Mathew Barzal recorded his third five-point game, becoming only the second rookie to do so since Joe Malone in 1917–18 and tying a 100-year-old record in the process. At the end of the 2017–18 regular season, Barzal had 85 points (22 goals, 63 assists). He led his team and all NHL rookies in points, and was tied for 13th overall in scoring in the NHL. Barzal was the seventh rookie in NHL history, and first since Sidney Crosby in 2005–06, to have scored at least 20 goals and 60 assists in a single season. Barzal also tied Islanders legend, Bryan Trottier's franchise record for rookie assists. Barzal won the Calder Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year for his 85-point season, leading the closest candidate by 20 points and receiving 160 out of 164 first-place votes. Barzal was the first Islanders' player to win the award since Bryan Berard in 1997, and he was the fifth Islanders' player overall to win the trophy, joining Islanders legends Mike Bossy (1978), Trottier (1976), and Denis Potvin (1974).


title: New York Islanders

text: During the 2018 off-season, the Islanders announced that former New Jersey Devils and Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Lou Lamoriello was named their president of hockey operations, with "full authority over all hockey matters with the organization", and would become general manager on June 5, 2018, replacing Garth Snow. Additionally, Barry Trotz was hired as head coach of the Islanders. Trotz resigned from the Washington Capitals one month prior after coaching them to their first Stanley Cup championship since they entered the NHL in 1974. Captain John Tavares' contract with the team expired following the 2017–18 season, and despite attempts to re-sign him, he joined the Toronto Maple Leafs as a free agent.


title: New York Islanders

text: In the 2018–19 season, the Islanders split their home games between Barclays Center and their former home, Nassau Coliseum. The use of both arenas would continue over the course of the following two seasons until the completion of a new 18,000-seat arena at Belmont Park in Elmont. The Islanders enjoyed success throughout the 2018–19 season, clinching a playoff berth at home for the first time in 17 years, and the first time in March since 1990. Nassau Coliseum hosted their home playoff games during the first round while the Barclays Center hosted their home games for the rest of the playoffs. In the First Round of the 2019 playoffs, the Islanders swept the Pittsburgh Penguins, and in the Second Round the team was swept by the Carolina Hurricanes.


title: New York Islanders

text: On August 8, 2019, the Empire State Development Corporation board (ESD) voted unanimously in favor of the Belmont Park Arena project.


title: New York Islanders

text: In February 2020, it was announced that the Islanders would return to Nassau Coliseum for the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs and the 2020–21 season until UBS Arena was opened. Both the 2019–20 season and the construction of the new arena were interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. When the NHL season was suspended on March 12, 2020, the Islanders had twelve regular season games remaining and were one point shy of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Islanders qualified for the NHL Return-to-Play initiative as the seventh seed, beating the Florida Panthers in four games in a best-of-5 qualifying round to make the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs. They would then go on to defeat the Washington Capitals in the first round in five games. Then, after blowing a 3–1 series lead to the Philadelphia Flyers that extended the series to seven games, the Islanders would go on to win Game 7 against the Flyers and advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 1993. However, their run would come to an end at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games. In December 2020, New York Islanders Hockey Club, L.P. bought the remaining 15 percent stake of the team from the estate of Charles Wang and took full ownership of the team.


title: New York Islanders

text: The Islanders again made the playoffs in the shortened 2020-21 season, defeating the Penguins and Bruins each in six games. They again lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning, this time in seven.


title: New York Islanders

text: The Islanders started the 2021–22 season on a 13-game road trip while UBS Arena was finalizing construction, finishing their road trip with a 5–6–2 record. However, minutes before the first home game of the season on November 20, 2021, many Islander players contracted COVID-19 and missed the home opener and several others. Longest tenured Islander Josh Bailey and team captain Anders Lee missed the game, while Adam Pelech, Anthony Beauvillier, and Andy Greene were ruled out minutes before puck drop. They lost the home opener to the Calgary Flames by a score of 5–2. Brad Richardson scored the first goal in UBS Arena history, while Brock Nelson scored the first Islander goal. The Islanders won their first game at UBS Arena against the Devils, on December 11, by a score of 4–2. Former Devils captain Zach Parise scored the game-winning goal for the Islanders. The Islanders missed the playoffs after three consecutive trips, finishing the season with a 37–35–10 record. On May 9, 2022, head coach Barry Trotz was relieved from his duties.


title: New York Islanders

text: Advertising executive John Alogna created the original Islanders logo, a circle with the letters "NY" over a map of the Nassau and Suffolk counties. The lower part of the Y is made to resemble a hockey stick, with three orange stripes near the bottom of the shaft and a puck to the right of the stick blade. At the bottom of the logo, the name of the team is written so that the tip of the "I" ends in a point aimed at Uniondale, the location of Nassau Coliseum.