ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: GORD LANE
(Courtesy of Perry Bergson, Brandon Sun) — For Gord Lane, the saddest part of the impending departure of the New York Islanders from Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum isn’t the memories.
It’s the fact that they’re leaving the area altogether for a new arena in Brooklyn after this season’s National Hockey League playoffs.
“I’m not actually sure that it going away is all that terrible because it’s not necessarily the Montreal Forum or the old Maple Leaf Gardens that were real havens for the game,” the Brandon native said. “I think the sad thing is it’s moving from Nassau County to Brooklyn into the city. Brooklyn isn’t Long Island, it’s New York City, so you’re losing the Long Island influence. That’s the bigger story.”
The four-time Stanley Cup champion with the Islanders played 540 games in the NHL, putting up 113 points in 10 seasons, but also serving 1,228 minutes in penalties.
He says his most enduring memory comes from a playoff game in the 1980 finals.
“For me, it’s stepping on the ice for the sixth game of the (Philadelphia) Flyers series, our first Stanley Cup,” Lane remembered in a recent phone conversation. “You could not hear anything because it was just so noisy. Nowadays you go into a building and they have the decibel meters to try and get the crowd going. They didn’t need that then.”
He said you couldn’t even hear the anthem before the game.
Lane’s path to one of the great dynasties in hockey history was unusual, to say the least.
He spent two seasons with the Brandon Wheat Kings from 1970 to 1972 before spending a year with the New Westminster Bruins, after which he was drafted in the ninth round, 134th overall in 1973 by the Pittsburgh Penguins. After a couple of years in the minors, he signed with the Washington Capitals in 1976 and became an NHL regular.
He was traded to the Islanders in 1979 during a contract dispute, playing a key role on New York’s blue-line for six seasons.
“We had four guys who were the real core,” he said. “We had Denis Potvin, (Mike) Bossy, (Bryan) Trottier and in nets, Billy Smith. He was maybe not the most talented goaltender of his era but nobody battled harder. The rest of us just did our jobs.”
He said the team’s confidence grew along with its big-game experience during its four-year Stanley Cup run from 1980 to 1983.
His final NHL season was 1984-85.
Lane coached the Wheat Kings for part of the 1985-86 season before returning to the American Hockey League to play for one year. He retired for good after the 1986-87 season.
After finishing his coaching career in the American Hockey League in 1987-88, he moved to Columbia, Md., went back to school and studied architecture. He now runs a company called Lane Building Services.
“I don’t necessarily do any work anymore,” Lane said. “I have the crews who do the work. I just make sure it’s all done right.”
Now 62, he keeps in contact with many of his former teammates, including Ken Morrow, his defensive partner.
He has some arthritis twinges but is overall in excellent health, still playing hockey. He recently participated in a 60-and-over tournament in Tampa Bay with some friends.
Lane has several siblings who live in Brandon and comes home for a couple of weeks every summer for fishing and for another couple of weeks in the fall.
