Pat These Pats On The Back

The two newest members of the New York Islanders , Pat LaFontaine and Pat Flatley, stood in the grassy dunes of Long Island 's Jones Beach last week peering out at the Atlantic. With the exception of the couple glomming on to each other in the white Corvette in the parking lot—"That's a great car," noted LaFontaine—the beach was deserted; the sky had been breeze-laundered of any color but blue, and the temperature hovered near an unusually balmy 60�. "It's just like Florida ," said LaFontaine , his big brown puppy-dog eyes smiling at the natural wonders around him. "It's going to be great coming down here this summer, isn't it, Flats?"

By unofficial count, the Corvette and the beach were the 411th and 412th "great" things that LaFontaine had been exposed to since he and Flatley joined the Islanders on Feb. 27 from the U.S. and Canadian Olympic teams, respectively, just in time for New York 's Drive for Five Stanley Cups in a row. The guys are great, the fans are great, the NHL is great, rough games are great, Mr. Torrey and Mr. Arbour are both great, his linemates are great, just wearing the jersey is great, Uncle Frank's advice is great.... When LaFontaine finally utters his first complaint, somebody's going to have a helluva scoop.

But what's to complain about? With nine goals in his first nine games—many of them sensational—the 19-year-old LaFontaine , who was raised in Michigan , has become the darling of Long Island . "I get fan mail wishing me luck," says Flatley. "Pat gets fan mail from girls who are in love with him and want to marry him." Still, things haven't been going too badly for Flatley either: He scored on both his first NHL shot and his first NHL coconut custard pie, which was delivered into Duane Sutter 's face on the occasion of Sutter 's 24th birthday last Friday. Small wonder the Islanders, a closely knit team of veterans that has never welcomed new players easily, have virtually embraced their brace of Pats. Their chances of winning a record-tying fifth straight Cup have never looked better.

"They've given us a breath of fresh air," says Islander coach Al Arbour , an understated man who nonetheless can barely hold back a grin when discussing LaFontaine and Flatley. "A little youthful enthusiasm is pretty useful to have around at this time of year."

More tangibly, the addition of the two Pats gives Arbour four solid lines for the playoffs—depth that will come in handy in the opening round, when the Islanders might have to play four games in five nights—and, with Bryan Trottier , Brent Sutter , Butch Goring and LaFontaine , the best corps of centers in the league.

And so the rich get richer. How? Well, in 1982, Flatley was the Islanders' regular first-round draft choice, the 21st player selected. LaFontaine , however, came as the result of a trade New York general manager Bill Torrey made in 1981 with the Colorado Rockies (now the New Jersey Devils ), in which he gave up defenseman Bob Lorimer and forward Dave Cameron for Colorado 's first-round pick in 1983. "We knew 1983 was going to be an exceptional year in the draft," says Torrey, "but I can't tell you I was hoping to get Pat LaFontaine ."

Indeed, that was true even on the June morning of the draft. Selecting third, Torrey waited as both Minnesota and Hartford bypassed LaFontaine (in favor of Brian Lawton and Sylvain Turgeon, respectively), despite the fact that LaFontaine had scored 104 goals and 130 assists the season before for Verdun of the Quebec Junior League—breaking records previously held by such scoring phenoms as Guy Lafleur and Mike Bossy . "We had LaFontaine rated first overall," says David Poile , G.M. of the Washington Capitals . Torrey won't divulge exactly where the Islanders rated LaFontaine , but the answer is obvious.

All season long Islander players, fans, and coaches had greedily anticipated the arrival of LaFontaine and Flatley. If either player got a goal for his Olympic team, it was flashed on the scoreboard at the Nassau Coliseum during Islander games, making them minor celebrities before they had ever set foot on Long Island . Four years ago it was the addition of another Olympian, defenseman Ken Morrow , that set off a series of events leading to the Isles' first Stanley Cup , in 1980; Morrow's presence permitted Torrey to trade one of his established defensemen, Dave Lewis , to Los Angeles in exchange for the center his team needed so desperately, Goring. It was such an accepted fact that the two Pats would step right in and play that the Islanders whom they would replace developed a sort of gallows humor on the subject. When Flatley was introduced around the locker room before his first Islander practice, Anders Kallur, a winger destined for the Isles' burgeoning taxi squad, cracked to a group of teammates: "He's Flatley. I'm history."

"I was nervous just stepping into the room with those guys," says Flatley, a native of Toronto who was an All-America at Wisconsin , the 1983 NCAA champs. "The whole practice I couldn't even hold on to the puck."

LaFontaine , meanwhile, was following some very unorthodox advice for a hockey player. "My Uncle Frank told me to keep my head down when I got here and not look at the names on the jerseys," he says. One of the first things LaFontaine saw was the laces on his skates, which had been cut into little wormlike shreds by team prankster Clark Gillies before LaFontaine 's first practice. Two days later, forgetting Uncle Frank's advice while eating his first pregame meal LaFontaine heard winger Bob Bourne call out, "Shoe check!" and looked down to discover that both his shoes and Flatley's were covered with ketchup.