After easily disposing of the
Los Angeles Kings and the
Boston Bruins in the first two rounds, the Isles faced the
Buffalo Sabres in the semi-finals, who had finished second overall in the NHL standings. The Isles won the first two games in Buffalo, including a 3–2 victory in Game 2 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 1 in
Philadelphia, the Isles 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 6. In that game,
Bob 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. It was the Isles' 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 would become the first NHL team to win a Stanley Cup with Europeans (Stefan Persson, Anders Kallur, Bob Nystrom) on its roster. ==Schedule and results==