Background On August 28, 1985, a press conference was held to formally announce the establishment of the New York Slapshots, a new team in the
Atlantic Coast Hockey League (ACHL) that would begin play in the 1985–86 season at the planned Phil Esposito Sports and Entertainment Center in the
Travis neighborhood of Staten Island. The team was the
borough's first professional sports franchise since the
Staten Island Staples played in the 1930s. The Slapshots were owned by Rudy Slucker, the president of a hardware company in
Long Island City, who got the idea to purchase a professional sports franchise from his optician Lee Blowstein; Blowstein and Sportsworld Marketing were the team's minority owners. The league had some concerns about the team's name and its relationship to the 1977 film
Slap Shot, which depicted a minor league ice hockey team that resorted to
violent play to gain popularity. ACHL Commissioner
Ray Miron said, "This is not a 'Slapshot' league at all. There's none of that stickwork here." ACHL President
Rick Dudley added, "When people see the quality and the speed of the ACHL, they'll see we're not in the same world as 'Slapshot.'" The following month,
Dave Schultz, a former NHL veteran who spent the majority of his career with the
Philadelphia Flyers during their
Broad Street Bullies days, was announced as the team's general manager and coach. Schultz also served as the Slapshots' bus driver. Development of the Phil Esposito Sports and Entertainment Center in Travis had been announced earlier that year, which was backed by former
New York Rangers player
Phil Esposito. The proposed 5,000-seat arena was to be located at 4320
Victory Boulevard on a site near the
West Shore Expressway and Courts of Appeal Racquetball and Tennis Club. A groundbreaking ceremony for the venue was held on April 26, 1985, and attended by Esposito and Deputy Borough President
Nicholas LaPorte. The new facility was being developed by King Ice Enterprises and was scheduled to be opened in October.
1985–86 season At the beginning of October, the Slapshots didn't have an arena or players, and Schultz was working out of a sparsely furnished office with unpainted walls. The team acquired their first six players on October 17, 1985, when the ACHL held a
dispersal draft to allocate the rights to the players from the
Pinebridge Bucks, a team that disbanded after the 1984–85 season. As an expansion team, the Slapshots had the first overall pick in the draft, and used it to select goaltender
Ray LeBlanc. Less than 30 minutes later, Schultz traded LeBlanc to the
Carolina Thunderbirds for forward Dan Potter and three other players to be named later. The Slapshots also selected two more forwards with the team's other picks in the dispersal draft. On November 1, 1985, the Slapshots began their training camp at the Ocean Ice Arena in
Bricktown, New Jersey. The first day of camp included open tryouts for the team, which included about 50 players, 10 of which were drafted at the ACHL rookie camp that had been held earlier that week in
Erie, Pennsylvania. Schultz trimmed his roster down to 19 players by November 5th and needed get down to 16 skaters prior to the team's opening game. On November 8, 1985, the Slapshots opened their season on the road against the
Erie Golden Blades; the team was scheduled to begin the season with eight consecutive road games to allow for completion of the Phil Esposito Sports and Entertainment Center. The Slapshots lost their debut by a score of 8–4 and were thrown off their game by the intimidating play of the Golden Blades in a first period that included 88 minutes in penalties, many of which were for slashing, high sticking and fighting. Schultz said, "Most of the guys here have never played where they get punched in the face or speared and the referee doesn't call anything. If cheap shots win games in this league, we'll go to that. Right now, we have terrific athletes that are skilled hockey players." Site preparation work for the Slapshots' new arena did not begin until November 12, 1985. The foundation work was expected to begin the following week, after which it would take three months of construction for the rink to be ready. Before the opening game of the season, the team's ownership learned that there would be a fifty percent chance if the Slapshots would play on Staten Island during their first season and they would need to find another venue as an alternative. The team attempted to play its initial home games at the Abe Stark Arena in the
Coney Island neighborhood of
Brooklyn, but these plans did not pan out and the team instead looked at a city-owned facility in
Newark, New Jersey as another option. By the time the team was scheduled to open at home on December 7, 1985, construction of the Phil Esposito Sports and Entertainment Center had still yet to begin, and the Slapshots postponed their first three home games and announced their intention to play the balance of their home schedule in
The Ironbound neighborhood of Newark. The city of Newark, which goaltender Ward Komonosky called "the dirtiest, dingiest, grungiest city I've ever seen," forced the Slapshots to spend about $20,000 in making improvements to the Ironbound Recreation Center before allowing them to play. The team experienced attendance problems in Newark—only drawing about 75 to 100 fans per game—and later relocated to
Vinton, Virginia to cut its losses, with the intention to return to Staten Island the following season. Schultz elected not make the move to Virginia so he could remain with his family in New Jersey and relinquished his position as head coach to
Joe Selenski, who had been serving as the team's assistant general manager. Ironically, the Slapshots' first 'home' game at the LancerLot in Vinton, the home rink of the
Virginia Lancers, was scheduled to be played against the Lancers on February 5, 1986. When the game was played on February 11, 1986, the Slapshots defeated the Lancers in overtime by a score of 3–2. One week later, the Slapshots were missing five players due to the flu and ended up dressing head coach Selenski and assistant trainer Paul Litz as players in a 14–2 loss to the Thunderbirds. The Slapshots failed to qualify for the playoffs and their final 'home' game in Vinton against the Lancers was canceled. Lancers' team owner
Henry Brabham remarked, "It was their home game, so we didn't care." Bobby Williams of the Slapshots was named the ACHL Rookie of the Year for the 1985–86 season. The center—who was the son of
Tommy Williams—scored 45 goals and added 18 assists despite appearing in only 40 games, having missed part of the season due to a wrist injury. The game that Williams was referring to was likely the one played at the
Winston-Salem War Memorial Coliseum on January 31, 1986, when Schultz hit Thunderbirds winger Brian Johnson on the head with a hockey stick, resulting in a
bench-clearing brawl, with Schultz and three other players being ejected from the game. The Slapshots were the final landing spot in the professional hockey career of
Howie Young, who at 48 years old was the oldest player on the team's roster. The Toronto native played in the
National Hockey League from 1960 to 1971 and had hung up his skates in 1979 after several stints with minor league teams. He made a brief comeback in 1985, appearing in four games with
Flint Spirits before being released and was offered a job by Schultz. Young played in seven games for the Slapshots before he was cut and stuck around for another week to help drive the team bus for road trips before he left to return home for Christmas.
Relocation to Troy Slucker originally planned to move the Slapshots to the
Mennen Sports Arena in Morristown, New Jersey for the 1986–87 season and had even made a deposit to host playoff games at the arena in April 1986, if his team qualified for the playoffs the prior season. However, in May 1986, the team and league announced that the Slapshots would instead be moving upstate to Troy and playing their games at the
Houston Field House, a 5,367-seat arena located on the campus of
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The Troy Slapshots ended up folding in November 1986, only six games into the season. "We should have known a team with that name would never make it," said ACHL Commissioner Miron after the team's removal from the league. He added, "If the history of the Slapshots is ever written, it would make a good sequel to the movie of the same name." The Slapshots left Staten Island businesses with unpaid bills and ignored requests for refunds from fans that had purchased tickets. The Troy Slapshots claimed that they weren't responsible for the financial obligations of the New York Slapshots, which filed a lawsuit against King Ice Enterprises for "breaching an oral agreement by failing to provide facilities for home games for the 1985–86 season" because the original team had "suspended operations" and the new team was established as "a new entity". The arena that the Slapshots were supposed to play in on Staten Island was never built. ==Season-by-season results==