Forty years after the Brooklyn Americans folded, New York once again had two NHL teams. The dream of bringing a second hockey team to the New York Metropolitan Area belonged to William Shea who helped bring the National League an expansion team a decade earlier in baseball and Roy Boe who owned the New York Nets of the ABA.

With plans of a rival hockey league starting up the NHL had decided to head the rivals off at the pass but granting Boe an expansion team based on New York known as the Islanders. General Manager Bill Torrey started by drafting Billy Smith and Ed Westfall in the expansion draft and Bobby Nystrom and Billy Harris in the amateur draft.

The Islanders would debut on October 7th losing at the Nassau Coliseum 3-2 to the Atlanta Flames, who were also playing their very first game. The Isles would get their first win five days later as they beat the Los Angeles Kings 3-2.

However, wins would be very rare as they end up finishing dead last with an awful record of 12-60-6.