The 1980 Stanley Cup Finals was the championship series of the National Hockey League's (NHL) 1979–80 season, and the culmination of the 1980 Stanley Cup playoffs. It was contested by the New York Islanders in their first-ever Finals appearance and the Philadelphia Flyers, in their fourth Finals appearance, and first since 1976. The Islanders would win the best-of-seven series, four games to two, to win their first Stanley Cup championship and the third for a post-1967 expansion team after Philadelphia's Cup wins in 1974 and 1975.

Paths to the Finals

New York defeated the Los Angeles Kings 3–1, the Boston Bruins 4–1 and the Buffalo Sabres 4–2 to advance to the Final.

Philadelphia defeated the Edmonton Oilers 3–0, the New York Rangers 4–1 and the Minnesota North Stars 4–1 to make it to the Final.

Game summaries

In game one, Denis Potvin scored the first power-play overtime goal in Stanley Cup Finals history. In game six, Bob Nystrom scored the Cup winner in overtime, his fourth career overtime goal, at the time putting him alone behind Maurice Richard's six on the all-time overtime goal-scoring list. Ken Morrow joined the team after winning the Olympic gold medal and added the Stanley Cup to cap a remarkable season.

The deciding game six was marred by one of the most infamous blown official calls in NHL playoff history. With the game tied 1–1, the Islanders Butch Goring picked up a drop pass from New York left wing Clark Gillies which had clearly gone back over the Flyers' defensive zone blue line into center ice. Linesman Leon Stickle waved the play as on-side, and Goring threaded a pass to right wing Duane Sutter who beat Philadelphia goalie Pete Peeters for a 2-1 New York lead. The Flyers argued vehemently to no avail. Everyone on both sides except Goring and Sutter appeared to relax as if play had been blown dead once the puck went over the blue line. Flyers captain Mel Bridgman stated the play changed the momentum of the game at a critical time even though the Flyers scored shortly afterwards to tie the score 2-2. Stickle admitted after the game that he had blown the call. Ultimately, it was the Flyers lack of discipline and the resulting Islander Power Play goals that were the difference in the series.^[1]

The series-winning overtime goal in game six was scored by Bobby Nystrom and assisted by fellow third liners John Tonelli and Lorne Henning. Nystrom's redirection of Tonelli's cross-ice pass from just above the Flyers left side face-off circle, floated up and over goalie Pete Peeters' blocker before the Philadelphia keeper could slide over to stop the puck. Henning's "thread the needle" pass was a key component, of the goal.

Team rosters

New York Islanders

No.	Nat	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace
1		Chico Resch	G	L	31	1974	Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan
3		Jean Potvin	D	R	31	1979	Ottawa, Ontario
4		Bob Lorimer	D	L	26	1973	Toronto
5		Denis Potvin (C)	D	L	26	1973	Vanier, Ontario
6		Ken Morrow	D	R	23	1976	Davison, Michigan
7		Stefan Persson	D	L	25	1974	Bjurholm, Sweden
8		Garry Howatt	LW	L	27	1972	Grand Centre, Alberta
9		Clark Gillies	LW	L	26	1974	Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan
10		Lorne Henning	C	L	28	1972	Melfort, Saskatchewan
11		Wayne Merrick	C	L	28	1977	Sarnia, Ontario
12		Duane Sutter	RW	R	20	1979	Viking, Alberta
14		Bob Bourne	LW	L	25	1974	Kindersley, Saskatchewan
16		Steve Tambellini	C	L	21	1978	Trail, British Columbia
17		Alex McKendry	RW	L	23	1978	Midland, Ontario
19		Bryan Trottier	C	L	23	1974	Val Marie, Saskatchewan
21		Butch Goring	C	L	30	1980	St. Boniface, Manitoba
22		Mike Bossy	RW	R	23	1977	Montreal
23		Bob Nystrom	RW	R	27	1972	Stockholm, Sweden
24		Gord Lane	D	L	27	1979	Brandon, Manitoba
26		Dave Langevin	D	L	25	1974	Saint Paul, Minnesota
27		John Tonelli	LW	L	23	1977	Hamilton, Ontario
28		Anders Kallur	RW	L	27	1979	Ludvika, Sweden
31		Billy Smith	G	L	29	1972	Perth, Ontario

Philadelphia Flyers

No.	Nat	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace
2		Bob Dailey	D	R	27	1977	Kingston, Ontario
3		Behn Wilson	D	L	21	1978	Toronto
5		Frank Bathe	D	L	25	1977	Oshawa, Ontario
6		André Dupont	D	L	30	1972	Trois-Rivières, Quebec
7		Bill Barber	LW	L	27	1972	Callander, Ontario
9		Bob Kelly	LW	L	29	1970	Oakville, Ontario
10		Mel Bridgman (C)	C	L	25	1975	Trenton, Ontario
11		Dennis Ververgaert	RW	R	27	1978	Grimsby, Ontario
12		John Paddock	LW	R	25	1976	Oak River, Manitoba
14		Ken Linseman	C	L	21	1978	Kingston, Ontario
15		Al Hill	LW	L	25	1976	Nanaimo, British Columbia
16		Bobby Clarke	C	L	30	1969	Flin Flon, Manitoba
17		Paul Holmgren	RW	R	24	1975	Saint Paul, Minnesota
19		Rick MacLeish	C	L	30	1970	Lindsay, Ontario
20		Jimmy Watson	D	L	27	1972	Smithers, British Columbia
21		Gary Morrison	RW	R	24	1975	Farmington, Michigan
22		Tom Gorence	RW	R	23	1977	Saint Paul, Minnesota
25		Norm Barnes	D	L	26	1973	Rexdale, Ontario
26		Brian Propp	LW	L	21	1979	Lanigan, Saskatchewan
27		Reggie Leach	RW	R	30	1974	Riverton, Manitoba
28		Mike Busniuk	D	R	28	1979	Thunder Bay, Ontario
29		Jack McIlhargey	D	L	28	1980	Edmonton, Alberta
31		Phil Myre	G	L	31	1979	Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec
33		Pete Peeters	G	L	22	1977	Edmonton, Alberta

Stanley Cup engraving

The 1980 Stanley Cup was presented to Islanders captain Denis Potvin by NHL President John Ziegler following the Islanders 5–4 win over the Flyers in game six.

The following Islanders players and staff had their names engraved on the Stanley Cup

1979–80 New York Islanders

Players

Stanley Cup engraving

• †Alex McKendry played two regular season and six playoff games, but did not play in the finals.
• †Jean Potvin played 32 regular season games, spending the whole season with the Islanders. He did not play in the playoffs. Both names were engraved on the Stanley Cup, even though they did not officially qualify.
• Ken Morrow became the first player to win the Olympic Gold (with Team United States), and Stanley Cup (with New York Islanders) in the same year.
• Al Arbour became the fourth person to win the Stanley Cup with four teams. Arbour won the Stanley Cup as a player with Detroit 1954, Chicago 1961, and Toronto 1962. 1964. The other three people to win cup with four teams are Jack Marshall, Harry (Happy) Holmes, and Tommy Gorman.
• Bryan Trottier was first Metis player to win the Stanley Cup
• Bob Nystrom, Anders Kallur and Stefan Persson were the first three Swedish born-trained players to win the Stanley Cup. They were also first two European-trained players to win the Stanley Cup.

Broadcasting

Bob Cole, Dan Kelly, and Jim Robson shared play-by-play duties for CBC's coverage. Cole did play-by-play for the first half of Games 1 and 2. Meanwhile, Kelly did play-by-play for the rest of Games 1–5 (Kelly also called the overtime period of Game 1). Finally, Robson did play-by-play for the first half of Games 3–4 and Game 6 entirely, he also would've called Game 7 had there been one. In essence, this meant that Cole or Robson did play-by-play for the first period and the first half of the second period (except for Game 5 in which the roles of Kelly and Robson were switched). Therefore, at the closest stoppage of play near the 10-minute mark of the second period, Cole or Robson handed off the call to Kelly for the rest of the game.

In the United States, the first five games were syndicated by the Hughes Television Network. Hughes used CBC's Hockey Night in Canada feeds for the American coverage. Game 6 was televised in the United States by the CBS network, as a special edition of its CBS Sports Spectacular anthology series. Dan Kelly did the play-by-play for CBS for the first and third periods as well as overtime. Tim Ryan did play-by-play for the second period while Lou Nanne served as the color commentator throughout. Game 6 remains the last Stanley Cup Finals game to be played in the afternoon (earlier than 5 p.m. local time). This would also be the last NHL game to air on U.S. network television until NBC televised the 1990 All-Star Game, and the last time the entire Finals series was broadcast on U.S. network television until ABC covered the 2022 Stanley Cup Finals.