Don Maloney remembers ‘magical year’ as Rangers rookie, thrill of playing at Madison Square Garden
Don Maloney has been a hockey executive for more than 30 years, more than a decade of that time with the New York Rangers. That’s why it can be easy to forget he was a productive forward for the Rangers for 10-plus seasons before finishing his playing career with the Hartford Rangers and New York Islanders.
But few players in Rangers history have had the kind of first season that the younger brother of then-captain Dave Maloney enjoyed. Maloney, now the president of hockey operations with the Calgary Flames, talked about it with Forever Blueshirts executive editor Jim Cerny on their recent Rink Rap podcast.
Don Maloney was the Rangers’ second-round pick, No. 26 overall, in the 1978 NHL Draft. The Rangers sent him to the New Haven, then their AHL farm team, after training camp, but he didn’t stay there long.
“I got assigned out of training camp to go to New Haven, which I was happy to do,” he said, “and I broke my thumb in a fight in the last preseason game of all things, so I had to come to [New York] to have it checked out two or three weeks later.
“So, I jumped on a train in New Haven, took it to Penn Station, got off the train, ran upstairs, jumped in a cab, and said ‘Take me to Madison Square Garden!’ The guy looked at me like ‘Hey buddy, c’mon, this is New York, get the hell out, we’re here.’ So, that was my debut coming into The Garden.”
His on-ice debut at MSG came on Feb. 14, 1979, following the 11-day break in the schedule for the Challenge Cup series against the Soviet Union. Not only would he be making his NHL debut against the Boston Bruins, he would be playing with his brother – and on a line with one of the NHL’s all-time greats.
Don Maloney remembers magical rookie season, playing at MSG
“That year, everything came together for me,” he said. “I got called back up in February, Phil Esposito was kind of searching for [linemates], and Donny Murdoch came back, and we all just clicked together, and really had a magical run. That really was the pinnacle of my career.”
Maloney needed just 5:14 of his NHL debut to score his first goal – it came on his first shot. His first assist came 46 seconds later, when he had the primary helper on a goal by Esposito. The Rangers went on to win 5-1, the first time they had beaten the Bruins (who’d lost to the Montreal Canadiens in each of the previous two Stanley Cup Finals, since March 23, 1975).
The line of Esposito, Maloney and Murdoch was quickly dubbed “The Mafia Line” – two “Dons” and a “Godfather” (Esposito). The trio helped the Rangers make the playoffs and upset the regular-season champion Islanders in the Semifinals to reach the Final for the first time since 1972. But after an easy 4-1 win in Game 1 at the Forum, the Rangers ran out of gas – the Canadiens won four straight games and earned their fourth straight championship.
Still, it was a year to remember for a 20-year-old.
“It was a magical year; we were so close,” Maloney remembered. “We go up 1-0 in the Final, go up 2-0 in Game 2 and we just didn’t close it out. It’s the last time I’ve been with a team in the Final, in all the years I’ve stayed in hockey. It’s either I’m really bad at what I do, or it’s really hard to do.
“I’ll never forget after those five games (in the 1979 Final), I was so exhausted — it was like, you know what, we’ll just win it next year. It was automatic in my mind, we were winning it next year. It’s not even going to be close. Then things happen. Changes are made.”
Alas for Maloney and the Rangers, the Islanders had other plans. The Isles won the next four Stanley Cup championships before losing to the Edmonton Oilers in the 1984 Final. The Rangers lost to their suburban rivals four straight times – including an overtime loss in the fifth and deciding game of the first round in 1984 after Maloney had tied the game in the final minute of regulation.
“We had some good runs in the ’80s,” he said. “Of course, the Islanders were the powerhouse in the early eighties … I’m still chasing it, still trying to win the Cup at 66.”
Maloney was part of the 1986 team that rode the goaltending of John Vanbiesbrouck to the conference finals, where they lost to the Canadiens. The Rangers traded him to the Whalers in December 1988. The Islanders signed him as a free agent in the summer of 1989, and he retired in November 1990, finishing his career with 564 points (214 goals, 350 assists) in 765 games.
But the next phase of Maloney’s hockey career was just beginning. He was named general manager of the Islanders in the summer of 1992, and the Isles advanced to the conference final in 1993, his first season as GM. They barely qualified for the playoffs in 1993-94, earning a matchup with the Rangers, who had won the Presidents’ Trophy.
The Isles had gone 2-1 with two ties against the Blueshirts in the regular season, but this series was a complete Rangers blowout. They started the series with back-to-back 6-0 wins and outscored the Islanders 22-3 in a four-game sweep.
“One thing I learned with this big a rivalry — once you’re in the rink, all bets are off,” Maloney said. “I remember going in with the Isles thinking ‘we can beat this team, we’re good.’ But they really manhandled us that series. It was really men against boys.
“As (general) manager of the Islanders, that’s probably the worst thing that could’ve happened. It’s one thing if somebody else wins the Cup, … that was tough for all of us on the Island. It’s one thing for Chicago to win the Cup, but when the Rangers won it, it was like ‘Who’s in charge of this mess? Maloney! Ex-Ranger, what are you doing here?!’
Maloney joined the Rangers as assistant GM under Neil Smith in 1996 and stayed with them until 2007. He then spent nine seasons as GM with the Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes, winning the General Manager of the Year award in 2010, then served as a scout for the Flames before being promoted to his current position.
It’s been more than 35 years since Maloney took the ice at Madison Square Garden in a Rangers uniform. The memories of those days after still with him.
“My memory is the crowd and how loud it was on the ice in the playoffs, where we had some series against Philly or the Islanders, and how there were times I would come back off the ice and my ears were popping because it was so loud and the fans were on top of it,” he said. “It really was an exciting atmosphere.”
More than anything else, he remembers the Garden Faithful and the way they supported the team.
“I can’t pick (a greatest moment),” he said. “The playoff runs we had, we had a good run in ’86, we had our moments in the early ’80s when we got to the Semifinals. But my whole thing with the Garden was coming out on the ice at the start of the game. I used to always really enjoy that because you could just feel the energy in the building. They were ready to go and they were behind you.
“There were some individual games where I got a few goals or whatever. But when I look back on the Rangers, it really was just more the aura of the building and the crowd, and just how much they were into it. Everyone should experience that. To be in New York, it’s pretty special.”
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