{"id":54311,"date":"2025-08-02T05:57:20","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T05:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/54311\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T05:57:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T05:57:20","slug":"islanders-name-couldve-been-totally-different-and-rerouted-another-teams-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/54311\/","title":{"rendered":"Islanders name could\u2019ve been totally different and rerouted another team’s history"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yeah, when the New York Islanders were founded and set to start playing in 1972-73, there was some mystery of what they’d call themselves. A contingent of fans speculated the new ownership would call them the “Long Island Ducks,”<\/a> thanks to an Eastern Hockey League (EHL) team going by the same name at the time. <\/p>\n

One that was ultimately in its twilight seasons, but had been playing on the Island since 1959. Naturally, that name seemed like a good fit, and it would’ve given the new franchise a familiar moniker. But, that didn’t happen, and they became the New York Islanders. <\/p>\n

Now, suppose they became the Long Island Ducks for one second. That would’ve thrown up a few question marks for a team that started play in 1993-94: The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. <\/p>\n

I highly doubt, had the Islanders taken the name Ducks, that the NHL would’ve allowed a team called the Mighty Ducks to join the NHL, even if they wore different uniforms and played in Southern California to avoid brand confusion. <\/p>\n

Instead, the likeliest option would’ve been for the team we now know as the Anaheim Ducks to enter the league under another moniker. <\/p>\n

The New York Islanders franchise could have changed the NHL’s trajectory<\/p>\n

Now, I’m racking my brains, trying to think of a good name for the Mighty Ducks if the Isles rolled with the name Ducks. I mean, the Lion King was releasing in June of 1994, but that probably wouldn’t have worked either, thanks to the Los Angeles Kings, who’d called LA home for nearly three decades. <\/p>\n

The Lions, maybe? Yeah, but then again, there was the NFL’s Detroit Lions, who’d been around the Motor City since the 1930s. <\/p>\n

You know, as I’m writing this, I cannot, for the life of me, remember which movie in the Disney Renaissance came out in 1993. Okay, I just looked it up – there wasn’t one. It literally took until August of 2025 for me to realize that, but maybe the name Beasts (a nod to Beauty and the Beast) would’ve worked. <\/p>\n

And now I got that old song of the same name by Nightwish stuck in my head. It’s like their most underrated song ever. <\/p>\n

Anyway, Beasts is an underrated name for a sports team. But if they didn’t want to go with the Disney theme, then names like the Thunder, Surf, Waves, Vipers, or Dragons may’ve gotten some serious consideration here. I don’t know; I just asked AI to give me some suggestions, and what you see above was the best it could do. <\/p>\n

It also gave me Monarchs, but once again, that probably wouldn’t have worked<\/a>. So, of the names listed, I’d go with either Vipers or Dragons, with Dragons holding the slight edge because it starts with a ‘D. <\/p>\n

Either way, Beasts is my No. 1 pick. The Beasts of Anaheim would’ve struck fear and intimidation in opponents for sure. Coming up with a logo would’ve been the only tough part here, since Beasts can be very general. But still, I like the concept, as long as 20th Century Fox was cool with it, since The Sandlot was a 1993 film. <\/p>\n

Still, I’m glad things turned out the way they did. As I said before<\/a>, Islanders is one of my favorite names for a sports team, and did the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim have some cool uniforms once upon a time, or what? At least they somewhat went back to that look, even if orange and gold don’t clash well. <\/p>\n

More from Eyes on Isles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yeah, when the New York Islanders were founded and set to start playing in 1972-73, there was some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-54311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}