NHL coaching great Arbour dies at 82

LOS ANGELES — NHL coaching great Al Arbour, who guided the New York Islanders to four straight Stanley Cup titles in the 1980s, has died at the age of 82, the Islanders said Friday.   Arbour coached 1,500 regular-season games over 19 seasons with the Islanders after he was hired at the start of the 1973-74 season. He retired after the 1994 playoffs, but returned in 2007 at the age of 75 to coach one more game for the team — a 3-2 victory against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Arbour won 119 career playoff games — an NHL record for a coach with one club — over 15 postseason appearances and hoisted the Stanley Cup each season from 1980 to 1983. Overall, he had a 782-577-223 record, including three seasons coaching the St. Louis Blues, and ranks second on the NHL win list behind Scotty Bowman. He also won the Stanley Cup three times as a player, once with the Chicago Blackhawks and twice with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1996. — AFP