FILE - In this Nov. 2, 2007, file photo, Hall of Fame hockey coach Al Arbour responds to questions during a news conference at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y. Arbour, who coached the New York Islanders to four consecutive Stanley Cup championships and ranks as the NHL's second-most winningest coach, has died, team officials announced Friday, Aug. 28, 2015. He was 82. The cause of death is unclear, though Arbor was battling a lengthy illness and had been living in Florida. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)

Hockey will remember Al Arbour for winning the Stanley Cup four straight times in the 1980s with the New York Islanders.

But his best NHL coaching job may have come in 1993, when the Islanders upset the Washington Capitals and then back-to-back champion Mario Lemieux's Pittsburgh Penguins to reach the Eastern Conference final.

"We had no business winning those two rounds in the playoffs in '93," then-Islanders forward Ray Ferraro said by phone Friday.

Arbour, who died Friday at the age of 82, fired Ferraro up late in the regular season, telling him that he'd be out of the lineup if he didn't improve after a long layoff from a broken ankle. When the playoffs started, a Game 1 loss to the Capitals led Arbour to kick reporters off the team bus when he delivered a pointed message to players.

"He closed the door and he said: 'Are we here on holidays? Are we just happy to be in the playoffs? Because if you are, this is going to be real short. If you want to practise today, practise. If you don't, get the hell off the bus. But tomorrow, come ready to play,'" Ferraro recalled.

"We won the next three games in overtime and won the series."

Beating the Capitals came at a hefty price as the Islanders lost leading scorer Pierre Turgeon when he was blindsided by Dale Hunter after scoring in Game 6. Hunter was suspended for the first 21 games of the 1993-94 season, and Turgeon missed the rest of the playoffs.

Without Turgeon, who had 13 points in the first round, the Islanders faced a tall task against Pittsburgh, which was led by Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr and coached by the legendary Scotty Bowman. Arbour told rookie Travis Green and journeyman Brad Dalgarno to defend Lemieux's line — no pressure.

"That line did a hell of a job against them in the series," Ferraro said. Al told them, 'That's your job, do it. Do it the best you can.' Who wouldn't want to play for a guy like that?"

Bowman credited goaltender Glenn Healy in part for the series win but also Arbour's coaching.

"Al's teams always played well defensively," Bowman said by phone Friday. "They got terrific goaltending and they got a good team effort playing defensively."

Ferraro, who led the Islanders with 20 points in 18 playoff games, knew players already respected Arbour from his Cups but never saw him wear any of his Cup rings. He'd sit around and talk hockey with Arbour, Healy and Pat Flatley in the coach's office and never wondered about his work on the ice.

"Nobody ever had to question where they stood," Ferraro said. "And some guys didn't like the message. I know they didn't. But everybody knew. There was nobody that doubted where they were."

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News from © The Canadian Press, 2015