Arbour, Al

Arbour, Al (Alger Joseph Arbour), 1932–2015, Canadian ice hockey player and coach. A defenseman, he joined the Detroit Red Wings in 1953, then moved to the Chicago Black Hawks in 1958, Toronto Maple Leafs in 1962, and St. Louis Blues in 1967. He became the Blues' coach (1970–73) in his last year as a player, succeeding Scotty Bowman. He won the Stanley Cup with the Red Wings (1954), Black Hawks (1961), and Maple Leafs (1962, 1964), and helped the fledgling Blues make the finals thrice (1968–70). As coach of the New York Islanders (1973–86), he led them to four consecutive Stanley Cups (1980–83), then was vice president for player development before coaching them again (1988–94); he returned (2007) to coach them for a record 1,500th game for the same team. In all, Arbour coached 1,607 games, with 782 regular season wins, second only to Bowman, and had 123 postseason wins. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1996.

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