Billy Smith and Glenn Resch – The Islanders Deadly Duo

From 1974-75 to 1980-81, the New York Islanders had an amazing goaltending tandem made up of Billy Smith and Glenn ‘Chico’ Resch. It was Resch who could be considered the main goalie for the Islanders from 1975-76 to 1979-80, playing just over half the regular season games. However, when it came to New York’s Stanley Cup era, it was Smith who stole the show.

An updated article on this player can be found here: Billy Smith

Billy Smith was a fifth round pick of the Los Angeles Kings at the 1970 NHL Amateur Draft, 59th overall. Smith played five games with the Kings in 1971-72. The following season, he joined the Islanders for their inaugural season in the National Hockey League. Billy played from 1972-73 to 1988-89 with the Islanders. His career regular season GAA was 3.17 with 22 shutouts.

Smith played a huge role in the Islanders winning four consecutive Stanley Cups from 1979-80 to 1982-83. In the final Stanley Cup victory, Billy was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as playoff MVP. He won the Vezina Trophy and Jennings Trophy once each. In 1993, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame and his jersey number 31 became one of six New York Islanders retired numbers.

Billy Smith rookie card appeared in the 1973-74 O-Pee-Chee series as hockey card #142. Beckett values the card at up to $50.

Glenn ‘Chico’ Resch was undrafted and began play with the New York Islanders in 1973-74 with two games in an Islanders jersey. He played with New York until midway through the 1980-81 season. Resch was shipped to the Colorado Rockies

before he was able to participate in the Islanders second consecutive Stanley Cup victory. In a bit of useless hockey trivia, Glenn was the victim of an astounding 23 empty goals in his only full season with the Rockies. He spent two seasons with Colorado before moving with the franchise to New Jersey. Chico played with the Devils until a trade sent him to the Philadelphia Flyers during the 1985-86 season. He played the following season with the Flyers before retiring.

Resch finished his career with 26 regular season shutouts, four more than Billy Smith. However, Glenn was denied the Hockey Hall of Fame and the jersey number hanging from the rafters of the Nassau County Coliseum.

The Glenn Resch rookie card comes in the form of the 1974-75 O-Pee-Chee #353 hockey card. The card is valued by Beckett at $20. The Resch rookie card is considered an uncorrected error (UER) as his first name is missing an ‘n’ on the front of the card.