Description：On August 9, 1988, the NHL was forever changed with the single stroke of a pen. The Edmonton Oilers, fresh off their fourth Stanley Cup victory in five years, signed a deal that sent Wayne Gretzky, a Canadian national treasure and the greatest hockey player ever to play the game, to the Los Angeles Kings in a multi-player, multi-million dollar deal. As bewildered Oiler fans struggled to make sense of the unthinkable, fans in Los Angeles were rushing to purchase season tickets at a rate so fast it overwhelmed the Kings box office. Overnight, a franchise largely overlooked in its 21-year existence was suddenly playing to sellout crowds and standing ovations, and a league often relegated to “little brother” status exploded from 21 teams to 30 in less than a decade.
Description：A meteoric rise and tragic fall are captured in this brief history of a beloved sports team and a man who took a chance. When the New York Islanders first burst on the national hockey scene, the team was unstoppable. Winning four straight Stanley Cups, it became the pride of Long Island, until subsequent years of turmoil left the Islanders in dire straits. Enter John Spano, an obscure Texas millionaire with big dreams and a persuasive smile. Director and avid Islanders fan Kevin Connolly of HBO’s Entourage gets an earnest play-by-play from a man who exaggerated his social and monetary profile so vastly that he actually took control of an NHL franchise. With testimony from sports analysts and federal investigators, Connolly skillfully pieces together this unbelievable story.
