Dynasty: The Oral History of the New York Islanders, 1972-1984

By: Greg Prato

Narrated by: Greg Prato

Ask any hockey historian about the greatest all-time teams, and the 1980-1984 New York Islanders are sure to be toward the top of their list. Assembled by General Manager Bill Torrey and taught the art of dominance by Head Coach Al Arbour, the Islanders of this era included such subsequent Hall of Famers as Bryan Trottier, Mike Bossy, Denis Potvin, Clark Gillies, and Billy Smith and won four consecutive Stanley Cups. Dynasty: The Oral History of the New York Islanders, 1972-1984 focuses solely on this period of the Islanders.

Comprising nearly 30 all-new, exclusive interviews with players, coaches, trainers, broadcasters, and a celebrity fan, the book is not only a genuine account of the Islanders from this time, but also of the National Hockey League in general. Set up in the oral history format, Dynasty sounds like a documentary but in book form, as the participants weigh in on the ups and downs of the Islanders and pull no punches in their recollections and opinions.

©2012 Greg Prato Writer, Corp. (P)2020 Greg Prato Writer, Corp.

Painful to Listen

I’ve listened to poorly narrated audio books and podcasts before but none have made me want to put pencils into my ears to make the sound go away the way this audio book does. It’s unfortunate because as a life long Islanders fan you want this story to be told to as wide an audience as possible. I can honestly say I suffered through this in it’s entirety, but most listeners won’t. Greg Prato did his own narration and although he claims to have also grown up as an Islanders fan he manages to butcher many of the players names embarrassingly mispronouncing them, and speaks with a slow monotone cadence that stretches this into 17 hours of painful listening. The story is told by the players from old interviews or quotes and regurgitated by the author. The pace was so slow I had to listen to this at 1.4X the speed or I wouldn’t have been able to finish it. If your a fan of the Islanders or hockey there are a lot of gems in this from players who lived through those great and not so great moments unfortunately I don’t think many people will get through this to hear about them. If ever a story needed a professional narrator this one does. Unless this gets done over and I doubt it will save your time your credit and your ears......don’t listen to this