Larry Brooks’ Hall of Fame career started with ‘trusted’ Islanders relationships

LAS VEGAS — It’s said you never forget your first love. For hockey writers, that sentiment translates to your first beat, and for Larry Brooks that was the pre-dynasty New York Islanders circa 1976.

The feeling turned out to be mutual, as The Post reached out to a handful of vintage-era Islanders for their thoughts on the passing of the Hall of Fame hockey columnist, who died Thursday morning at age 75 after a brief bout with cancer.

The news hit these players — still among the toughest to ever lace up skates — like a punch in the chops from a Big Bad Bruin or a stick to the groin by a Broad Street Bully.

Butch Goring was “shocked.”

Bobby Nystrom “destroyed.”

Denis Potvin “terribly sad.”

Their relationships with Brooks were born in an era when the dynamic between athlete and scribe was much different.

Brooks wrote, in a January, 2022, column after the death of Islanders great Clark Gillies:

“Most of the players and I were about the same age. We might even have been in the same tax bracket,” Brooks wrote in The Post. “Writers traveled with the team they covered, they took the team bus to and from games.”

Brooks detailed post-game Saturday nights at Dr. G’s in East Meadow, wives and significant others included.

“You socialized, you formed friendships that, in some cases, have endured for decades, but there was always the understanding that what happened away from the rink would never influence your objectivity,” Brooks continued. “Ask any of those guys if they thought they caught a break in The Post.”

Brooks wouldn’t have posed that query if he didn’t know the answers.

“I had so much respect for Larry. We could sit and talk all day long and I knew the next day his article wasn’t going to screw me or make my comments sound different than the words I was saying,” Potvin said. “He was a good writer, inquisitive. He was trusted. We knew he had to write, but we trusted him to take our thoughts and comments and put them together properly.”

Nystrom, who, like Potvin was a member of Brooks’ first Islander team, said the players didn’t immediately appreciate his tenacity.

“He was a tough guy. He called it the way it was even if we didn’t want it to be like that. Maybe we wanted him to soften it up a little but he understood hockey enough to read between the lines and see what was really going on,” said the man who scored the overtime goal that gave the Islanders their first of four consecutive Stanley Cups on May 24, 1980.

“He always gave his honest analysis and didn’t look for the little horses–t things [to criticize].”

Goring and Ken Morrow arrived in 1980, Goring in the trade with L.A. credited with putting the Islanders over top and Morrow after winning the gold medal with the “Miracle on Ice” team.

Brooks already had switched to the Rangers beat but still chronicled the Cup runs.

“He knew the game very well and wasn’t afraid to let his opinion be known, good or bad,” Morrow said. “Reading his articles, the insider information he had, showed that he was doing the hard work of a reporter, talking to players, and keeping [readers] informed of things they wouldn’t otherwise know about.”

Added Goring, now the Islanders’ long-time television color commentator, “The thing I appreciated about Larry was he was very passionate about hockey and respectful of hockey players. He was honest and knew the game. If someone didn’t play well, he didn’t make excuses for them. I don’t like bulls**t and Larry didn’t either.”

On a personal level, Potvin, the Islanders’ Hall of Fame defenseman, remembers Brooks for more than just his craft.

“He had a big heart,” Potvin said. “When my brother [Islanders defenseman Jean Potvin] passed and we had his celebration of life, Brooksie showed up in a shirt, tie, jacket. It meant so much to me.

“Oh, boy am I sad.”