Member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, Ken Morrow, right, and co-author Allan Kreda pose at The Bookstore Plus in Lake Placid on June 19 after signing copies of their book “Miracle Gold, Four Stanley Cups, and a Lifetime of Islanders Hockey.” (Provided photo — Parker O’Brien)

LAKE PLACID — There are only about 3,100 names engraved into the Stanley Cup, which has been around since 1893. Ken Morrow’s name appears four times, the same number as Gordie Howe and Wayne Gretzky.

He’s there for his four NHL championships with the New York Islanders — once for the Ilanders, one of the 12 engraving mistakes on the coveted trophy — from 1980 to 1983.

But in this village, he’s more known for his role on the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, which won the famed “Miracle on Ice” game, before winning Olympic gold.

On June 19, Morrow was at The Bookstore Plus in Lake Placid signing copies of his recently published book, “Ken Morrow: Miracle Gold, Four Stanley Cups, and a Lifetime of Islanders Hockey,” that he co-wrote with Allan Kreda.

Kreda said they’ve done a couple of book signings at UBS Arena in Elmont, where the Islanders play, as well as at the NHL Shop in New York City. But his trip to Lake Placid was “wonderful at every level,” and a memorable one.

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How it happened

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Having been born and raised in Brooklyn, Kreda grew up a fan of the New York Rangers. Mostly because his older brother and father had season tickets in the 1970s.

But in his three-plus decades of covering hockey for various news outlets — including the Associated Press, Bloomberg News, The New York Times and The Hockey News — the Rangers’ “Battle of New York” foes, the Islanders, have grown on him.

Kreda has covered the Islanders numerous times in his years of sports writing, and even spent time during the 2022-23 NHL season writing a piece for The Hockey News on the Islanders’ 50th anniversary.

He interviewed all 16 Islanders who won those four straight Stanley Cups during the ’80s, including Morrow. And while his name doesn’t shine as much as the likes of his teammates Mike Bossy, Denis Potvin, Bryan Trottier and Billy Smith, Morrow was pivotal to those teams, and even scored the most overtime playoff goals — three — of any Islander during that four-year run.

“He, of course, being one of the key guys we talked about, some stories and we talked about the Olympics,” Kreda said. “One thing led to another, and I just said, ‘I really think there’s a book about your life and career journey, what do you think?’ And he said, ‘Well, I don’t know, I just was doing my job. We just happened to keep winning. I’ve had great teammates and tremendous people around me my whole career, but if you think it’s worth the book, we can talk some more.'”

Kreda thought Morrow was the perfect person to co-author a book with due to his double nature of winning a gold medal and a Stanley Cup within three months of each other, and being part of those Isles teams.

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The book

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While the book does focus on the 1980 Olympics and those years with the Islanders, it also dives into Morrow’s family life, some of the earlier years before Lake Placid and even Herb Brooks.

It dives into many of the important games during the Islanders’ winning runs and the legendary Olympic teams, along with some jokes and never-before-heard stories. Kreda said he reached out to nearly 50 people in Ken’s life for this.

For him, having been a teenager through most of these events that he and Ken write about has been a bit of a dream for him.

He was just 14 years old when the U.S. pulled off one of the greatest sports upsets, beating the Soviet Union 4-3 in the “Miracle on Ice” game. He often wondered what it was like for the players after that win.

But while people bombarded Main Street in celebration following that game, Morrow and the rest of the team headed straight back to his dorm room.

“He had no interest in going anywhere there were crowds, people or dealing with any celebration,” Kreda said. “It wasn’t time for that yet, it was next game, next game, next game. That kind of perseverance, mindset and preparation of doing the right thing. Those types of stories kind of stuck with me. The same way he played through the knee injuries.”

These little stories of what happened after such a large game made the book memorable to Kreda. But one story he remembers — or at least encapsulates Morrow’s time with Islanders the best — came in 1983 during the final game of the Stanley Cup Finals. Morrow scored an empty net goal to seal the Islanders’ fourth consecutive title.

“He was enveloped into a group hug with Bob Nystrom, John Tonelli and Denis Potvin. Ken Morrow just kept saying, ‘I love you, I love you guys,'” Kreda said. “And it says it all because that’s how they felt about each other. It’s such a close-knit team who went through so much and it had just cemented a fourth straight Stanley Cup, which is more incomprehensible 40 years later than it might’ve been at the time. And here is Ken Morrow, the hero again.”

Morrow always had a knack for coming up, but he’s often been described as a man of few words. He’s never really envisioned himself as a star.

When asked about his book during the Miracle on Ice Fantasy Camp in May, Morrow told the Enterprise that it’s something he’d never thought he’d ever do.

“But it’s been a real joy,” he said. “And, you know, it’s reconnecting me with a lot of people that I hadn’t talked to in a while. So it’s been fun.”

Kreda added that Morrow has enjoyed meeting new people and hearing their own stories of where they were when the Games happened or when the big goals were scored.

“He’s been a little surprised by the level of excitement of hearing his story,” Kreda said. “He was such a hardworking, dedicated sort of persevering defenseman doing his job. He never riddled or thought, ‘Oh wow, I’m a star,’ it’s not about that. It’s about working and doing and sharing the book with his family, friends, with his world.”

With the Olympics and the last Islanders win being more than 40 years ago, Kreda said they weren’t sure what the reception would be. However, with the 2004 Disney movie, “Miracle,” they’ve seen a bit of a different crowd than they were expecting.

“(There are) kids at signings, bringing Olympic photos for Ken to sign, and wanting to ask what about the Games,” Kreda said. “People at Islanders games, who are Olympic fans that can’t wait to meet, college age or just out of college, have been amazing. It’s endless.”

While Kreda has written several other books, he said he couldn’t be happier with how this one turned out.

“It’s hit the right market of readers and his teammates have told me that they’ve learned some things about Ken they didn’t know,” he said. “It’s had a happy audience who has been reliving such glorious times that I feel grateful myself as a journalist to be able to help these players and people to help continue their legacy of winning and it just so happens to combine two amazing events in the ’80s.”

Kreda said it was a great experience signing books with Morrow at The Bookstore Plus in Lake Placid. He added that they were very grateful for the efforts of Marc and Sarah Galvin, Elisa McIntosh and everyone there.

The book can be at The Bookstore Plus in Lake Placid, or online at tinyurl.com/z4artjk2.