Mike Bossy, the Hockey Corridor of Fame wing who performed a key position in propelling the New York Islanders to 4 consecutive Stanley Cup championships within the early Eighties, has died. He was 65.
The Islanders announced his loss of life however gave no different particulars. Bossy revealed in October that he had lung most cancers.
The Islanders, based as a Nationwide Hockey League enlargement staff in 1972, gained solely 12 video games of their first season on the Nassau Coliseum on Lengthy Island and weren’t significantly better the next season.
However they started reaching the playoffs beneath Common Supervisor Invoice Torrey and Coach Al Arbour, who assembled groups that featured Bossy at proper wing and his linemates Bryan Trottier at middle, Clark Gillies at left wing, Denis Potvin on protection and Billy Smith in objective.
The Islanders defeated the Philadelphia Flyers, the Minnesota North Stars, the Vancouver Canucks and the Edmonton Oilers of their Stanley Cup championship run from 1980 to 1983, then misplaced to the Oilers within the 1984 cup last.
The Canadian-born Bossy was among the many N. H.L’s quickest skaters, and he possessed an uncanny means to get off wrist photographs earlier than opposing goalies had any notion that the puck was coming their method.
“Mike’s received the quickest palms I’ve ever seen,” Arbour, a former defenseman who had performed alongside Gordie Howe’s with the Detroit Pink Wings and Bobby Hull with the Chicago Black Hawks, as soon as mentioned.
Bossy twice led the N.H.L. in targets, with 69 within the 1978-79 season and 68 in 1980-81. He scored not less than 51 targets in every of his first 9 seasons earlier than a again damage restricted him to 38 targets in his final season. His 85 targets in 129 playoff video games had been probably the most in N.H.L. historical past on the time.
Bossy scored 573 targets and had 553 assists in 752 regular-season video games over 10 N.H.L. seasons, all with the Islanders.
He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1991.
A finesse participant and barely constructed, Bossy eluded onerous checks and refused to get into melees.
“Guys knew he wouldn’t combat,” Trottier instructed Sports activities Illustrated in 1999. “They’d punch him, spear him, it didn’t matter. He didn’t want a lot room. The man was so inventive, he may make one thing particular with only a half inch.”
“I most likely developed what scouts known as my fast palms and fast launch extra out of self-defense than the rest,” Bossy recalled in his memoir, “Boss: The Mike Bossy Story” (1988, with Barry Meisel). “The N.H.L. was zoom, zoom, zoom in comparison with junior. I discovered to make fast passes and take fast photographs to keep away from getting hammered each time I had the puck.”
Bossy gained the Lady Byng Trophy for gentlemanly play in 1983, 1984 and 1986. He incurred solely 210 penalty minutes.
He was chosen by the Islanders because the No. 15 decide within the 1977 N.H.L. novice draft after being handed over by groups who, regardless of his outstanding goal-scoring in junior hockey, believed he didn’t have the checking expertise to outlive within the N.H.L.
It didn’t take lengthy for Bossy to show in any other case. He gained the Calder Memorial Trophy for 1977-78 because the N.H.L.’s rookie of the yr, scoring a rookie-record 53 targets that stood for 15 years. He gained the Conn Smythe Trophy as probably the most precious participant within the 1982 Stanley Cup playoffs.
Michael Bossy was born on Jan. 22, 1957, in Montreal, one in every of 10 youngsters of Borden and Dorothy Bossy. His father was of Ukrainian descent, and his mom was English. Borden Bossy flooded the yard of the household’s condominium constructing throughout winters to create an ice rink, and Mike discovered to skate at 3.
He dropped out of Laval Catholic Excessive Faculty to hitch the Laval Nationwide staff of the Quebec Main Junior Hockey League close to the tip of its 1972-73 season and performed in 4 full seasons for Laval, scoring 309 targets.
Then got here his choice by the Islanders within the draft.
Bossy’s N.H.L. profession was lower brief by a continual damage. Originally of the Islanders’ 1986 coaching camp, he skilled again pains. He missed 17 video games through the common season and injured his left knee within the playoffs, when the Flyers eradicated the Islanders in a preliminary spherical. Docs finally discovered that he had two injured discs that couldn’t be repaired by surgical procedure. He sat out the 1987-1988 season, then retired from hockey in October 1988.
The Islanders retired Bossy’s No. 22 in March 1992, making him their second participant accorded the dignity, after Potvin.
Bossy married Lucie Creamer and had two daughters along with her. Full info on his survivors was not instantly out there.
Bossy, who was bilingual, pursued enterprise ventures and broadcasting work in Canada after his enjoying profession ended. When he was discovered to have most cancers, he took a depart from his put up as a hockey analyst for the Montreal-based French-language channel TVA Sports activities.
For all that Bossy and his Stanley Cup champion Islanders completed, they lacked the charisma of his up to date, the Oilers’ Corridor of Fame middle Wayne Gretzky and Gretzky’s Edmonton groups that gained 4 Stanley Cups within the Eighties.
“We by no means received one millionth of the popularity we must always,” Bossy as soon as instructed Sports activities Illustrated. “We had a really low-key group. They didn’t need guys doing an excessive amount of as a result of they thought the hockey would possibly endure. Individuals don’t discuss us within the first point out of nice groups.”
He added: “I assume as I become older I get uninterested in telling individuals I scored greater than 50 9 consecutive years. Every little thing I’m saying makes it sound like I’m bitter, however I’m not in any way. It’s simply that if you do one thing effectively, like our staff did, you’d wish to get acknowledged for it.”
As for comparisons with Gretzky, Bossy instructed The New York Occasions in January 1986, when he turned the eleventh participant in N.H.L. historical past to attain 500 targets: “Individuals name him the Nice Gretzky. I can’t compete with that. I do really feel comfy with what I’ve helped my staff obtain. Whether or not I consider Wayne Gretzky as the best factor since apple pie is one other query.”
