The distinction of being the greatest player in the history of hockey in the New York Tri-State Area is not absolute. Mainly because there are 3 teams, and thus 3 fanbases, and 2 of them can't even agree among themselves who their best player is.
For the New Jersey Devils, it's easy: Martin Brodeur. For the New York Rangers, the team with by far the longest history, it's tougher. Is it Frank Boucher? Or Rod Gilbert? Or Mark Messier? Or Brian Leetch? Does winning the Stanley Cup matter? Of course it does.
For the New York Islanders, it comes down to the captain and defender, Denis Potvin, or the great scorer, Mike Bossy.
Michael Dean Bossy was born on January 22, 1957 in Montreal. Despite growing up in Montreal, with the Canadiens winning 10 Stanley Cups in his 1st 16 years, his family was Detroit Red Wings fans. At age 12, he hurt his knee while competing in a long jump, and it affected his hockey career thereafter.
In the 1977 NHL Draft, 12 teams passed Bossy over, including the New York Rangers and the Toronto Maple Leafs twice. The New York Islanders took the right wing with the 15th pick. He was immediately put on their major league roster, on a forward line with center Bryan Trottier and left wing Clark Gillies, which became known as the Trio Grande Line. (That's "grand" to rhyme with "Rio Grande," not "GRAHN-day.")
Shortly after being drafted, he married his girlfriend, Lucie Creamer, whom he had met while he was playing at a rink and she was working at the snack bar. Together, they had 2 daughters, Josiane and Tanya, and eventually 2 grandchildren.
He scored 53 goals in 1977-78, winning the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year, and making the 1st of what turned out to be 7 NHL All-Star Games. In 1979, he led the NHL with 69 goals. At the time, it was the 2nd-highest total in NHL history. The Islanders had become the best team in the League, except for the Canadiens, who won their 4th straight Stanley Cup.
In 1980, the Canadiens finally got old, and the Islanders were ready to take over the NHL. The Nassau Coliseum became known as "Fort Neverlose." Bossy scored 51 goals, and the Islanders won the Cup on May 24, as Bobby Nystrom's overtime goal in Game 6 beat the Philadelphia Flyers.
In 1980-81, Bossy matched the record of Canadiens legend Maurice "the Rocket" Richard, set in 1945, by scoring 50 goals in the season's 1st 50 games. (In 1945, 50 games was the entire regular season.) He ended up scoring 68, to lead the League again. The Isles won another Cup, beating the Minnesota North Stars in the Finals. In 1982, Bossy scored 64 goals, and was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as Most Valuable Player of the Playoffs, as the Isles made it 3 straight Cups, beating the Vancouver Canucks in the Finals.
The Edmonton Oilers of Wayne Gretzky -- who shattered all goal-scoring records that year, with 92, needing only 39 games to get his 1st 50 -- were in the position the Isles were in in 1978 and '79: Almost there, but not quite. In 1983, it was Islanders vs. Oilers in the Finals, and the Islanders swept. They were the 1st team, other than the Canadiens, to win 4 straight Stanley Cups. In 1984, they survived a wild 1st round matchup with the Rangers, and got to a 5th straight Finals. But their "Drive for Five" ended, as the Oilers beat them in 5 games. Also in 1984, Bossy was a member of the Team Canada that won the Canada Cup, hockey's version of the World Cup.
But, like the 2 great 1st basemen in New York at the time, Don Mattingly of the Yankees and Keith Hernandez of the Mets, Bossy was beset with a back injury, on top of the bad knee that had never quite healed. In 1985-86, he scored 61 goals. It was his 9th season in the NHL, and he had scored at least 50 in all of them, and at least 60 in 5 of them. But in 1986-87, he was limited to 63 games, and 38 goals.
The pain got to be too much: Like Boston Bruins legend Bobby Orr, he had to hang up his skates when he was only 30 years old. He finished with 573 goals, and 553 assists. To put that in perspective: At the same age, Gretzky had 718. But he, too, would fall victim to a back injury, and score "only" 176 more.
How many could Bossy have finished with, if he had been able to play until age 38, like Gretzky? 600 sounds low. 700 might have been low. 800 might have been possible. Might he have scored more than Gretzky's 894? Given that Alex Ovechkin is about to turn 37, and has 777 career goals, it's no longer hard to imagine someone surpassing "The Great One."
As a kid who rooted for the fledgling New Jersey Devils, I hated those Islanders. Being Polish, I loved the joke that Ranger fans told: "What do Polish Ranger fans say? 'Kill Bossy!'" But even then, I knew that they were talented, and that they were tough.
Bossy was elected tot he Hockey Hall of Fame in 1991. On March 3, 1992, the Islanders retired his Number 22. In 1998, The Hockey News ranked him 20th on their list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players. In 2017, he was named to the NHL's 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players.
He became a broadcaster for the Quebec Nordiques, until they moved to Denver in 1995. He was part of "Y'e trop d'bonne heure" (meaning "It's Too Easily") on French-language Montreal radio station CKOI-FM from 1993 to 1996. In 2006, he became a team ambassador for the Islanders. In 2015, he began broadcasting NHL games for TVA Sports, Canada's biggest French-language sports network.
This past Friday, April 14, 2022, he died in Montreal, 6 months after announcing that he had lung cancer. He was 66 years old.
Looking back, I can use on Mike Bossy the words that Bill Parcells used on Barry Sanders: He was a pain in the ass, and I mean that with the utmost respect.
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