Islanders legend Mike Bossy, whose scoring contact helped drive the franchise to 4 straight championships, died Friday after a battle with terminal lung most cancers. He was 65.
Bossy’s prognosis grew to become public final October, when he stepped away from his job as an NHL analyst for the French language community TVA Sports activities to cope with his well being.
“The battle I'm about to wage won't be simple,” Bossy wrote on the time in French, in an open letter. “Know that I'll give one hundred pc, nothing much less, with the target of assembly you once more quickly, after a really eventful hockey sport. You'll by no means be very far in my ideas. Quite the opposite, you'll occupy a privileged place and you can be one among my motivations to get higher.”
Renaud Lavoie, a former colleague of Bossy’s at TVA, was the primary to report the information of his passing.
Bossy performed everything of his 10-year profession on Lengthy Island, incomes a spot as each a franchise nice and probably the greatest purpose scorers the game has ever seen, earlier than retiring with a power again damage. He completed his profession with 573 objectives, scoring over 50 in 9 straight seasons, an all-time report. Famously, he scored 50 objectives in 50 video games through the 1980-81 season, matching Maurice “Rocket” Richard’s report.
Of his scoring, former teammate Chico Resch instructed Sports activities Illustrated in 1981 that Bossy “scores objectives as naturally as you and I get up within the morning and brush our tooth.”
He was inducted into the Hockey Corridor of Fame in 1991, with an inventory of accolades that features eight All-Star appearances, three Girl Byng Trophies, the 1981-82 Conn Smythe Trophy and the 1977-78 Calder Trophy.
“He was, evidently, a slender hockey participant,” former teammate Bob Nystrom instructed The Put up in October. “That’s for positive.”
Bossy was additionally a loud opponent of preventing in hockey, saying he would by no means participate in a battle, regardless of enjoying in an period the place it was accepted as a daily a part of the sport.
“The New York Islanders group mourns the lack of Mike Bossy, an icon not solely on Lengthy Island however throughout your entire hockey world,” Islanders president and basic supervisor Lou Lamoriello mentioned. “His drive to be the very best each time he stepped on the ice was second to none. Alongside along with his teammates, he helped win 4 straight Stanley Cup championships, shaping the historical past of this franchise without end. On behalf of your entire group, we ship our deepest condolences to your entire Bossy household and all those that grieve this tragic loss.”
Michael Dean Bossy was born in 1957, the sixth of 10 youngsters and the fifth of sixth sons to Dorothy and Borden Bossy. He grew up in Montreal with an English mom and Ukrainian father, assembly his spouse, Lucie, on the snack bar of an area the place he performed midget hockey when he was 14.
At 15, Bossy started enjoying within the Quebec Main Junior Hockey League for Laval Nationwide, and his 532 QMJHL factors stay a report.
When he entered the NHL draft, Bossy’s aversion to preventing was mistaken for a scarcity of toughness, and he fell to fifteenth total, almost selecting the World Hockey Affiliation as a substitute of the Islanders over cash.
“I didn’t suppose [Islanders general manager] Invoice Torrey was providing me sufficient, and he jogged my memory that I used to be the fifteenth participant drafted, not the primary,” Bossy as soon as instructed SI. “However I instructed him I deserved extra as a result of I used to be going to attain objectives for him. Invoice requested me what number of. ‘Fifty objectives,’ I instructed him.”
Hardly ever has there been a extra prescient self-evaluation.
“Whether or not in hockey or anything — like studying French, like cooking on a barbecue, washing my automotive — I'm a perfectionist,” Bossy instructed UPI in a 1986 profile. “At instances it’s an obsession — I have a look at myself and I feel I’m loopy. However it’s been with me all my life, that drive. I’m simply by no means happy, that’s in all probability one of many issues that drives me probably the most.”
His persona was usually described as aloof. He was regarded throughout his enjoying profession as a non-public individual, and since he spent offseasons at house in Montreal, it was written that he spent much less time on Lengthy Island than his teammates. Nonetheless, Bossy was a beloved determine, with the Islanders elevating his No. 22 to Nassau Coliseum’s rafters simply 5 seasons after his abrupt 1987 retirement attributable to a again damage.
After hockey, Bossy labored as a radio comedian on a French-language station, as a vp for Titan, as a PR individual and a broadcaster for the Quebec Nordiques, MSG Networks and most just lately, TVA.
His demise is one other blow to the Islanders, who've now misplaced three members of the 1979-80 championship staff that kicked off one of many sport’s best dynasties since January. Clark Gillies handed away on Jan. 21, Jean Potvin on March 15.
The trio of tragedies has rocked the group to its core.
“He lives Islanders,” coach Barry Trotz mentioned of Bossy upon his prognosis. “And he’s clearly an Islanders legend. … I’m sort of in awe of him. I used to look at him on a regular basis.”
Bossy is survived by his spouse, Lucie, his two daughters, Josiane and Tanya, and two grandchildren.
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