Mike Bossy

Mike Bossy
Hockey Hall of Fame, 1991
Bossy in 1978
Born	(1957-01-22) January 22, 1957 Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Height	6 ft 0 in (183 cm)
Weight	185 lb (84 kg; 13 st 3 lb)
Position	Right Wing
Shot	Right
Played for	New York Islanders
National team	Canada
NHL draft	15th overall, 1977 New York Islanders
WHA draft	44th overall, 1977 Indianapolis Racers
Playing career	1977–1987

Michael Dean Bossy or, according to some sources, Michael Jean Bossy (born January 22, 1957) is a Canadian former ice hockey player who played for the New York Islanders for his entire career and was a crucial part of their four-year reign as Stanley Cup champions in the early 1980s. Among many other remarkable achievements, he was the only player in NHL history to score consecutive Stanley Cup winning goals (1982 and 1983) and the only player to record four game-winning goals in one series (1983 Conference Final). He is the NHL's all-time leader in average goals scored per regular season game, holds the NHL's third highest all-time average points scored per regular season game, and is one of only five players to score 50 goals in 50 games. In 2017 Bossy was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history.

Playing career

As a youth, Bossy played in the 1969 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with a minor ice hockey team from Montreal. He started his junior career with Quebec Major Junior Hockey League at the age of 15. Despite scoring 309 goals in four seasons, he was considered a timid player by NHL scouts.

In the 1977 NHL Amateur Draft, he was passed over by twelve teams, with the New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs ignoring him twice. However, the New York Islanders made him their first choice, 15th overall. General manager Bill Torrey was torn at first between taking Bossy and Dwight Foster. Bossy was known as a scorer who could not check, while Foster could check but was inferior offensively. Coach Al Arbour persuaded Torrey to pick Bossy, figuring it was easier to teach a scorer how to check. Bossy was placed on a line with Bryan Trottier and Clark Gillies, a combination that would come to be known as The Trio Grande, replacing Billy Harris on a line that had been called the "LILCO line" (standing for "Long Island Lighting Company", since their prolific scoring kept the goal lamp lit).

Bossy in 1978

Bossy boldly predicted that he would score 50 goals in his rookie season. He made good on his promise, scoring a then-record 53 goals as a rookie in the 1977–78 season, won the Calder Memorial Trophy for rookie of the year, and was named a Second Team All-Star.

Many thought it would be impossible to duplicate Maurice Richard's 50 in 50, set thirty-six years earlier. Then, in the 1980–81 season, Bossy became only the second player to score 50 goals in 50 games. This was hyped by the hockey press as he was in an unofficial competition with Charlie Simmer of the Los Angeles Kings to see who could first accomplish the 50 in 50 milestone since Richard. Both players were involved in their 50th game, with Simmer at 46 and Bossy at 48, with Simmer getting a hat trick to bring his total to 49 goals in 50. Making it particularly dramatic, Bossy was scoreless for much of the game but found the net twice within the last five minutes of his 50th game. Richard was on hand to congratulate Bossy for this achievement. Bossy finished the season with 68 goals in 79 games.

Bossy was known for being able to score goals in remarkable fashion, the most incredible, perhaps, in the 1982 Stanley Cup Finals against the Vancouver Canucks when, up-ended by a check from Tiger Williams and flying several feet in the air, parallel to the ice, Bossy nonetheless managed to hook the puck with his stick and score. Bossy was also noted for his clean play, never resorting to fighting (and being one of the first players to speak out against violence on the ice), and winning the Lady Byng Trophy for gentlemanly play three times: 1983, 1984, and 1986.

Bossy has harboured some animosity towards Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers, stating that the Islanders got little recognition for their dynasty (1980–83) compared to the Canadiens (1976–79) or Oilers (1984–90). Bossy complained "I do a lot of promoting for how good [the Islanders] were...We never got one millionth of the recognition we should. We had a very low-key organization. They didn't want guys doing too much, because they thought the hockey might suffer. People don't talk about us in the first mention of great teams." During Gretzky's interview with the New York Post in 1993, he praised Bossy as the best right-winger ever to play, saying that their scoring totals would have been even higher if the two had played together. (They nearly did; in the 1977 WHA Amateur Draft, Bossy was selected by the Indianapolis Racers, who one year later would become Gretzky's first pro team.) Bossy's response in the Post was not complimentary, as he pointed out that their playing styles were different, and also said that Trottier was the best centre in hockey. Gretzky did not comment on that at the time; however, years later in his autobiography he reiterated that Bossy was a great player, but "I sure wouldn't want to ride in a cab with that guy."

In 1982, Bossy set a scoring record for right-wingers with 147 points while also winning the Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe Trophy. However, far more attention was given to Gretzky who not only won the Hart Memorial Trophy and Art Ross Trophy, but also shattered scoring records with an unheard of 212 points and 92 goals. Bossy aspired to be the best player of his era but fell short, as the Hart and Art Ross Trophies were two of the awards that eluded Bossy during his career, going to Guy Lafleur, Trottier, and Gretzky. Although the Islanders swept the Oilers in the 1983 final to win a fourth consecutive championship, Gretzky and his Oilers still received the most attention.

The Islanders made a fifth straight Stanley Cup final in 1984 but they were outmatched by the Oilers who defeated them 4–1. Bossy, who had scored 8 goals after the first three rounds of the playoffs (and 17 goals in the past three consecutive post-seasons), was silenced completely in the finals series.

Afterwards, the Islanders slowly declined, while injuries took their toll on Bossy's back. He was limited to 63 games in the 1986–87 season but still managed to score 38 goals. He decided to take the next season off to rest his back, but officially retired after the 1987-88 season. During his season off, Bill Torrey had offered Bossy to be traded to the Montreal Canadiens, so he could be closer to home, but Bossy declined. Having played his last game at the young age of 30, he scored 573 goals and 553 assists in 752 NHL games, all with the Islanders.

The Islanders retired Bossy's #22 on March 3, 1992, the second Islander afforded that honour after longtime teammate Denis Potvin.

Career after hockey

Bossy hoped to go to training camp in the fall of 1987, but no medical therapy had changed his condition. He then took the 1987-88 season off to try different treatments for his back. Nothing worked, and no one could figure out what exactly was wrong. Though only thirty-one years old, Bossy was forced to officially retire in October 1988. After his playing days were over, he was unable to play hockey or even work out because of his back and knees.

After his retirement, Bossy returned to Laval, in the suburbs of Montreal, with wife Lucie and two daughters, Josiane and Tanya. His first post-hockey project involved going into business with Pierre La Croix, his agent, and working at Titan, a hockey stick manufacturer, as vice-president. He was also a broadcaster for the Quebec Nordiques. By the early 1990s, he represented Karhu, another stick manufacturer, and Cumis, an insurance agency, in public relations positions. He also played golf and gave speeches. In 1993, Bossy broke into radio, and by 1994, he had a regular job on early morning talk radio in Quebec. There he displayed his comic abilities until he left in 1996. By 1999, Bossy was doing public relations for Humpty Dumpty potato chips and other firms. He also remained connected to hockey by serving as the ambassador for Chevrolet Safe & Fun Hockey.

At the end of his shortened playing career, Bossy had impressive numbers. He scored 573 goals and 553 assists in only 752 games. In 129 playoff games, he had eighty-five goals and seventy-five assists. When he retired, he held the record for most goals per season average with 57.3. While he wanted to be considered a great overall player, he was basically known for his impressive scoring output. Even he did not completely understand how he did it. As he was quoted as saying by Stan Fischler in The All-New Hockey's 100, "About 90 percent of the time I don't aim: I just try to get my shot away as quick as possible as a surprise element. I just try to get the puck on net."

He afterwards recalled not being able to get a job with an NHL organization for over a decade and a half. "I called the Canadiens at least two or three times [in the mid-1990s] because I thought I could help the organization in some way, not necessarily as a coach but in some role that could be developed," Bossy told Sports Illustrated in 2005. "They never called back." When former linemate Bryan Trottier was hired as New York Rangers coach in 2002, Bossy was certain Trottier would hire him on in some capacity. "The reason was," Bossy said, "I remember having umpteen conversations with Bryan, having roomed with him for 10 years, that went, 'One of these days, Mike, we're going to take a team and do it our way.' I've found out since from Bryan [who was fired in his first season] that he wasn't going to be given that chance." Bossy then did a three-year stint as part of the morning zoo crew on CKOI, a French-language radio station in Montreal. When he started out doing promotional work for Humpty Dumpty in the late 90s, he then became the Quebec sales director of the company in 2003.

In 2005, Bossy made a cameo appearance on the fourth sequel to the French Canadian classic movie Les Boys, playing himself.

On October 13, 2006, the Islanders held a news conference to announce that Bossy had rejoined the organization, working with the front office in sponsor and fan development.

In September 2014, Bossy joined MSG Networks as a hockey analyst, and in September 2015, he officially joined TVA Sports, the official French-language broadcaster of the NHL in Canada, as a colour commentator. Bossy appears on the late night show Dave Morissette Live and TVA Sports at 5.

Bossy served as a consultant for The Raccoons on Ice, a hockey-themed special episode of the animated TV series The Raccoons first released in 1981. For most of the episode, the character Cedric Sneer is seen wearing a New York Islanders jersey with the number 22, as an homage to Bossy.

Accomplishments

As of 2018, Bossy holds or shares the following NHL records:

• Most consecutive 50+ goal seasons: 9
• Most 50+ goal seasons (not necessarily consecutive): 9 (tied with Wayne Gretzky)
• Most 60+ goal seasons (not necessarily consecutive): 5 (tied with Wayne Gretzky)
• Highest goals-per-game average, career (minimum 200 total goals): .762 goals per game
• Most power-play goals, one playoff season: 9 (tied with Cam Neely)
• Most consecutive hat tricks: 3 (tied with Joe Malone, who accomplished this twice)
• In January, 2017, Bossy was part of the second group of players to be named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history.

Bossy won the following major NHL awards:

• Calder Memorial Trophy (rookie of the year), 1978
• Conn Smythe Trophy (playoff MVP), 1982
• Lady Byng Trophy (player best combining a high skill level with gentlemanly play), three times (1983, 1984, 1986)
• First Team All-Star, five times

He also led the league in goals twice, in 1978-79 and 1980-81 (both predate the Rocket Richard Trophy).

Bossy was a part of all four Stanley Cup-winning New York Islanders teams (1979-80, 1980-81, 1981-82, 1982-83).

Here is a selected list of other official NHL record categories where Bossy was once the record-holder and/or is ranked very highly:

• Goals, career: 21st all-time with 573; only Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky reached 500 in fewer games
• Goals, regular season and playoffs combined, one season: seventh all-time with 85 (was a record at the time it was achieved)
• Assists by a right wing, one season: second all-time with 83 (was a record at the time it was achieved)
• Points by a right wing, one season: second all time with 147 (was a record at the time it was achieved)
• Goals by a rookie, one season: second all-time with 53 (was a record at the time it was achieved)
• 100+ point seasons, career: fourth all-time with 7
• Goals per game, playoffs, career: Second all-time with .659
• Goals per game, regular season and playoffs combined, career: Second all-time with .747
• Points per game, career: third all-time
• Assists per game, career: eighteenth all-time
• Shooting percentage, career: fourth all-time with 21.18%
• Hat tricks, one season: tied for third all-time with 9 (was a record at the time it was achieved)
• Hat tricks, career: third all-time with 39

Bossy has several significant career achievements that are not official NHL records. He reached 100 career goals faster (in terms of career games played) than any other player in modern NHL history, requiring just 129 games to accomplish this. (Joe Malone-61, Newsy Lalonde-69, Cy Denneny-86, Babe Dye-86, Reg Noble-109 & Frank Nighbor-125 had previously scored 100 goals in fewer games.) He was also the fastest to various other milestones such as 200 (255 GP), 300 (381 GP), 400 (506 GP) and 500 (647 GP) goals at the time he achieved them, but currently ranks behind Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux in most of these categories. In the 1980–81 NHL season, he scored 50 goals in the first 50 games of the season - only the second player, and the first in almost 40 years, to achieve this. He remains one of only five players who can claim to have accomplished this. He is the only player to score 17 goals in three consecutive playoff years.

Bossy was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1991. His #22 sweater was retired by the Islanders on March 3, 1992. In 1998, he was ranked number 20 on The Hockey News' list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

				Regular season						Playoffs
Season	Team	League		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
1972–73	Laval National	QMJHL		4	1	2	3	0		—	—	—	—	—
1973–74	Laval National	QMJHL		68	70	48	118	45		11	6	16	22	2
1974–75	Laval National	QMJHL		67	84	65	149	42		16	18	20	38	2
1975–76	Laval National	QMJHL		64	79	57	136	25		—	—	—	—	—
1976–77	Laval National	QMJHL		61	75	51	126	12		7	5	5	10	12
QMJHL totals				264	309	223	532	124		34	29	41	70	16
1977–78	New York Islanders	NHL		73	53	38	91	6		7	2	2	4	2
1978–79	New York Islanders	NHL		80	69	57	126	25		10	6	2	8	2
1979–80	New York Islanders	NHL		75	51	41	92	12		16	10	13	23	8
1980–81	New York Islanders	NHL		79	68	51	119	32		18	17	18	35	4
1981–82	New York Islanders	NHL		80	64	83	147	22		19	17	10	27	0
1982–83	New York Islanders	NHL		79	60	58	118	20		19	17	9	26	10
1983–84	New York Islanders	NHL		67	51	67	118	8		21	8	10	18	4
1984–85	New York Islanders	NHL		76	58	59	117	38		10	5	6	11	4
1985–86	New York Islanders	NHL		80	61	62	123	14		3	1	2	3	4
1986–87	New York Islanders	NHL		63	38	37	75	33		6	2	3	5	2
NHL totals				752	573	553	1,126	210		129	85	75	160	38

International

Year	Team	Event		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
1981	Canada	CC		7	8	3	11	2
1984	Canada	CC		8	5	4	9	2
Senior totals				15	13	7	20	4

See also

• Hockey Hall of Fame
• List of NHL players with 500 goals
• List of NHL players with 100-point seasons
• List of NHL players with 1000 points
• 50 goals in 50 games
• List of NHL statistical leaders
• Mike Bossy the Scoring Machine
• list of NHL players who spent their entire career with one franchise

External links

• Biographical information and career statistics from NHL.com, or Eliteprospects.com, or Hockey-Reference.com, or The Internet Hockey Database
• SI Where Are They Now? - Mike Bossy