Mike Bossy
MIKE BOSSY
This is an amazing tribute to Mike Bossy by NYIslandersfan21 on Youtube.com
The following information complements of Wikipedia.com
Michael Dean Bossy (born January 22, 1957) is a former Canadian ice hockey player who played for the New York Islanders for his entire career and was part of their four-year reign as Stanley Cup champions in the early 1980s. Known for his powerful shot, he was among the league’s goal scoring leaders and considered one of the greatest bona-fide snipers in hockey history. He was the only player in NHL history to score consecutive Stanley Cup winning goals, in 1982 and 1983, and the only player to record four game-winning goals in one series (1983 Conference Final).
Playing career
He started his junior career with Quebec Major Junior Hockey League at the age of 15. Despite scoring 309 goals in four seasons, Bossy 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 another forward.[citation needed] Bossy was known as a scorer who could not check, while the other forward could check but was not very good offensively. Coach Al Arbour persuaded Torrey to pick Bossy, figuring it was easier to teach a scorer how to check.[citation needed] Bossy was placed on a line with Bryan Trottier and Clark Gillies, known as The Trio Grande.[1][2]
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 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, sniper Mike Bossy of the New York Islanders became only the second player to score 50 goals in the first 50 games of the season. This was hyped by the hockey press as Bossy 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 goals and Bossy 48, with Simmer getting a hat trick that brought 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 harbored some animosity towards Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers, stating that the Islanders got little recognition for their dynasty (1980–1983) compared to the Montreal Canadiens (1976–1979) or Edmonton Oilers (1984–1990). 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.” [3] 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. 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. Gretzky afterwards could not be reached for comment. [4]
The dominant scoring star of the late 1970s was Guy Lafleur but his skills waned in the 1980s. In 1982, Bossy set a scoring record for right-wingers with 147 points while also winning the Stanley Cup and the Conn Smythe Trophy. However, far more attention was given to Gretzky who not only won the Hart 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 Lafleur, Trottier, and Gretzky.[1][5] 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.[6]
The Islanders made a fifth consecutive Stanley Cup final in 1984 (The “Drive for Five”) but they were outmatched by the Oilers who defeated them 4 games to 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.[7]
Afterwards, the Islanders would slowly decline, while injuries would take their toll on Bossy’s back. He was limited to 63 games in the 1986–87 season but he 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.[8]
The Islanders retired Bossy’s number 22 on March 3, 1992, the second Islander afforded that honor after longtime teammate Denis Potvin.[8]
Career after hockey
Bossy played his last NHL game in 1987, at the age of 30, after taking a year off he officially retired in 1988. He worked as a television broadcaster for the Quebec Nordiques until 1990. He afterwards recalled not being able to get a job with an NHL organization since then, saying “I contacted 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. They never called back”. Bossy also had hopes when former teammate Bryan Trottier was hired as New York Rangers coach in 2002, saying “I also thought I’d get a call. The reason was, 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.” [3]
Bossy then did a three-year stint as part of the morning zoo crew on CKOI, a French-language radio station in Montreal. He started out doing promotional work for Humpty Dumpty in the late 1990s, a snack-food manufacturer based in eastern Canada. He became the Quebec sales director of the company in 2003. [3]
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. [9]
Accomplishments
Bossy holds the current NHL record for most consecutive 50+ goal seasons with nine. Additionally, both he and Gretzky are the only players ever to have scored 60 or more goals in as many as five seasons. Unlike Gretzky, however, who played 20 seasons and 1,487 games, Bossy was healthy enough only for 10, of which only the first nine were full and just over half the games (752).
As he never played long enough for his skills to diminish, his scoring averages remain quite high. Bossy averaged .762 goals per game in the regular season, more than any other player in NHL history, and .659 in the playoffs, second only to Mario Lemieux at .710. Lemieux averaged .754 goals per game in the regular season, second best in NHL history. Bossy averaged .747 goals per game in 881 regular season and playoff games, second best to Mario Lemieux who averaged .750 goals per game in 1,022 regular season and playoff games. However, Bossy’s career shooting percentage was superior to Mario’s. Mike finished fourth best on the all-time list at 21.18% (whereas Mario was 16th with 18.99%).[10]
In the 1977–78 NHL season, he became the first player to have a 50+ goal rookie season. Scoring 53 goals his rookie season, he established a rookie record that was not broken until the 1992–93 season by Teemu Selanne‘s 76 goals.
In the 1980–81 NHL season, he scored 50 goals in the first 50 games of the season. He also recorded nine hat tricks that season, establishing an NHL-record (broken by Gretzky in 1981–82 with 10). Bossy also set a record for goals in a season and playoffs combined with a total of 85, breaking Reggie Leach‘s record of 80 in 1975-76.
In 1982, Bossy set scoring records for right-wingers with 83 assists and 147 points in 80 games. These would stand until the 1995–96 season when Jaromir Jagr broke both records with 87 assists and 149 points, in what was an 82-game schedule.
Bossy earned the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 1982, and scored 17 goals in three straight playoffs—1981, 1982, and 1983—the only player ever to do so. In reaching the Stanley Cup Finals five times, between 1980 and 1984, Bossy scored 69 goals. By contrast, in Gretzky’s five Stanley Cup Finals playoffs during his peak years with the Edmonton Oilers, he scored 59 goals.
Bossy earned 5 First Team All-Star selections, one of only four right wings ever to do so, again a notable achievement considering that the other three had much longer careers (Gordie Howe – 26 years; Maurice Richard – 18 years; Guy Lafleur – 17 years).
He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1991. His #22 jersey 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, despite having an injury-shortened career.
Bossy is the fastest player to reach 100 goals in the amount of games played in ’78 – ’79.
In 81′-82′ Bossy was the fastest player to reach 300 goals in the amount of games played, as well as the fastest player to reach 500 goals in the amount of games played in 85′-86′, to only have both goal marks to be surpassed and scored faster by Wayne Gretzky’s 300 goals in 83′-84′ and 500 goals in 86′-87′.
Bossy is the third fastest player to reach the 500 goal mark in the amount of games played (647), only behind Wayne Gretzky’s 500 goals in 575 games played and Mario Lemieux’s 500 goals in 605 games played.
Bossy is ranked 19th on the NHL all time goal scoring list with 573 lifetime goals.
Bossy is fourth in the NHL for most 100+ point seasons. He has had seven 100+ point seasons in his NHL career, only behind Wayne Gretzky’s fifteen 100+ point seasons, Mario Lemieux’s ten 100+ point seasons, and Marcel Dionne’s eight 100+ point seasons.
Bossy also holds the NHL record for most consecutive years (9) in a row with over 50 or more goals in a single season.[9]
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