Island legend Mike Bossy, whose goals helped lead the franchise to four straight championships, died after a battle with terminal lung cancer. He was 65.
Bossy’s diagnosis became public last October when he quit his job as an NHL analyst for French-language network TVA Sports to take care of his health.
“The fight I will fight will not be easy,” Bossy wrote in an open letter in French at the time. “You know I will give no less than 100 percent to see you again soon after a very eventful hockey game. You’ll never be very far on my mind. On the contrary, you will have a privileged place and will be one of my motivations to get better.”
Renaud Lavoie, a former colleague of Bossy at TVA, was the first to report the news of his death.
Bossy played his entire 10-year career on Long Island, earning both a place as a franchise great and one of the top scorers the sport has ever seen before retiring with a chronic back injury. He ended his career with 573 goals, surpassing 50 in nine straight seasons, an all-time record. He famously scored 50 goals in 50 games in the 1980/81 season, tying the record set by Maurice “Rocket” Richard.
Mike Bossy celebrates the Islanders’ Stanley Cup win in 1983. Getty Images
Referring to his goals, former teammate Chico Resch told Sports Illustrated in 1981 that Bossy “scores goals as naturally as you and I wake up in the morning and brush our teeth.”
He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1991 with a list of accolades that includes eight All-Star appearances, three Lady Byng Trophies, the 1981-82 Conn Smythe Trophy and the 1977-78 Calder Trophy .
“He was obviously a lean hockey player,” his former teammate Bob Nystrom told The Post in October. “That’s for sure.”
Bossy was also a vocal opponent of fighting in hockey, saying he would never participate in a fight despite playing in an era where he was accepted as an integral part of the game.
“The New York Islanders organization mourns the loss of Mike Bossy, an icon not just on Long Island but throughout the hockey world,” said Lou Lamoriello, Islanders president and general manager. “His drive to be the best every time he stepped onto the ice was second to none. Along with his teammates, he helped win four straight Stanley Cup championships and forever shaped the history of that franchise. On behalf of the entire organization, we extend our deepest condolences to the entire Bossy family and to all who are mourning this tragic loss.”
Mike Bossy, Getty Images
Michael Dean Bossy was born in 1957, the sixth of ten children and fifth of six sons to Dorothy and Borden Bossy. Raised in Montreal with an English mother and Ukrainian father, he met his wife Lucie at the snack bar of an arena where he was playing mini hockey when he was 14.
Bossy began playing in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League for Laval National at age 15, and his 532 QMJHL points remain a record.
Entering the NHL draft, Bossy’s dislike of fights was mistaken for a lack of toughness, and he fell to 15th overall, nearly picking the World Hockey Association over the money over the Islanders.
New York Islanders Mike Bossy holds a puck indicating he scored 50 goals in his first 50 games in 1981 AP
“I wasn’t thinking [Islanders general manager] Bill Torrey offered me enough and he reminded me that I was the 15th player to be drafted, not the first,” Bossy once told SI. “But I told him I deserved more because I would score goals for him. Bill asked me how many. ‘Fifty goals,’ I told him.”
Rarely has there been a more forward-looking self-evaluation.
“Whether it’s in hockey or anything else — like learning French, grilling a BBQ, washing the car — I’m a perfectionist,” Bossy told UPI in a 1986 profile. “Sometimes it’s an obsession — I look at myself and I think I’m crazy. But it has been with me my whole life, this drive. I’m just never satisfied, that’s probably one of the things that drives me the most.”
His personality has often been described as distant. He was considered a privateer during his playing career, and because he spent the off-season at home in Montreal, he was written to spend less time on Long Island than his teammates. Still, Bossy was a popular figure, with the Islanders raising his No. 22 to the rafters of the Nassau Coliseum just five seasons after his sudden retirement in 1987 due to a back injury.
After hockey, Bossy worked as a radio comic at a French-language station, as a vice president for Titan, as a public relations person, and as a broadcaster for Quebec Nordiques, MSG Networks, and most recently TVA.
His death comes as a further blow to the islanders, who have now lost three members of the 1979-80 championship team that launched one of the sport’s greatest dynasties since January. Clark Gillies died on January 21st, Jean Potvin on March 15th.
Mike Bossy attends a Nets game in 2014NBAE/Getty Images
The trio of tragedies shook the organization to the core.
“He lives Islanders,” trainer Barrydios said of Bossy after his diagnosis. “And he’s obviously an Islander legend. … I’m kind of in awe of him. I watched him the whole time.”
Bossy is survived by his wife Lucie, his two daughters Josiane and Tanya and two grandchildren.