Mike Bossy, a great goal scorer in hockey and a crucial member of the New York Islanders’ 1980s dynasty, has died. He was 65 years old.
Bossy’s death was confirmed Thursday night by the Islanders and TVA Sports, the French-language network in Canada where he worked as a hockey analyst. According to a team spokeswoman, Bossy was in his hometown of Montreal.
Bossy revealed in October that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer in a letter to TVA Sports.
“It is with great regret that I must exit your screens for a necessary respite,” Bossy wrote in French. “I aim to fight with the same tenacity and zeal that you’ve seen me exhibit on the ice.”
This is the third death this year from that Islanders period, following the deaths of fellow Hockey Hall of Famer Clark Gillies in January and Jean Potvin in March.
“The New York Islanders organisation mourns the passing of Mike Bossy, a Long Island icon who influenced the whole hockey world,” Islanders president and general manager Lou Lamoriello said in a statement. “His desire to be the best each and every time he walked onto the ice was unmatched. Together with his colleagues, he helped win four consecutive Stanley Cup championships, forever changing the course of this franchise’s history.”
The New York Islanders are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of the greatest pure goal scorer, four-time Stanley Cup Champion and Hockey Hall of Fame member, Mike Bossy. https://t.co/hbyozJ4BUS
— New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) April 15, 2022
Tanya Bossy, her father’s daughter, stated that he was “no longer in pain.”
“My father loved hockey, yes, but he loved life first and foremost,” she said in a statement issued on behalf of the Bossy family in French. “He persisted to the finish of his journey. He desired survival above all else.”
From 1980 to 1983, Bossy helped the Islanders win the Stanley Cup, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 1982. In 1982 and 1983, he scored the Cup-winning goals.
“The National Hockey League mourns the passing of Mike Bossy, the dynamic winger whose goal-scoring prowess over a remarkable 10-year career ranks among the greatest in NHL history and propelled the New York Islanders to four consecutive Stanley Cup championships,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement. “… Though rival coaches and players were obsessed with containing him, Bossy’s brilliance was irresistible and his production was unrelenting throughout his career. He enchanted fans in a way that few others have.”
Bossy, a 1977 first-round choice, spent his entire ten-year NHL career with New York. He earned the Calder Trophy as the league’s rookie of the year, three Lady Byng Awards for gentlemanly behaviour, and twice led the league in goals.
Bossy scored at least 50 goals in each of his first nine seasons, the longest stretch in the league. He and Wayne Gretzky are the only players in NHL history to have nine seasons with at least 50 goals.
Bossy, one of just five players to achieve 50 goals in 50 games, remains the all-time leader in regular-season goals per game with 0.762, and only two players have more hat tricks with 39.
He is third in terms of points per game and eighth in terms of career scoring. All of those figures are from the regular season, when Bossy put up some of the finest numbers in the game’s history. Bossy was even more clutch in the playoffs. He is the only player in playoff history to score four game-winning goals in the same series, and he also scored three playoff overtime goals.
The Islanders, led by Bossy, Gillies, Bryan Trottier, and defenceman Denis Potvin, succeeded Scotty Bowman’s 1970s Montreal Canadiens as the NHL’s next dynasty before being supplanted by Gretzky’s Edmonton Oilers.
Bossy was an eight-time All-Star who finished the regular season with 573 goals and 553 assists for a total of 1,126 points in 752 games. He was the quickest player to reach 100 goals and ranks 22nd all-time in that category. Bossy scored 160 points in 129 postseason games.
In 1987, he was forced to retire due to back and knee ailments. He scored 38 goals but was limited to 63 games, preventing him from returning for an 11th season.
In 1991, Bossy was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame and was named one of the NHL’s 100 greatest players in 2017. In March 1992, the Islanders retired his No. 22.
Prior to joining the NHL, Bossy spent five seasons with the Laval National of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. In 298 QMJHL games, he scored 602 points. Bossy also competed for Canada in the 1981 and 1984 Canada Cups, long before NHL players began competing in the Winter Olympics.