Mike Bossy, one of hockey’s most prolific goal-scorers and a star for the New York Islanders during their 1980s dynasty, has died after a battle with lung cancer. He was 65.
Bossy had revealed his diagnosis in October in a letter to TVA Sports.
“It is with a lot of sadness that I need to step away from your screens, for a necessary pause,” Bossy wrote in French. “I intend to fight with all the determination and fire you’ve seen me show on the ice.”
It’s the third loss from that Islanders era this year after fellow Hockey Hall of Famer Clark Gillies died in January and Jean Potvin died in March.
“Though containing him was the obsession of opposing coaches and checking him the focus of opposing players, Bossy’s brilliance was unstoppable and his production relentless throughout his entire career,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said Friday. “He thrilled fans like few others.”
An Islanders spokesman said Bossy was in his native Montreal, where the team will play Friday night against the Canadiens. Before taking the ice on an emotional night at Bell Centre, Islanders forward Anthony Beauvillier shared what Bossy meant to his family and career.
“Mike Bossy was a name often mentioned in my household growing up as my father idolized him,” Beauvillier wrote Instagram. “He would tell stories about how good of a goal scorer he is and how he would make it so easy. When I first put the [Islanders] jersey on, it’s the first thing my dad told me `Same team as Mike.’ It’s always been an honour for me wearing the same jersey as Mike.”
WATCH l Remembering the late Mike Bossy:
Remembering the late Mike Bossy
5 hours ago
Duration 5:06
Mike Bossy was ‘probably the purest goal scorer in National Hockey League history,’ said Montreal columnist Dave Stubbs. Bossy will also be remembered as a family man and for his contributions to the larger hockey community. 5:06
Nine 50-goal seasons
Bossy helped the Islanders win the Stanley Cup four straight years from 1980-83, earning the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 1982. He scored the Cup-winning goal in 1982 and ’83 — one of just two players to do so in back-to-back seasons.
“That’s certainly something I’m proud of,” Bossy said in 1983 after scoring the second Cup-winning goal.
Bossy was a first-round pick in 1977 and played his entire 10-year NHL career with New York. He won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year, got the Lady Byng Trophy for gentlemanly conduct three times and led the league in goals twice.
“The New York Islanders organization mourns the loss of Mike Bossy, an icon not only on Long Island but the entire hockey world,” Islanders president and general manager Lou Lamoriello said. “His drive to be the best every time he stepped on the ice was second to none. Along with his teammates, he helped win four straight Stanley Cup championships, shaping the history of this franchise forever.”
One of the greatest pure goal scorers of all time, four-time Stanley Cup winner, and a <a href=”https://twitter.com/NYIslanders?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@NYIslanders</a> legend. Mike Bossy’s legacy will never be forgotten. ???? ???? <a href=”https://t.co/83nMx46p1d”>pic.twitter.com/83nMx46p1d</a>
Bossy scored 50 or more goals in each of his first nine seasons — the league’s longest streak. He and Wayne Gretzky are the only players in hockey history with nine 50-goal seasons.
Gretzky’s Oilers met Bossy’s Islanders in a pair Stanley Cup finals, with the Edmonton side ending the Long Island dynasty in 1984 after getting swept by the Isles a year earlier.
The two all-time greats were Team Canada teammates on two occasions during the 1981 and 1984 Canada Cup tournaments. Canada won the ’84 event, thanks to Bossy’s tournament-saving overtime goal against the Soviet Union in the semifinal game.
“It was an honour to play with you. You will be missed,” Gretzky said in a Twitter post.
Bossy was just the second player to score 50 goals in 50 games — a feat that has only been matched three times since. He remains the all-time leader in goals per game in the regular season at 0.762, and only two players have recorded more hat tricks than Bossy’s 39.
He ranks third in points a game and seventh on the all-time scoring list. Those are all in the regular season when Bossy put up some of the best numbers in the history of the game. In the playoffs, Bossy was even more clutch. He is the only player with four game-winners in the same playoff series and he scored three playoff overtime goals.
Part of Islander hockey dynasty
Led by Bossy, Gillies, Bryan Trottier and defenceman Denis Potvin, the Islanders succeeded Scotty Bowman’s 1970s Montreal Canadiens as the NHL’s next dynasty before Gretzky’s Oilers took over the sport.
Bossy was an eight-time All-Star and finished with 573 goals and 553 assists for 1,126 points in 752 regular-season games. He was the fastest player to reach the 100-goal mark and currently ranks 22nd on the career goals list. In the playoffs, Bossy had 160 points in 129 games.
N.Y. Islanders coach Al Arbour, left, talks with Bossy, his top scorer, during a break in practice in Denver, Colo., in this photo taken March 17, 1982. (Ed Andrieski/The Associated Press)
Back and knee injuries ultimately ended his career in 1987. He was limited to 38 goals in 63 games and unable to return for an 11th season.
Bossy revealed his cancer diagnosis in October in a letter to TVA Sports. He wrote in French: “It is with a lot of sadness that I need to step away from your screens, for a necessary pause. I intend to fight with all the determination and fire you’ve seen me show on the ice.”
Daughter Tanya Bossy said her father was “no longer in pain.”
“My dad loved hockey, sure, but first and foremost he loved life,” she said in a statement in French on behalf of the Bossy family. “Until the end of his journey, he hung on. He wanted to live more than anything.”
Bossy was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1991 and in 2017 was named one of the NHL’s 100 greatest players.
“I once asked Mike Bossy why he scored so many goals. Answer: ‘I rarely missed the net.’ A true natural,” fellow Hockey Hall of Famer Hayley Wickenheiser, a four-time Olympic gold medallist for Canada, said in a Twitter post on Friday.
We are saddened by the passing of Team Canada legend Mike Bossy, who wore the ???? at the Canada Cup in 1981 and 1984.<br><br>We send our condolences to his family and friends. ❤️ <a href=”https://t.co/GuDfhNEg9j”>pic.twitter.com/GuDfhNEg9j</a>
Before reaching the NHL, Bossy played five seasons in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League with the Laval National. He had 602 points in 298 QMJHL games.
Canadiens interim head coach Martin St. Louis said Friday that Bossy was very much involved with the Montreal hockey community.
“I was born in 1975 and grew up in Laval, so I had an idea of the impact Mike had as a player. Mike was not just amazing on the ice, but off it too,” St. Louis said. “He came to present the trophies to the young people at the end of each season. I have pictures with Mike when I was very young. He gave his time to come and encourage young people, it was something special.”
Off the ice, Bossy was a leader in the movement to reduce fighting in hockey. In 1979, he told the media that he was never going to fight on the ice.
He wrote about his anti-fighting stance in a 2017 article for The Players Tribune titled “Letter to My Younger Self.”
“You need to be prepared for the names you’re going to get called. You need to be prepared for how people are going to look at you for making a statement like that in 1979. For a guy who is already unfairly labelled as `timid,’ this is going to be a big deal. Some people in the hockey world will simply not accept that someone who doesn’t fight can ever be a winner,” Bossy wrote.
“My advice to you, kid, is to remember more. And to cherish your time more…”<br><br>In this letter Mike Bossy writes to his younger self. Read his stories from his point of view and more.<a href=”https://t.co/gXZQ4U0Dzt”>https://t.co/gXZQ4U0Dzt</a>
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — DeMar DeRozan scored 27 points in a record-setting performance and the Sacramento Kings beat the Toronto Raptors 122-107 on Wednesday night.
Domantas Sabonis added 17 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds for his third triple-double of the season for Sacramento. He shot 6 for 6 from the field and 5 for 5 at the free-throw line.
Keegan Murray chipped in with 22 points and 12 rebounds, and De’Aaron Fox scored 21.
The 35-year-old DeRozan has scored at least 20 points in each of his first eight games with the Kings, breaking a franchise mark established by Chris Webber when he reached 20 in his first seven games with Sacramento in 1999.
DeRozan spent the past three seasons with the Chicago Bulls. The six-time All-Star also has played for Toronto and San Antonio during his 16-year NBA career.
RJ Barrett had 23 points to lead the Raptors. Davion Mitchell scored 20 in his first game in Sacramento since being traded to Toronto last summer.
Takeaways
Raptors: Toronto led for most of the first three quarters before wilting in the fourth. The Raptors were outscored 33-14 in the final period.
Kings: Fox played strong defense but struggled again shooting from the floor as he is dealing with a finger injury. Fox went 5 for 17 and just 2 of 8 on 3-pointers. He is 5 for 25 from beyond the arc in his last three games.
Key moment
The Kings trailed 95-89 early in the fourth before going on a 9-0 run that gave them the lead for good. DeRozan started the spurt with a jumper, and Malik Monk scored the final seven points.
Key stat
Sabonis had the eighth game in the NBA since at least 1982-83 with a triple-double while missing no shots from the field or foul line. The previous player to do it was Josh Giddey for Oklahoma City against Portland on Jan. 11.
Up next
Raptors: At the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night, the third stop on a five-game trip.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps are one win away from moving on to the next round of the Major League Soccer playoffs.
To get there, however, the Whitecaps will need to pull off the improbable by defeating the powerhouse Los Angeles FC for a second straight game.
Vancouver blanked the visitors 3-0 on Sunday to level their best-of-three first-round playoff series at a game apiece. As the matchup shifts back to California for a decisive Game 3 on Friday, the Whitecaps are looking for a repeat performance, said striker Brian White.
“We take the good and the bad from last game, learn from what we could have done better and go to LAFC with confidence and, obviously, with a whole lot of respect,” he said.
“We know that we can go there and give them a very good fight and hopefully come away with a win.”
The winner of Friday’s game will face the No. 4-seed Seattle Sounders in a one-game Western Conference semifinal on Nov. 23 or 24.
The ‘Caps finished the regular season eighth in the west with a 13-13-8 record and have since surprised many with their post-season play.
First, Vancouver trounced its regional rivals, the Portland Timbers, 5-0 in a wild-card game. Then, the squad dropped a tightly contested 2-1 decision to the top-seeded L.A. before posting a decisive home victory on Sunday.
Vancouver has scored seven goals this post-season, second only to the L.A. Galaxy (nine). Vancouver also leads the league in expected goals (6.84) through the playoffs.
No one outside of the club expected the Whitecaps to win when the Vancouver-L. A. series began, said defender Ranko Veselinovic.
“We’ve shown to ourselves that we can compete with them,” he said.
Now in his fifth season with the ‘Caps, Veselinovic said Friday’s game will be the biggest he’s played for the team.
“We haven’t had much success in the playoffs so, definitely, this is the one that can put our season on another level,” he said.
This is the second year in a row the Whitecaps have faced LAFC in the first round of the playoffs and last year, Vancouver was ousted in two straight games.
The team isn’t thinking about revenge as it prepares for Game 3, White said.
“More importantly than (beating LAFC), we want to get to the next round,” he said. “LAFC’s a very good team. We’ve come up against them a number of times in different competitions and they always seem to get the better of us. So it’d be huge for us to get the better of them this time.”
Earning a win last weekend required slowing L.A.’s transition game and limiting offensive opportunities for the team’s big stars, including Denis Bouanga.
Those factors will be important again on Friday, said Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini, who warned that his team could face a different style of game.
“I think the most important thing is going to be to match their intensity at the beginning of the game,” he said. “Because I think they’re going to come at us a million miles per hour.”
The ‘Caps will once again look to captain Ryan Gauld for some offensive firepower. The Scottish attacking midfielder leads MLS in playoff goals with five and has scored in all three of Vancouver’s post-season appearances this year.
Gearing up for another do-or-die matchup is exciting, Gauld said.
“Knowing it’s a winner-takes-all kind of game, being in that kind of environment is nice,” he said. “It’s when you see the best in players.”
LAFC faces the bulk of the pressure heading into the matchup, Sartini said, given the club’s appearances in the last two MLS Cup finals and its 2022 championship title.
“They’re supposed to win and we are not,” the coach said. “But it’s beautiful to have a little bit of pressure on us, too.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
Each PWHL team operated under its city name, with players wearing jerseys featuring the league’s logo in its inaugural season before names and logos were announced last month.
The Toronto Sceptres, Montreal Victoire, Ottawa Charge, Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost and New York Sirens will start the PWHL’s second season on Nov. 30 with jerseys designed to reflect each team’s identity and to be sold to the public as replicas.
Led by PWHL vice-president of brand and marketing Kanan Bhatt-Shah, the league consulted Creative Agency Flower Shop to design the jerseys manufactured by Bauer, the PWHL said Thursday in a statement.
“Players and fans alike have been waiting for this moment and we couldn’t be happier with the six unique looks each team will don moving forward,” said PWHL senior vice president of business operations Amy Scheer.
“These jerseys mark the latest evolution in our league’s history, and we can’t wait to see them showcased both on the ice and in the stands.”
Training camps open Tuesday with teams allowed to carry 32 players.
Each team’s 23-player roster, plus three reserves, will be announced Nov. 27.
Each team will play 30 regular-season games, which is six more than the first season.
Minnesota won the first Walter Cup on May 29 by beating Boston three games to two in the championship series.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
