[News] Mike Bossy diagnosed with lung cancer

[GioforPM]

Hockey db uses this fine pic - great hair.

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by timun

The draft age back then was 20. The cut-off for the 1977 draft was players born before January 1, 1958; similarly the cut-off for the '76 draft was January 1, 1957. Bossy was born January 22, 1957, so he wasn't eligible to be drafted until he was ~20.5 years old.

He joined the NHL as soon as he possibly could under the rules, and won the Calder Trophy w/ 53 goals and 91 points in 73 games. 53 goals by a rookie was an NHL record that stood until Teemu Selanne (at age 22) scored 76 in 1992-93; Bossy's 53 goal mark is still second all-time. (The only other rookies with 50+ goals in their first seasons are Ovechkin (52), Gretzky* (51) and Nieuwendyk (51).)

Mike Bossy was categorically not a "late bloomer".


(*The NHL don't count Gretzky as ever having had a 'rookie' season because he played in the WHA, but that's the mark he hit as an 18/19-year-old in '79-'80.)

no need to laugh that much. I didn't know that draft age back then was 20 years old. had no occasion to look into it. no wonder so many young guys went pro with the WHA.

[Buff]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

IIRC Newy was the second guy to score 50 in his first 2 seasons, after Bossy. Well, Gretzky too but he doesn’t count, and anyway, he scored less than 50 in the WHA.

ETA: Bossy’s rookie season 53 was in only 73 games as well, and his follow up season of 80 games was 69 goals (nice).

Yes. The top 4 rookie goal scorers in NHL history are:
Selanne - 76
Bossy - 53
Ovechkin - 52
Nieuwendyk - 51

Selanne.... did he just catch Lightning in a bottle in his rookie year or did his injury really hurt him that much?

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Buff

Yes. The top 4 rookie goal scorers in NHL history are:
Selanne - 76
Bossy - 53
Ovechkin - 52
Nieuwendyk - 51

Selanne.... did he just catch Lightning in a bottle in his rookie year or did his injury really hurt him that much?

Selanne was 22 as a rookie, after 5 years pro in Europe. Not to take anything away from him, but that is a big factor.

I can tell you first hand though, as a Jet STH that year, he was every bit the player that 76 goals suggests he was. An absolute wrecking ball - speed, power, play-making, and an unbelievable shot.

One of the best player-seasons I have ever witnessed. Up there with Orr, Gretzky and Lemieux

[troutman]

Bossy and Trottier were magic together.

[timun]

Originally Posted by Buff

Selanne.... did he just catch Lightning in a bottle in his rookie year or did his injury really hurt him that much?

1992-93 was a statistical outlier, far and away the highest scoring season in the last 30 years. Over 20 players had 100 or more points, and a bunch set career highs that year that they'd never come close to reaching again. E.g. Joe Juneau, Craig Janney, Alex Mogilny, Doug Gilmour, Rick Tocchet, Mark Recchi, Pierre Turgeon, Adam Oates, Pat Lafontaine.

Selanne was still a very impressive scorer in the late '90s with the Ducks. The fact he cracked 100 points at all later in the decade was impressive, i.e. in '96-'97 the only players with 100+ points were Selanne and Lemieux, and in '98-'99 the only ones were Selanne, Jagr and Kariya. In fact those were the only players to have 100+ points in a season from 1997 to 2000.

[looooob]

Bossy was the first superstar where I was old enough to have watched and be aware of his entire career from the beginning, one of the first times a kid in Western Canada would have been able to watch him much was during the playoffs of 78 against the Leafs, I remember specifically him crumpling with an injury and being down for an extended period- a quick google search reminded me of some of the details of this case


https://vault.si.com/vault/1978/05/0...hocking-series


this article is interesting, because written and read at the time you would get the sense maybe that the Isles as a group weren't going places due to a lack of guts- how things were about to change in the coming years...Lanny scored the winner in that series, that too I remember well from the time- interesting that the article refers to him as a 'overtime playoff bust' prior to scoring that goal- seems a little harsh to me

[The Fisher Account]

Originally Posted by timun

1992-93 was a statistical outlier, far and away the highest scoring season in the last 30 years.

Teams beating up on the expansion Sens and Bolts?

[habernac]

Originally Posted by looooob

Bossy was the first superstar where I was old enough to have watched and be aware of his entire career from the beginning, one of the first times a kid in Western Canada would have been able to watch him much was during the playoffs of 78 against the Leafs, I remember specifically him crumpling with an injury and being down for an extended period- a quick google search reminded me of some of the details of this case


https://vault.si.com/vault/1978/05/0...hocking-series


this article is interesting, because written and read at the time you would get the sense maybe that the Isles as a group weren't going places due to a lack of guts- how things were about to change in the coming years...Lanny scored the winner in that series, that too I remember well from the time- interesting that the article refers to him as a 'overtime playoff bust' prior to scoring that goal- seems a little harsh to me

The Habs scouted Bossy and he had an unusually bad game when they went to see him. Lafleur and Bossy on the same team could have happened. ####.

[looooob]

Originally Posted by habernac

The Habs scouted Bossy and he had an unusually bad game when they went to see him. Lafleur and Bossy on the same team could have happened. ####.

interesting to think what would have happened to Bossy's career had that happened- at that point Lafleur was still the man. I think it would have worked out but likely not with the same initial impact. Napier was definitely highly regarded (and did turn out to have a career of note)


at the time as a Sabres fan I always wondered too about that 'what if' , they took Ric Seiling right before Bossy, and that was a time where of course there were a strong group of Quebec players in Buffalo- Rene Robert was on the downswing- French Connection part 2 with Perreault and Bossy would have been quite something


in the end I guess he ended up in the right place for a great legacy

[cral12]

Originally Posted by Canada 02

my favorite player ever, and the best pure goal scorer of that generation.
There were several star players from that generation who were smokers, including Bossy. Sad, but inevitable that it would catch up to him

My first favourite player as a kid.

Super sad news indeed.

##### cancer.

[timun]

Originally Posted by timun

1992-93 was a statistical outlier, far and away the highest scoring season in the last 30 years.

Originally Posted by The Fisher Account

Teams beating up on the expansion Sens and Bolts?

The Sharks (24 Pts), Whalers (58 Pts) and Oilers (60 Pts) were also atrocious. The Sharks, even though this was their second season, were 11-71-2; 71 losses in a season is still an all-time record. The Sens were 10-70-4.

I think it's a combination of things. Historically bad teams to pick on, more games played than ever (remember that '92-'93 and '93-'94 were 84-game seasons, not 82, so you could expect all scoring totals to drop ~2.4% just by virtue of fewer games played in subsequent years), less effective goaltending (league average sv% was 0.885; by '96-'97 it was 0.905, and in 2003-04 was 0.911), and one of the most "penalized" seasons ever (5.28 powerplay opportunities per team, per game; only seasons higher were the '05-'06 post-lockout year (5.85) and '87-'88 (5.46); all teams averaged 1.03 powerplay goals per game, and the only seasons higher were '87-'88 (1.11) and '88-'89 (1.06)).

It was a bit of a last hurrah for run-and-gun, "1980s"-style hockey.