REMEMBERING MIKE BOSSY

Here's an excerpt from my TribLive.com column about Alex Ovechkin approaching Wayne Gretzky's NHL record for most career goals:

Getting goal No. 895 makes Ovechkin the player with the most goals, not the greatest goal-scorer ever. The latter title belongs to Mario Lemieux or Mike Bossy. If you saw them play, you know.

I never saw Rocket Richard play. But the award for most goals is named after him, for heck’s sake.

To read more, click HERE.

It's worth revisiting Mike Bossy's career.

Bossy debuted with the New York Islanders in 1977. In his first nine NHL seasons, he never scored fewer than 51 goals. He scored 38 goals in his final campaign, 1986-87, before retiring at 30 because of a bad back. Bossy later became a radio personality because, obviously, anybody can do that.

Bossy ended his career with 573 goals in 752 games. He scored 85 times in 129 playoff games, helping the Islanders win four straight Stanley Cups from 1980-83.

Bossy spent most of his career on a line with Bryan Trottier and Clark Gillies. All three are in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Bossy retired too young and died too young, passing away from lung cancer in 2022 at the age of 65.

Bossy was part machine, part artist. Lots of quantity, lots of quality. He was a classic finisher.

Bossy averaged .761 goals per game. Lemieux averaged .754. Ovechkin is averaging .600. Richard averaged .556.