Mike Boss, Canadian hockey icon and New York Islands legend, dies at 65

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By Stephen Hoaino, Associated Press.

1 minute ago

Mike Bassi, one of hockey’s best goal-scorers and stars for the New York Islands in the 1980s, died after battling lung cancer. He was 65 years old.

Islander and TVA Sports, the French-language network in Canada where he worked as a hockey analyst, confirmed Bassey’s death Thursday night. A spokesman for the party said Bosi was in Montreal, his birthplace.

Bosi announced his diagnosis in a letter to TVA Sports in October.

“It’s very sad that I have to get off your screen for a necessary break,” Bosi wrote in French. “You saw me show up on the ice. I want to fight with all determination and fire.”

Read more: Hockey Hall of Famer Mike Bosi is battling lung cancer

Homer Hall of Famer Clark Giles is the third team from the Islanders era this year after he died in January and Jean Potvin died in March.

“The New York Islands organization mourns the loss of Mike Bassey, an icon not only of Long Island but of the entire hockey world,” said Lu Lamorillo, president and general manager of Islanders. “Every time he set foot on the ice, his drive was second to none. Together with his teammates, he helped win four Stanley Cup Championships in a row, making the history of this franchise forever. “

Bosi helped the islanders win the Stanley Cup from 1980-83, winning the Con Smith Trophy in the 1982 Play-off MVP. He scored cup winning goals in 1982 and ’83.

Bossy made his first-round pick in 1977 and played his entire 10-year NHL career with New York. She has won the Calder Trophy as the best rookie of the year, has received the Lady Buying Trophy three times for her polite behavior and has led the league to goals twice.

Bosi has scored 50 or more goals in each of his first nine seasons – the longest streak in the league. He and Wayne Gretzky are the only players in nine 50-goal seasons in hockey history.

Bosi is one of only five players to score 50 goals in 50 games. He is the all-time leading scorer at 0.762 in the regular season and has just two more hat-tricks than Basir’s 39.

Third on points in one game and seventh on the all-time scoring list. These are just some of the best numbers in the history of the game when it comes to the regular season.

In the playoffs, Bosi had more clutches. He is the only player to have won four games and scored three playoff overtime goals in the same playoff series.

Led by Bosi, Gillis, Brian Trotier and defender Dennis Potvin, the islanders replaced Scott Bowman’s 1970s Montreal Canadians with the next NHL dynasty before taking charge of the Edmonton Oilers in Greetsky.

Bosi was an eight-time All-Star and finished in 752 regular-season games with 573 goals and 553 assists for 1,126 points. He was the fastest player to reach the 100-goal mark and is currently ranked 22nd on his career goal list. In the playoffs, Basir had 160 points from 129 games.

Her career ended in 1987 with a back and knee injury. He was limited to 38 goals in 63 games and could not return for the 11th season.

Bosi was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1991 and was named one of the NHL’s 100 Best Players in 2017.

Mike Bassey of the New York Islands has a puck that hints at scoring 50 goals in his first 50 games, on January 24, 1981, in Nvidale. Basir died Thursday after a battle with lung cancer. He was 65 years old.
Mike Bassey of the New York Islands has a puck that hints at scoring 50 goals in his first 50 games, on January 24, 1981, in Nvidale. Basir died Thursday after a battle with lung cancer. He was 65 years old.
– AP file image

Prior to reaching the NHL, Bosi played five seasons in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League with Laval National. He had 602 points in 298 QMJHL games. Bossi also represented Canada in the Canada Cup in 1981 and 1984, long before NHL players started going to the Winter Olympics.

Outside the ice, Bosi 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 ice.

He wrote about his anti-war stance in a 2017 article for The Players Tribune, “Letter to My Younger Shelf.”

“You have to be prepared for the names you are going to call. You have to be prepared for how people will view you in 1979 for making such a statement. For someone who has already been unfairly identified as a ‘coward’, this is going to be a big deal. Some people in the hockey world simply will not accept that anyone who does not fight can never be a winner, “Bosi wrote.

In the same article, Bosi also told his 14-year-old self that hockey players would take better care of their health in the future.

“Boys don’t smoke cigarettes and don’t drink black coffee at breaks. They drink smoothies and ‘stretch’, ”he wrote.

– Including files from the Canadian press

Canadian Press

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