The late Mike Bossy, seen here in 2007, was a teammate of Red Deer Rebels owner and GM Brent Sutter during the New York Islanders' dynasty years in the early 1980s. (The Canadian Press/Frank Gunn)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

memories of 'boss'

Rebels’ Brent Sutter remembers former Isles teammate and legend Mike Bossy

Apr 16, 2022 | 1:00 PM

Brent Sutter recalls speaking to former teammate and now the late Mike Bossy last November.

“That was around when he was first diagnosed,” he says of Bossy’s fight against lung cancer. “He told me he was in for the fight of his life, and that he’d do everything he could.”

Bossy and Sutter played together for several seasons during the dynasty years of the New York Islanders.

Sutter played three games in the show in the 1980-81 season, getting a taste as a teenager of what it’d be like to play long-term with Bossy, who passed on April 14, 2022 in his hometown of Montreal. He was 65.

Within a half decade, the pair were linemates, Sutter putting up 102 points in 1984-85 to Bossy’s 117. They were the team’s two leading point-getters that season.

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“This is hard, and it always is. It’s been a tough go for the Islanders organization since the fall, with Jean Potvin in March, Clark Gillies in January, and now Boss,” Sutter shared with rdnewsNOW on Saturday. “All of those guys were instrumental in the Cup runs there. It’s all good people we’re talking about who’ve gone at such young ages.”

At the end of the day, says Sutter, Bossy was a great teammate, but an even better person with a beautiful family.

The two also played a Canada Cup together in 1984, winning gold, and were both selections for the NHL All-Star Game in 1985.

They won two Stanley Cups together in 1982 and 1983.

“I learned a lot from Boss when I had the opportunity to sit on the bench and watch him, but then when I played with him on the ice, he had such a knack for being able to get himself into open ice where you can make a play to him. With his release, if you could do that, there was a good chance he would score,” says Sutter, now the long-time owner and general manager of the WHL’s Red Deer Rebels.

“Early on, players maybe underestimated Boss as just a goal scorer, but after he was in the league for a few years, he became a guy Al [Arbour] could play more because he was responsible.”

Sutter says if Bossy was playing today, he’d perennially be in the conversation for awards like the Lady Byng, and the Rocket Richard, but also the Selke, because that’s how good he became defensively.

Bossy retired in the fall of 1988, at age 30 and after having played just 10 seasons in the NHL, due to lingering back injuries.

He’d scored 50 goals in a regular season nine times, an NHL record to this day, and added 553 assists, playoffs not included.

Sutter was asked what he remembers about how the team felt when the retirement news came.

“I was playing with him at the time, and his back was really bothering him. He was having to miss games. With the way Mike was, if he couldn’t play to his full potential, he always had the feeling that he would have to step away, and that’s what he did,” says Sutter.

“To be honest, it wasn’t a surprise at all simply because of the type of competitor he was. If he was healthy, he would want to score 50 goals a year for 15 years, and there’s a chance he may have done it.”

His final season, Bossy gutted out 63 of 80 games, a career low. He also still managed 75 points, but only 38 goals, his previous season-low being 51.

“He was a very very smart player, and he was a guy that shot the puck with a purpose. Every time he shot, his purpose was to score, and if he missed the net, he was pretty upset with himself,” says Sutter of what young players today could learn from watching old tape of Bossy.

“If he had a quality scoring chance and didn’t get a goal, he was upset. That’s just the way he was. So I’d say be a good student. He was very strongly a team-oriented guy, he cared about having success, and above all, he wanted to win. That’s what it was all about with Boss.”