UKRAINIAN PRO HOCKEY UPDATE
by Ihor Stelmach
The Hockey News' top 50 includes No. 20 right-winger Mike Bossy
With Mike Bossy, it was always about magic. First, the wondrous apparition: time and time again, Bossy seemed to materialize, unchecked, in prime scoring position, with the puck on his stick.
Then, of course, came the sleight of hand. "When he shoots," said Al Arbour, Bossy's coach with the New York Islanders for all but one season, "it doesn't even look like he touches the puck."
Poof. Red light. Another goal. Like magic.
Every magician's trick, of course, is fueled by the assumptions. The audience can't see or even feel the slight taper on a deck of cards or the false panel that frees the damsel in distress long before she is cut in half.
Mike Bossy was the first rookie to score 50 goals. Five times he hit the 60 mark, and his nine consecutive 50-goal seasons represent an NHL standard of excellence. Bossy thrived by turning assumptions around. He didn't worry about fear of failure; instead he concentrated on remaining unafraid of succeeding.
"I think the biggest asset of successful people is that they are not afraid of success," Bossy once said. "There are so many people who are afraid of having success for fear of having to repeat their successful ways. It's so easy to see that in people. I'll read quotes in the newspaper, and I can tell people who are afraid to be good."
Bossy, an articulate and thoughtful man, used human nature. He thrived on other players' beliefs that he was tied up, that the penalty was almost over, that the period would play itself out uneventfully. Case in point: in 1980-1981, Bossy seemed destined to fall two goals short of being the first NHL player to tie Maurice "Rocket" Richard's record of 50 goals in 50 games. Then, in a game against the Quebec Nordiques, Bossy scored twice in the last four minutes to earn a piece of Richard's mark. Just like magic!
"A lot of times players look up at the clock and say to themselves, 'Well, it's too late to score,' " explained Bill Torrey, the Islanders' longtime general manager. "It was never, ever, too late for Mike Bossy to score."
The devastating marksman behind the Islanders' four Stanley Cups, Bossy has 85 career playoff goals - the fifth-highest total in playoff history. His .66 goals-per-game average is fourth best. He scored two cup-winning goals, the only player to do so in back-to-back seasons, and won the Conn Smythe Trophy (1982).
A French-Canadian/Ukrainian, Bossy grew up the fifth of 10 children in the Montreal suburb of Laval. It remains one of hockey's mysteries how Bossy lasted so long in the 1977 amateur draft. He tallied a truly phenomenal 308 goals in just 260 Quebec League major junior games with Laval, but Bossy wasn't selected until 15th overall by the Islanders.
Despite his obvious athletic grace, there was little ease about him as a young man. Sensitive and thin-skinned, he was a regular target of Islander veterans who exploited his fretfulness. "I used to be needled unbelievably and I couldn't take it," Bossy recalled. "Someone would needle me, and right away I'd be in an argument. I bet I was in one every day back then."
He smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for some 10 years, obsessed when he couldn't balance the family checkbook to the penny and often stayed up until dawn, fretting about losing scoring chances. Next time, he vowed, he would welcome success.
Invariably, Bossy did. No one scored more goals during his NHL tenure, and with adulthood, marriage and his own children came an ease and even a willingness to laugh at himself.
These days, after a stint as a radio color commentator, Bossy is a Montreal stockbroker.
Bossy's particular brand of on-ice magic was stilled in 1986. He bent over to catch his breath at training camp, straightened up and felt a sharp pain along the left side of his back. It proved to be the beginning of the end, probably the result of receiving a decade's worth of crosschecks - most of which were illegal.
He went on to play through increasing pain and still managed 38 goals - it was the only season he did not score 50 - but the pain kept him sidelined through the entire 1987-1988 season.
At the tender age of 32 he officially retired. With the suddenness and speed that had been his patented trademark, one of the NHL's all-time premier goal scoring wizards was poof ... gone.
Mike Bossy 1977-1987
Born: January 22, 1957
Montreal, Quebec
Team: New York Islanders
| Regular | Playoffs | |
| Seasons | 10 | 10 |
| Games | 752 | 129 |
| Goals | 573 | 85 |
| Assists | 553 | 75 |
| Points | 1,126 | 160 |
| Penalties | 210 | 38 |
Tkachuk pledges: holdouts are history
As cloudy and dark as things looked, despite all the gloom and doom this past September that made getting a new contract seem almost totally impossible, Keith Tkachuk experienced a premonition that absolutely had to provide a sunny ray of hope on his situation. He happened to be on his favorite golf course, playing 18 holes with the venerable Bobby Orr, of all people, when he somehow miraculously bagged a hole in one.
A few September days later, Tkachuk scored an even bigger prize, agreeing to terms on a renegotiated deal with the Phoenix Coyotes, which included a one-year contract extension worth $8.3 million in 2000-2001. The left-winger also retained his captaincy, which would have been given to someone else had his holdout during training camp continued past the start of the current regular season.
"This is a great moment for me," said Tkachuk, whom, sources said, was prepared to sit out this entire hockey year if a deal had not been reached. "This is where I wanted to play all the time."
The Coyotes and Tkachuk's agent, Bob Murray, struck the deal after an eight-hour negotiating session in a Minneapolis hotel room. In addition to the $8.3 million, Tkachuk also had the existing two years of his contract sweetened from $2.8 million this year to $4.1 million, and from $3 million next year to $4.3 million.
"In a perfect world we wouldn't have had to deal with this issue," said Coyotes' General Manager Bobby Smith, "but the fact of the matter is the hockey market has escalated wildly to the point where Keith Tkachuk at $2.8 million would have been vastly underpaid. The argument can be made that even at $4.1 million, there are players in the league making a lot more than him who are seriously inferior to him."
Capt. Keith gave Coyotes' owner Richard Burke his assurance that he will honor the entire contract, something the owner had made him promise. The Coyotes, meanwhile, agreed to waive the monies Tkachuk was fined during his suspension, but Tkachuk decided to donate the $162,909 to charity.
UKRAINIAN UTTERINGS: In re-acquiring center Tony Hrkac, the Dallas Stars ended a strange circle for the veteran centerman. The Stars acquired Hrkac last season to play for their Michigan minor league affiliate in the IHL and then brought him up as a replacement for injured pivots Joe Nieuwendyk and Mike Modano. When both those guys were again healthy, Hrkac was waived and picked up by Edmonton, where he had 19 points in only 36 games. He then was picked up in the off-season by Pittsburgh and the expansion Nashville Predators - neither of whom he played for - before finally ending up back with the Stars ... Neither side was completely satisfied by last summer's arbitration decision in right-winger Dimitri Khristich's case. Khristich got a salary bump from $1 million to $1.95 million, but that was still below the $2.85 million he sought. The Bruins, meanwhile, weren't thrilled at having to pay a half million dollars more than their $1.4 million offer, but decided against walking away from the judgment, which would have made the Uke an unrestricted free agent ... Devils' left- winger Dave Andreychuk asked for his option papers and is playing out his contract this season at $2.5 million ... New Jersey GM Lou Lamoriello signed Ukrainian free agent goaltender Mike Buzak to replace veteran Peter Sidorkiewicz as back-up insurance for Martin Brodeur...In the early going defenseman Drake Berehowsky was a frequent scratch after being picked up by Nashville ... Capitals' offender Peter Bondra started wearing an "A" on his sweater during the latter stages of pre-season. It carried over into the start of this regular campaign as well. Bondra remains one of two assistant captains for the Caps ...
(Quotes courtesy of The Hockey News' Bruce Bennett and Coyotes' beat writer Bob McManaman.)
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, February 28, 1999, No. 9, Vol. LXVII
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