Wow, what a truly awful week it has been for anyone who grew up watching hockey in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Not only did the world lose the great Mike Bossy on April 15, but just a few days ago we also lost the legendary Guy Lafleur. Hockey players often pass away, and we quietly reminisce about a moment or two from that player’s career, but in this case, we’ve lost two bonafide NHL legends, and it is impossible to remember them in just a few fleeting moments of reflection. My words simply cannot do justice in expressing how outstanding the New York Islanders’ all-time leader in goals and the Montreal Canadiens’ all-time points leader were for their respective franchises, but I will try.

It is almost unfathomable that fourteen other players were picked ahead of Mike Bossy in the weak 1977 amateur draft. There were whispers he wasn’t a physical enough player to withstand the punishment some of the NHL’s ruffians were waiting to dish out, not that anyone should have cared; Bossy’s worst junior season was his 70-goal rookie season with the Laval National of the QMJHL. Islanders general manager Bill Torrey, an astute judge of talent if there ever was one, could not have cared less about Bossy’s physical play. If the Islanders needed anything, it was a top-notch sniper. Denis Potvin was a sublime offensive talent on the back end. Chico Resch and Billy Smith were world-class goalkeepers. Bob Nystrom and the late Clark Gillies were grinders with an offensive touch, and Bryan Trottier was perhaps the best all-around player they had, but he was a play-maker rather than a goal-scorer. The Islanders needed Bossy to take them to the next level. The Islanders were good, but they weren’t great yet.

Seeing Bossy carry the puck was an absolutely terrifying prospect for any goaltender. He established his reputation as a top-notch goal scorer pretty much from day one. He scored a goal in each of his first two games. After 20 games, he had 17 goals under his belt. He surpassed Richard Martin’s rookie goal record of 44 after just 53 games. The only real question was whether or not Bossy could lead the entire NHL in goals. Guy Lafleur scored 60, while Bossy finished with 53. As far as careers go, Bossy’s was mind-boggling. As great as he was in the regular season, he was ridiculous in the playoffs. During the Islanders’ four-Cup dynasty between 1980 and 1984, Bossy played 72 games. At a time when defenses are supposed to tighten up a bit and goals are supposedly harder to come by, Bossy scored 61 goals. Three of those years, he lit the lamp 17 times. Bossy never scored fewer than 50 goals in any of his first nine seasons, and he may have hit 50 a tenth time if he hadn’t missed a significant amount of time in his final season, 1986-87. And then he was gone, robbed of his career by a debilitating back injury, and leaving us all to wonder how many more goals were left in his stick.

Guy Lafleur garnered more headlines than Bossy over the course of his career mainly because his skill set, blazing speed and bullet shot made him an icon not only in Montreal but in the entire province of Quebec. In the history of the Montreal Canadiens, you can find Hall of Famers in every era but only a select few could truly be considered legends. There was Howie Morenz in the NHL’s early years, then the Rocket exploded just after World War II, and finally there was the classy Jean Beliveau who captured enough Stanley Cup rings to occupy each of his fingers and thumbs. Guy Lafleur took junior hockey by storm just as Beliveau was winding down his outstanding career, and the Canadiens could only hope Lafleur could capture the hearts of Habs fans like Le Gros Bill had for so long. Had the Oakland Seals not traded their first-round pick to Montreal a year earlier, history might have gone differently for these two franchises. As it turned out, the Seals finished the 1970-71 season dead last and were therefore forced to turn over the first-overall pick to the Habs.

It took “The Flower” a few years to really find himself in Montreal, but once he did there was no turning back. In 1974-75, he finished with over 50 goals and 100 points for the first time, and he accomplished those feats again the next five seasons, capturing not only four straight Stanley Cups from 1976 to 1979, but also three scoring titles, two MVP awards, and the Conn Smythe Trophy as the 1977 playoff MVP. By late 1984, Lafleur was clearly struggling, and was seeing less and less ice time, so rather than ride the pine, he retired. A few years later, not quite finished with hockey, Lafleur made a triumphant return to the NHL as a member of the New York Rangers. I remember watching his first game back in Montreal February 4, 1989 and how he scored two goals against Patrick Roy to elicit a standing ovation from the Forum fans. There was absolutely no way Guy was getting booed on this night, no matter what uniform he was wearing. But my favorite Guy Lafleur memory has to be his final game as a member of the Quebec Nordiques, and how the pre-game ceremony lasted what seemed to be close to an hour. The fans just would not stop cheering “Guy! Guy! Guy!”. It was a wonderful moment that I’ll always remember.

So how can we celebrate the wonderful careers of Mike Bossy and Guy Lafleur at Golden Seals Hockey? This week, I’ve added two new articles that tie together the Cleveland Barons with our two departed NHL legends. In the first article, from the November 25, 1976 Montreal Gazette, the Montreal Canadiens have just defeated the Barons 8-1, and Lafleur has just gone off for two goals and two assists. The Gazette‘s legendary Red Fisher does a great job describing the action here. Most of the articles on this site are from the point of view of a Seals/Barons beat writer, but this time I went for the opposition’s perspective on the game, and the differences are interesting, as I’m sure you will see.

In this week’s second article from the January 12, 1978 Elyria (Ohio) Chronicle-Telegram, the Barons are in action against the New York Islanders not long after Wayne Merrick and Darcy Regier have been sent to Long Island for J.P. Parise and Jean Potvin. The Barons came away with a shocking 5-3 win in which Mike Bossy scored his one and only goal against Cleveland.

Before you go this week, don’t forget to cast your vote for the 2022 Seals/Barons Hall of Fame. Just click on the link here and you can vote for up to three nominees.

Thanks for stopping by once again! Until next time, stay gold!