Surely, coach Al Arbour was aware of NHL intimidation. Radar had been a teammate of such bully types as Theodore (Terrible Ted) Lindsay on Detroit and Reg Fleming of the Blackhawks.as well as Bob Baun of the Maple Leafs.
Plus, Bossy now had the hulking Gillies on his left wing not to mention such rugged individuals as Garry Howatt, Bob Nystrom and Gerry Hart. "I had a lot of watch-dogs around me those first few months," Mike admitted.
But the worst for Bossy was yet to come and if a single game could prove to be a portent of one of the nastiest playoffs ever seen, it was an Islanders-Maple Leafs regular season game that preceded it.
Coach Roger Neilson's team had the brutes all right. Dave (Tiger) Williams, Jerry Butler, Jack Valiquette and, yes, that -- since traded -- bad guy from the previous movie, Dan Maloney, just to name a few sluggos.
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It was a game filled with fights and the brawls would be multiplied in the upcoming playoffs.
As luck -- in this case bad luck -- would have it, the Maple Leafs faced the Islanders in the 1978 NHL quarter-final playoff round.
In his autobiography, Mike unabashedly referred to it as "Mike Bossy meet Tiger Williams."
"It was ugly from the start," Bossy unhesitatingly admitted, "and then got brutal."
The unremitting viciousness of the tourney would -- in my estimation -- make or break Bossy's career. If, somehow, Mike's spirit was splintered by Tiger Williams, the NHL's Public Enemy No. 1, it conceivably could have left a permanent scar on the young Islander.
For sure, Mike bent, but he never broke.
As for the series itself, it was a lulu -- if you like blood-and-guts hockey. The Islanders won the first two games at home but Toronto forced overtime in Game Two. Not only that, the Maple Leafs upped their I.Q. (Intimidation Quotient). Bossy was only one of several targets.
Toronto coach Roger Neilson's game plan was to have his Leafs hit every Islander in sight. As Bob Bourne noted, "I'd hit someone and turn around and three of their guys would be after me."