Bossy's historic 50-in-50 chase for Islanders thrilled Canadiens' Richard

From a distance, one of most the electrifying goal-scorers of all time was cheering on one of the purest scorers of any era.

Through 49 games of the 1980-81 season, New York Islanders superstar
Mike Bossy
had scored 48 goals, on a stalled collision course with history. In Montreal, Canadiens legend
Maurice "Rocket" Richard
knew that his unofficial 1944-45 record of 50 goals in 50 games was on thin ice.
"It'll be tough for him, but it's kind of nice for me. It keeps my name in the papers," Richard told Montreal Gazette columnist Michael Farber, Bossy having scored four goals on Jan. 13, 1981, and three more four days later, to give him 48 goals in 47 games in his chase of 50 in 50.
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"The funny thing about this is that my 50 goals in 50 games isn't even in the record book," Richard added. "So he won't be knocking me out. I'm not there in the first place."
Watch: Mike Bossy scores 50 goals in 50 games
The feats of two NHL icons from Montreal have intersected again, Bossy having died at age 65 on Friday, almost 22 years after Richard died at age 78 on May 27, 2000, also from cancer.
Bossy scored 51 or more goals the first nine seasons of his 10-season, 752-game NHL career, scoring 573 from 1977-87 with the Islanders. Twice he was the leading goal-scorer in the NHL, with 69 in 1978-79 and 68 in 1980-81, his 50-in-50 season, performances that would have won him the Maurice Richard Trophy had it existed at the time.
Bossy and
Wayne Gretzky
are atop the NHL all-time list for 50-goal seasons at nine, Bossy ranked first for having played only half of Gretzky's 20 seasons. Among players to play at least 150 games, Bossy remains the NHL all-time goals-per-game leader, his 0.76 average above
Mario Lemieux
of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who averaged 0.75 goals per game; Gretzky, the NHL all-time leading scorer with 894 goals, is ranked eighth (0.60).
Gretzky would obliterate the Richard-Bossy mark in 1981-82, scoring 50 goals in 39 games with the Edmonton Oilers. With 19 goals through 19 games that season, he considered the challenge.
"Mike Bossy is a heck of a goal-scorer. I don't think there's anybody comparable to him," Gretzky said, quoted in the 2016 book "Unbreakable: 50 Goals in 39 Games," by Mike Brophy and Todd Denault.
Watch: Richard records 50th goal of the season
By the time Bossy was knocking on the Rocket's 50-in-50 door, 28 players in NHL history had scored 50 or more goals in a season a total of 46 times, Bossy with three of them. But only Richard had scored 50 in that number of games from a season's start, and with Bossy on his doorstep, the Rocket was imagining how the Islanders sniper might have looked in a CH-crested jersey.
The Canadiens, having won two of their four consecutive Stanley Cup championships, had passed on drafting Bossy on June 14, 1977. They instead used their first-round pick (No. 10) to select forward Mark Napier, who had scored 60 goals in 1976-77 with Birmingham of the World Hockey Association and would stay one more season in the rival league. Bossy would be drafted No. 15 by the Islanders.
"I told the Canadiens organization about Bossy but they didn't listen to me," Richard told Farber on Jan. 19, 1981, five days before Bossy scored twice in the final five minutes against the Quebec Nordiques to equal the Rocket's 50 in 50, his dance of celebration and relief almost bringing down the roof of Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Mike Bossy fires his 50th goal in the New York Islanders' 50th game of 1980-81, beating Quebec Nordiques goalie Ron Grahame at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y.
"They said [Bossy] was too bad defensively, that all he could do was score the goals," Richard grumbled. "[Management] told me they knew Bossy was a good scorer, but that he wasn't their kind of player. Well, nobody is always right."
Even the Islanders weren't sure on draft day, based on the report of a scout. It seemed a tossup between Bossy, who from 1973-77 had scored 308 goals in 259 games for Laval of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, and forward Dwight Foster, who in the same span had scored 158 goals in 262 games for Kitchener of the Ontario Hockey League.
"Bossy can score but he's weak defensively," the scout suggested. "Foster's a pretty good all-around mucker."
"Take the goal-scorer," Islanders coach Al Arbour said. "We can teach him how to check."
Foster would be selected by the Boston Bruins immediately after Bossy, who as it turned out would be so busy filling opposition nets for the next decade, winning the Stanley Cup four times, that checking never was much of a concern.
"It crossed my mind that the Canadiens might pick me and I guess it wasn't too good for my ego when they passed me by," Bossy said two months into his 53-goal, Calder Trophy-winning season, the first time an NHL rookie had scored 50.

Mike Bossy with Laval of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, with his stick ablaze for a portrait during his New York Islanders career and after having won the Stanley Cup in 1983.
"I have to admit I was pretty disappointed I didn't go higher [in the draft]," Bossy added. "But as soon as I found out where I was going, I was just as happy that I went when I did."
Richard had watched Bossy sizzle in junior, having known him for years before the latter went on a four-year tear with Laval, even having seen him skate minor-hockey circles around two of his sons.
"Michael was always the best scorer on every level," the Rocket said. "The same is true in the NHL. He's not the best player in the League, but he is the best scorer. Just like me. There were better players, but I was the best scorer.
"Michael wasn't that fast of a skater, but he shot the puck hard and he always was around the net. He hasn't done this by himself. He has a good line with (center Bryan) Trottier and (left wing) Clark Gillies, just like I had Elmer Lach and Toe Blake. But if anybody can do it, Michael can. And I hope he does."

Mike Bossy after having scored his 50th goal in the New York Islanders' 50th game of the 1980-81 season, and surrounded by teammates on March 24, 1981 after having scored No. 50.
Parked at 48 goals through 47 games with the defensively weak Calgary Flames and Detroit Red Wings straight ahead, Bossy liked his chances.
"I should get the record unless I'm run over by a truck," he told reporters.
But he came up empty in those two games and was held off the score sheet by the Nordiques through 55:50 of his 50th game on Jan. 24.
"I have the feeling I can't score anymore," he said the morning of the game, having broken Phil Esposito's then-NHL record of eight hat tricks in a season on his way to nine.
And then he found the range, twice, beating Nordiques goalie Ron Grahame at 15:50 of the third period with a power-play backhand, then adding his 50th at 18:31, set up by Trottier off a feed from John Tonelli.
Bossy might have had No. 51 on his stick 19 seconds later, on a 2-on-1 with Trottier, but he unselfishly passed to his center for the final goal in the Islanders' 7-4 win.

Mike Bossy was cheered on to his 50 goals in 50 games by Montreal Canadiens icon Maurice "Rocket" Richard, who was first to do so during the 50-game 1944-45 season.
"I wasn't thinking about No. 51," he said. "I wanted to give that last one to 'Trots.' He, more than anyone, is responsible for what I've accomplished. I owed him at least that, and much more."
The Rocket had scored his 50th goal March 18, 1945 in the Canadiens' final regular-season game, assisted by Lach at 17:45 of the third period in a 4-2 win against the Bruins at Boston Garden. Nearly 36 years later, he was delighted to have the company of a fellow Quebec-native marksman, each right wings 23 years old in their historic seasons.
"I'm especially happy for Michael," Richard said, preparing a telegram of congratulations. "I knew he was going to be the one to break it, or at least tie it, long ago."
Nineteen years later, Bossy would attend Richard's nationally televised funeral in Montreal, paying his respects to a man whose legend he was steeped in as a boy, an icon to whom he often was compared.
Forever, he was proud that he and the Rocket, two brilliant, gifted scorers a generation apart, were joined by 50 goals through 50 games.
Photos: Hockey Hall of Fame (DiMaggio Kalish, Paul Bereswill); Getty Images