Bossy scored 58 goals and 117 points and turned Sutter, a 45 point defensive depth center, into a 100+ point player the year Trottier was too injured to play his usual role lol
It's revisionist history to diminish Bossy. He was the straw that stirred the drink offensively for the NYI and at the time, everyone knew he was the guy elevating the offense of those around him.
Bure was the ultimate Individualist, who would do figure 8's looking to cherry pick with his acceleration.
I think the part that gets lost with Bossy, is that he wasn't out there free-wheeling like a number of other point producers. At worst, his teams were still always playoff-bound, and relevant. I don't think of him as a guy who deviated from how Al Arbour wanted his teams to execute their gameplan, and I doubt that Trottier or Denis Potvin would rave about him if he did things his own way. He gets knocked multiple ways, because they say he's a product of the '80s, but his teams won a lot in the '80s, and the Islanders getting finished at/near the top of the league defensively over the bulk of his career.
Bossy never led the league in SOG, finishing in the top 10 in that category six times, but never higher than 4th (315 shots in 1980-81). I know Bossy wanted 50 in 50, but was he wired to want to lead the league in goals? I doubt that was the case.
Also, how many wingers averaged more than an assist per game in a single season (83 A in 80 G in 1981-82)? Lafleur did 80 in 80 once. Jagr did it twice. I'm assuming that's about it. Bossy doesn't get enough credit for his all-around offensive game, beyond the goal scoring.
He also converted 21.2 SPCT for his career, and Trottier at 19.0 over his 15 year span with the Islanders. The six times in Trottier's career where his shooting percentage was 20.0 or more, they all came playing with Mike Bossy. I don't think they're taking a bunch of ill-advised shots. The only more impressive duo in that regard, are Gretzky and Kurri together with Edmonton.
You can have good/great teammates, but it takes a high level of IQ/awareness to work off others surrounding you. Trottier also played with Bossy! That's awesome, for both of them. That's what great players do, and that's what makes teams greater, working together. If they didn't give a lick about defense, Trottier and Bossy could have scored more (IMO), but the Islanders aren't going as far as they did.
Bossy was also a decent enough of a two-way player. A (very) lite version of Propp perhaps in that regard?
Bure landed in a very good situation in Vancouver at the start of his career. I think he developed selfish tendencies earlier on (the team's first superstar), and they were magnified in the backhalf of his career. He gets this badge of honor for doing it by himself in people's minds, unlike Bossy, but he forced things, by trying to do too much. He's guilty of his team's lack of success later on, in a lot of ways.
Bure puts up 58 goals in 74 games, and follows it up with 59 goals in 82 games with Florida. The first year, Florida finishes with a 43-27-6-6 record, and the next year they're 22-38-13-9. What's fascinating to me, is that while it's true that the team was decimated by injuries and such in that 2nd season, not to be overlooked, but in a way, how superfluous Bure's production was to whether the team won or lost. He was always going for his own.
He and Florida had their honeymoon period in 1999-2000, but they go down 4 straight to the Devils. And that's that. The East becomes a lot more familiar with his style of play, and how the team surrounding him plays.
In the five seasons where he played more than 70 GP, he led the league in shots 4 times. On one hand, that's awesome, that he can get that many shots on net, especially since he's generally doing a lot of the generating those shots (pretty much) on his own. The flipside, how easy it is to gameplan vs a guy like this; which I'm sure the Devils did in '00.
I think Bossy could have scored a lot more goals in his 9 healthy seasons. Outside of Bossy going for 50 in 50 - because it was within reach - I imagine that he didn't approach hockey chasing lofty goal totals, at the expense of team success. Bossy getting 69 goals instead of pushing to get 80, says a lot about him (at least that's how I view him). I can think of at least a couple of guys who are in the mix in the Top 10 greatest goalscorers ever list (one in the Top 3), who were a little too motivated chasing their own numbers. Gretzky throws around a lot of praise to other players, but he was always extremely high on Mike Bossy in particular, and likely still is, even after saying that he wouldn't share a cab with the guy.
