Two giants
By 
The Quebec-born superstar right-winger of arguably the two greatest teams in NHL history have died within a week of each other. Mike Bossy’s career was ended early by a back injury, but while he was healthy he got as close to maximizing his potential as any player ever — he scored 53 goals in 73 games as a rookie and scored at least 50 and more often 60 in every other year of his career except his final season, when he scored 38 in 63 games. The 19 straight playoff series his Islanders teams won are a record that will be almost impossible to break. He also scored the goal on the play that culminated what nearly 40 years later is still probably the most exciting game I’ve ever seen in person:
There have been very few right-wingers in NHL history who were better, and Guy Lafleur, who passed away today, was one of them. Unlike Bossy, he didn’t get hit the ground running — he was good not great in his first three seasons, under pressure to replace his idol Jean Beliveau. But once he reached his peak he was absolutely transcendent, the signature player on the greatest team the NHL has ever known. Here’s legendary defensive tactician Darryl Sutter reminiscing about the time he held Lafleur to three goals:
“He was a great player. He was a classy player.”
Darryl Sutter reflects on his time playing against the late Guy Lafleur and what he meant to the hockey community. pic.twitter.com/6YJD3qb4Tz— y – Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) April 22, 2022
When Sutter talks about Lafleur being in the “McDavid class of skater,” it’s a precise analogy — meaning not “just” blazing speed, but the craft and the vision and stickwork to turn it into a nearly unstoppable weapon. He was unbelievable.
Voici la deuxième partie.
Lafleur skated circles around the Leafs and, of course, looked cool as hell doing it. RIP pic.twitter.com/LE4pkZtx0Q— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) April 22, 2022
The most famous goal of Lafleur’s career was when he scored to tie the game after the Bruins took a late too many men on the ice penalty. But it wasn’t just providence — the Bruins were so committed to keeping their best defensive winger on the ice to try to contain Lafleur that they lost track after he was triple-shifted:
I was not old enough to remember the game itself contemporaneously, but I do remember the act of watching it in a Saskatchewan farmhouse, and the look of quiet satisfaction on my father’s face as the only Habs fan in the room. R.I.P. to two absolute legends.