Today on The Players’ Tribune, New York Islanders legend and NHL Hall of Famer Mike Bossy writes a letter to his 14-year-old self. In the letter, Bossy recounts growing up with a family of 10 in Montreal, his ambitious dreams for NHL domination after being drafted, his championship years in New York, and the advice he would give his younger self.
Excerpts below. Full story here: https://www.theplayerstribune.com/letter-to-my-younger-self-mike-bossy/
On being drafted by the Islanders:
“In 1977, just six years from now, you will get the luckiest break of all time. Twelve teams will pass on you in the NHL draft. They’ll want nothing to do with you. They’ll think you’re too timid. They’ll think you’re not tough enough to score in the NHL. Or at least that’s what you’ll be telling yourself when you’re sitting in your lawyer’s office staring at the telephone, waiting for it to ring.
Finally, you’ll get a call from a guy named Bill Torrey welcoming you to the New York Islanders.
He’s the general manager, and he’s in the process of building a dynasty. Now, I need to warn you about something.
Bill is a legend.
You are a shy, naive kid.
Please, please, please just let your agent handle the contract negotiations. Can I change the future with this letter? If I can, I’d like you to do something for me: When you sit down with Bill and he makes you a lowball offer on your contract, just let your agent do the talking. Let him compare the deal with other rookie deals. This is just how business works.
You want to know what you did? (DON’T DO THIS.)
Bill will be sitting there with his famous red bow tie, and he’s going to say, ‘So, Mike, since you’re not happy with this deal, how do you think you’ll perform at the NHL level?’
And you won’t even take a moment to think. You’ll just blurt it out.
‘Well, I think I can score 50 goals this year.’
It might take a minute for Bill and your agent to stop laughing. You’re not even guaranteed a spot on the team, and this is a good NHL team. Fifty goals? Fifty goals? It’s a ridiculous thing to say, especially for a kid who is embarrassingly shy. I still don’t know where it came from. It just came out.
So don’t do that. Because even though your contract will get sorted out, I can pretty much guarantee you it has nothing to do with your bold prediction. And you will walk into training camp as the kid who told Bill Torrey he was going to score 50. (The retellings of your moment of bravado will get more and more outlandish.)
Make no mistake, though. The Islanders brought you in to score goals. Which brings me to my next piece of advice. At the first few practices, just leave your coach alone.”
On Bryan Trottier, Stanley Cups, and fighting:
“Al doesn’t need to speak to you, because he’s got a guy named Bryan Trottier keeping you in check. Bryan is going to be your best friend in hockey. I should warn you now, though. He’s a western Canadian guy with a funny little mustache, and he can barely shoot a puck through a paper bag. ?
Bryan certainly doesn’t look like a physical specimen, but he’s one of the strongest centers you’ll ever come across. And he works on every aspect of his game. He’s the complete hockey player, and you’re going to develop such an unbelievable chemistry with him that you guys won’t be able to keep a leftwinger.
They’ll always complain that you and Bryan are just passing the puck back and forth to one another. It’s kind of true. But it works. At some point, you’ll tell Bryan, ‘You don’t need to see me, just my stick. As long as you can see my stick, put it there.’
It’s the philosophy that will help you score 53 goals in your rookie season. Trots will score 46 (but he’ll take a lot of pride in pointing out that he smoked you in total points). Those first two seasons, you’ll develop great scoring chemistry with him, but your team will fall short of the Stanley Cup.
You guys won’t have what it takes yet. You’ll score plenty of goals in the regular season, but you’ll struggle come playoff time, when the game gets tighter. There will be no time, no space. You’ll be hacked and slashed mercilessly. Guys will constantly be trying to get you to drop the gloves.
So you’re going to make a decision that, at the time, is going to be extremely controversial. In 1979, you’re going to announce to the press that you’re never going to fight again. That’s it. You’re done with it. No matter what anyone does to you, you’re not going to fight. You think it’s pointless and insane.
Oh, boy. That’s going to be an interesting time.
You need to be prepared for the names you’re going to get called. You need to be prepared for how people are going to look at you for making a statement like that in 1979. For a guy who is already unfairly labeled as ‘timid,’ this is going to be a big deal. Some people in the hockey world will simply not accept that someone who doesn’t fight can ever be a winner.”
On advice to his younger self:
“My biggest piece of advice for you is to try to remember more of it. As sad as it is to say, as I write this to you at 60 years old, I can barely remember anything about lifting those Stanley Cups. I don’t know if it’s all the hits I took, or just because of how overwhelmed I was at the time, but I really cannot remember much.
What I do remember is Bryan with the Cup. I have a vivid memory of him going completely apes***, racing around the ice with the Cup above his head at Nassau Coliseum. I can see him standing on the bench with it, egging on the crowd. I can see him jumping on Billy Smith after we won our fourth Cup in a row.
My advice to you, kid, is to remember more. And to cherish your time more, because your time is going to be shorter than you think.
Remember when you did the running long jump at the school Olympics and you busted your kneecap? You had that cast that ran all the way from your ankle to your hip? Remember, you played catcher all summer long with your leg stuck way out to the side?
Well, your knee is never going to fully heal. It won’t seem like a big deal, because you can skate just fine. But in the future, when medical science gets more advanced, they’ll discover that this kind of imbalance has an effect on your body in subtle ways. Nine years into your NHL career, before you even reach age 30, your back is going to go out on you. And when the back goes, it’s over.
You’re not going to be able to write the ending to your story on your own terms. And that will be a very tough pill to swallow. But it will also be a good lesson for you as a young man. It’s just how life works. There’s only so much of our story that we can write ourselves. A lot of it is prewritten for us.”
