The time machine takes us to November 1973. Mike Bossy begins to burn the young Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. At 16 years old, the Laval National rookie already has 20 goals to his name.
My bosses Montreal-Morningthe first daily for which I worked, ask me to meet the young phenomenon.
Bossy welcomes me to the apartment where he lives with his parents in Chomedey, near the Récréathèque, which no longer exists.
The National pays half the rent.
This is the compromise that Johnny Rougeau proposed to the family, when Mike was 12 years old, so that he could continue his minor hockey on Laval territory.
Embarrassed to embarrass
Mike’s mother can’t believe a major newspaper is running a story about her boy.
As for Mike, he is terribly embarrassed. He does not yet understand the universe he is entering.
The flashes of the camera bother him. He is so uncomfortable that he makes the young journalist that I am uncomfortable.
I’m looking for a way to bring him out of his shell.
I don’t remember if it was my suggestion or his initiative, he starts showing me the trophies that decorate the living room walls.
Again, he speaks little.
The TV thing
A miniature replica of the Eiffel Tower placed on the TV captures my attention.
It is then that the contact is made.
Bossy tells me that the tower is a souvenir he brought back from France after a tour against pee-wee teams in that country while playing with the Saint-Alphonse recreation team.
“You know, he says, you don’t realize exactly what happens when you’re 12 years old. We visited several interesting places there.
“But we were more busy slaughtering the French on the ice than we were interested in the Eiffel Tower, the Olympic facilities in Grenoble, the museums and all the rest. »
What drives Bossy is scoring goals.
He ends the season with 70 goals.
Not too bad for a youngster!
The lid pops off!
The time machine takes us to April 5, 1977.
The place: the Palais des sports de Sherbrooke.
Bossy and the National give up in front of the powerful machine of the Sherbrooke Castors, in the quarter-finals.
The final mark: 7 to 0 Beavers.
But no one predicted that the series would reach the seven-game limit.
Shortly after the Castors’ fifth goal, in the fifth minute of the third period, Bossy engaged in battle with the robust defender Floyd Lahache, who served 225 penalty minutes that season.
The accumulation of blows he has taken over his four seasons with the National has pushed him to the limit.
As long as we’re done with the junior, we might as well settle accounts.
Bossy is doing quite well.
“I still defended myself well,” he said.
“I don’t think Lahache had the upper hand. I gave him as many blows as he applied to me. »
The price to pay
Bossy nevertheless ends his junior career battered.
He suffers from a torn ligament in one thumb, an injury that dates back long before his fight against Lahache, the doctors tell him.
A rib is causing him discomfort, the result of a hard check from Jimmy Mann, the Beavers’ strongman, in the first period of game seven.
“It had been like that for four years, but I had taken my pill,” he said.
“I think it was completely normal for me to be the subject of such surveillance. But I regret a little that this first career is over despite all the blows I received.
“I know that all of this has not been in vain, because there is something at the end. That is what matters. »
Marriage and the NHL
Bossy is 20 years old. He has his whole life ahead of him.
Two months after his last meeting with the National, on June 14 precisely, he was drafted 15and by the New York Islanders.
The following July 23, he unites his destiny with Lucie Creamer, who, in the greatest discretion, will be his accomplice in life for nearly 45 years.
Bossy has become a man. A man of exception and principle, who has become an ace of the microphone.
Although he learned about my profession during our first meeting, he certainly did not foresee that hockey would lead him to a career in the media.
To you, Mrs. Creamer, to your daughters Josiane and Tanya, to your entire family, I offer my deepest condolences.