Islanders, fans pay tribute to Mike Bossy at UBS Arena

The moment of silence morphed into thunderous cheers as Islanders fans had their turn to mourn Hall of Famer Mike Bossy on Tuesday night UBS Arena.

“No. 22, we will never forget you,” UBS Arena public address announcer Alex Anthony had said moments before to conclude an emotional eight-minute pre-game ceremony, which included a video tribute. “Thank you.”

Bossy passed away Friday from lung cancer at 65 and Tuesday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Panthers was the Islanders’ first home game since then. His daughter, Tanya, and granddaughters, Alexe and Gabrielle attended the ceremony.

“It was pretty special,” Islanders forward Mathew Barzal said. “You look back into the crowd, after the video was done, was seeing some tears coming down a couple of faces. There’s probably a lot of people in the building tonight that saw him play live and saw him win on Long Island. He was a pretty special human and a special player. An amazing tribute by our organization.”

Two bouquets of flowers and a No. 22 were placed in front of Bossy’s wall plaque for the team’s Hall of Fame on the main concourse. Fans then added their own flowers.

Bossy’s death came less than three months after his linemate and fellow Hall of Famer, Clark Gillies, passed away at 67, also from cancer.

Gillies’ No. 9 and Bossy’s No. 22 flank Bryan Trottier’s No. 19 in UBS rafters as the Islanders’ top line for much of their four straight Stanley Cups from 1980-83 remains forever bonded together.

“When you talk about Gillies and Bossy and these guys who won four Cups in a row and brought so much pride to Long Island, to lose these people quickly, it’s pretty tough,” Islanders forward Matt Martin said.

There were also video tributes and moments of silence for Bossy prior to the Islanders’ last two road games, both in Bossy’s hometown of Montreal on Friday and in Toronto on Sunday.

But having a building packed with saddened Islanders’ fans added another element.

“You’ve got such a great fan base here that experienced those great Islanders teams,” said Islanders forward Zach Parise, whose late father, J.P. Parise, also played for the team. “When you lose a guy, a player that was so important to the organization, so important to the Stanley Cups, it’s a sad day for the organization.

“This is one of the greatest goal scorers of all time. You see his name, you see his picture, his jersey in the rafters. You understand the impact that he had here on the Island and with the team. You feel for the family for what they’re going through right now.”

The video tribute described Bossy as an “NHL icon,” “the greatest goal scorer the league has seen,” and “a legend in every sense of the word.” It noted that Bossy, “arrived from Montreal with one goal in mind: Win. And Bossy delivered.”

The tribute, which included video of Bossy’s storied junior hockey career with Laval and an interview with late general manager Bill Torrey in which he expresses surprise that Bossy slipped to No. 15 in the draft, also listed his many NHL accomplishments. That included winning the Calder Trophy in 1978 as the NHL’s top rookie and the Conn Smythe Trophy in 1982 as the postseason MVP.

“I’m probably a perfectionist,” Bossy said in an interview clip shown at the beginning of the video tribute.

It ended with another interview as Bossy said, “Being an Islander, for me, is being a winner.”“It was emotional,” coach Barry Trotz said. “Having some of the footage of Mike just speaking, not necessary scoring goals but his speaking on what his values were, I thought that was extremely touching.”