Isles 40 in 40 -- #27

Isles 40 in 40 -- #27

In honor of the Isles 40th anniversary year, I've put together a list of the Top 40 moments in club history.  I'll go through them throughout the season, bit by bit.

January 2, 1986 -- Bossy Fastest to 500


Mike Bossy set many NHL records in his career -- and he still holds one that based on the way the game is currently being played may never be broken.

Among those feats were his 53-goal rookie season (first ever), his 50 in 50 season (2nd ever) and 573 career goals.

The one that may never be broken is one that he held when he retired, lost it to Mario Lemieux, and then regained it later in Mario's career.  Mike Bossy scored more goals per game played than any player in NHL history:

Rank	Player	G/G
1.	Mike Bossy*	0.762
2.	Cy Denneny*	0.756
3.	Mario Lemieux*	0.754
4.	Babe Dye*	0.742
5.	Pavel Bure	0.623
6.	Alex Ovechkin	0.615
7.	Wayne Gretzky*	0.601
8.	Brett Hull*	0.584
9.	Bobby Hull*	0.574
10.	Tim Kerr	0.565
(hockey-ref.com)	Ovechkin as of 1/17/2012

To put this in perspective, Ovechkin, who is the only active player on the list, has scored 319 goals in his first 519 games.  To match Bossy's pace, he would have needed to score 76 more goals in those games.

In 1985-86, in his final healthy season, Bossy scored 61 goals and added 62 assists.  One of those goals hit an empty net on January 2, 1986 and it allowed Bossy to be the fastest player in NHL history to reach 500 goals-- he did it in just 647 games.

Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux would both scored their 500th goal faster, but both would fall short of Bossy's goals per game pace.

Bossy would score 73 more goals before a nagging back led him to retire at the age of 30.  One can only wonder how many goals he would have scored if he could have stayed healthy.  One can only wonder how much better the Islanders would have been.

(hockeydb.com)                --- Regular Season ---  ---- Playoffs ----
Season   Team          Lge    GP    G    A  Pts  PIM  GP   G   A Pts PIM
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1977-78 Islanders      NHL    73   53   38   91    6   7   2   2   4   2
1978-79 Islanders      NHL    80   69   57  126   25  10   6   2   8   2
1979-80 Islanders      NHL    75   51   41   92   12  16  10  13  23   8
1980-81 Islanders      NHL    79   68   51  119   32  18  17  18  35   4
1981-82 Islanders      NHL    80   64   83  147   22  19  17  10  27   0
1982-83 Islanders      NHL    79   60   58  118   20  19  17   9  26  10
1983-84 Islanders      NHL    67   51   67  118    8  21   8  10  18   4
1984-85 Islanders      NHL    76   58   59  117   38  10   5   6  11   4
1985-86 Islanders      NHL    80   61   62  123   14   3   1   2   3   4
1986-87 Islanders      NHL    63   38   37   75   33   6   2   3   5   0
------------------------------------------------------------------------
         NHL Totals          752  573  553 1126  210 129  85  75 160  38

Moment #27 belongs to #22, the greatest pure goal scorer in Islanders history.

The List to Date:

#27--January 2, 1986 -- Bossy Fastest to 500
#28--April 2, 1993-- Turgeon's 50th OTs Rangers at MSG
#29--October, 2001 -- Isles Start Laviolette Era 9-0-1-1
#30--November 23, 2009-- Roloson sets franchise record with 58 saves
#31--December 20, 1985 and January 28, 1986--Potvin Passes Orr.. Twice

#32 --April 22-24, 1993-- Ferraro OT's the Caps... twice

#33 -- June 26, 2009  -- Islanders Select John Tavares
#34 -- May, 1982-- Bossy leads the Isles to 3rd Stanley Cup
#35 -- January 6,1981 --With Bossy Chasing 50, Tonelli Lights Up the Leafs
#36 -- January 18, 1973 -- Expansion Isles Beat the Champs
#37 -- November 28, 1979 -- Billy Smith is credited with a goal
#38 -- December 23, 1978 -- Trottier re-writes the record book
#39 -- February 11, 2011 -- Isles pound Pens 9-3
#40 -- Summer 2001 -- Isles hire Laviolette, trade for Peca and Yashin, claim Osgood.

Honorable Mention:

March 16, 2010 -- Tavares' 5-point game.

February 13, 2011 -- Grab-Trick. 

March 31, 1990 -- Uwe, Uwe. 

Like any of these lists, my #2 may be your #20...

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick