The Skinny Wishes: Happy Birthday, Boss! (and What did Iginla do last night?)

Today is Mike Bossy's 58th birthday and he woke up this morning in an unfamiliar place -- outside of the top 20 in career goals.


Colorado's Jarome Iginla recorded his 574th goal last night (with a fraction of a second to play in the first period), breaking a tie with Bossy for 20th place on the all-time list.

Iginla has played 1,358 NHL games (45th all-time);  Bossy played only 752 (tied-677th all-time among skaters, and two fewer than (of all people) Mike Milbury).

One area that nobody will catch Bossy anytime soon (or perhaps ever) -- is goals per game (.762).  Mario Lemieux had passed Bossy for a while, but when he came out of retirement, he slid behind Mike at .754.

The active leader in goals per game is Alex Ovechkin (449 goals in 725 games, or .619).  The Great 8 needs "only" 124 goals in the next 27 games to match Bossy's pace.

Among active players, only Jagr and Iginla have more goals than Bossy, and only Marian Hossa (474 goals) is beween Ovechkin and Bossy.  So perhaps it's fitting that Ovechkin will likely be the one to ultimately pass Bossy -- and push Mike into #22 on the all-time list.

So Happy Birthday to Boss -- the greatest pure goal scorer the game has ever seen.