Guess who died in 2022

[dinosaur jesus]

I enjoyed his broadcast a lot. The man was steeped in old-time show business. And he did the best Groucho.

[G-Fafif]

Another loss to the Islanders family, Mike Bossy, 65.

https://www.nhl.com/islanders/news/mike ... -333031072

[MFS62]

Another loss to the Islanders family, Mike Bossy, 65.

https://www.nhl.com/islanders/news/mike ... -333031072

This makes me very sad.
RIP

Later

[Frayed Knot]

Damn! Tough year for 2/3 of the greatest line in franchise history (and one of the best in anyone's history).
Stay safe Trots.

I don't think we ever heard the cause of death on Gillies.
Bossy I know had had bouts with cancer in the past.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Yeah Bossy had lung cancer I think

[G-Fafif]

First George’s mom, now Jerry’s: Liz Sheridan, 93.

https://deadline.com/2022/04/liz-sherid ... 235003021/

[Edgy MD]

Bossy was a classic hockey town guy. Even though he's from Montreal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville was more like a small village on the outskirts of the city. He married the girl at the snack bar, and he somehow arrived in the NHL speaking no English. He was so culturally at sea his rookie year, Trottier invited him to move in.

His fifty goals nine years in a row is still an unmatched feat.

[Frayed Knot]

Some of the francophones in Quebec resented Bossy for learning English (and essentially speaking it accent-free) and would often pronounce his name over the PA as Michelle despite him using the anglophonic Mike/Michael.
Shades of 'Bob' Clemente.
btw, his father was Ukrainian.


While his skinny frame was often being knocked around, Bossy somehow always righted himself and found the net when the puck came his way. When asked how he knew where the net was in all that tumult his simple answer was; 'It never moves'.


Isles are in Montreal tonight, Bossy's team vs his home town team.

[G-Fafif]

Eternally boyish Robert Morse, 90.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv ... 235133283/

[MFS62]

His memorable line just after the credits in The Loved One set the tone for the entire movie.
RIP

Later

[MFS62]

Daryle Lamonica "The Mad Bomber"- AFL Quarterback -80

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2 ... ies-at-80/

RIP
Later

[G-Fafif]

Another NHL great: Guy Lafleur, 70.

https://montrealgazette.com/sports/hock ... ut/lafleur

[Frayed Knot]

Bad week for high-scoring right wings from Quebec.
Both he and Bossy of lung cancer.

Hockey, seemingly more than other sports, has often had a consensus best player/face of the sport and, in the pre-Gretzsky era, that face was Lafleur. I remember a magazine ad for Koho, at the time the biggest name in sticks. It was an action shot of Lafleur skating, instantly recognizable in the iconic Montreal uni and his blond hair flowing in those pre-helmet days. With the Koho trademark clearly visible, the caption on the ad was simply: Need We Say More?

Following a retirement due to a dispute with Montreal mgmt, he returned (to the Rangers) several years later making him an active player who was already in the Hockey HOF, still helmetless (via the grandfather rule) though by then the hair was less blond and there was less of it.

For icon status, particularly in Quebec but all over Canada really, Mickey Mantle might be a good comparison.

[Edgy MD]

YouTube keeps pushing Gilbert Gottfried clips at me. It's revelatory. You can't watch 10 minutes with out going from he's the best to he's the worst to he's the best. Sometimes multiple times.

He seemed to be in constant state of burning his career to the ground and building it up at the same time.

[MFS62]

For icon status, particularly in Quebec but all over Canada really, Mickey Mantle might be a good comparison.

Good analogy. I guess that makes Gordie Howe Babe Ruth.
Kids wanted to be Mantle when they grew up, but they knew there could never be another Babe Ruth.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

This has nothing to do with whether Howe was better than Lafleur or not; they overlapped somewhat but their primes were separate.

This is more about how both Mantle & Lafleur were national faces of the sport on account of being the best player on their sports' most storied franchise during a dynastic run for each and at a time each sport was unquestionably the national game with the majority of players homegrown.

[MFS62]

This is what my Canadian friend wrote:

the flower died yesterday

in my life, hockey has always had one star just better than the best: orr, lafleur, gretzky, lemieux, sid the kid, etc

i hated the montreal canadians with all my heart...like only a leaf fan can.....they were the epitome of evil (for bosox fans - picture the yankees if the yankees represented a language being forced on you).....but even i knew the late 70's canadians were fucking amazing and star studded.....perhaps the greatest team of all time...and the greatest player on the greatest team was lafleur.....lord god, could he skate....he flew down the ice with his hair flowing behind him (no helmet)....he was unstoppable once he reached full flight.....but the thing i will always think of when i think of lafleur is how he just loved to play the game....can u remember as a teen, playing a game of baseball or softball or whatever and it was just fun...pure innocent fun....just enjoying it for what it was...that is the way lafleur played hockey...he just loved to play hockey.....he was having a good time

that's what i'll think of when i smile and think of "le Démon Blond" (the Blond Demon)....i found it so canadian that his death was the top story in both the national radio and tv news....he was an icon

tough week for hockey as mike bossy died too....there was a man whose only skill at hockey was scoring goals....that's all he could do, score....very humble man....

thanks to both for the memories
regards

Later

[kcmets]

YouTube keeps pushing Gilbert Gottfried clips at me. It's revelatory.

I meant to give him his own thread and dropped the ball. Gilbert was
The Fifth Ramone... stayed tuned...

[Edgy MD]

Excellent.

[Frayed Knot]

....but the thing i will always think of when i think of lafleur is how he just loved to play the game....can u remember as a teen, playing a game of baseball or softball or whatever and it was just fun...pure innocent fun....just enjoying it for what it was...that is the way lafleur played hockey...he just loved to play hockey.....he was having a good time

There's a passage from Ken Dryden's memoir THE GAME* where he talks about getting dressed in the locker room prior to a practice but already hearing skates against the ice and pucks
against the boards. And he doesn't have to look. He knows. It's Lafleur. Skating by himself with a bucketful of pucks before anyone else has joined him; he's out there skating around
imaginary defensemen and banging pucks off the boards at various locations and angles just to see how they'll come off; he's honing and refining skills the same way he learned them
in the first place, not by rote or by structured drills but by feel and imagination and invention. "Inventing the game", a rough translation of an Indian expression from (I believe) lacrosse,
is used by Dryden to explain how skills are learned and miraculous plays are made because they had previously been imagined and tried. So when one sees a "miracle" play by
Pele or Magic, Gretzky or Tiger, or a small handful of other so-called geniuses of sport, its genesis likely goes beyond what's god-given or coached, it was likely created years before by
a kid, or even by an adult, who never stopped imagining what most others never considered.






* Almost 50 years old now but my favorite athlete-written sports book (that and BALL FOUR, though very different tomes).
I'm paraphrasing what was written then and adding some of my own, but I think it gets the basic gist.

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

Long-serving U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/202 ... 428897001/

He was also a prolific songwriter. His Christmas song "Skating with my Baby" is about Rockefeller Center.

[Edgy MD]

Served for two Congresses as president pro tempore of the Senate.

Seemed to wear a lot of pink ties.

[G-Fafif]

Jim Hartz, quintessential 1970s NBC News face and voice, 82.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/24/busi ... -dead.html

[G-Fafif]

Susan Jacks of the Poppy Family, 73.

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-new ... away-at-73

[Edgy MD]

Former wife of "Seasons in the Sun" guy Terry Jacks.

From a Ukrainian-Canuck family.