Trottier cherishes memories after losing Islanders teammates to cancer

The feelings remain raw for Bryan Trottier, who has been forced to say goodbye to three close friends and former teammates with the New York Islanders in the past year.

Two of them, Mike Bossy and Clark Gillies, were Trottier's wings on the "Trio Grande Line" that helped the Islanders win the Stanley Cup in four consecutive seasons (1980-83). The other, Jean Potvin, was a member of the championship teams in 1980 and 1981.

Gillies and Bossy each died from cancer, Gillies at age 67 on Jan. 21, and Bossy at 65 on April 15. Potvin died March 15 at 72. It cut the Islanders deep well before their 50th anniversary season, but it won't break the bond created playing for a dynasty likely never to happen again.

It's difficult for Trottier to talk about it, but he's made it a point to smile with their families.

"I want to celebrate their memory," Trottier told NHL.com. "I talked to (Bossy's daughters) Josiane and Tanya and (wife) Lucie. I talked to (Gillies' wife) Pam and (daughter Brianna), and I share my stories and they're all uplifting. They're not sad. They're powerful stories and they're fun. They make me laugh."

The Islanders will hold their annual Hockey Fights Cancer night Saturday when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets at UBS Arena (7:30 p.m. ET; MSGSN2, BSOH, ESPN+, SN NOW). There will be special guests, celebrities and alumni attending pregame and in-game commemorations. Players will wear Hockey Fights Cancer jerseys and use sticks taped in pink and white in warmups. Sparky the Dragon, the team mascot, will dress in a specialty sweater and mingle with fans.

Hockey Fights Cancer has raised more than $32 million entering its 24th year and supports the Islanders Children's Foundation, which has generated more than $14 million through events and initiatives since it was founded in 2003 by late owner Charles Wang. Philanthropy has continued under co-owners Jon Ledecky and Scott Malkin, players visiting cancer patients young and old.

Gillies was an ambassador in the cancer fight, and Bossy said he regretted smoking cigarettes in a 2017 letter to his younger self published in The Players' Tribune. The education is hard but mandatory, and it goes beyond a fashion statement.

"It's not just wearing the tie or the pin," Ledecky said. "Making the new generations aware, making our contemporaries aware of the causes of cancer, but also the fact that we can beat cancer by continuing to be focused on a cure, I think is the thing that the Islanders as a community trust can really get across."

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The mystique of Gillies, Bossy and their legacy with the Islanders is compelling. Fans made their presence felt whenever their previous home, Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, showed Gillies on the jumbotron smashing a can against his head. Forward Matt Martin can relate with a physical game indicative of what "Jethro" brought throughout his career and the Matt Martin Foundation, which generates financial support and awareness for several causes.

Martin has attended several functions for the Clark Gillies Foundation, which helps children who are physically, developmentally and/or financially challenged. He misses Gillies, his text messages no longer telling him he's watching during the regular season and Stanley Cup Playoffs, knowing the fine line between motivation and being carefree.

"He was such a presence," Martin said. "He was a special person. I think he'll be missed around here for a long time."

Gillies was the muscle (6-foot-3, 215 pounds) behind the dynasty, the left wing next to Trottier and Bossy. He had 663 points (304 goals, 359 assists), good for fourth in Islanders history, and remarkably never took more than 100 penalty minutes in 872 regular-season games for New York. Cancer neither spared Gillies, Bossy, Trottier's grandparents, nor Bob Johnson, Trottier's coach when he won his sixth Stanley Cup championship playing for the 1990-91 Pittsburgh Penguins (Johnson died Nov. 26 of that year).

It was incomprehensible to believe Gillies, "that big bugger" and gentle giant, was dying.

"I wanted to remind him that he was basically invincible in my eyes," Trottier said. "We got the news about cancer was in every part of his body. I'm like, 'What? Not that big body. There's no way.' Shocking is not a big enough word as fast as it was. I say to myself this can't happen to a guy who's strong and this mighty in my mind, my heart and in my eyes.

"I get choked up just talking about him. That hurt. Mike hurt. Clark hurt. 'Johnny' Potvin hurt. Guy Lafleur (died April 22) hurt. All these guys that passed, they all hurt, but to me it was just impossible that it could take down my big man 'Clarkie.' But cancer has no favorites."

Potvin, a defenseman and older brother of Hall of Famer and Islanders captain Denis Potvin, played 402 games for New York. Bossy scored 573 goals in 10 seasons before a back problem forced him to retire after the 1986-87 season. Trottier wrote about his first impression of Bossy in his book, "All Roads Home, A Life on and off the Ice," recalling a scrawny forward (6-feet, 186) who on a grip strength test following their first practice together scored 90 with his left hand and 98 with his dominant right, the rest of the Islanders averaging between 40-60.

Trottier (1997), Bossy (1991) and Gillies (2002) were each inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
One week after Bossy died, Lafleur died at age 70, another devastating blow to hockey and fans of the Montreal Canadiens who watched the Hall of Famer score at least 50 goals from 1974-75 through 1979-80 and win four straight Stanley Cup titles from 1976-79. The following month, May 14, the Dix Hills Ice Rink in Dix Hills, New York, was renamed the Clark Gillies Arena at Dix Hills Park, where his wife unveiled a marquee above the front entrance.

"First and foremost, it's their families," Islanders forward Josh Bailey said. "I think the response from the Islander community was well deserved and done properly to honor those guys and what they meant to this organization and to Long Island as a whole. Special people [who will] always be missed."

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For 50 years, the Islanders have entertained those visiting Nassau Coliseum, Barclays Center in Brooklyn and UBS Arena. Youth players emulated Bossy, Gillies, Trottier, Denis Potvin, Billy Smith and others while the dynasty captivated the surrounding community.

"We felt so appreciated," Trottier said. "It was everybody, kids, maybe it inspired a generation of hockey players. These people were making it fun for us, crazy hockey players from Canada."

Cancer isn't fun. It's unfair, hits hard and hits home, but hope is alive. Breakthroughs in research have helped many go in remission. Dr. Bryan John Trottier Jr., one of Bryan's four children, sees it every day as a hematology/oncologist specialist dealing with cancers of the blood in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. Modern medicines are available, and anyone can help through donations or moral support.

The Islanders are serving others and honoring their history. The Stan Fischler Press Level at UBS Arena at their new home in Elmont, New York, was christened Oct. 26 in honor of the longtime hockey historian with them since the expansion 1972-73 season. Growing up a fan of the rival New York Rangers, NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly watched the Islanders make the game bigger, better and more accessible on Long Island. There's a lot more to give, Fischler's night a bright light in a tough year.

"We lost a couple of members of that team," Daly said. "We all mourn their passing, but it's about coming of age as a franchise. It's great they are where they are, and they've gotten through some tough times."

NHL.com independent correspondent Denis Gorman contributed to this story