So I was talking on Friday to Mike Bossy — for more than 40 years, always one of the distinct pleasures of having this job — about the fabled Guy Lafleur, who had successful quadruple bypass surgery Thursday.

And I’ll tell you what he said about the Flower, but there’s something else, first. I don’t know that this can be considered breaking news because it comes 30-plus years after the fact, but later in the conversation Bossy was matter-of-factly chatting about the difficulty of a player spending his career with one team then moving somewhere else late in his hockey life.

“Like when I had the chance to go to L.A. and play with Wayne,” he said.

Excuse me? Say what?

“It was the summer [1988] when my contract with the Islanders expired after I’d sat out the year because of my back,” Bossy said. “I hadn’t announced my retirement, yet.

“And it must have been right after they made the trade [for Gretzky on Aug. 9, 1988] that I got a phone call at home. ‘Mike, it’s Bruce McNall.’ I said, ‘Oh?’ ”

McNall, of course, was the Kings’ owner who pulled off the massive deal in which he added $15 million to the package that went to Edmonton owner Peter Pocklington in exchange for No. 99.

“Bruce said he wanted me as a free agent,” Bossy said. “He said, ‘I’d love to have you come out and play with Wayne.’ ”

Bossy has scored 38 goals in 63 games in 1986-87 after recording 50 or more in each of his first nine seasons. He’d scored 29 goals his first 39 games that year before his back gave way and he finished the season impaired. He did not play in 1987-88. He was 31 when the 1988-89 season began. Gretzky, who apparently was unaware McNall had attempted to recruit the winger, was 27.

If Bossy had signed as a free agent, the Islanders would have been due compensation in return, ultimately to be decided by the NHL if the parties had been unable to agree. Obviously, it never reached that stage.

“My first thought was, ‘You know, this could be interesting,’ ” No. 22 said. “But once I considered it, I didn’t think I could do myself justice, and especially with the expectations would have been of Wayne and I lighting it up together. That’s what I told Bruce. That was the end of it.”

The mind boggles at the possibilities of a reasonably healthy Bossy hooking up with Gretzky in Los Angeles. But that’s one we’ll have to file away as a “what-if,” like if Eric Lindros had signed with the Nordiques. Of course, we knew about No. 88 and Quebec as it was happening. This one with Bossy, we’re learning 31 years later.

Bossy and Gretzky had a bit of a rivalry as a natural outgrowth of the rivalry between the Islanders and Oilers, powerhouse dynasties that crossed in the night. But Bossy told me he never considered Lafleur a rival, even as the Islanders had the dynastic Canadiens in their way when Bossy broke into the league in 1977-78.

“Guy wasn’t a rival. He was a model for me,” said Bossy, who is about five-and-a-half years younger than Lafleur. “Growing up in Montreal, I always looked up to him, statistically. I looked at his goal totals and made them my target. … he was always the gauge for me even though we had completely different styles.

“I wanted to be the best right wing in the game and to become that, I’d have to surpass Guy. But I never looked at him as a rival. I wanted to do better.”

Bossy was perhaps the greatest sniper and shooter in NHL history. But there wasn’t a lot of flair to his game. He was efficient and relentless. He’d appear from nowhere, get the puck, shoot and score … even in mid-air. Lafleur, his blond mane flying in the wind behind him, would race down the right wing with puck in tow and fire away from 50 feet. The Flower was all about glamour, in many ways the antithesis of Bossy on and off the ice. Except that they scored goals … and scored goals … and scored goals.

Bossy and Lafleur were contemporaries, but not quite. Lafleur was a rookie in 1971-72, six years ahead of Bossy. Lafleur’s run of six straight 50-goal seasons ended in 1979-80, while Bossy’s string was three years old with six more years to run. Lafleur, by the way, scored 60 or more goals once, when he got 60 in 1977-78. Bossy scored 60 or more five times, with the high of 69 in 1978-79.

“We didn’t really cross paths much, but we have an extremely cordial relationship whenever we do see each other now,” Bossy said. “We maybe see each other once a year, or every couple of years, but when we’re together, it’s like we’re friends. It’s great. I love seeing him and talking to him.“The one way we’re quite similar is that Guy has always been outspoken and willing to live with the consequences. The way everyone in Quebec knows Mike Bossy, everyone in Quebec knows Guy Lafleur.”

Bossy and Lafleur were teammates on Team NHL for the 1979 Challenge Cup and on Team Canada for the 1981 Canada Cup. The Soviet Union won both events, 6-0 in the final in 1979, 8-1 in the final two years later.

“We were friendly, but we didn’t spend any time together away from the rink,” said Bossy, before laughling loudly. “Guy had a different lifestyle than I did.”

Vive la différence. Vive Le Démon Blond.