Chico Resch once asked Al Arbour if he could talk to Mike Bossy about playing more defense.

The former Islanders goaltender expected to have a sympathetic ear in his coach, a former defensemen. But Arbour knew what he had in Bossy. And though Bossy was capable in his own end, defense was not where he made his money.

“He says, ‘Chico, I’m on it, but here’s the thing you gotta realize: What Boss can do, nobody else can do.’ ” Resch recalled in a phone interview on Friday.

And since Bossy left the game of hockey in 1987, nobody else has been able to do what he did. The Islanders’ Hall of Famer, who died late Thursday of lung cancer, is still the NHL’s all-time leader in goals per game. He is one of five players ever to start a season with 50 goals in 50 games. He still engenders a respect and reverence that puts him among the sport’s all-time greats.

The news on Friday did not come as a surprise — Bossy had publicly revealed his diagnosis in October, and it was known that he hadn’t been well in recent weeks. That did not cushion the blow.

“I think that Mike, more than anything else, wanted to be the best,” Bob Nystrom told The Post. “And be the best goal scorer that played in the National Hockey League. He was driven by that.”

Bossy thought about hockey — and about scoring — on another level. In an era where goalies hadn’t yet begun to use a butterfly stance, he forced them to pick between defending the five-hole or the corner to great effect.

“He was really the first intentional five-hole shooter,” Resch said. “And then of course he could shoot it every other way.”

Butch Goring recalled reporters asking Bossy whether he had time to aim before he released the puck, since the puck came off his stick so quickly. Bossy, always, would say no — he just shot it.

“And that,” Goring said, “was complete bulls–t. He could hit the bullseye on a target if he wanted to. He knew where he was going with the puck at all times.”

Goring brought up one specific shorthanded goal Bossy scored as an example of his prowess. Coming up the left-hand side on a breakaway, Bossy — a right-handed shot — was going full speed down the ice, shot the puck and scored without breaking stride.

“To go down your wrong wing and snap a shot and never break stride is one of the hardest things to do in hockey,” Goring said. “You see if you watch the game and you watch people on their wrong side, they always stop skating [before shooting].”

Bossy’s personality — private and guarded — was unique for the time period. He rarely went out with teammates, preferring to spend time with his wife, Lucie, and family while away from the ice. He was comfortable in his own skin, both in what he wanted from the game and away from it.

“He was a quiet person,” Resch said. “Very internal and self-analytical. … I don’t know how to say it. I think he felt that he had a God-given talent to score goals above other players. But it didn’t make him arrogant.”

It made him correct.

There will never be another scorer quite like Mike Bossy.

“Boss was an artist playing a team sport,” Resch said. “He really was.”