Posted: 03/28/07

I miss Neely, Bruins miss playoffs
Why the franchise just isn’t the same

Justin Veiga | managing editor
jveiga@smcvt.edu

It was a golden era. Magical, really. Everything was perfect. The venue, the cast, the price, the uniforms. Oh, how I long for the days when the face of a bear that actually looked more like a tiger adorned the shoulders of my favorite Bruin players.

It was the early 90s and for one game each season, my Dad would drive us down I-93 into Boston, park the gray Chevy Celebrity at Lechmere, hop on the green line and head for the Garden.

The Boston Garden. In the history of mankind, has there ever been a more remarkable place? The Roman Coliseum? Notre Dame Cathedral? Buckingham Palace ? The Great Pyramids? I think not. There was something special about that building. I’m pretty sure it was the smell. There’s nothing better than the cool, sweet, blended aroma of beer, stale popcorn, and a hint of sweat — if you were fortunate enough to be near the ice surface. But the Garden was just the appetizer in the royal feast that was the Boston Bruins during those glory years.

The players were the entrée.

Guys like Andy Moog, Don Sweeney, Ted Donato, Adam Oates, and Joe Juneau. And of course Captain Ray Bourque and the big, mean, scoring machine, Cam Neely.

Neely was God on ice. Opposing defensemen feared his open-ice hip checks and opposing goaltenders knew heading into a game, that chances were Neely was going to find a way to put the puck in the net. In the ’93-’94 season, he notched 50 goals in 49 games.

Each year that my Dad brought me to the Garden, I never took my eyes off of Neely. I’d even watch him on the bench, my young mind pondering what he could be thinking at that instant. It was Neely and the supporting cast around him that made the Bruins one of the league’s best franchises.

But it’s been more than 10 years since his retirement and the demolition of the famed Garden. And wow, has the franchise changed.

There is no face, like a Neely or Bourque, that represents the talent and success of the Bruins. We had Joe Thornton, but traded him for three players (two of which have since been dealt elsewhere). The team’s captain is in his first season with the B’s, a true shame given the fact that the leader of a franchise is supposed to be well associated with the squad and his teammates before being given such an honor.

But not all of the blame for a current lack of franchise superstars can fall on the Bruins front office. The league has been expanded drastically in recent years, currently standing at 30 teams. This rapid expansion to markets such as Atlanta, Nashville and Columbus has spread the league’s talent thin.

Granted, each year the NHL seems to add one or two rookie sensations that are sure to become superstars. But many current players would never have made it to the big show fifteen years ago, spending their careers instead in the American Hockey League.

While the B’s have a couple of emerging studs of their own (i.e. Peter Bergeron and Phil Kessel) they lack a player with Neely or Bourque-esque abilities.

And so another season has gone by and another missed opportunity to raise Lord Stanley’s Cup. With six games left as of Wednesday, March 28, the Bruins trail the Montreal Canadiens by 10 points for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot, and are all but officially eliminated from the postseason picture.

With Neely happily enjoying retirement, the Bruins will have to look elsewhere to get some of that magic back. Perhaps there is a way to infuse that old Garden scent into the new “Garden.” Maybe that’ll do the trick.