The Boston Bruins are a storied franchise with so many great players that have come and gone over their 90 year existence.
Throughout those years the Bruins have created a brand of hockey that will forever be remembered in Black and Gold. Bruins hockey. Tough, big, bad and sometimes ugly.
In this Two Pad Stack mini series, we will be looking at Bruins players who were at the forefront of establishing the ‘Big Bad Bruins’ style of hockey and those who were deemed the Boston Bruins toughest players. Believe me, categorising those guys into a Top 10 is hard. Really hard. There will be a whole group of players who will miss out that could have easily made it in – we could easily have done a Top 30.
So without further ado, at No.10 of our toughest Bruins is…
CAM NEELY
The Boston Bruins very own President starts us off. The 6″1′, 218 pound winger could do it all from scoring 50 goals a season to racking up over 1,000 career penalty minutes, with a season high of 190 minutes in the 1988-89 season.
At the time Neely was your prototypical power forward. Big, physical and not afraid to take you for a ride on the pain train from time to time, his 45 fights over seven seasons in Boston proved just how dominant he could be in all aspects of the game.
Utilising his skill and physicality Neely became one of Boston’s favourite sons and remains a beloved Bruin to this day, with the No. 8 jersey being retired and hanging from the TD Garden’s rafters, along with the club’s most decorated players.
Most Memorable Season
One of No. 8’s most memorable seasons came later in his career. The 1993-94 season saw Neely return after two injury riddled seasons but even that couldn’t slow him down, as the winger tallied 50 goals in just 49 games, the second fastest in NHL history.
Neely finished the year with 74 points and a +12 rating, his 4th best statistical NHL season.
Toughest Season
The season that epitomised Neely’s toughness was his very first with Boston, the 1986-87 season, after arriving from The Vancouver Canucks. Making an instant impact Neely dropped the gloves 17 times and totalled 143 penalty minutes in 75 games for the Black and Gold.
Biggest Rival
After 13 competitive seasons in the National Hockey League it’s safe to say Neely made some enemies on the ice.
None were bigger than Pittsburgh Penguins defenceman Ulf Samuelsson. Constant battles between the two went on and on throughout their careers, but what portrayed the rivalry the most was the in early 90’s when the Bruins and the Penguins met in consecutive years in what was then known as the Prince of Wales Conference final, after which Pittsburgh went on to win two Stanley Cups.
Samuelsson’s antagonistic and dangerous style of play was the reason for the rivalry and was responsible for ending not only the Bruins cup chances in 91, but arguably Cam Neely’s career. The back and forth physical exchanges contributed to Neely’s knee and hip problems which later led him to retire. Despite Neely himself saying he didn’t blame his rival for ending his career, he made it clear by saying he “didn’t respect the way the guy played.”
The intense rivalry between the two wasn’t down to the amount of times they actually fought – Neely and Samuelsson only dropped the gloves twice, once in 1990, and the other in 1993 – it was more down to the battles they endured in front of net, the post-whistle tussles and the simmering hatred between the Bruins and Penguins.
Unfortunately for Neely, as his career went on injuries picked up and the tough brand of hockey slowly deteriorated with time. Despite consistently putting up adequate numbers Neely only went toe-to-toe with an opponent eight times in his last four seasons.
Nevertheless, Neely thoroughly deserves his place on this list for his sheer ability to be good offensively and still be renowned for his toughness and fighting ability.
Be sure to keep it here for No.9 of the Boston Bruins Top 10 Toughest Players.
