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From NEHJ: Neely's presidential presence key in B's return to glory
When Peter Chiarelli arrived in Boston in 2006, the newly appointed general manager was faced with the tall task of bringing back a winning tradition to a slumping franchise. His goal from Day One was to return an Original Six squad to its roots and somehow reshape not only a roster but also an entire organization that had lost its once-unbreakable bond with its blue-collar fan-base.
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| Bruins legend Cam Neely -- who lost in two finals as a player with the Bruins -- hoists the Stanley Cup as the club's president. (Brian Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images) |
The acquisition of Zdeno Chara was certainly a big stride in the
right direction, as Chiarelli aimed to build around the 6-foot-9
Slovak similar to the way in which his predecessors anchored their
squads around legends Bobby Orr and Ray Bourque, but the Bruins
needed someone in the front office to spearhead their quest to
return the team to its glory days.
They needed an individual who embodied what the Black and Gold
once were all about, a man who knew full well how much the city of
Boston cherished their hard-working Bruins teams of yesteryear that
had the perfect blend of snarl and skill, someone who could instill
a sense of pride in sporting the Spoked-B that had long been
missing.
Quite simply, they needed Cam Neely.
In September 2007, the Hall of Fame forward was appointed vice
president of the Bruins. Over the past four seasons, under the
guidance of the man whose No. 8 hangs in the rafters at TD Garden,
the Bruins have climbed back to the top of the NHL mountain,
reinvigorating the region’s once-dormant love affair with the
Black and Gold in the process.
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“(Principal) Charlie Jacobs had kind of brought me back in
the fold and had me go to some premium events and what-not a few
times a year,” Neely said when asked how joining the front
office all came together. “That summer of 2007, before I
accepted the position, I met with Peter Chiarelli, and he asked if
I had any interest in coming back on board from a management
perspective. That really kind of intrigued me.
“After talking with Peter a number of different times and
understanding what his philosophy was, and sitting down with
Charlie again just to get a better understanding of where ownership
was coming from, I said to let me see how it goes for a year. I
didn’t want to commit to anything more than a year because I
really wanted to see if I enjoyed doing it and how comfortable
I’d feel working with the management and ownership group at
that time.”
While Neely was initially leery of locking himself in, it
didn’t take long for him to find out whether or not he
thought he was cut out for the job.
“I never felt I was in over my head and never felt
uncomfortable about being back involved,” he said.
“Quite frankly, it was the opposite. I was more excited than
I expected to be and I enjoyed it more than I expected to. I
enjoyed working with Charlie and Peter, seeing what was taking
place on the ice and getting involved with the players on road
trips and having conversations with them. That stuff I enjoyed more
than I expected to.”
The three-time 50-goal scorer grew into his role quickly, taking
young players such as Milan Lucic — who has drawn comparisons
to Neely since his arrival — under his wing, while
progressively becoming more outspoken about the team’s needs
and unabashedly critical of the Bruins’ performance when
necessary.
“It’s an interesting transition going from someone
that really had a say in what was happening to being in the
position now to be more vocal and kind of get involved at a
different level,” said Neely, who was promoted to president
last year. “But, I certainly knew that was what was expected
from ownership. I had numerous conversations before I accepted the
role of president with Charlie and Mr. (Jeremy) Jacobs, just to see
if what they were looking for was something I was comfortable
with.
“I have a pretty good idea of what they want and I have an
idea of what I’d like to see and how I’d like to see
our team. It works well with the group that’s been in here
with Peter, Don Sweeney and Jim Benning. As every year passes,
you’re going to have peaks and valleys, and ups and downs.
There’s challenges along the way you just have to work
through.”
No challenge Neely or any management group in the team’s
eight-plus decades of existence was tougher than the one the
Bruins’ front office faced last summer. Boston qualified for
the postseason in each of Neely’s first three years on the
job but, for a team looking to end a lengthy championship drought,
the third time around was anything but the charm.
“It wasn’t something that you wanted to be associated
with, as far as being a team that gives up a 3-0 lead,” Neely
said of the Bruins’ monumental collapse against the Flyers a
year ago. “But that’s the position we were in.
It’s what we had to deal with and it’s what we had to
live with. We made an effort not to sweep it under the rug, but to
learn from it.”
Neely and Co. had an infinite number of directions to go as the
offseason began, as many speculated that the Bruins’ core
players didn’t have what it took to win and that coach Claude
Julien simply wasn’t the right person to guide them there.
The Bruins made a few tweaks, including the oh-so-important
acquisition of eventual playoff hero Nathan Horton, but for the
most part, Neely and the rest of management maintained faith in
those that suffered through that gut-wrenching implosion against
Philadelphia.
“I think our players, coaches and management all learned a
great deal from what happened, from being a part of a team that
went through that,” Neely said. “I think you saw that
this year as those learning experiences really helped us.
It’s not something you want to go through, but we certainly
weren’t going to hide from it.”
After watching the Bruins climb out of an 0-2 series deficit in
their opening-round series against the Canadiens, Neely quickly
realized those hard lessons learned from painful playoff exits were
finally paying off for this band of Bruins.
“When I saw how we got better and better as a team as each
series progressed, the whole lineup adjustments the coaching staff
made and the way Tim Thomas was playing, as we got into the third
round, I thought we had a really good chance to win the Stanley
Cup,” said Neely, the Bruins’ all-time leader with 55
playoff goals. “You don’t want to look too far ahead
and you try not to do that, but as we got into that final round I
felt we matched up really well against Vancouver in all areas
except for maybe the power play. But, having said that, I felt like
we had as good a chance to win as they did.”
While few outside of Boston echoed such sentiments, Neely’s
words rang true as the Bruins hung in there with the
President’s Trophy winners and forced a decisive seventh
game. With a 4-0 win by the Bruins at Rogers Arena on June 15,
Neely finally achieved a goal he’d been striving for since
joining the Bruins as a 21-year-old kid back in 1986, as the Bruins
captured the Cup for the first time in nearly four decades.
“It was such an unreal experience on the ice to be down
there, knowing you’re Stanley Cup champions,” said
Neely, a British Columbia native who originally came to Boston in a
trade with Vancouver more than 25 years ago. “Just that alone
was an amazing feeling. But the moment you hear Gary Bettman talk
about us being Stanley Cup champs and congratulating the
organization, the ownership and myself, it was a great, great
feeling. It was a very special moment, obviously for the whole
organization, but for our fan base.”
While winning it all was an immeasurably gratifying experience for
Neely on a personal level, as the beloved power forward fell short
in two trips to the finals with Boston in 1988 and 1990, rewarding
the Bruins’ loyal legion of fans with its first title since
1972 has always been his biggest source of motivation.
“It’s really truly a special feeling to be able to
involved with that because I just know how passionate these fans
are,” he said. “I had the privilege of playing in front
of these fans. Now living here for 25 years or so and really
knowing what our fans think about and care about, with regards to
the organization and the players, to end that long, 39-year drought
was certainly well overdue. It’s what they wanted, what they
needed and what they deserved. To be a part of the group and the
team that brought it back here is pretty special for me.”
Now that the drought is over, Neely’s next mission is to
make sure a new one doesn’t begin. With nearly all of their
roster intact, however, the 46-year-old has high hopes that the
Black and Gold have as good a shot as any recent Stanley Cup winner
to defend their title.
“A lot of good things have to happen and go your way in
order to win this,” Neely said. “It’s probably
one of the hardest professional sports trophies to win. You have to
be lucky, you have to be good and you have to get great
performances. The thing that’s in our favor more than
anything right now is that we’re not losing a lot of players
from our Cup-winning team, but you need a lot of things to go your
way. But, we should have a really great year next
season.”
While it’s certainly true that lucky breaks and outstanding
performances are integral parts of surviving the playoff gauntlet
to win a championship, great leadership is equally as
important.
With a passionate president as deeply connected to the fan base as
Neely is at the helm, the Bruins should be poised for plenty more
success in the years to come.
This article originally appeared in the August 2011 issue of
New England Hockey Journal.
Jesse Connolly can be reached at jconnolly@hockeyjournal.com
