The Boston Bruins soared into the week with an 8-1 record since Jan. 1 and prepared to face the Carolina Hurricanes Tuesday on the night the team retired Willie O’Ree’s No. 22 as the man who broke the NHL’s color barrier in 1958.
The pregame ceremony for O'Ree was the best part of the night. Then the visiting Hurricanes shellacked the B’s and starting goaltender Tuukka Rask for five goals on 12 shots in the opening period, going on to paste them, 7-1.
Although the Bruins bounced back two nights later with a 4-3 victory over the Washington Capitals, it was bittersweet, as Brad Marchand and Anton Blidh were knocked from the game by big hits from Garnet Hathaway (Mass.) and Tom Wilson. Based on early reports, it appeared as if Marchand would be out of the lineup for quite some time.
As Saturday’s mid-afternoon matinee against the Winnipeg Jets to complete the three-game homestand loomed, much of the local coverage focused on what the team would do without its top left wing and potential NHL MVP for what could be an extended layoff. The short-term plan was to put Jake DeBrusk up with Patrice Bergeron and Craig Smith, so imagine the surprise as Boston took the ice and No. 63 was with his teammates. Marchand’s seemingly miraculous recovery after not being able to raise his arms over his shoulders two nights earlier spoke volumes about the veteran’s dedication and what he truly means to this franchise.
Marchand continues to raise the bar
Whether assisting on David Pastrnak’s game-winning goal in the third period of Boston’s 3-2 victory over the Jets Saturday, or making a young fan’s year with a personal gesture that went viral on social media, the 31-year-old followed his NHL first star recognition the previous week with another strong showing.
The Bruins and their supporters have known for years what Marchand is capable of, even if those outside the city and organization have seen him as a caricature, some kind of court jester who also happens to be a pretty good hockey player. Marchand has always been an agitating, abrasive, tough-to-play-against type, and opposing fans and media members have often cast him as a villain. He's fed into it with some of the suspensions he incurred on some dirty hits and other unnecessary antics, but even with all of that, Marchand has always been focused on being a winner for the Bruins.
His 20 goals and 44 points in 33 games (he’s missed five due to injuries and a questionable suspension) puts him squarely in the upper stratosphere in terms of his points-per-game production. His 1.33 points/game rate is the highest of his career, including his 100-point season in 2019 (1.27).
After taking the big hit against Washington Thursday, things looked grim, and it was almost fait accompli that he would be missing games. Less than 48 hours later, he was back on the ice, getting a secondary helper on the winning goal and looking like he wasn’t dealing with an upper body ailment.
“It’s hard to sit out a game,” he said. “It’s going to take a lot, I think, to sit out. If you feel like you can play through it, it’s always been part of the culture in this organization if you feel you can play, you gotta battle through it. You almost feel like you’re letting the guys down if you sit out, and it’s tough, it’s a tough decision because the last thing you want to do is put the team at a disadvantage if I did get in and had to come out at some point in the game. So, I’m more thankful that nothing bad happened tonight and we had a big win, so it’s great to be part of it.”
That quote provides an important window into who Marchand is as a player and a teammate. Like every elite player in the profession, it shows you how committed he is. Winners win, and since Marchand joined the Bruins full-time in 2010-11, the organization has done a lot of winning. His leadership by example will go a long way for everyone else in the room who saw him go right back into the lineup and then make a difference.
Over the past decade, he’s matured and grown on and off the ice. Since 2018, he’s taken his offensive production to another level and emerged as a superstar. Yet, even with a consistent upper tier production comparable to the best of his NHL peers, he’s always been dismissed by those with the power to recognize him with hardware. However, Marchand’s play in 2021-22 has been so dynamic, so sublime, that it is making noise well beyond the TD Garden.
Whether his excellence will ever be enough to overcome the inherent biases he faces with voters who could very well continue to hold him responsible for past transgressions rather than reward him for making himself into one of the league’s very best, remains to be seen.
Pastrnak’s scorching one-timer is back
Another key factor in Boston’s 10-2 run after Jan. 1st has been the play of David Pastrnak, who tallied his 19th goal of the season. No. 88's production is off the pace of the league-leading Chris Kreider (Boxford, Mass.) and Alexander Ovechkin who each have 29, but his 11 in 12 games this month leads the NHL.
From Oct. through Dec., Pastrnak’s patented one-timer was misfiring. He wasn’t able to consistently fire pucks on net as he had done in past seasons. He was missing the net, breaking his sticks on the shot attempts or wasn't able to find the time and space needed to uncork the most lethal weapon in his arsenal.
Pastrnak was also still dealing with the tragedy of having lost his infant son, Viggo Rohl, in late June.
We all sometimes forget that pro athletes are people who deal with pressures and complications beyond the sport just like everyone else. They aren’t robots — as much as you want peak performance at all times, no matter how much they make, sometimes it doesn’t break their way.
Pastrnak’s outsized personality and sunny disposition has been evident since the moment the B’s announced his name as the 25th selection in the 2014 draft. He made the NHL as an 18-year-old halfway through the 2014-15 season, and ever since, we’ve watched him grow and flourish into the franchise’s most recognizable young star, along with Charlie McAvoy. To lose his first born in such a way has had a profound impact that few of us can comprehend.
Watching him over the past 12 games, it is clear that Pastrnak has that swagger back. The pucks are going in, and that one-timer is working its magic again. Whatever he’s had to deal with personally, he’s been a professional throughout the ordeal. He and Marchand have stepped up to generate the lion’s share of the offense, with 20 goals this month — first and second in the league, respectively. You can clearly see that his confidence has returned and Pastrnak believes he can score whenever the puck is on his stick.
This is a strong indicator that the good times will continue to roll in Boston, especially with the Bruins getting more balanced scoring from supporting cast like Charlie Coyle (East Weymouth, Mass.), Erik Haula and Oskar Steen.
Pastrnak's resurgence, along with better top-to-bottom production and Rask's return to the lineup gives the team and GM Don Sweeney more options to improve the club before the March 21 trade deadline.
O’Ree’s legacy of class, humility and strength
Personal story: when I covered my first NHL Draft for New England Hockey Journal nearly 21 years ago, one of the first people I met in Sunrise, Fla. that weekend was Willie O’Ree. Having grown up in Boston watching the Bruins, I knew about his status as the NHL’s version of Jackie Robinson, so it was a thrill to meet him and talk to him as we waited together for one of the pre-draft events to get underway.
What struck me about Mr. O’Ree was how genuine and engaging he was. He talked about how even though he had played pro hockey in non-traditional locales like Los Angeles and San Diego, he never imagined being in South Florida for a league event as big as the draft. He laughed that we were a long, long way from the Original Six era of the NHL he briefly played in. He told several stories about playing in Boston, and I realized at that moment I was getting a cherished front row seat to one of the game’s most important sea changes.
“I didn’t realize I broke the color barrier until I read it in the paper the next day,” O’Ree said after his number was retired Tuesday night.
He no doubt suffered under the accepted prejudices and racism that was accepted at the time. If anyone could be forgiven for being bitter or resentful, it would be O’Ree, but instead, he made it his life’s mission to focus on his love of hockey. He has been a man of direct action to help grow the game in the communities who have often been left out of hockey’s growth in the U.S. en masse for various social and economic reasons.
His work with the NHL to build diversity and inclusion in the sport began in 1996 and has flourished since, and it was made possible through his perseverance. He overcame the obstacles to become the NHL’s first black player in 1958, but he also refused to accept that an eye injury would end his playing career, leaving the game on his own terms.
The modern NHL is more diverse than it has ever been, and we all have O’Ree to thank for not only having the courage to stay with his dream of playing professional hockey, but the work he has done as one of the NHL’s most humble and effective ambassadors. His longtime service as an advocate and mentor was officially recognized by the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018 when he was inducted as a builder of the game.
The Bruins gave O’Ree a limited opportunity, and his numbers as a player — just 45 NHL games and four goals with the Bruins — should have been more, given the stories told by those who remember him flying up and down the ice in his playing days. He scored his first NHL goal against Boston’s storied rivals, the Montreal Canadiens and goaltender Charlie Hodge, on New Year’s Eve, 1960.
“I think it’s great to be honored by the Bruins and being there amongst the greats, that played for the Bruins over the years” he said. ‘I think that when these boys and girls come into the arena and look up there (and see the No. 22 banner), it will give them the idea that you can do anything you can set your mind to if you feel strongly enough in your heart and your mind.”
On Jan. 18, the Bruins made his legacy permanent, but the reality is that O’Ree’s impact on hockey has resonated far, far beyond Boston.
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