Boston Bruins

Colageo: ‘Razor’ Likes Where Boston Bruins Are Headed

Published

2 weeks ago

August 28, 2024

Former Boston Bruins goaltender Andrew Raycroft is admittedly blown away by the swarms of black-and-gold-dressed families that converged on the team’s three Fan Fest Tour dates, including Sunday’s overlooking Plymouth Harbor.

“Unbelievable turnout. Yesterday Lowell as well, from all accounts Maine – Lewiston – on Friday night, so much fun,” said Raycroft.

Known these days for his studio analysis during NESN’s game telecasts, Raycroft may sound like a hired gun hyping a product, but as a young player he experienced a very different North Station and a very different Boston.

A parking lot was newly in place of the old Garden, and none of the current night clubs, eateries, hotels, offices and stores immediately surrounding its replacement were yet in place. In Raycroft’s day, the aftermath of elevated railways taken down and uncovering Causeway Street echoed an overall sense of deconstruction mirroring that of the Boston Bruins themselves.

The early days of the 21st century brought about North Station’s strangest iteration, nothing but wide-open space. And the giant, beige wall fronting their arena (then known as the FleetCenter) gave off a blank stare.

“Those days … the city was much different, right? Completely under construction, North Station wasn’t the easiest thing. Now I do marvel at the guys living in the (South Boston) Seaport, and (practicing at) Warrior (Arena), and just how much has changed in 20 years,” Raycroft said. “It feels like yesterday, but when you look at what the Bruins are doing now compared to where we were 20 years ago, throughout the NHL for that matter, it’s cool for me to be a part of it.”

More than cool, it’s right that Raycroft is part of it, especially considering the promising start to his own playing career and the circumstances that prematurely spun it into oblivion.

During the 2003-04 season that saw him win the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year (29-18-9, 2.05 goals-against average, .926 save pct.), Raycroft drove a Zamboni with fellow rookie Patrice Bergeron over the brand new Zakim Bridge to promote a Registry of Motor Vehicles license plate that supports youth hockey and bears the Boston Bruins’ logo.

The stunt was a novel idea, but only loyal fans noticed as neither the Bruins nor the Celtics were getting the region’s widespread love reserved for the suddenly dynastic Patriots and curse-breaking Red Sox.

It’s not as though the Boston Bruins were miles away from making their own mark. In 2003-04 when Bergeron and Raycroft were new NHLers on a veteran team, the Bruins were a solid second in the Eastern Conference to eventual champion Tampa Bay.

General Manager Mike O’Connell bolstered that lineup with the acquisitions of defenseman Sergei Gonchar and center Michael Nylander, but the Bruins of the era could not translate any amount of regular-season success to the playoffs.

In 2002 and ’04, the Bruins were heavy favorites but lost in the opening round to Montreal. The year in between they were overmatched by the 2003 New Jersey Devils, who were determined to win the Cup for their coach, Pat Burns.

Coming off the NHL’s dark winter of 2004-05, the Boston Bruins were bubble at best, having let too many key players walk on the premise that a salary cap would leverage some of the elite players on contending teams into the open market at discount prices.

The Bruins’ lockout strategy wasn’t meant to be maverick, but it nonetheless went array when the 24% across-the-board, salary rollback offered by the players’ union (in lieu of a salary cap) was incorporated into the cap, allowing perennial contenders like the Detroit Red Wings to keep their top players.

A full year without the NHL nonetheless resulted in many retirements and roster upheavals, rendering the comeback season chaotic for most teams.

The Boston Bruins were a perfect example, and their 8-12-5 start wasn’t as bad as the streak they were on at U.S. Thanksgiving. Nov. 29, 2005 was the night that would alter the future of the franchise.

The Bruins had gone pointless in seven of their last eight games, had just coughed up a 2-0 lead in the Meadowlands and were looking to take a 2-2 game to overtime.

Captain Joe Thornton had won 14 of 21 faceoffs that night, but in the final minute of regulation he lost a D-zone draw cleanly to John Madden, the puck going straight to Alex Mogilny and in behind Raycroft for the game winner.

O’Connell’s phone rang. It was San Jose GM Doug Wilson, who the next day would announce that Thornton was a Shark. Faced with an identity crisis in their own city, the Boston Bruins traded their only superstar.

Raycroft stood by his centerman, his reaction to the blockbuster deal most indignant. But that was only the beginning. Late in the season, the Bruins fired an executive (O’Connell) for the first time in franchise history.

The tipping point was ironic, in that O’Connell was conducting due-diligence business in mid-March, including contract extensions, something then-president Harry Sinden would say were things O’Connell ought not be doing with the team anticipating an offseason change. Thusly, O’Connell was terminated.

The two players he extended that week: P.J. Axelsson and Tim Thomas.

Go figure.

From a serendipity standpoint, had the Boston Bruins managed the NHL’s 2004-05 lockout year as successfully as, say, the Red Wings (to whom the Bruins finished second in the NHL’s 2001-02 overall standings), then maybe cornerstone players like Raycroft, Boynton and Thornton don’t get traded and … you see where this is going, right?

It took the post-lockout tempest that ended, relocated or otherwise upset many careers and sent the Bruins’ trajectory into a nosedive to pave the way for new management (Peter Chiarelli), new leaders (Zdeno Chara and Marc Savard) and the right coach (Claude Julien), begetting the new identity that set the team on course toward 2011. Emerging captains such as Bergeron and Brad Marchand have helped sustain what is widely considered a model franchise.

As Raycroft noted, the Bruins and the NHL have come a long way baby. GM Don Sweeney spends to league’s salary cap, which at $88 million is more than twice its inaugural limit of $39.5 million.

“Yeah, you don’t have to remind me of that either,” said Raycroft, whose status as a restricted free agent was especially disadvantageous in the summer of 2005. “I think backup goalies are making at least twice, maybe three times as much (today). That’s a good thing. … As a former player, you love seeing guys get paid and making what they’re worth.”

After two epic decades yielding 10 of the market’s 12 championship parades, the Patriots and Red Sox are back to being underdogs trying to punch above their weight. Only the NBA Champion Celtics are hotter in Boston than the Bruins.

For whatever reason, Bruins and Celtics fans, though they occupy the same seats in the same building, tend to stick with their passion sport and mostly ignore the other.

One factor obviously at work in keeping old-school, all-sport fans at a minimum is four major professional sports, all with 30 or more teams. It’s rare that a fan knows MLB, the NBA, NFL and NHL like most passionate fans know any single one of them.

What it all means it’s only that much harder to gain attention on a larger scale, something the Bruins experienced after winning the Stanley Cup in 2011.

Churning out 50 wins a year helps sustain the belief exhibited by the many who came out for the Fan Fest Tour this past weekend, but a team needs to go deep in the playoffs to capture imaginations, and that’s something the Bruins haven’t done since 2019.

It’s their turn again.

No doubt, Sweeney likes seeing his offseason acquisitions get overlooked by hockey’s hype machine, but count Raycroft as one observer who knows something special when he sees it.

“The Bruins have a massive opening here,” said Raycroft. “It looks like there should be a lot of focus on the city’s two winter sports by November … I think what the Bruins did over the summer’s great.”