Boston Bruins
Hurley-Burly: Welcome Boston Hockey Now’s Newest Beat Writer
With the start of the NHL season now upon us, I’ve realized I still haven’t formally introduced myself.
Hello, I’m Christopher Hurley, the new Bruins beat writer for Boston Hockey Now.
And while I might be a newcomer to the National Hockey Now network, I’m certainly no stranger to covering the Bruins and the New England sports scene. I’ve been a pressbox fixture for over 25 years, working my way from the local weeklies and major dailies, to the farthest reaches of the internet.
I’m excited about entering this new chapter in my career, and ready rock.
Growing up in Malden, Hockey has always been in my family’s bloodlines. My brother, Jeff, really got it going back in the mid ’70s. A Malden High All-Scholastic, he set a longstanding Greater Boston League scoring record for points in a game that stood for decades. We inherited his passion for the sport, quickly becoming a hockey family.
How committed were we? I skated before I walked and still have the 45mm home movie footage to prove it. I grew up a virtual rink rat, traveling to every ice arena.
Growing up, most of my friends wanted to be a policeman or a fireman. I had other ideas. I either wanted to be a movie critic, like Siskel and Ebert, or a mercenary soldier. Little did I know I’d be a literary gun for hire many years later.
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A lifelong Bruins fan, I lived and died with the 1985-86 team. My favorite pastime was cutting class and sneaking into Boston Garden to catch practice. That’s when I first noticed Steve Harris of the Boston Herald and Kevin Dupont of the Boston Globe, chatting with players. I read what they talked about the next day in their papers. It was a cool gig if you can get it, I thought.
Around that time, I began writing several letters that appeared in the Boston Sunday Herald Fanfare section. I got a charge seeing my name in print.
After graduating from Malden High, I had no desire to go to college. I wanted to get a job and buy a car. But after getting the job at a print shop, and buying the car, I realized I really hated what I was doing and quit.
That’s when I rediscovered my knack for creative writing and started pursuing a career in journalism. This led to a summer internship at Community Newspaper Company. There was something about working in the newsroom that just clicked with me. I was the intern that never left, quickly becoming CNC’s top-notch freelancer by the end of the year.
Carving out my own unique niche, hockey and heavy metal, I systematically tracked down every Massachusetts-bred NHL player for a story. It started with Medford’s Keith Tkachuk of the Winnipeg Jets, covering my first Bruins game Nov. 21, 1995. The Massachusetts hockey climate was at its peak at the time. I cleaned house selling my features to every local newspaper in the state. When Team USA won the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, I had half its roster covered.
I also worked in the occasional hard rock feature interviewing some of my favorite bands from Cheap Trick and Van Halen, to Megadeth and Strapping Young Lad.
Business was booming.
And the rest is Hurley history.
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By 2000, I joined CNC fulltime as sports editor of the Medford Transcript (another hockey hotbed), Malden Observer and two other weeklies. I also maintained my NHL correspondent status, cranking out solo stories for all of our sister pubs.
Since the 1995-96 season, I’ve covered the Bruins regularly through their various ups and downs. From major trades (Adam Oates, Ray Bourque, Joe Thornton) and coaching changes (Steve Kasper, Pat Burns, Robbie Ftorek, etc.). From the lean years missing the playoffs, all the way to the 2011 Stanley Cup championship. I even walked through the middle of the Vancouver riots following Game 7 and lived to tell the tale.
More recently, I was the sports guy for the Lowell Sun. My Merrimack Valley beat included covering 18 local high schools, UMass Lowell hockey and basketball, as well as the New England Golden Gloves. Last summer, I covered Jack Eichel’s day with the Stanley Cup. This past winter, I provided extensive coverage of the inaugural season of the Professional Women’s Hockey League.
Over the past few months, I got a jumpstart in the Boston Hockey Now arena, adding my unique blend of editorial insight. From the comings and goings of training camp to the soap opera that was the Jeremy Swayman contract situation. From showcasing the 100 Days of Hockey celebration, to cool flashback features with Bruins alumni like the original No. 37 Dave Pasin. It’s been a whirlwind.
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I’m looking forward to providing more in-depth and unique Boston Bruins content and analysis, while engaging our loyal readers in various debates and discussions that will follow.
I’m not always right. In 2003-04 I thought the Bruins signing Sandy McCarthy was a brilliant move. So I’ll probably be the first to admit when I’m wrong, or at least put up a compelling argument. But win, lose or draw, it should make for another interesting chapter in the book of Hurley-Burly.
Christopher Hurley is the Boston Bruins beat reporter for Boston Hockey Now. Email him at Christopher.hurley34@gmail.com.
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