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Rick Middleton - Sep. 5, 2022 - By Matt Kalman 

THE HOCKEY NEWS: Did you ever think when you were traded from the Rangers to the Bruins that you’d become so associated not just with the Bruins but the Boston area? You’ve settled in this area and become a Bostonian.

RICK MIDDLETON: Nobody wants to get traded. When I originally found out I was being traded from the Rangers, I was pretty sad about it. I loved New York and I loved the Original Six team and was very proud to become a Ranger. But then I started thinking, well, Bobby Orr and Brad Park playing together on the power play, that might be fun. And then I talked myself into it. And when I got to Boston, they accepted me right away. Don Cherry was the coach, they still had a nucleus of guys from the Cup years in the early ’70s, and we went to the Stanley Cup final the first two years in a row. Can’t be much better than that. But longevity, you never know. You just keep playing, and going from the Cherry era in the ’70s, to the ’80s with Gerry Cheevers as the coach, I became his go-to guy, playing 25 minutes a game.

THN: How about that relationship with Barry Pederson. What was it about the two of you that clicked?

RM: Well, not only the fact that he’s such a heads-up player and a great player, we complemented each other, we played off of each other. We had a couple different left wingers – Mike Krushelnyski, Dave Reid – over the years. But he knew exactly when I liked to get the puck. Because at Boston Garden, there wasn’t much of a neutral zone. And if you didn’t get the puck at the right time, that was detrimental to your health. So he would get me the puck at the right time when I could get my head up, and I liked to go down and work the defensemen, inside, outside or whatever. And then in the offensive zone, we always looked for each other. He was such a good playmaker, such a good passer, it’d be, boom, on my stick. All I’d have to do is tip it in.

THN: Did it take a lot of work to get that going, or did it come naturally?

RM: It’s hard to remember a long time ago, but it just seemed to happen. That very first year, it wasn’t like we got so many points one year and then grew it the next year, we kind of hit the ground running for three years in a row. Then he had the problem with the cancerous tumor in his arm, and then the next year I got a puck in the head. The next thing you know, they were trading him for some guy named Cam.

THN: Exactly, that kind of worked out in the long run.

RM: It did, but he was like a fourth-line winger in Vancouver. And I’m like, “Barry Pederson for Cam Neely. What the…?” And then I played on a line on the left side, I played left wing with Cam. That was something. Then time marches, and it was time for me to go out the door.

THN: Going back to the trade from New York, you got to play for Cherry, and you’ve often credited him for helping you become an all-around player.

CAM SAYS, ‘WE’RE GOING TO RETIRE YOUR NO. 16.’ I THOUGHT I HEARD HIM WRONG. I SAID, ‘WHAT?’ I ACTUALLY GOT EMOTIONAL. MY WIFE GOT HOME A FEW MINUTES LATER, AND SHE ASKED IF SOMEBODY DIED.

RM: It was always tongue-in-cheek. Even when he came to my number retirement, I knew he was going to get up and give me a shot. We always had that relationship. And he said, “I had to introduce him to the goalie at the end of the year.” But you know in reality, when I got to Boston, it was my third year in the league, and I hadn’t set the world on fire, but I think the reason they got me was because I had a knack for scoring. So they played me on a line with Jean Ratelle and Johnny Bucyk the very first game, and I had a hat trick. How could you not have a hat trick playing with those guys?

And then he basically, I don’t want to say benched me, but he platooned me. I never played on a regular line the rest of the year. His reasoning was he needed to teach me the game, and it was by attrition of ice time. But whatever he wanted to teach me, he ended up doing it, because, by the end of the year, I kind of got it.

THN: How about the 1983 playoffs. You set a record at the time for playoff points by a player whose team didn’t make the Stanley Cup final, with 33 points in 17 games. You had 19 points in one series against Buffalo. But then you guys ran into the Islanders. What do you remember about that?

RM: All I remember is we finished first in the league, we had home-ice advantage all the way through. By seeing old pictures, I saw a nice picture of five of us at the All-Star Game, myself, Barry, Pete Peeters, Ray Bourque and Mike O’Connell. So we had a pretty formidable team to finish first in the league. We obviously thought that we could go all the way.

The Buffalo series went seven. And Barry, he was one point behind me with 16 points. But we got to the Islanders, and we were confident that we could beat them. But they were such a different type of a dynasty. They weren’t an overly physical team, but they were tough. If you wanted to play that way, they could play tough. So we played pretty well during the season against them, and that’s what gave us the confidence that we thought we could conquer them. But no, that was their fourth Cup that year, and then it took Edmonton to take them out.

THN: In 2018, the Bruins retired your number. What does that mean to you?

RM: Having my jersey raised, and I don’t say this because I’m not in the Hall of Fame…I’m from Toronto, and it would be an honor. But to have your jersey retired in the city that you played in for most of your career, and now I’m still here, I’ve kept my home and my kids were raised here, it was the ultimate honor, I always think. Especially when you look up and see the other names, going back to the 1920s, it’s just amazing.

Thirty years after retirement, Cam called me in July. He called me once in a while because I’m the head of the alumni and he’d have some questions or whatever for me. So I didn’t think anything of it, and he starts off with some small talk, and then all of a sudden he says, “We’re going to retire your No. 16.” I thought I heard him wrong. I said, “What?” I actually got emotional. My wife got home a few minutes later, and she asked if somebody died.

THN: When you watch the game now, do you think how your skills would’ve translated to today’s game?

RM: Well, yes and no. The game, as everybody knows, has become so much faster. And to me, the biggest change is in the goaltending, the size of the goalies and the equipment. I always joke that most of my goals were scored through the five-hole, and there’s no five-hole anymore. I don’t know if I could play.

And I didn’t have the hardest shot, so I’d try to work inside, and that could be detrimental to your health. Now the defensemen can skate so well, you hardly see anybody win a 1-on-1 anymore. Maybe Connor McDavid because he’s got that extra gear, but it’s hard to beat a defenseman 1-on-1 today, so my game might not translate so well, because today’s game is so north-south, and I was more an east-west guy