THN Archive: 'No Pain No Gain'

A VERY SHORT TIME AGO, the topic of dramatic comebacks was a real conversation starter for sports fans in New England.

Any talk of the best about-faces on the playing field of battle was sure to be met with a request for another round, while a weepy-eyed Bostonian recalled sticking it to those damn Yankees once and for all.

Just six years ago, New Englanders watched their Boston Red Sox completely alter the course of one of sport’s most one-sided rivalries by overcoming an 0-3 deficit against the hated New York Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series.

For Sox fans, it was a collective catharsis on a previously unimagined level.

At the time, the Red Sox were just the third team in the history of North American pro sports to overcome an 0-3 hole.

But any Boston sports fan can tell you there are four now.

When a team whiffs four consecutive times after moving one win from a series victory, theories on the demise abound. Ask some of those associated with the Boston Bruins about just how they let an ironclad grip slip against the Philadelphia Flyers in the second round of last season’s playoffs and you’ll get a number of varied responses, none of them excuses. Mark Recchi will remind you that any of the first three games, all Boston wins, could have gone either way, too.

Patrice Bergeron points to a Game 4 overtime loss when a victory would have sent Philly packing. But the most consistent element in post-mortems done months after that mid-May tumble involves Bruins center David Krejci leaving the series with a broken wrist after a thunderous, clean hit from Flyers captain Mike Richards in Game 3 and sniper Simon Gagne returning to the Philly lineup for Game 4, just in time to pot four goals in four consecutive victories, including the Game 7 winner after a botched line change between Bruins Marc Savard and Vladimir Sobotka resulted in a crippling too many men on the ice penalty.

“I would say Krejci exiting and Gagne returning, those two things were the only reasons the Bruins were unable to eliminate the Flyers,” said Keith Jones, a TV hockey analyst and a former NHLer.

Boston GM Peter Chiarelli acknowledged losing his top offensive center at that crucial juncture was a crushing blow, but was quick to point out both teams were exceptionally battered.

Savard had returned from nearly two months off with a concussion to score the overtime winner in Game 1 of the series, the same contest that saw Bruins winger Marco Sturm leave after tearing both the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his right knee 41 seconds in, putting him on a shelf that already housed puckmoving defenseman Dennis Seidenberg after he tore a tendon in his left forearm on the eve of the playoffs. Philly, as mentioned, was without Gagne for the initial four games and played the entire series without big, sniping pivot Jeff Carter.

None of this was lost on Chiarelli when discussing the Krejci-Gagne exchange as a series flashpoint.

“You could feel the tide turning when that happened, but who’s to say it wouldn’t have turned anyways if David was in there?” the GM said. “We had Marc (Savard) at 50-percent capacity just because he hadn’t been playing. We were strapped; (Sturm) wasn’t playing. But they had injuries, too.”

The collapse of 2010 may have been dramatic, but it sure wasn’t the first taste of post-season bitterness Boston has been exposed to in recent years. On three occasions during the past decade, the Bruins finished first or second in the Eastern Conference standings and never once made it past the second round.

They nearly won the Presidents’ Trophy in 2008-09, finishing with 116 points before bowing out in a stunning second round Game 7 overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, one year to the day before bowing out to Philly. Heck, Bergeron just turned 25 this summer and already in his career he’s endured the spirit-sapping losses of the past two years, plus the indignity of dropping a 3-1 first round series lead to the Montreal Canadiens in his rookie season of 2003-04.

He also, of course, dealt with major concussion issues after being hit from behind by former Flyers defenseman Randy Jones 10 games into 2007-08. After missing the rest of that campaign, Bergeron played 64 games the next before re-establishing himself as a strong two-way pivot last season, one that did include the high of winning an Olympic gold medal with Canada, albeit in a limited role.

Some of those lessons can surely be applied to helping get his team over the championship hump as Bergeron continues to grow in his career.

“The Olympic experience helped me a lot, kind of finding that winning, killer instinct in each and every game,” he said. “Each and every game counts, each and every game is important – at the Olympics, even more so, you have to win all your games. You want that gold medal.

“That experience, I learned a lot from it. Even though I didn’t play that much, it helped me as a person and as a player.”

Chiarelli was hired after the 2005-06 campaign and officially took the reins in July of that year, a week after the Bruins signed Zdeno Chara away from the Ottawa Senators, the team Chiarelli had just left after two seasons as its assistant GM and five as the director of legal relations.

Spend that much time in Canada’s capital and you become accustomed to seeing hockey squads that tease during the season, but never fully deliver when it matters most. There’s a common belief in the hockey community that teams need to lose first in order to learn how to win. There’s also a whack of clubs – those old Sens outfits and today’s San Jose Sharks come to mind – that never extract the necessary lessons from having your guts ripped out year after year.

‘I CAN SAY IT NOW. THERE WERE SOME POSITIVES THAT CAME OUT OF THOSE PLAYOFFS’

So which way for the Bruins, a team that was one win from a final four appearance last year, but also just squeaked into the playoffs as the East’s sixth seed? Chiarelli and Co. certainly believe the excruciating moments of the past can help build toward an exciting tomorrow, though it’s tough to swallow that notion yourself after becoming just the third team in NHL history to blow a 3-0 lead, let alone feed it to a stinging fan base.

“I can say it now – I couldn’t say it the following day, week, month, two months even – there were some positives that came out of those playoffs,” Chiarelli said.

The former captain of Harvard University’s hockey team knows the playoff learning curve can be as sharp as one of Bobby Hull’s old Northlands, but he’s banking on his boys soaking up some winning insights along the way.

“In hindsight, yeah,” responded Chiarelli when asked if there was any good to take from the disappointment of two wrenching post-season dismissals. “And even in foresight, you want to make the playoffs because you want your team to go through those experiences, young guys to go through it and learn from it. So we’ve had a lot of trying experiences in the playoffs. Having said that, we’ve made it to the second round the last two years and we expect to go further.”

He’s not the only one. When The Hockey News staff was sorting out who we believe is going to win the Cup this season, Boston got some serious consideration before we ultimately veered west and settled on Vancouver.

One year after finishing as the East’s top seed in 2008-09, the Bruins were beset by injuries and the departure of Phil Kessel in a pre-season trade with Toronto that could yet set the B’s up for years to come. Always stingy under coach Claude Julien, Boston’s commitment to defense and the rise of rookie goalie Tuukka Rask helped the team finish with the second-best goals against in the league.

There was, however, the pesky little matter of scoring, as the Black and Gold finished dead last in goals for with a paltry average of 2.39 per contest.

“What I saw happen last year is, goal-scoring is mental to begin with, but it was becoming so mental that the guys couldn’t get past it,” Chiarelli said. “We tweaked our practices to stimulate it, much to the chagrin of our goalies. And we would just continue to work at it and it was a slow progress, but we finally started to score.”

Added Recchi: “At the same time, we were winning hockey games. That was the scary thing; we were winning hockey games and we were a decent team.

“We became a better defensive team because of it. I think at one point, we got carried away and started thinking offense and obviously we still know great defense wins hockey games and if you can score it makes it a whole lot easier.”

Goals are expected to be more plentiful this year thanks to the arrival of 25-year-old Nathan Horton from Florida in a deal that also brought dependable pivot Gregory Campbell to Boston in exchange for blueliner Dennis Wideman and two picks, one each in the first and third rounds.

Kessel looks every bit the emerging 40-goal man in Toronto, even with that team’s under-skilled group of forwards. But ask yourself how many fewer goals the 6-foot-2, 229-pound Horton could score in Boston playing with a disher like Savard or Krejci.

Horton wasn’t always Mr. Sunshine or Charlie Hustle in Florida, but he’s already got one 31-goal season on the books and you don’t get picked third overall in the loaded derby of 2003 (Eric Staal, Ryan Getzlaf, Zach Parise) for nothing.

“The reason he was such a high draft choice in probably one of the best draft years in the history of the game is because he has that size and the strength and the shot,” Jones said of Horton. “If he ever throws the determination in there with it, he could make the Bruins a much more dangerous team.”

Recchi, who turns 43 in February and will continue an NHL career that began in 1988 for at least one more season, believes getting out from under the palm trees can only help his new teammate.

“This is a breath of fresh air for Horton,” Recchi said. “He’s going to come to a great hockey atmosphere, I think he’s excited, he’s 25, he’s maturing. I think this is an opportunity for him to come in, get embraced by Boston and become the player everybody knows he can be.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for him. He’s a heck of a hockey player. His biggest thing is he hasn’t been consistent. Coming to a market like this and him maturing, he can become a consistent factor every night.”

The other areas of decided encouragement for the Bruins are in the crease and up the middle. Both positions included players who were the subject of summer trade rumors due to salary cap considerations, but Chiarelli indicated he expected both Savard and 2009 Vezina Trophy winner Tim Thomas to be in training camp.

Sturm is recovering from knee surgery and is out until at least November. That allows Boston some breathing room by putting the German and his annual $3.5-million salary on long-term injury reserve.

If Savard, who just signed a seven-year extension in December, 2009 that was the subject of a league investigation for cap circumvention, is ultimately moved, that likely means the second overall pick from the 2010 draft, Tyler Seguin, will start his NHL career at center rather than wing. Either way, the first treasure Chiarelli fetched by flipping Kessel – he still holds the Leafs’ first pick in 2011 – is going to be a good one soon.

“Tyler has to make the team, “Chiarelli said, “but he’s a terrific player and you’re going to see him sooner rather than later.”

Boston’s center strength is something analyst Jones really likes about the team and presents a parallel to the past championship squads Recchi has played on, first with the stacked 1991 Pittsburgh Penguins, then more recently with the 2006 Carolina Hurricanes.

“On every team that wins they’re usually at least three deep with really good centermen,” Recchi said. “You go to the Detroits and Pittsburghs. Even when I won in Carolina, we had (Doug) Weight, (Eric) Staal and (Rod) Brind’Amour up the middle.

“They’re the guys who control the game with the puck and the defense obviously is important as well, but the centermen are keys and we’re very fortunate we’ve got Bergeron, Krejci and Savard.”

Assuming Thomas is still fully capable of smoothing over any sophomore hiccups Rask may endure, the lone soft spot on the Bruins is the defense. After Chara, you’re into names such as Seidenberg, Mark Stuart, Matt Hunwick and Johnny Boychuk. Stuart was part of the crowded team infirmary during much of the post-season and the remaining blueliners – most notably, Boychuk – did take a step forward during those crunch-time games. But that hasn’t got everyone convinced the corps is ready to thrive.

“Their defense, to me, is one piece away,” Jones said. “If there’s anything I would like to see them add, that’s where I would like to see them grab a No. 2 or a No. 3, but they’re really hard to find.”

And Chiarelli isn’t necessarily looking.

“You’ve got guys like Hunwick (and) Stuart who have to carry the ball a little bit more, but that’s part of building a team,” he said. “You hand it over to some of these guys and they get better.”

As for Chara, debate amongst yourselves whether the 2009 Norris Trophy winner’s name belongs with the handful of truly upper-crust shutdown defensemen the league has seen in recent years. But know this: Chiarelli is completely convinced his captain is among the game’s most impactful blueliners, which is part of the reason he’s already opened talks with Chara’s representatives – as well as potential UFA Bergeron’s – about extending a contract that ends at the conclusion of this year, closing the door on the possibility of the 33-year-old hitting the open market.

“The defensive impact this guy brings to the game is probably second to none in the league,” Chiarelli said, “and he brings some offense, too.”

Growth in Boston also extends off the ice. Three years ago, Hall of Famer Cam Neely returned to the Bruins as vice-president of the club and just this past June, he ascended to the role of president. Far from your typical ‘suit’, Neely relishes the opportunity to share his expertise with the players, while always mindful to keep his message consistent with that of the coaches.

“I do travel on the road with them, I try to talk to them a little bit about some of the things that I went through that I see they’re going through and if I can give them some tips, great,” Neely said. “One of the things I like about being on the road is you spend a little bit more time with these guys than you do being home, so it gives you a chance to have some small conversations throughout the course of the year.”

One of the things Neely’s career equipped him with was the experience of playing for one of those great teams that never was quite able to thrust itself to the top of the heap.

Part of the reason Boston is still in search of its first Cup since 1972 – leaving Toronto as the only Original Six team with a longer drought – is because from 1988 through 1992, the spunky Bruins squads led by Neely and Ray Bourque lost out to the eventual Cup winner in four of five years, dropping two Cup final series to the powerhouse Oilers and two Wales Conference finals to the Pittsburgh Penguins, who, by the way, were guided by some guy named Lemieux. Boston’s only other loss during that stretch came to a Montreal team that dropped the Cup final to Calgary in six games; not exactly a bunch of stiffs, either.

“My feeling was if we got through Pittsburgh in those two years we might have had a chance to win a Stanley Cup,” Neely said. “A little bit better chance, anyways, than facing the Oilers.”

And while those squads he banged and bled for 20 years ago never got their rings, he’s still convinced the tribulations the team he now watches from above has encountered can help it advance.

‘IN LIFE YOU LEARN FROM ADVERSITY. PLAYOFF HOCKEY IS NOT EASY’

“In life, like in sport, you learn from adversity,” Neely said. “If everything is great all the time, what lessons do you learn? Hopefully our players have learned some things over the last couple years. Playoff hockey is not easy; it’s not easy to win four series, we all know that. But I think you have to go through the process to understand that and learn it and hopefully that’s what our guys have done”

There’s an undeniable element of expectations applied to playing pro sports in Boston these days. New Englanders have long demanded their top athletes lay it all on the line every night, but with the Red Sox, Celtics and New England Patriots having combined for six titles since 2002, bling has become as much of the equation as busting your butt. For Bergeron, the high standard suits him just fine and redemption this season goes beyond any one catastrophic series.

“You always have something to prove,” he said. “Unless you win the Stanley Cup, you always have something to prove as a team and we’re not there yet. Yes we do have something to prove to the other 29 teams, but also to ourselves, that we can do it.

“We’ve done four series in two years and you can never buy that experience.”

At four years old the last time Boston won the Stanley Cup in ’72, Mark Recchi was the only current Bruin alive to actually witness the feat.

The Boston Bruins have come within a bear’s hair of the Cup numerous times since they last grasped hockey’s Holy Grail in ’72, but haven’t reached the semis since ’92.

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