This year, however, Recchi has proven to be one of the most consistent forwards on the team, a leader on and off the ice, and he's only gotten better in the playoffs.
Recchi has proven that the value of experience can often trump the limitations of age, as there's simply no way to overstate the importance of smarts on the ice. Those were on display in the Bruins' first goal on Monday, when he feigned a shot from the faceoff circle, bringing all-world goaltender Ryan Miller to his knees. Rather than shoot, Recchi fired a hard pass to David Krejci in the slot, and Recchi's 23-year-old teammate redirected the puck home.
For Recchi, it was nothing new. He's used those veteran smarts to tie for the team lead in goals (3) and points (5) in the postseason, and he's as big a reason as any that the Bruins will be competing in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
According to the 42-year-old Recchi, it was a matter of the Bruins sticking with their game plan.
"It's great," Recchi said on Monday night, shortly after scoring a goal and assisting Krejci's goal in the Bruins' 4-3 series-clinching win. "We have been through a lot this year. How well we played down the stretch and how well we came together, it was about pulling together and not pulling apart. The guys stuck together through some tough times and all the injuries. Some guys stepped up and played hurt. It was good to see and we have put in a lot of hard work."
Leading the hard work was Recchi. When you look at the man off the ice, there's nothing that tells you he's a professional athlete. When you see him on the ice, however, it's clear that he was made to be a hockey player.
"With the way he competes every night, you can't ask for a better example," said head coach Claude Julien. "He's played well, he's played hard, and like I said, he doesn't look like a 42-year-old. He looks like a veteran, but a young veteran."
Part of Recchi's leadership has been his willingness to go to the places that are simply unpleasant to go. Despite being the smaller man in just about every matchup he's in, Recchi's made a living out of getting to the front of the net, withstanding a few cross-checks to the back and tipping in goals. It's not glamorous, but it's effective, and Recchi has shown his younger teammates that if he can do it, they can too.
"More than anything else, what you want to see rub off on other players is … a certain amount of pride when you put the jersey on and go out and compete," Julien told The Patriot Ledger back in January. "When [Recchi] goes out there, he doesn’t care how old or young he is. He’s competing hard. He wants to win as many battles, as many games as he can."
Patrice Bergeron, who has spent much of his time on the ice over the past season and a half with Recchi on his wing, said he's no longer surprised by Recchi's performances.
"He's been doing that all year and last year when he came to us," Bergeron said after Recchi outmuscled the 23-year-old Tim Kennedy to set up the game-winning goal in Game 3. "He's been doing that his whole career. He's a great player and I'm happy to have a chance to play with him. I'm learning every time I step on the ice with him."
What Recchi has proven as much as anything this year is that even though he might not match the sheer power of a Zdeno Chara or a Milan Lucic, the veteran may be the toughest guy on the team. He played in 81 regular-season games, something that even the immortal Gordie Howe couldn't do, when he played in 63 games at the age of 42 in the 1970-71 season.
In Recchi's case, a major reason he's been called upon to play in all but one game has been injuries to fellow forwards. The fact that he's been so reliable, though, made it an easy call for Julien, and his postseason performances thus far have shown that those two Stanley Cups on his resume didn't get there by accident.
If it seems like all of Recchi's points in the playoffs have been crucial, it's because they have. He tied Game 1 midway through the second period. He scored an empty-net goal to close the books on Game 2 — a 5-3 road win for the B's. In Game 3, he made the outstanding effort to assist on Bergeron's game-winner, and in Game 6, his first-period assist gave the Bruins their first 1-0 lead of the series. His 4-on-3 power-play goal early in the second extended the lead to 2-0 on Monday, and it proved to be valuable when the Sabres clawed back in the third period.
Through 88 Bruins games this year, Recchi has proven a tremendous amount. He's shown that he knows what to do and when to do it. He's shown that he's a tenacious, gutsy leader. He's also shown that he's a winner. Thanks largely to
his work over the past two weeks, the Bruins are, too.
