As much as any player to ever wear the spoked B, Cam Neely has a passion for the game. As a player, he showed it night after night, shift after shift. He set a standard of intensity that few teammates could match. He gave maximum effort every time he took the ice, and, incredibly, matched that effort in months of rehab when injuries kept him off the ice.
Now, the Hall of Famer takes that passion to the top of the team’s front office. Wednesday, No. 8 became the eighth president in the history of the Bruins. He fills a void left behind when Harry Sinden vacated the office back in 2006.
Make no mistake, this is no ceremonial hiring. Neely is not being brought in as window dressing. He’ll have real power, overseeing all aspects of the organ-eye-zation, effective immediately.
And he will leave no stone unturned in trying to make his beloved Bruins better. He has never lost his passion for the team, something we were reminded of during his two-year stint as a NESN hockey analyst. Once, after a playoff loss, Neely was so frustrated by the team's effort, he was speechless on-air. It wasn't great for postgame coverage, but it's a great sign for the man now entrusted in bringing the Cup back to Boston for the first time since 1972.
"Everybody who knows me knows I hate losing more than I like winning," Neely said at his news conference Wednesday. And you’d better believe he hated losing a Game 7 when his team held a 3-0 lead.
The Bruins actually find themselves in a very good position going forward. They were one of the last eight teams standing in the NHL this season, and (thanks to the Phil Kessel trade) they hold the second overall pick in next week’s draft. Either Taylor Hall or Tyler Seguin is coming to a team that is looking to add to an already strong core; the chosen player won’t be coming to single-handedly revitalize a moribund franchise.
Neely spent the past three years learning the front-office ropes while serving as executive vice president. He learned about the hockey operations side of the business from general manager Peter Chiarelli. Now, Chiarelli reports to Neely. The two will work together to decide where the team goes from here after losing in the seventh game of the Conference semifinals in each of the last two years.
"When we make decisions, it’s as a group, and he’s part of that group," Chiarelli told reporters after the announcement. "That’s not going to change. His voice is one we all listen to. At the end of the day, I’ve got to make the hockey decisions. But now, as before, I will be listening to Cam."
Getting over that next hump, moving from playoff contender to Stanley Cup contender, won’t be easy. That shouldn’t bother Neely. He’s the all-time Bruins leader in playoff goal scoring, and none of those 55 postseason goals were easy to come by. In fact, just getting on the ice wasn’t easy at times for Neely, who overcame knee and hip injuries that would’ve had most players headed to the front office or the broadcast booth in their late 20s.
Neely persevered. He overcame whatever obstacles the game threw at him. That same dedication will serve him well as he tries to lead his team to the ultimate goal — a goal it hasn’t reached since Weston Adams Jr. was the president of the team 38 years ago.
