BOSTON — It seems hard to fathom, but it’s now been more than six years since Mike Knuble last wore a Bruins sweater.
“It has been a long time now, but this will always be a great place for me,” said Knuble, in town with Washington to face his old club on Thursday night at the Garden. “I have a lot great memories here. I had a lot of good times here and it’s a great city. I’ve been fortunate to play in a lot of great cities, but this was a special one.”
Knuble was a fixture on the first line in his last couple years in Boston, teaming with Joe Thornton and Glen Murray to form one of the more prolific combinations in recent Bruins history. But the Bruins opted not to re-sign Knuble and several other key free agents, choosing instead to trim their roster in an ill-fated plan to scoop up bargains that never materialized after the lockout.
After finishing first in the Northeast Division with 104 points in the final year before the lockout, the Bruins fell to last place in the first two years coming out of the stoppage. Even after all these years, Knuble still thinks about what that 2003-04 team could have accomplished if it had been kept together.
“If you would pull out that roster on a piece of paper and just look at some of the players,” said Knuble. “You have teams in your career that you play for and you’re like, ‘We were a good team, but I don’t think we were capable of winning.’ But that team was. We had a really good team. Things just feel apart, but that’s one of those teams that you always remember that coulda, shoulda, woulda. It would have been a great experience here to win.”
Having that window of opportunity close so quickly still haunts Knuble, even though he’s gone on to enjoy plenty of individual success in Philadelphia and Washington.
“Of course, I think you’re always looking back at your career and looking at stuff that ‘s gone on in your life,” said Knuble. “Key moments, key years and things that happened. And Boston was a huge stop in my career. My career went in a different direction after playing here. I changed directions with my career here and I’ll always remember that and it’s always going to be very important to me looking back at that.”
Knuble came to Boston from the Rangers in a trade for Rob DiMaio at the deadline in March, 2000. While he had won a Cup as a part-timer in Detroit in 1997-98, he had never scored more than 15 goals in a season in the NHL. And in his first two full seasons in Boston, he scored a combined 15 goals.
But things changed in 2002-03 when he was put in a scoring role playing with Thornton and Murray, and responded with his first 30-goal campaign, then added 21 more in his final year in Boston. Since leaving, he’s been even better, averaging 28.6 goals a season the past five years with the Flyers and Capitals.
“It was a great experience,” said Knuble. “I think I really blossomed as a player here. I had a chance to really turn a corner as a player in my career and that’s something that I’ll always be grateful to the [Bruins] organization for that. … My last two years here were unbelievable. Playing with Joe and Glen, it was just a great time for me as a hockey player.”
Knuble still keeps in touch with a lot of his former teammates from those Bruins squads, though he has few remaining connections to the organization.
“Mostly just when I’m on the ice [against him],” said Knuble of his communication with Thornton. “But I do talk to P.J. [Axelsson]. I talk to Hal Gill. I talked to [Bruins trainer] Donnie [DelNegro] and [strength and conditioning coach] Johnny Whitesides, guys that have been here. There aren’t many guys left. P.J. was the last guy.”
Knuble was then reminded that Patrice Bergeron was a teammate in Knuble’s final year in Boston.
“Patrice yeah, I forget that Patrice was there,” said Knuble. “He didn’t speak much English at the time. I remember him just surprising everyone that training camp. It was like, ‘God, where did this kid come from?’ He came in right under the radar and he was awesome as an 18-year-old. Obviously his concussion slowed him for a while, but it’s good to see he’s back to where he was before.”
Knuble was equally impressed with the way Martin Lapointe helped out Bergeron that year, even letting the youngster live with his family as Bergeron adjusted to life in the NHL — and life in the United States.
“Marty took him in that year and I bet that was a big part of his success,” said Knuble. “Especially with the language, for him to be with a family that spoke both French and English was I’m sure very comforting for him to go home to every day.”
Now Knuble is playing the mentor role to Capitals rookies Marcus Johansson and John Carlson, though he said his home in Washington is a little too small to take on any boarders, especially with three children of his own.
“You talk to them about stuff,” said Knuble. “They’re confident kids. They speak English too, so that’s easier. Well, one is Swedish, one is from New Jersey. The Swedish kid has less of an accent.”
