The last time the Bruins won Lord Stanley’s Cup, Elvis Presley was alive, Richard Nixon was in office and Derek Sanderson was wearing No. 16 for the B’s.
Sanderson played nine total seasons in Boston, which were highlighted by two Stanley Cup titles and the Calder Trophy in 1968 as the league’s top rookie. The former Bruins center, nicknamed “Turk” during his playing days, was a key contributor to both the 1970 and 1972 championship teams. Turk scored 18 goals and dished out 23 assists in the ’70 season, while posting 25 goals and 33 assists in ’72.
On Friday, Sanderson spoke with NESN.com’s Mike Cole about his impressions of this year’s Bruins team, his own Stanley Cup titles and what winning a championship would mean for the city of Boston.
See what he had to say below.
NESN.com: What would a Stanley Cup title mean for the city of Boston?
Derek Sanderson: It means a lot to the Bruins, to the Bruins’ fans. You’re looking at they’ve been forgotten for so long, that they’re not even in the discussion. You can look at the reporters, the writers covering them, they don’t know the game.
Baseball’s covered to the ninth degree, and so is basketball, and football, and now the Bruins are finally getting a little of what they need, what they deserve.
NESN.com: What are your thoughts on Tim Thomas’ performance this postseason?
DS: Tim Thomas … you wouldn’t believe he could take it to another level … a .996 save percentage is off the charts. I don’t think anyone has ever done that. … That’s spectacular. That’s everything. That’s MVP, that’s Vezina, that’s everything. Any award they can give in the playoffs has to go to him.
But they do have to give some [credit] to the defense and forwards, but Tim Thomas is the reason that a lot of ills [go unnoticed], a lot of forgiveness. If a defenseman gives it away, if a forward makes a turnover, and then boom, Thomas makes a save, then the giveaway is forgotten. The entire team must be thankful to Tim Thomas.
NESN.com: Head coach Claude Julien has been rewarded for supporting his players. What do you think about the job he has done?
DS: Julien is very conservative, and has a system that he wants to play, and they play it to the letter. What the players have done now is stepped up the energy part of it. They play within the system with energy. You can’t just play the system. You have to play the system with courage, energy, commitment, and you have to keep going, second effort, everything. Never count anything out.
NESN.com: What has impressed you most about this Bruins team?
DS: They get along well. I think they like each other. I was really impressed with the way they responded to the [Nathan] Horton hit. They just became possessed at that point, and they were not going to take it. They were not in awe of Vancouver any longer, and they shut them down and embarrassed them twice.
Now, can Vancouver get it back? That’s still to be decided. They’re still a very, very good hockey team. They’re still No. 1 overall in the standings for the season, but the season means nothing in the playoffs. They have a great power play, great penalty killing, and if they get goaltending, they’re gonna be tough.
NESN.com: What did winning the Stanley Cup mean to you?
DS: I think, what the Stanley Cup meant to me, is one, there’s no one left to beat, you don’t have to practice the next day, and it’s a different way to end the year.
But I think the process — the process of winning it — is the beauty of it. The things you remember the whole season, the winning of it. I think John Havlicek said that one time, and I think it made a great deal of sense to me.
A lot of it was for my dad. To everybody in Canada, a Stanley Cup champion means something. He wanted his little boy to be a champion, and that meant a lot to him.
