Nathan Horton made the trip to Vancouver for Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final knowing he wasn’t going to play. But the Boston Bruins forward came ready to help in any possible way.
Horton infamously was knocked out of the series by Vancouver Canucks defenseman Aaron Rome during Game 3 in Boston. Horton missed the rest of the series, as did Rome, who was suspended for the rest of the Cup Final.
The forward fired up the TD Garden crowd during Game 6 when he made his first appearance since being knocked out of the series. The Bruins won that game to force Game 7, and Horton made the trip back to Western Canada — and he didn’t go empty-handed.
NESN Re-Airing Game 7 Of 2011 Stanley Cup Final Tuesday Night At 8:30 p.m.
Horton brought with him a bottle of melted Garden ice. Hoping to reverse the series mojo — the home team won each of the first six games — Horton poured the water on the Rogers Arena ice prior to the deciding Game 7.
The Bruins, of course, throttled the Canucks in Game 7 and won their first Stanley Cup in nearly 40 years.
Horton said after the game no one was supposed to see him doing it but admitted it was nice to play a part in one of the biggest wins in the franchise’s storied history.
“I really felt like I was playing and just to be here, to be around the guys — everyone cares about each other and really likes each other and really gets along — for me to be able to get the opportunity to be around the guys before the game is pretty special,” Horton said in a postgame interview on NHL Network.
Check out the full interview with now-NESN analyst Billy Jaffe below.
Be sure to watch NESN at 8:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday night for a re-air of Game 7, the culmination of NESN’s Bruins Encore series reliving the 2011 Stanley Cup run. In addition to that, make sure you’re following along on the Bruins’ YouTube page for a virtual reunion of the players from that ’11 Cup-winning team.
