Bruins legend Ray Bourque was impressed by what he saw from Boston before the NHL stopped play in March amid the coronavirus pandemic.
It’s unclear if/when the 2019-20 season will resume, but the Bruins currently sit atop the NHL standings and seemingly have everything required to win the Stanley Cup, including a strong bond in the locker room.
“You look at that team, starting with their leadership and their players and their core guys and the coaching staff, you can see that chemistry throughout the whole team,” Bourque recently said on The Athletic’s “Perfection Pod” podcast.
“You’ve got to give (general manager) Don (Sweeney) and (president) Cam (Neely) a lot of credit for putting this group together, and the coaching staff, it’s just a nice team to follow. That’s the type of team that with the Bruins that I was part of for, not every year, but a lot of years we had that chemistry and that goes a long way. That makes it so much fun to come to the rink every day when you know that your teammate has your back and you just can’t wait to get to the rink and spend time with your teammates and have fun and work hard and win.”
Bourque spent 21 seasons with the Bruins (1979-2000) before finishing his career with the Colorado Avalanche. Although he never won a Cup with Boston — he finally hoisted Lord Stanley in his final season with Colorado — and is nearly two decades removed from playing in the NHL, the Hall of Fame defenseman still knows a thing or two about winning hockey.
So does this season’s Bruins team, led by head coach Bruce Cassidy. It’ll be interesting to see if Boston can pick up where it left off once the puck drops again, especially since the B’s have some unfinished business after losing to the St. Louis Blues in Game 7 of last year’s Stanley Cup Final.
