Dale Arnold - Boston Bruins: Stories from the Boston Bruins Ice, Locker Room, and Press Box

This is for my home teamSusan, Taylor, Lauren, Alysha, and Briannawho always believed in me, even when I didnt. They make me better than I am, and Im forever grateful.

D.A.

For Mason and Amy

M.K.

Contents

Foreword by Ray Bourque

I was born and raised in the Montreal suburb of Saint-Laurent, Quebec. It probably goes without saying that I was a big fan of the Montreal Canadiens.

In 1979, I was playing for the Verdun Eperviers of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, and Verdun hosted the Memorial Cup that year. This was before the current system, when the host city gets an automatic berth, and we had been eliminated from contention.

T he night of May 10, 1979, I went to our home arena to watch Brandon beat Trois-Rivieres 61 in Game 6 of that series. I didnt have a car, so I had to take the subway home, and had to change trains at the Atwater Station, right near the Forum.

I arrived at Atwater just minutes after the conclusion of the infamous too many men on the ice game, when the Canadiens beat the Bruins 54 in overtime to win Game 7 of the Stanley Cup semifinals, and I remember pumping my arm in celebration because the Canadiens had once again beaten Boston. Ninety-two days later I was drafted eighth overall in the first round...by the Bruins! My days of rooting for the Canadiens were over forever.

In fact, I learned to hate them pretty quickly. And when I say hate, I mean with the respect you have for a great organization, and how much you want to beat them. I would go home every summer, and I would have to hear from everyone, What happened? They beat you again? But then, after the playoffs in 1988, it was the quietest summer I ever had back home. No one wanted to talk to me at all!

I arrived at my first Bruins training camp, with guys like Cheesy, Cash, Jean Ratelle, Brad Park, Terry OReilly, Don Marcotte, Gary Doakand there was so much history and so much tradition. Everyone said I couldnt speak English. I spoke plenty of English. I grew up in a bilingual home. I just chose to listen and watch and keep my mouth shut. I was a little shy, but I was trying to earn my way.

I will always remember how Brad Park took me under his wing and taught me the proper way to be a Bruin. His knees were pretty bad by that time, and he was kind of in and out of the lineup, but it was still crazy how good he could play, and the things he could do. After practice, he would take the wooden bench from our bench onto the ice and work with me. Sometimes he would stand it up and I would have to jump back and forth around the bench, trying to get my shot away. Other times he would lay it down on the ice, and make me jump over it to shoot. Brad did so much for me, and Ill never forget that.

My wife, Christiane, and I made a home in Boston and, later on, the suburbs. We grew to love it here. My children, Melissa, Ryan, and Christopher, were all born here, went to school here, played sports here, and never wanted to leave. People sometimes ask if I ever thought of leaving after I retired, and going back to Quebec, but we never even thought about it.

I was fortunate enough to play most of 21 seasons for the Bruins. Most of the time, we had really good teams and were always competitive. A couple of seasons, especially at the end of my time playing in Boston, we werent very good, but those years were pretty rare. I had great teammates, and made wonderful friends, and many of those relationships will be with me forever.

The only regret I ever had was never winning a Stanley Cup in a Bruins uniform. In fact, when we won the Cup in Colorado in 200001, one of the things I thought was, What would this have been like if we had done it in Boston? When the Bruins won the Cup in 2011, and I saw what it meant to the people of Massachusetts and the city of Boston, I thought again about how I missed the chance to win in Boston.

I got to know Dale when he came to Boston and started doing the Bruins games in 1995. He loved the sport, and we began a friendly professional relationship. In fact, Dale was the one who introduced me to Larry Bird when we sat in on his radio show.

When the mayor of Boston asked me to bring the Stanley Cup back to the city for a rally in 2001, I asked Dale to host the event in City Hall Plaza.

Dale might be the perfect guy to tell some of these stories from behind the scenes with the Bruins. He has been a part of the sports broadcasting industry in Boston for almost 30 years, and part of the Bruins scene for more than 20 years. He was there for many of these stories, and hell even share a few of mine later in this book.

The Bruins are a very special organization, with the history of an Original Six franchise. I hope you enjoy reading about them as much as we players enjoyed playing in the city of Boston.

Ray Bourque played 21 seasons with the Boston Bruins and was the teams longest-serving captain. He currently holds records for the most career goals, assists, and points by a defenseman in NHL history. He won the Norris Trophy as the NHLs best defenseman five times and won his only Stanley Cup in his final NHL game, with the Colorado Avalanche. In 2017, he was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players.

Introduction

I dont have to tell hockey fans. They already know the sport is just different. I never played the game, but I love it just the same.

I love the speed and the physicality. I love the constant motion. I love the feeling of walking into an arena with a light snow falling and a crispness in the air. But I also love the feeling of leaving the arena after a late spring playoff game with temperatures hinting at a possible late Stanley Cup run.

I love that my daughter, Alysha, played through high school and college, and I had the opportunity to experience the game from the grassroots level. I even loved that it was only friends and family in the building (except when Mount Saint Charles Academy was winning back-to-back state championships!). I love when I was watching the movie Miracle with my daughter and she said, Hey, DadTaylors father, my coach, is named Jim Craig, too! Isnt that something? Wait...what? No! No way! Of course, Alysha was born 10 years after the gold medal in Lake Placid.

I love knowing every rink from Orono to Amherst. I love seeing a mom and dad coming into TD Garden with a son and a daughter, all of them covered in black and gold from head to toe. I love that Im blessed to watch a game I love, and have since I was youngand even get paid to do it!

I love that its a sweater, not a jersey...that its a dressing room, not a locker room...that its a coach, not a manager...that its a toque, not a hat...that guys pitch in and carry their own bags, not complaining about how tough travel is.

But most of all I love the players. Ive dealt with professional athletes in every sport in Boston, and there are good people in all of them, but hockey players are just different. It probably has to do with leaving home at a young age and playing junior or club hockey. It might have something to do with not getting an inflated sense of self, like athletes in other sports do from time to time. It likely has to do with an advanced maturity level, even when some players turn professional at the age of 18, 19, or 20.

But just watch young hockey fans when Zdeno Chara fist-bumps them on his way to the ice, when David Pastrnak photobombs them at the glass during warmup, when Brad Marchand tosses a puck over the glass, or when Patrice Bergeron hands a fan his stick on the way to the dressing room. Hockey players know they have to fight for every fan, and theyre willing to do that every single day.