NHL Notebook: The forgotten No. 8; McAvoy on young stars; Bergeron update

No. 8 hangs from the rafters at TD Garden as one of 10 retired numbers for the Boston Bruins. Before Cam Neely wore that number for 10 seasons en route to a Hall of Fame career, Peter McNab had previously sported the same digit on his sweater for eight successful seasons in the 70s and 80s.

“I’ve always said that’s how New England spells McNab – N-E-E-L-Y,” McNab told BostonSportsJournal.com with a laugh. “It’s just a little off, but yeah, that’s what I tell my kids. That’s New England for McNab.”

There were three players – Jim Nill, Lyndon Byers and John Carter – to wear No. 8 between McNab and Neely, but the elder statesman did it proud. Bruins fans forget the type of success McNab had in Boston. From 1976 to 1984, he registered 263 goals and 324 assists for 587 points in 595 games.

Those are some impressive numbers and he deserves a ton of credit for what he accomplished in Boston.



Not bad for a kid who grew up in San Diego and played only 20 high school hockey games each season. He then went to the University of Denver before embarking on a 14-year NHL career.

“I never, for a second, imagined having an NHL career,” he said.

McNab, a longtime TV analyst for the Colorado Avalanche, played his first three seasons in the NHL for the Buffalo Sabres. He was traded to Boston in 1976 and that’s when he career took off.

“Not to be silly, but I’m not sure if that’s the right word, it really was life-changing for me. I was in Buffalo and I was a fourth-line center and when I got to Boston, the Bruins had a very specific need that I could fill. They needed a second-line center behind Jean Ratelle, who was a Hall-of-Fame centerman. To play with the guys that I played with it was pretty easy. My time in Boston I learned about the game and the way those guys played. It was a real education.”

It didn’t take long for McNab to fit in. When he first arrived in Boston, Gerry Cheevers helped him find a place to live in the North End, which is funny when you think about an Irishman living in that section of the city in the 70s.

“Meeting the people that I met – Gerry Cheevers, Brad Park, Mike Milbury, Terry O’Reilly, Ricky Middleton – we were all the same age and kind of grew up in (pro) hockey together,” recalled McNab. “The games we played and learning how guys competed through good times, bad times, injuries, all of those things were educations.

“It was men being men and playing hockey the way it was supposed to be played. There was an honor, there was a way that you did things and you were honest, and you got some honesty back. There were a lot of lessons I learned about the game, and not just about the game, but about life and be good to people. You’re part of a community and that was really fun being a New Englander.”

Old-school hockey players tell the best stories and McNab is a Hall of Famer in that category. He’s genuine when he discusses the game and his appreciation for the Bruins is sincere. Playing with Cheevers, John Bucyk, Wayne Cashman, Gary Doak, Ratelle and Dallas Smith gave McNab a better understanding of the game in Boston and he made sure to pass on that knowledge as his career progressed.

“It taught me for when the next generation of guys was coming in, that’s what you did,” he said. “You helped each other. You respected each other. I remember nights when Ray (Bourque) and Brad McCrimmon would come over, they were young guys, but boy could they eat. It was a wonderful way to go through eight years in my life.”

After Bobby Orr left Boston, the landscaped changed. The Bruins were still a talented team but lost in the Cup final to the Canadiens in 1977 and ’78, and again in the semifinals in 1979.

“There isn’t a negative, but I do wish we had won one of those three years,” McNab said. “That group deserved to feel that one time. It would have been justified. It would have been justification for all the work we put in, because you’ve never seen a group of guys so determined and we were going to have our time.”

McNab will admit the Bruins didn’t have a ghost of a chance in ’77, but came close in 78. Of course, every Bruins fan remembers the ’79 series and the too-many-men penalty late in the third period. Montreal scored on the power play to send the game into overtime before the Canadiens won the semifinal series en route to the Stanley Cup finals and another championship with a win over the Rangers.

“I don’t know if I have ever watched it,” McNab said. “I don’t want to. We all knew at that point, the Bruins as we knew them, were going to change dramatically. Grapes wasn’t going to be there and some of the players that Grapes like weren’t going to be there and the team was going to change. They brought him some great young players in Brad and Ray, but it was going to be changing.

“The flight home from Montreal to Boston, all of us realized it was the end of that run that we had. Moving forward, it was going to be different, but how different we didn’t know. We certainly knew many of the guys that we had worked so hard with, we knew it wasn’t going to be the same group.”

When McNab reminisces about his tenure in Boston, looking back he realizes the extraordinary connection the players had with the fans.

“The fans really took to the group. That group of Bruins never let the fans down. If the fans were mad, the Bruins were mad and something was going to happen,” he said.

That was especially true with McNab’s longtime linemate Terry O’Reilly. Former Bruins coach, GM and president, Harry Sinden, said it best when the organization retired No. 24’s number. “Make no mistake, Bobby Orr was the greatest Bruin of all-time, but Terry O’Reilly was the perfect Bruin.”

McNab completely agrees.

“Nobody realized what he played through. He played through every possible injury and he just kept coming,” McNab. “He had a temper and when it flipped, forget it.”

On Feb. 3, 1984, the Bruins traded McNab to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for Nill. But, there’s no denying the impact McNab had in Boston.

The young core of superstars in the NHL is no doubt impressive. The fact that many of them are American is even better. With the likes of the Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews or the Blue Jackets’ Zach Werenski, current U.S.-born rookies have some strong role models.

The Bruins’ Charlie McAvoy knows both of those players well, but he focused on his task at hand this season and beyond.

“To see them come in and have the years that they had, you look at that and think, ‘If I keep working as hard as I can every day it’s possible you can come in and get a chance, an opportunity.’ You’ve really got to cease it and that’s what I’ve been trying to do. There are ups and downs, obviously, but so far I feel good,” McAvoy said.

McAvoy isn’t alone in the budding superstar category. The Coyotes’ Clayton Keller was a teammate of McAvoy’s at Boston University and both were members of the gold-medal winning Team USA at the 2017 World Junior Championships.

Both are beginning their respective NHL careers and the future is bright. Keller entered Saturday’s game against the Bruins with three goals and one assist for four points in four games. McAvoy is not surprised by his former teammate’s success.

“It’s awesome,” McAvoy said. “I might have more confidence in him than a lot of other people do. I think he’s a phenomenal player and I was fortunate enough to play with him. He’s a great friend, a great teammate and I’m not surprised at the success he’s having. He’s such a skilled player. He works for it and deserves it.”

Bruins’ Bruce Cassidy is impressed with McAvoy’s brief development at the pro level, but Boston’s coach isn’t afraid to compliment Keller’s ability.

“He’s a good player,” Cassidy said. “He walked through here this morning and (he’s small) so it’s unbelievable he can do that stuff against men; that’s a credit to him. Good for him. He’s good for the game of hockey. He’s a nice player to watch.”

While Bruins fans eagerly await the return of Patrice Bergeron from a lower-body injury, many wonder if the injury is related to his offseason hernia surgery. The team has said that it’s not related to Bergeron’s current injury, but he did say prior to training camp that it was something he would feel early in the season and would have to fight through it. Without disclosing what he’s battling, it seems similar to what Tuukka Rask’s experienced after his first hernia surgery six seasons ago.

Bergeron has not played a game during the regular season and the team is hoping he can return sooner than later.

When asked about what it was like to come back from his first hernia surgery, Rask said it was difficult. He had his second one last May and is showing no ill effects in the early going.

After the first procedure, he was “super sore forever” because of the scar tissue was a little different. The second surgery healed better so he said he wasn’t nervous about returning to goalie activities.

“I had no issues when I started skating, whatsoever, when I started skating (in late July),” Rask said. “I remember the last time, it felt like it was still injured, so I had to rip that scar tissue slowly, but this time it was way different.”

If Bergeron is still dealing with the issues from surgery, it’s understandable why he’s hasn’t been cleared to play.”

In this edition of Drill of the Week we’ll focus on a simple drill that will help young defensemen. All of the previous drills we’ve talked about can be used at every level. This one helps players transition from backwards to forwards with the puck, while working on edges and passing. It can be done in any area of the ice. You can also add a shooting element at the end with the other player crashing the net for the rebound.



Untitled from Boston Sports Journal on Vimeo.