The numbers speak for themselves.
Over 400 goals. 496 assists.Three 100-point campaigns. 100 career postseason points.
And yet, while Rick Middleton’s name is etched in many pages of the Bruins’ franchise record books, the smooth-skating winger always felt like a deviation on a franchise founded on brawn and bench-clearing bouts.
While teammates like Terry O’Reilly, Stan Jonathan and Mike Milbury routinely greeted the opposition with a flurry of fists, Middleton saved his stamina for when he had the puck on his stick — with “Nifty” regularly dangling past blueliners before tucking the biscuit home following a smooth glide through the crease.
Players like Middleton and O’Reilly (2,095 career penalty minutes) should have mixed like oil and water. In his 14 years in the NHL, Middleton only logged 157 minutes in the sin bin — including a whopping two (yes, two) minutes over 72 games in 1976.
A flashy, refined two-way player with an extensive highlight reel comprised of dangles and dekes, the sight of Middleton zipping down the sheet of ice sans helmet resembled something that you’d see more up north with the Habs than with the “Big Bad Bruins.”
Regardless of the optics, there was no denying that Middleton was one of the most dynamic scorers over his era — and a key cog on a B’s club that advanced to the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 11 of his 12 winters in Boston.
Which is what makes the time it took the Black and Gold to retire his No. 16 sweater — 30 years after he decided to hang up his skates — all the more puzzling.
Of course, the man of the hour didn’t have too many complaints ahead of Thursday’s tilt between the B’s and the Islanders — with the 64-year-old Middleton raising No. 16 high above the TD Garden rafters with his family and close friends by his side.
“It really is hard to put into words,” Middleton said. “I’ve had four months to think about it, and I hate repeating myself, but honestly, I believe it is the biggest honor that certainly a retired athlete can get in his career, and the fact that, in the last six or seven years, I’ve been seeing that it’s not out there; nobody’s wearing it. All of a sudden, it happened.”
It’s not fair to lump in Middleton with the immortals of the game like Orr, Bourque and Shore, but there’s no doubting the impact that “Nifty” had on the Black and Gold — especially from a pure production standpoint.
Between 1978 and 1984, Middleton lit the lamp 269 times with the Black and Gold — averaging out to close to 45 goals per season. Only three other players tallied more goals during that same stretch — Wayne Gretzky, Mike Bossy and Marcel Dionne.
Pretty nifty company.
Much more than an offensive dynamo, Middleton was a skilled, two-way player — excelling on the penalty kill with a franchise record 25 shorthanded goals while earning Selke Trophy nominations as the league’s best defensive forward in three seasons.
Middleton could seemingly do it all — well, except for the occasional stint on the blue line.
"As a defenseman? Not on Don (Cherry’s) team, that’s for sure,” Middleton recalled. “No, I remember he put me out to take a faceoff once in Chicago, and I lost it so clean, Gerry Cheevers didn’t have time to get his arm up because it went in and out of the net so fast. I came over to the bench and Don said, ‘You’re never taking another faceoff ever.’ I go, ‘I didn’t want to take this one.’”
Middleton produced at an impressive clip — leading the franchise in scoring for four straight seasons from 1978-82 — but he didn’t slow down when the stakes were raised in the spring.
He never got to hoist a Stanley Cup in his career, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort on Middleton’s part.
In 114 career playoff games, Middleton is tied with Johnny Bucyk for third in franchise history with 100 points — with eight of his 45 goals tabbed as game winners. “Nifty” was a man possessed during Boston’s 1983 Division Final against Buffalo — setting an NHL record for most points in a playoff series with five goals and 14 assists.
In game four of that series, Middleton became one of just three Bruins players to tally six points in a single postseason matchup — joining Phil Esposito (1969) and David Pastrnak (2018).
And while an aging Middleton was part of an ‘88 Bruins club trounced by a wagon of an Oilers dynasty in the Cup Final, No. 16 helped lead the Black and Gold to a number of standout postseason triumphs — including Boston’s first playoff victory over the Habs in 45 years earlier that spring.
For Middleton, one moment that sticks out came during just second season with the Black and Gold.
"The one story I told Don last night – I didn’t know if he remembered it – in Philadelphia in ’78, we were in the semis and the first two games were in Philly," Middleton said. "It was the Broad Street Bullies and everything. It was a tough series. But, I wasn’t playing regular all year, and I wasn’t playing regular in that game, but it went into overtime, and Don comes to me in the dressing room in overtime; he leans down, he goes, ‘You’re going to get the winner.
“So, in my sarcastic way in those days, I looked up to him and said, ‘So I must be playing, right?’ So, I went out and scored the winner on one of my blasting shots that just dribbled over the line of Bernie Parent, and then (O’Reilly) scored in double overtime the next night, and we knocked them out in four straight, and that was basically the end of the Broad Street Bullies; they broke up their team after that year. That was my first big goal as a Bruin that I can remember.”
Tonight we honor Rick Middleton and raise No. 16 to the rafters. #Nifty16 pic.twitter.com/vje2131IER
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) November 29, 2018