With Gordon Hayward packing up his bags and signing a massive deal with the Charlotte Hornets, so ends one of the more puzzling and unfortunate tenures for a talented player in Boston — with injuries marring a majority of his time on the court with the Celtics.
For all of the success that Boston has had on the court, ice, diamond and gridiron over the years, there have also been a fair share of "what-if" scenarios. While much more tragic tales such as Len Bias and Reggie Lewis clearly take precedence when it comes to pondering what could have been with particular players or teams, names such as Tony Conigliaro, Robert Edwards, Jim Lonborg, Ryan Westmoreland and even legends like Larry Bird often come to mind when it comes to talented players unable to either reach or sustain their full peak of top performance due to injuries or other circumstances.
For our notebook this weekend, we're going to take a look at a few "what-if" Bruins players that left the game with much more left in the tank — due in large part to a slew of unfortunate injuries:
Just to keep this list succinct, we're going to limit our "what-if" selections here to Bruins players that were plagued by injuries during their tenure with Boston (similar to Hayward with the Celtics). As such, we won't be going through any "what-ifs" related to specific events or plays (too many men vs. Montreal or the Tyler Seguin trade, for example) or players that didn't actually play with Boston (Mat Barzal, for example).
Alright, let's get started:
Bobby Orr, Defenseman:
Who else did you expect would top this list?
It's a testament to the legend of Orr and the absurd list of accomplishments he compiled over the span of just 12 seasons in the NHL that the career of one of the greatest to ever play the game still leaves people pondering "what could have been?" years later.
Of those 12 seasons in the NHL, Orr only appeared in 65+ games in six of them — with a left knee marred by countless bone-crunching hits and dozens of procedures plaguing him throughout his career.
Much like other sports legends not granted with the good fortune of having resources such as arthroscopic surgery available during their playing days (Mickey Mantle, Gale Sayers), Orr was unable to properly solve his knee issues during his career — with the revolutionary blueliner suffering his first serious injury at just 19 years old during the 1967-68 season.
At this point, the numbers speak for themselves when it comes to chronicling Orr's landmark career: Eight Norris Trophies, Three Hart Trophies, Two Stanley Cup championships, Two Art Ross Trophies, Two Conn Smythe Trophies, a Calder Trophy ... and one memorable leap immortalized in Boston — and hockey — lore.
But one has to wonder how many more record books would have been rewritten — and potentially how many more titles Boston could have won — had Orr had a healthy left knee to skate on while gliding across the Garden ice and conducting the Bruins' offense from the blue line.
After only appearing in 26 games with the Blackhawks over three seasons (a tragedy in and of itself that Orr closed out his short career outside of Boston), Orr finally hung up his skates at just 30 years old — becoming the youngest inductee to the Hockey Hall of Fame just a year later.
Cam Neely, Forward:
Bucky Dent. Aaron Boone. Bernard Pollard.
Ulf Samuelsson.
When it comes to rattling off some of the top villains that have plagued the Boston sports scene, the former Penguins defenseman is always a mainstay — given his actions cut short the career of one of the Bruins' most beloved stars in Cam Neely.
Again, this was another no-brainer in terms of "What-if" scenarios, as Samuelsson's cheap shot in Game 3 of the 1991 Prince of Wales Conference Finals set Neely on the downward course that ended with him eventually walking away from the game just five years later.
At the time of the 1991 showdown between the Bruins and Pens, Neely had already established himself as the top power forward of his era — averaging 44 goals, 80 points and 144 penalty minutes per season over his first five years in Boston, while helping lead the B's to two Stanley Cup Final appearances in 1988 and 1990.
But Samuelsson's leg check to the then-25-year-old Neely was the beginning of the end for the B's powerful winger, with the hit eventually knocking Neely out of the series in Game 6 and leading to a bout of myositis ossificans at the damaged muscle — causing it to calcify.
The injury limited Neely to just 22 games over the next two seasons (during which he buried 20 goals and 3o points), with subsequent complications causing a devastating domino effect on the power forward.
"It was such a hard hit that part of my quad solidified, starting turning into bone, so they had to treat it like a broken bone," Neely said when speaking on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast earlier this year. "So I was in a straight-leg brace for two months. But the problem was I wasn’t on crutches, I was just walking normally but with a limp. So I think walking like that for two months without being able to bend my knee, it created a problem in my knee.
“When I came back in early January – this happened in May in the playoffs and I didn’t come back until early January – we played in Toronto one night and we’re coming back home to play Montreal the next night, I woke up from the game in Toronto, my knee was blown up. No pain, I don’t know what I did, there was no pain associated with it, it was just full of fluid.”
Neely of course managed to return in triumphant fashion for the 1993-94 season, scoring 50 goals in just 49 games, but additional ailments — including a degenerative hip condition — forced Neely to retire to just two years later at 30 years old.
One has to wonder what could have been if the Bruins — leading Pittsburgh, 2-0, at the time of Neely's injury — managed to hold off Mario Lemieux and the Pens and punched their ticket back to the Cup Final against the Minnesota North Stars. More importantly, had Samuelsson not collided with Neely on that play, there stands a good chance that Neely would have continued to rack up goals and leave welts against the opposition for years to come.
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OTHER NOTES:
Realignment seems just about inevitable at this point for the upcoming 2021 NHL season.
According to ESPN's Greg Wyshynski, these are the latest proposed divisions for the upcoming campaign, featuring an All-Canadian grouping and three other realigned sections based on region in the U.S.
Canada Division: Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs, Vancouver Canucks, Winnipeg Jets
East Division: Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, Carolina Hurricanes, New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals
Central Division: Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Detroit Red Wings, Florida Panthers, Nashville Predators, Pittsburgh Penguins, St. Louis Blues, Tampa Bay Lightning
West Division: Anaheim Ducks, Arizona Coyotes, Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota Wild, San Jose Sharks, Vegas Golden Knights
Again, these measures are not at all surprising, given the current COVID climate, the risk of extensive travel and the restrictions in place at the border between the U.S. and Canada.
However, the decision to split up the Penguins from a few of their other close regional rivals in Philly and Washington is a bit surprising, while Minnesota likely isn't thrilled — considering their closest opponent in the West is still over 900 miles away.
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