December 22, 2008
Boston's hot start has Big Bad Bruin reminiscing on 70s stardom
In an exclusive interview, TFP Columnist Paul Ladewski chatted with former Bruins superstar Phil Esposito about Boston's glory days.

[Chicago, IL] -- Well, well, well, look who's back. It's none other than the Boston Bruins -- remember them?

Nice to see that Next Year may have arrived finally. After all, 36 years is a long time between Stanley Cups for any franchise, don't you think?

No matter how many goals they score or games they win, though, these Bruins won't compare to the last Boston hockey team to hoist the Stanley Cup. Those were the Bobby Orr and the Big Bad Bruins, and if they had any more fun, they would have been arrested. They were the Bruins of Ace, Cheesie, Chief, E.J. and Espie, Fritz, Pie, Swoop, Turk, Terrible Ted and Number 4, and they had more personality in their stick knobs than the entire league does now.

Just ask Phil Esposito, who still receives considerable perks for being a member of the last Bruins championship team all these years later.

"My wife and I went out to dinner the other night, and five people came up to our table for autographs," said Espie, 66, who lives in Tampa now. "They were from up north -- Boston and New York. My wife said, 'Boy, I tell you, that turns me on.' I said, 'I know that. I hire them when I want to get (lucky).'"

See, when the Big Bad Bruins came to town, you didn't hide the women and goaltenders. You hid the women, goaltenders and kegs of beer. They were the Gashouse Gang of pucks, a hockey rock band that partied harder than they practiced.

"We weren't very disciplined," Esposito said. "We partied too much -- and that's the truth."

The Big Bad Bruins also won a lot. In a span of six seasons, they claimed four division titles and a pair of Stanley Cup championships and advanced to the league finals a third time. If not for a pair of defeats against the dreaded Montreal Canadiens in the playoffs -- some things never change, you know -- they almost certainly would have been a full-blown dynasty.

"Yeah, we should have won three Stanley Cups in a row -- three or four in a row," Espie fessed up, barely an ounce of regret in his voice. "But we did have a good time."

It wasn't that the Bruins were so dominant for so long that made them special. It was the way the revolutionized the game. They were the first team to combine hockey skills and brute force and do it without goons, a bunch of loose cannons that beat you with their talent as well as their fists. You either loved them or hated them, but somehow, somewhere, you had to admire them.

The result was a hyper-intense love affair the likes of which Beantown hasn't witnessed before or since then. In the regular season, when Orr and Esposito arrived for public appearances at a local Lechmere's retail store, hundreds upon hundreds of fans would be lined up outside the building already.

"We started at 7 o'clock and never stopped," Espie recalled. "Bobby and I signed evvv-reee-thing. Did we get paid for it? No, we didn't get paid for it. We did it because it was a team promotion."

The only problem was, when they were done at 12:30 a.m. finally, it was too late for the last call.

Heck, the Bruins were so popular that women literally threw themselves at the players on the street.

On May 10, 1970, the Bruins claimed their first Stanley Cup in 29 years -- remember when Orr floated through the air like Superman on skates after he netted the series-winner in overtime? –- and Boston went screaming yellow bonkers for days.

"When we're going through the city in the parade, girls were throwing their panties and bras at us," Espie said. "Of course, in the early '70s, there were no bras. Girls were burning them."

And to think that the most dominant B's team of 'em all didn't win even one playoff series.

The 1970-71 Bruins were, ahem, absolutely loaded. They went through the regular season like a steamroller on warm asphalt. They won more games (57), totaled more points (121) and scored more goals (399) than any team ever. They broke more records (37) than a disco demolition. Even now, the numbers still boggle the mind.

In Esposito, Orr, Hodge and Johnny Bucyk, the Bruins boasted the top four scorers in the league. Team management threw around quarters like manhole covers, but it did present them with 18 karat gold hockey pucks in recognition of their 100-point seasons.

"There are only four in the world, and each weighs almost six pounds," said Esposito, who was quick to add, "My ex-wife thought it was worth a lot. Yeah, she thought it was worth an awful lot."

Esposito totaled 76 goals and 152 points, which were league records at the time. As the bumper sticker said back then, "Jesus saves, but Esposito puts in the rebound." Orr finished with 37 goals, 102 assists and a plus-124 rating. (Plus 124? Plus 124?!) Bucyk scored 51 goals as a member of the second line. Hodge bagged 43 goals with the top unit. Stanfield, Wayne Cashman and John McKenzie averaged a point per game, apiece.

No one team stopped the Bruins, as it turned out. It took an entire league. In November, 1971, the World Hockey Association was born, and it wasted no time to raid the best talent base around. The Philadelphia Blazers lured Derek Sanderson with a ridiculous $2.6 million contract, the richest for any professional athlete in the world at the time. McKenzie joined him as a player-coach there. Ted Green bolted to the New England Whalers.

The biggest defection was that of Cheevers, the guy other than Orr and Esposito whom the Bruins could least afford to lose. He jumped to the Cleveland Crusaders as part of a seven-year, $1.4 million deal. One year later, Esposito turned down a five-year, $2.5 million offer from the Vancouver Blazers and stayed with the Bruins for less money.

To give you an idea of how deep and talented the Bruins were at the time, they still put up 51 victories and 107 points the next season.

Three decades later, Esposito still can't let go of the glory days. Who can blame him? They were the highlight of his Hall of Fame career, many of the best years of his life, magical memories that are stored away in his closets and safety deposit boxes. He still has his Team Canada and All-Star Game sweaters as well as his elbow pads, shin pads and elbow pads. When Esposito hits the ice with his grandkids, he wears the same pair of skates that he wore in the last Stanley Cup championship season, the ones that a fan offered 70 thou to take off his feet recently.

Grandpa, why do your skates creak all the time?

"I say, 'Well, those aren't really my skates,'" Espie laughed one more time. "They're really my knees and legs."

As for his Stanley Cup rings, don't bother to ask. The gold puck may become available one day, but the rings are off limits.

"I have both of them," Espie said. "If I ever sold my stuff, those are the two things that I wouldn't give up -- the rings that say '70 Boston and '72 Boston."

Really, how lucky can a guy get?

Based in Chicago, Paul Ladewski is a Columnist with TheFourthPeriod.com, covering the NHL.
 

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