StemCell Therapy

Longevity has played a part in the selections of some of our top 10 Bruins of all-time, but had nothing to do with us choosing Phil Esposito at No. 3 on our list.

He arrived via a trade in 1967 and left the same way in 1975 both deals whoppers for the ages that would have major impacts on the organization. In between he played just 625 games in Black and Gold, the fewest of any modern era skater other than Cam Neely on our list.

But in those eight-plus seasons in Boston, Esposito was the catalyst for the most explosive offensive juggernaut the league had seen to that point and was one of the great characters of arguably the most beloved team in Bostons rich sports history.

In the spring of 1967, the Bs already had a kid in Bobby Orr who would become the greatest defenseman in NHL history and, yes, here in Boston still the greatest player ever but hockey is all about depth. That was provided when the Bs incoming GM Milt Schmidt pulled off a heist, sending forward Pit Martin, defenseman Gilles Marotte and goalie prospect Jack Norris to Chicago for Esposito, Fred Stanfield and Ken Hodge.

Martin would be a mainstay on a very good Blackhawks team, Marotte bounced around the NHL for 10 more years and Norris played 35 more NHL games.

Esposito made the Bruins a cultural phenomenon.

In Chicago, the Blackhawks had the top goal-scorer in the league at that time in Bobby Hull. His centerman Esposito was primarily Hulls playmaker, but that perception would be irrevocably shattered in short order when he arrived in Boston.

Esposito became the first player to break the 100-point mark in a season, posting 49-77-126 totals in 1968-69. As a team, they would finally break through the next year, winning the Stanley Cup for the first time in 29 years.

The next regular season was not only his finest, but the best the league had ever seen from a forward to that point. On March 11, 1971, Esposito, parked in his usual spot in the slot, redirected a Ted Green shot for his 59th goal of the season in a rout of the Los Angeles Kings in the then-Great Western Forum, breaking his former linemate Hulls record of 58.

But he didnt stop there. Esposito potted 76 goals that year, along with 76 assists for 152 points (another record at the time) in 78 games. With linemates Wayne Cashman and Ken Hodge comprising a first line that was impossible to contain, Esposito would hold the records for most goals and points for another decade until Wayne Gretzky came along and rewrote the book. Esposito captured the Art Ross Trophy five times in his eight full seasons with the Bs while Orr won it twice in that time, keeping the award in Boston seven straight seasons (Chicagos Stan Mikita won the award in 1967-68).

While Orr won the Conn Smythe Award as playoff MVP in the Cup seasons of 70 and 72, Esposito was no slouch in the postseason. In the first Cup season he posted 13-14-27 totals in 14 games and in the second Cup run he had 9-15-24 in 15 games. In 71 playoff games with the Bruins, Esposito notched 46-56-102 totals. His 1.437 points per playoff game average is second only to Barry Pedersons 1.529 (20-32-52 in 34 games).

Through all those wild times, Esposito seemed like the life of the party and apparently he was. In a story that epitomized the togetherness of those Big, Bad Bruins, Esposito had once been playfully kidnapped from Mass General Hospital by his teammates. He suffered torn knee ligaments in the second game of a first round series against the Rangers in 1973, thus contributing to an early exit by the Bs. As the story goes, the team decided it could not hold its break-up dinner at the Branding Iron bar without Esposito so dressed in hospital gear, his teammates surreptitiously wheeled him out of the hospital, still in his johnny, and took him straight to the bar.

Good times like that cant last forever, and they didnt.

On Nov. 7, 1975, GM Harry Sinden traded Esposito and defenseman Carol Vadnais to the New York Rangers in exchange for Brad Park the best defenseman in the league not named Orr and classy centerman Jean Ratelle.

The move kept the Bruins among the elite teams in the league and is widely regarded as a big win for the team, but the trade could not quite lift the Bs back to the heights that it achieved with Esposito roaming the slot.

View post:
Phil Esposito owned the slot like no other Bruin - Boston Herald

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