By Court Lalonde @courtlalonde
Growing up a fan of the Boston Bruins during my lifetime has had its ups and down along with moments of pure ecstasy. I only started watching the Bruins in the mid 80’s because of an excellent reason; I was only born in 1979. I never got to see the great majestic skating, pure talent of Bobby Orr. I heard many stories from the media to fans of the Bruins. I can say without question, that he is the single greatest player to lace up skates for the black and gold. I was lucky enough to get to watch the second best player to wear the black and gold, which to me is Ray Bourque. Until I even knew who Bobby Orr was, I thought that no other defensemen in the game could play the way he did.
I got to watch Cam Neely destroy opposing players with his thundering body checks and the occasional fight. He would score goals that as a young kid I would only dream of being able to do. I then get told about players when I’m older like Esposito and Middleton that made scoring goals like that a regular occurrence. I sure all Bruins fans could tell you where they were when the greatest moment being a Bruins fan happen to them. When you ask a fan who their favorite player is? Nine times out of ten you will get a different answer. Some will say a current player, like myself I would say Patrice Bergeron and some would say a former player. If I were to pick a former player, I would pick Ray Bourque, and that might be a head scratcher if you know me. My father played for the Boston Bruins in the late 70’s early 80’s for two seasons. The reason I didn’t pick him is, I never got to watch him. I have never even seen a video of my father playing hockey for the Bruins unless I count seeing replays of when the Bruins climbed into the stands at Madison Square Gardens to say a friendly hello to some lucky New York Rangers fans. I do wish I got to see him play and even more so than the great Bobby Orr.
I always put together every couple season a starting lineup of the Bruins teams I watched growing up to the present. I made such a list the other day and posed the question to people on Twitter. I made a selection of three forwards, two defense, and one goaltender. I didn’t pick from any Bruins teams that I didn’t grow up watching. My choices were Cam Neely, Adam Oates, Patrice Bergeron, Ray Bourque, Zdeno Chara, and Andy Moog. I got many different answers from twitter, and more than one of them brought a smile to my face for reminding me of a former Bruin great.
Based on who you grew up watching. Who is your all time Bruins first line? I would love to say Bobby Orr but never watched him.
— Court Lalonde (@courtlalonde) July 12, 2017
Courtnall, Bergeron, Neely, Bourque, Boychuk, Peeters
— Mark Allred (@BlackAndGold277) July 12, 2017
So my question to you, the reader is simple, who would be your all time starting line up be? Let me know in the comments or send me a message on twitter who you would pick. I would like to have an honorable mention of Joe Juneau who almost made my list. I look forward to hearing from you, or if you would like to let other members of the Black N’ Gold Hockey Blog know, they would love to hear from you.
It’s a tough job picking an all time starting 6 because it goes back 100 years. But as you said, it’s better picking players you actually seen play. I’m 54 years of age so that covers a lot of Bruin superstars..
So Bobby Lalonde was your dad.. He wasn’t a big man in size but he paid up for it in his love and psaaion for the game. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Lalonde I pray your dad and all your family are doing well and all healthy!!
My picks up front are Bergeron centering Neely and Esposito. On defence a lot picked Bourque and Orr, the best ever in any position. Goaltending was difficu lt but I decided to go with Gerry Cheevers.
Cannot wait for season to begin. With all of the prospects we have, it’s gonna be one tough job deciding who begins in Boston and those sent down to Providence, Of course some of the younger ones will return to their Junior team or College like Ryan Donato.
I think our biggest surprise in camp will be 2016-17 reigning AHL MVP Kenny Agostino:…. The 25-year-old was named the MVP of the AHL last season after leading the league in scoring with an impressive 24 goals and 83 points in 65 games with the Chicago Wolves – 15 points more than any other player, despite the fact that he missed 11 games due to NHL callups with St. Louis.
I would like our 3rd line to be Agostino-Backes-Bjork..I really think Backes’s offence took a dive last season cause he played centre all his career until he was a winger in Beantown.
Sorry man for getting off subject from the Top Line Ever but when talking Bruins, well its the easiest way to get me talking. Cheers and GO BRUINS!!
I love the passion and don’t disagree, I can talk Bruins hockey all day
Middleton Bergeron Neely Bourque Boychuk Moog
Esposito oates Middleton bourque Orr
Esposito Neely Marchand Orr Bourgue Thomas. Honourable mentions to Ken Linesman Gord Kluzak Brad Park. The list of great Bruins is endless. How did they not win more cups?
During the Orr years, we had the power house of the Montreal Canadians to deal with and then during Bourque and Neely you had the Oilers
Espo, Neely, Bucyk, Bourque, Orr, Gilbert