Tuesday marked the 37th anniversary of one of the most memorable nights ever at the Boston Garden. On Dec. 3, 1987, the Boston Bruins retired Phil Esposito’s No. 7 and Ray Bourque, who was wearing 7 at the time, surprised Esposito and Bruins fans everywhere by revealing during the ceremony that he would be permanently switching to No. 77.
Esposito joined WEEI’s The Skate Podcast on Tuesday to reflect on that night, the Bruins’ recent Centennial celebrations, his playing career, and more (listen to the full episode above).
In the 37 years since Esposito’s No. 7 became, fittingly, the seventh retired number in franchise history, five more numbers have been raised to the rafters: 77 for Bourque, 24 for Terry O’Reilly, 8 for Cam Neely, 16 for Rick Middleton, and 22 for Willie O’Ree.
Someday in the not-too-distant future, there will be at least a couple numbers from the most recent era of Bruins hockey getting added, led by Zdeno Chara’s 33 and Patrice Bergeron’s 37. Brad Marchand (63) and David Pastrnak (88) would seem to be well on their way as well, and David Krejci (46) and Tuukka Rask (40) could also have cases.
Before all of that, though, Esposito believes there is still one player from his era who deserves the honor and who has been passed over for far too long.
“Personally, I think number 12 should be up there for Wayne Cashman, who played for 18 years for that team, was captain for four years, coached the team, and gave his life's blood to the Bruins,” Esposito said. “He should be up there.”
There is certainly a very strong case to be made for Cashman. He ranks seventh in Bruins history in games played (1,027), 10th in goals (277), eighth in assists (516) and eighth in points (793). He played on the first line with Esposito and Ken Hodge on the 1970 and 1972 Stanley Cup teams, and scored two goals in the Cup-clinching Game 6 win over the New York Rangers in 1972. And he also served as team captain for six years (Esposito actually short-changed him a couple years there) from 1977-83 during the “Lunch Pail A.C.” era.
No. 12 has remained in almost constant use, though, with 15 Bruins wearing it since Cashman retired 41 years ago. Kevin Shattenkirk was the most recent last season.
We also asked Esposito about another one of those players whose number may be retired someday: Pastrnak. Two years ago, Pastrnak joined Esposito as the only two Bruins to ever score 60 goals in a season. Pastrnak, at age 28, is already seventh on the Bruins’ all-time goals list with 357. He may only be a couple years away from catching Esposito in second place in 459. A couple years after that, Johnny Bucyk’s franchise record of 545 could fall.
“Good for him!” Esposito exclaimed. “David Pastrnak’s a natural goal-scorer. He's got the ability to get in the open. He's got the great hands. And when he gets the puck, he shoots it, and he knows how to shoot. You don't see Pastrnak getting involved in front of the net and pushing and shoving very often. You never see goal-scorers do that. … He knows how to back off. He knows where to go, when to do this, when to do that.
“And as far as him breaking records of mine, who gives a crap? Records are made to be broken. And if he plays long enough, he should. Period. It's like people told me about with Ovechkin, gonna break Gretzky’s record. If the team is good, Ovechkin will do it. If the team is bad, he won't. Simple. It's a team sport. Team sport.”
Esposito is currently working with Classic Auctions Inc. to auction off a number of treasured items from his personal collection. Those interested in reviewing the collection and bidding on items can do so by clicking here.