This week’s Throwback Thursday is Part Two in a Three-Part series that is edited for Bruins Daily from previous NHL.com articles: the retiring of Bruins’ President Cam Neely’s No. 8. Snow covered the event for NHL.com.

January 12, 2004

BOSTON – The Boston Bruins lifted Cameron M. Neely’s No. 8 to the [Fleet Center] ceiling last night, a fitting gesture for the power forward who lifted the Bruins for a decade between 1986-’96.

“When I was traded to Boston,” the Moosejaw, Saskatchewan, native said: “No. 8 was given to me. I asked the trainer for 21 which I had in Vancouver. He said, ‘Harry likes you in 8.’”

“I said, ‘Okay, happy to be here.’ Eight worked good for me.”

It worked even better for Bruins’ nation. The consummate lunch-pail player with gourmet stats over his decade of penultimate play, Neely left the table too soon.

“It’s extremely special,” Neely said, flanked before the ceremony by his wife, Paulina, daughter Ava, and son Jack. “It’s one of the highest if not the highest honors an athlete can receive from an organization. Not many people know that my mother’s maiden name is Cameron. I was thrilled that it was going (to be retired like that) with my mother’s maiden name and the family name together like that. My parents (Marlene and Mike) did a wonderful job raising four kids – and they’re watching.”

“When you come back for that one night, and they raise your number,” Ray Bourque said, playing with Neely all 10 years, “it means you did pretty well.”

Pretty well, indeed.

Then GM Harry Sinden swiped the rugged winger from Vancouver in 1986, along with the Canucks’ first pick that year (later became Glen Wesley), for Barry Pederson. Neely capped off that first season with a 36-36-72 total and the prestigious local 7th Player Award voted by Bruin fans to the player who most exceeds their expectations.

For the next decade, No. 8’s punishing presence was a rolling stone on blades exceeding all expectations. He rewrote Bruins’ records, while embodying the quintessential definition of power forward.

Let the record show that over those thirteen NHL seasons from that first ’83-’84 campaign in Vancouver to his 21st birthday when he arrived in Boston in 1986 to a tear-filled retirement announcement on September 5, 1996 due to recurring hip and knee injuries, Neely emptied his lunch pail every one of his 726 games. The final stats read 395 goals and 299 assists for 694 points with an Bobby Orr-like plus-140. He is the all-time Bruin leader in goals by a right wing in one season with 55 in 1989-’90.

His three 50-goal seasons are asterisked with the milestone in ’93-’94 when Neely lit it up 50 times in 44 games; only Wayne Gretzky had done it quicker. It is considered one of the greatest feats in Bruin and NHL lore, given that from ’91-’93 Neely played but 22 total games.

A degenerating hip and knee injury initiated from a check on May 5, 1991, by Pittsburgh’s Ulf Samuelsson in Game 3 of the Cup semifinals required major rehab. Myositis ossification had developed, a long-term deterioration of the thigh muscle. In turn, the hip injury caused knee woes.

In his final two seasons, Neely totaled 91 games and a remarkable 53 goals.

Put postseason play into the picture, and some numbers exceed many NHL greats. Only Mario Lemieux, Mike Bossy and Maurice Richard had a better goals-per-game playoff average than Neely’s .617. His 55 playoff goals remain a Bruins’ record; his 87 playoff points in 86 games gets Neely into seventh place. In 1988, Neely scored the Division series-clinching goal, ending a 45-year playoff drought against Montreal.

Neely and Bourque would lead the Bruins into the Cup Finals that year, and again in 1990 versus Edmonton. Both came up short for that first Cup parade on Causeway Street since 1972.

“I think the fans liked the way I played the game,” Neely said. “At least that I came to work every night to play hard. They work hard every day and expect their athletes to work hard. When (the old Boston Garden) got cranking, there was no other place like it. I miss that part of my life – getting a couple of penalties and no hand-cuffs.”

What Neely did with a piece of wood, a slice of rubber and two blades, however, was only possible because of the heart, soul and commitment attached to his roots.

“I was a 15-year-old hockey player, and I felt completely out of place,” Neely said about those roots. “They had all just gotten their licenses, and my dad was still taking me to the rink. All my friends were on separate teams. Part way into the season, I wanted to quit. My dad said, ‘If you want to quit, that’s something you’ll have to live with. You made a commitment to this team and you took someone else’s spot. I would rather you honor your commitment.’ Thank God I didn’t quit. He made me understand the meaning of commitment. He wouldn’t have needed the elevator to get to the ninth floor tonight.”

His commitment extends well beyond a sheet of ice.

“It’s all about giving back,” an emotional Neely said a few days before the retirement ceremony at a partnership event with Tufts New England Medical Center for the Neely Foundation and Neely House.

Neely, brothers Scott and Shaun, along with sister Christine, established the Cam Neely Fund for Cancer Care in memory of both parents, Marlene and Mike, who succumbed to cancer. The mission of the Neely Fund and Neely House is: “Providing comfort, support and hope to cancer patients and their families.”

“[Cam] had a vision for a home within a hospital,” Tufts’ representative Tom O’Donnell said last night. “The [thousands] of patients who have stayed at the Neely House have benefited from you taking the same skills on the ice and applying them to the fight against cancer.”

“The Bruin fan base is the foundation of the Foundation,” Neely said.

Hollywood superstars, former players, Bruins’ brass and adoring fans got the [building] cranking when Joe Thornton presented Neely with his jersey in the locker room – all shown at center ice. A stroll down the corridor, a lap around the rink to a rousing ovation, and several minutes of vintage Neely footage to thunderous applause would bring typical Cam Neely humor.

“I brought the wrong skates,” Neely said. “Thank God it was only one lap.”

“As a long-time friend and lifetime Bruins’ fan,” said Michael J. Fox, “I remarked when he was concerned about being traded: ‘What, are you nuts? That’s’ fantastic.’

“You’ve become the best of the best and now you’re up there with them.”

“It was a pleasure to play hockey for you,” Neely told the crowd just before hoisting his number between Phil Esposito’s No. 7 and Johnny Bucyk’s No. 9. “I never thought about having my number retired. It was all about playing at a level that I was happy with.

“To be able to contribute year in and year out.”

As the president of the Bruins, Cam Neely continues that contribution, while his No. 8 assumes its place among the elite pantheon of Bruin legends: Lionel Hitchman, Eddie Shore, Dit Clapper, Milt Schmidt, Johnny Bucyk, Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Ray Bourque and Terry O’Reilly.

Next Thursday in Part Three, we’ll throw it back to that other memorable night on October 24, 2002, when Terry O’Reilly’s No. 24 was retired.