Going Garden spotting in Boston

BOSTON -- Phil Bourque’s childhood was pretty much like that of every other kid in the Boston area in the early 1970s. Which, in those days, meant hockey, hockey and more hockey.

It was Bobby Orr and trips with his father to games -- college and pro -- at the Boston Garden, the fabled home of the Celtics and, Bourque’s favorites, the Big Bad Bruins. “My dad used to park far away from the Garden to take me to the Bruins games,” said Bourque, a two-time Stanley Cup champion with the Penguins and the team’s radio analyst. “I remember him holding my hand, dragging me basically, running to get there for puck drop.” Bourque’s father, a Boston College alumnus, used to take his son to the Beanpot -- a college tournament featuring Boston’s four universities -- and Bruins games, “sitting way up in the nosebleed seats ways up high in the old Garden.”

The old Boston Garden, the venerable arena built in 1928 above North Station on Causeway Street, was every bit a part of the Bruins’ success in those days as Espo (Phil Esposito), Cheesy (Gerry Cheevers) and, of course, the great Orr.

“Numbah Fawh, Bawwby Awh! Just rolls off the tongue,” said Bourque through an exaggerated Boston accent. “My idol.”

Bourque still keeps a picture of a young Orr, flying through the air on “The Goal” -- the Bruins’ game-winner in Game 4 of the 1970 Stanley Cup finals. He even once telephoned Orr -- who recognized Bourque, “which was shocking,” -- to have it autographed. The greatest defenseman in NHL history signed it and FedEx’d it back the next day, said Bourque.

It wasn’t until his mid 20s that Bourque, then with the Penguins, realized his childhood dream of playing at the Garden.

“It was one part of you that was, ‘Oh my god, what a dump,’ and the other side said I loved it here because there’s so much history,” said Bourque.

And make no mistake the Garden -- particularly in its latter years -- was a dump. Twice in 1988 and ’90, Stanley Cup finals games were brought to a standstill by power outages. The rink dimensions, grandfathered in by the league, weren’t regulation. The Garden was nine feet shorter and two feet narrower than standard rinks. It was cramped. One balcony hung over the ice. The center ice scoreboard wasn’t even directly over center ice.

And it smelled.

“It just smelled old, like they could never get all the dirt off it,” said Bourque. “There was always that taint in the air. Just a taint. If you grew up playing hockey, you went to enough rinks and you smelled that smell before.”

Oh, and the showers?

“You made sure you wore flip flops because you didn’t know what you were going to catch with the fungi on your toes,” said Bourque.

But it was a dump with great character and charm.

“To me, the Garden, the (Montreal) Forum and Chicago Stadium,” Bourque said, “were the three buildings where you really felt the tradition and the history.”

And it was there at the Garden -- and against the Bruins -- where Bourque and the Penguins scored two of the biggest series wins in franchise history. The 1991 Eastern Conference finals featured a war of words between coaches Bob Johnson and Mike Milbury, “a screaming lunatic,” in Bourque’s words. And there was a bold guarantee from Kevin Stevens that the Penguins would prevail in the series after -- much like this year’s team -- losing the first two games.

“Nobody else could have said that but Kevin,” said Bourque.

Stevens was right, too. The Penguins prevailed in six games.

After winning the first championship in franchise history, the Penguins were back in 1992 and, once again, had to go through Boston to get there. This time the Penguins found the going a little easier, sweeping the series. In Game 4, Bourque had the best seat in the Garden for the defining moment of that series and of his captain’s career.

With Bourque in the penalty box, the incomparable Mario Lemieux scored a shorthanded breakaway after first putting the puck between fellow future Hall of Famer Raymond Bourque’s skates and burying a shot past Bruins goalie Andy Moog.

“I looked at the attendant in the box and he looked at me,” said Bourque. “I just kind of gave him my glove and he kind of tapped my glove back, kind of begrudgingly. It was like, ‘Holy crap, I can’t believe what I just saw.’ That was one of the greatest goals I’ve ever witnessed.”

Before Wednesday night, that Lemieux goal had been the last by a Penguin in a playoff game in Boston. The new TD Garden (nee Fleet Center) opened in 1995, and the old Garden was demolished three years later.

But for Bourque -- and those Penguins teams of the early ‘90’s -- which featured other Boston-area players such as Stevens, Tom Barrasso and Peter Taglianetti -- the Garden remains forever in his memory.

“It was special for us to go in there,” said Bourque. “I don’t think we had a ton of success against them in the regular season, but there was something in the playoffs and the Garden. … It was unique and special.”