Except maybe one last shift with the Broons, and one last shot at nemesis Ulf Samuelsson, whose nasty hit in the 1991 playoffs led to Neely's premature retirement with a chronic hip injury five years later at 31.
For a moment, after captain Joe Thornton tossed Neely his old jersey in the dressing room before last night's game with the Sabres, it seemed as if he'd have a chance to pick up the one assist he needed to reach 300. "Instead of Joe passing me my jersey," Neely said, "I would have liked to take a couple of passes from him."
At least Neely got to lace up and take a victory lap on skates to a roaring ovation from a capacity crowd of 17,565, which was treated to a video clip of Neely's greatest hits -- literally.
Here he was again slamming unfortunate rivals, many of them Canadiens, into the dasher, or whaling away at them with both fists.
Banging bodies, Neely confessed, was what he missed most. "It was nice to be able to do that legally for a few years," he said. It wasn't the banging alone that got him up among the immortals, though. It was his muscular scoring touch, his sheer skill at directing a puck into a net by whatever means available.
Only four other Bruins -- Bucyk, Esposito, Rick Middleton, and teammate Ray Bourque -- scored more goals than Neely and none scored more in the playoffs. That was why Neely loved performing in Boston, he said. Because April was when the real season began. "Coming here, having those expectations on you," he said, "was something I really craved."
When he got word, on his 21st birthday, that he'd been traded by the Canucks to Boston, Neely wasn't so sure. "He called me up and he was bummed," actor Michael J. Fox, his old Vancouver buddy, related last night. "I said, what are you, nuts? That's fantastic. The best team, the best city, the best fans. Think of the legends who've played there."
From the day Neely pulled on the black-and-gold sweater and made his first headlong dash up ice, he was a favorite of the club's blue-collar fandom, who loved his hard nose and his soft hands.
