Cup title highlight of Bruins scout McVie’s 55 years in hockey

McVie

Over the course of his 55 years in the game, Bruins scout Tom McVie has been both in the thick of the action and behind the scenes.

He’s seemingly been through every situation imaginable from every position available in hockey … well at least now he has since the Bruins won the Stanley Cup.

Veteran writer Mark Spector of Sportsnet.ca has a great story about McVie, who at 75 is a living encyclopedia of hockey history. Of his day withe the Cup over the summer, McVie told Spector:

“When the gentleman in the white gloves came to me, handed me the Stanley Cup, it was mine for 12 hours. It was the most wonderful day of my life.”

An even more telling sign of McVie’s contribution to the organization is this quote:

“There is a certain way the Boston Bruins play; there is a certain way the people of Boston want them to play. When I’m out scouting players, and come back to our meetings, I just say, ‘He’s not a Bruin. Can’t do it,’ right in front of GM Peter Chiarelli and Bruins president Cam Neely.

“Now, Cam Neely was a Bruin. Terry O’Reilly was a Bruin. Don Marcotte was a Bruin. You’ve got to be a Flyer to be a Flyer? You’ve got to be a Bruin to play for the Bruins.”

There’s no way to measure how much McVie and the rest of Boston’s scouts contributed to the drought-ending Cup win.