|
|
|
|
 |
| |
|
Tiger Feels Cages. |
|
Cincinnati Post by Diane Pucin |
|
12-23-1981 |
| |
At 25 years of age, Bruce Boudreau figures he's
in his prime as a hockey player. He points
proudly to statistics that show him as the
scoring leader in the Central Hockey League. He
points bitterly to the fact that he's still
toiling in the minor leagues.
Boudreau finds himself wearing the uniform of a
Cincinnati Tiger this season. Finding himself in
the minor leagues again wasn't a surprise to
Boudreau, but it was disappointing, bitterly so.
After beginning his career with the Minnesota
entry of the World Hockey Association in
1975-76, Boudreau has bounced back and forth
between the majors and minors. He's had four
different stints with the Toronto Maple Leafs in
the National Hockey League. Each time Boudreau
felt confident he had finally earned a permanent
spot in the majors. Each time he was wrong.
"This is my seventh year as a pro, and all I've
done is take turns being with the Leafs and a
farm club," he said. "I'm very upset with the
whole Toronto thing. They haven't been fair to
me. I feel I deserve to be up there now,
especially with the team they have. They're not
exactly setting the world on fire."
When the Leafs, one of the weakest teams in the
NHL, reached into their Tiger farm club for help
earlier this year, it was to take 20-year-old
center Ernie Godden. Godden was playing well,
but he didn't have the stats to match Boudreau.
"I'm told now that the Leafs are going with
youth, that at 25 I'm too old. When I was 21 and
22, I was too young," said Boudreau. "With the
way the Leafs are going now, if they had any
plans for me, I would have been called up."
The bitterness has grown because Boudreau, who
grew up in Toronto as a Maple Leafs fan, feels
be performed well each time he was brought up to
the NHL.
"In 39 games with Toronto last year, I had 25
points. I only played regularly in 25 games," he
said. "In 1977-78 in 40 games I had 30 points
and was only playing a couple shifts a game. I
thought for sure that the next year I'd be in
Toronto, but instead they sent me to Dallas. In
all, I've dressed for 125 games with Toronto and
scored 75 points, always just playing
part-time."
With a wife pregnant with their first child, and
Boudreau reaching the age when an athlete must
begin facing thoughts of the end of a career, he
feels like his has never started.
"My contract with Toronto is up next year. I'd
like to get a chance with another club in the
NHL. Europe is a good possibility also. It's
wherever the money is," he said. "I've never
wanted to put a time period on my career, that
if I haven't done this by such-and-such a time,
I quit.
"I look at other teams, at the players they
have, and I know for a fact that I can play
regularly in the NHL."
With slight chance of being recalled to Toronto,
it would seem Boudreau might just go through the
motions with the Tigers. So far, that hasn't
been the case. In 37 games, Boudreau has 23
goals. The last time he spent close to a full
season on one team, Dallas of the CHL in
1976-77, Boudreau led the league in scoring.
That's his personal goal for this season.
"I'm in the prime of my life. I'm playing as
well as I ever have right now," said the man who
teammates call "Gabby." "I figure I can score
125-130 points if I'm here all year. I'd like to
break the CHL scoring record."
Boudreau also played on a championship team in
junior hockey and he would like to help the
Tigers to a CHL championship this year. "Being
on two Memorial Cup teams in junior hockey was a
great thrill. I'd like to be on another
championship team here. Coach Carpenter is doing
a super job with this team, so a championship is
a definite possibility." |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
