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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: BRUINS v CANUCKS

May 31, 2011

Cam Neely

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA: Practice Day

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Cam Neely.

Q. Cam, just talk about the homecoming for yourself here, coming back to Vancouver, what it's like doing this in the Stanley Cup final. Also what you feel it must be like for Milan Lucic, as well.
CAM NEELY: Obviously, to be in the finals is pretty special to begin with. Coming back to Vancouver, obviously got some family and friends excited about it as well. 40th anniversary for the Canucks. Being a former player, growing up here, it's an interesting matchup. But it's exciting for sure.
For Milan, probably a little bit different being a player in that regard. But he's got tons of family and friends that are excited about this matchup. I think a lot of people were certainly hoping for it at the start of the year. To have two teams like this meet in the finals, from Milan's perspective, I don't think he could ask for anything better.

Q. This city has always had a special bond for you, even though all of your great years were away from here. Have you had the same kind of feeling for this city?
CAM NEELY: Well, I have. I got to Maple Ridge in 1976, became a huge Canuck fan. I think I've said this numerous times. I was a huge Stan Chmiel fan, had an opportunity to play with him for years. Unfortunately it didn't work out well for me here, things worked well in Boston. I certainly kept tabs on what happened to the Canucks over the years, of course except when they played us.
But it's home, Boston is home as well. It's fun to see what the Canucks have been able to accomplish, especially this year. They've got a great team. It's going to be a pretty interesting series.

Q. Cam, when you talk about things not having worked out for you in Vancouver, when you look back over your years here, did going through adversity in the early part of your career help you become the player you eventually became in Boston?
CAM NEELY: Well, it's a possibility. It's hard to say really. I always feel that you probably learn a lot more from adversity than if everything went smooth all the time.
What happened was I had a better opportunity. When I first got to Boston, they gave me an opportunity to play with great players, see what I could do. I think a lot of it had to do with the head scout, Bart Bradley, was from the Vancouver area, saw me play a ton in the Western Hockey League, in Portland. I think he pushed Harry to acquire me in that deal with Barry.
You know, unfortunately in my last year in Vancouver, I just didn't really play all that much. It felt like my career was going backwards. Things worked out on that trade in June for me.

Q. Has it struck you in the middle of this series, June 6th, this mark the 25th anniversary of the trade?
CAM NEELY: Yeah, it was pointed out to me. When I saw that date, it also happens to be my birthday, it was an interesting birthday gift that I was given. I don't know if it was from the Canucks or Boston when I got traded.
Yeah, Game 3. That will be an exciting day for sure.

Q. Cam, you didn't have an opportunity to win a Stanley Cup as a player. Would winning one as an executive fill that void for you?
CAM NEELY: It would be by far the next best thing, there's no question. Absolutely no question. I mean, when you're a player, your goal is to make the NHL. Once you get into the league, you want to win the Stanley Cup.
Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to do it in a uniform, but hopefully can do it in a suit (smiling).

Q. Cam, the importance for your organization of winning and catching up maybe to the Celtics and the Red Sox and others, do you feel it's important for the city that you get a hockey cup there as well?
CAM NEELY: It's important, yes. It's important for a lot of reasons. It's been a long time obviously that the Bruins have won a Cup. You're right, the Celtics, the Patriots, the Red Sox have won recently. We have an amazing fan base that has come back in droves the last few years and supported us again like they did maybe in the '80s and early '90s. They deserve a Cup. They really do deserve a Cup. We're going to do all we can to try and realize that for them.

Q. Shutting down Vancouver's offense will be a key. Your thoughts on how you go about doing that.
CAM NEELY: Yeah, you know, I don't need to tell anybody what kind of great players they have offensively. It's something that we feel we have a pretty strong team defensively. We have to be smart as far as not taking stupid penalties, making sure we stay out of the penalty box.
But we've shown that we can play well against teams that have great offensive players. We have a bunch of them in the Eastern Conference, whether it's Ovechkin throughout the year, Stamkos, St. Louis, Lecavalier, the series we just played. It's going to be similar in that regard. I think we match up pretty well the way we play defensively. Five-on-five, we're a pretty strong hockey club.

Q. I'm assuming you still have some extended family in this area and some of them have grown up being Canuck fans. How are they coming to terms in this series?
CAM NEELY: I think it should be fairly easy for them. If it's not, they're not coming to the games (laughter).

Q. How many family members do you still have here?
CAM NEELY: Unfortunately, it's gotten smaller over the years. I have two sisters and their families. I have three nephews. I still have my grandmother and an aunt and some cousins. All of them really are out in Maple Ridge still.

Q. Getting back to Milan, when he came back here early this season, he had a great game. Different spotlight. Have you had a chance to talk to him about what to expect and how to handle it?
CAM NEELY: No. I've kind of let those guys alone a little bit. I think they all realize where we're at, what the stakes are, what the situation is. They're all professionals. Even though this is much higher stakes than it was when we came out here in February, certainly it was a lot for Milan. I think he handled it extremely well. He had a great hockey game.
Certainly expect the same from him.

Q. I don't think people think of you as a passive observer. Is it hard for you to watch the game knowing you can't have any influence up in the press box?
CAM NEELY: It's much harder watching than playing, yes.

Q. Something you had to get used to?
CAM NEELY: I'm still trying to get used to it (laughter).

Q. Lucic said he's sending everybody to StubHub with your connection here.
CAM NEELY: I'm sending them all to Lucic (laughter).

Q. Any side bets with family or friends or even Michael J. Fox? Anything going on here?
CAM NEELY: I think they'll be talking out of both sides of their mouth, all those people you talked about. Listen, when you grow up around here, you certainly root for the local team. I've got some friends and family that root for Vancouver when we don't play against them. They have a hard time obviously when we do play against them.
As I said earlier, I certainly hope if they're in the building and they're related to me or friends of mine they'll be cheering for the Bruins, at least quietly.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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