Bruins reunion in the nation's capital

It isn't often that you run into three former Bruins in a single night in Washington, but that's exactly what happened last night at the Capitals- Ottawa Senators tilt (5-4 Sens win in OT) at the Verizon Center.

Garry Galley, who was a very good two-way defenseman for the B's from 1988-92 and who scored a famous overtime goal in Game 2 of the 1990 Adams Division Final against Patrick Roy and the Montreal Canadiens, was there as the Rogers Sportsnet television broadcast color commentator. We talked about those great Bruins teams of the late 80's and early 90's he was a member of, and he couldn't believe that it has been almost 20 years since the Bruins appeared in their last Stanley Cup final series, losing to Edmonton in five games. Galley was a character player who never should have been traded by Harry Sinden. Nothing against Gord Murphy, but when you consider that he was thrown in with Andy Moog in the deal for Jon Casey a year later, you essentially ended up losing Galley, Moog, Murphy and Wes Walz for one year of Casey, who was then released (And we wonder why the Bruins have been so mediocre since 1994?). Meanwhile, Galley went on to be an All-Star defenseman for the Flyers for the next couple of seasons. Ouch. Not his best moves to be sure.

Shean Donovan, a member of Boston's forgettable 2006-07 squad who was then dealt to Ottawa for the since bought-out Peter Schaefer the following summer was also in the press level, a healthy scratch for the Sens (newest Senator and Marlboro's finest Bobby Butler was there too). Donovan is a great guy and it's a shame things didn't work out for him in Boston. He grew up a huge Bruins and Rick Middleton fan, so I know signing with his childhood team was a big deal. It has to be tough for him to be sitting right now, but to his credit, he's the same upbeat guy I remembered from his brief time in the Hub.

Finally, Andrei Nazarov was there as well. A coach for the Russian National Team, he was in Washington to watch the Alexanders-- Ovechkin and Semin (who had two beautiful goals and nearly got a third if not for a tremendous stop by Brian Elliott). Still very quiet, he nonetheless lit up a bit when we discussed some of the good times he had in Boston (and there weren't many). You may recall that Nazarov and fan favorite P.J. Stock handled the pugilistic duties for Boston in 2001-02, and I called the duo "P.J. and the Bear". Nazarov is an even bigger boy now than when he played, but is in good spirits and it was nice to catch up with him, even if he wasn't the most popular player to wear the spoked-B.