NHL Playoffs 2012: Former Boston Bruin Adam Oates Seeks 1st Cup as a Coach

In the dying days of the old Boston Garden and into the first year-plus of the venue originally known as the FleetCenter, the Bruins had a steady, endearing troika in captain Ray Bourque, power forward Cam Neely and playmaker Adam Oates.

Owing chiefly to a lack of a reliable supporting cast, the three only won three playoff rounds in four-plus seasons together in the mid-1990s, never reaching the Stanley Cup Final.

In the time since each individual in question played his last game as a Bruin, two have garnered a long-elusive ring, either in another uniform or another role in the sport.

In 2001, Bourque successfully catalyzed “Mission 16W” with the Colorado Avalanche, much to the jubilation of two fanbases. Neely oversaw the end to Boston’s 39-year title drought in his first season as club president last year.

Oates, who played and lost in two finals as a Washington Capital in 1998 and an Anaheim Mighty Duck in 2003, will now get a shot at his first ring as an assistant coach for the New Jersey Devils.

The ironies therein are copious. Oates’ second Stanley Cup Final was stopped short by New Jersey’s previous title run in 2003 and two of his four playoff runs as a Bruin were cut off by the Devils in 1994 and 1995.

Come what may, Bruins fans old enough to remember the Oates era ought to appreciate his contributions to the franchise as much as they did Bourque’s and Neely’s.

From his late-season import out of St. Louis in 1992 to his late-season export to the Capitals in 1997, Oates consistently averaged more than a point per game. In each of his four full seasons with Boston, he was the team’s top point-getter and playmaker.

Even in 1996-97, an altogether forgettable year that saw the Bruins finish the very bottom of the 26-team NHL, Oates finished three assists and six points behind Jozef Stumpel for the team lead despite putting in 15 fewer appearances.

In addition, he epitomized hockey humility and demonstrated an unyielding team spirit, traces of which showed even after general manager Harry Sinden sent him away from Boston. Upon being traded in March 1997, Oates adopted his old captain Bourque’s famed No. 77, which he wore for the remainder of his career with the likes of Washington, Philadelphia, Anaheim and Edmonton.

He would retire at the age of 41, one year after partaking in the Mighty Ducks’ Cinderella shortcoming, and then he entered the coaching ranks with Tampa Bay at the start of the 2009-10 season.

Now a second-year member of the New Jersey staff, this is Oates’ first NHL playoff run in an off-ice capacity. And while it might be a lower-budget TV movie compared to Bourque’s story, Bruins fans still recovering from their team’s failure to defend its title could not be blamed for siding with their former alternate captain these next two weeks.