Lucic: ‘I can't appreciate fan support enough'

Share

BOSTON – Milan Lucic had talked a great deal about his appreciation for the Bruins fans and his eight years spent in Boston. He penned a long, warm and genuine piece on the Players Tribune, and he took out a full page ad in the Boston Globe in the days following his trade to the Los Angeles Kings.

So the Bruins fans, the Bruins organization and the city of Boston were well aware how much Lucic appreciated them. But all of those far-reaching forces were finally able to repay the favor to Lucic on Tuesday night during the Kings 9-2 beating of the Bruins at TD Garden that also represented No. 17’s homecoming to Boston.

He heard the warm ovation and chants of “Looch!” before the game even started, smiled and waved at the crowd during the long, standing ovation following a video tribute put together by the Bruins in the middle of the first period and then gave a final circle on the Garden ice while waving to the remaining fans when the blowout was finally over. Lucic also managed to collect a goal and two points among LA’s nine-goal barrage on the ice, and that made it a thoroughly enjoyable experience for the prodigal power forward during his return.

So the smile was still plastered to Lucic’s face once the game was over.

“You think about the reaction, and the excitement from the crowd. The crowd was definitely great to me here tonight and I can’t appreciate the fan support enough,” said Lucic. “So thanks to [the fans] for making this a special night for me individually, and thanks to my teammates for getting a big win for us to start off this road trip.

“It was pretty cool that I got to experience that. Like I talked about this morning, a lot of special things happened to me here in Boston, from the management, to the coaches, to all my teammates that I had here over the last eight years. Especially the fans, they really helped me to become the player and the person that I’ve become today. So to have that moment in that second TV timeout there was really special and it was definitely a pretty cool feeling.”

It was odd to hear an arena full of Bruins fans cheering for a visiting player scoring a goal as happened with Lucic in the third period, but it all also felt strangely appropriate given the lack of an official sendoff for such an iconic player when he was dealt at the NHL Draft last summer. So Tuesday night’s blowout loss served a couple of different purposes: a rock-bottom of sorts for a Black and Gold team in turmoil, but also the proper closure for a player in Lucic that gave everything he had to help build the Bruins into a Cup winner during his time in Boston.

 

Contact Us