Recchi bound for Beantown

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Mark Recchi wants to make one more run deep into the Stanley Cup playoffs.
It appears that wish just may have come true.
The Tampa Bay Lightning, in 13th place in the NHL’s Eastern Conference, dealt Recchi, who is from Kamloops, to the first-place Boston Bruins on Wednesday, about 90 minutes before the arrival of the league’s trade deadline.
Was he pleased?
“I’m coming down a little bit now. Slowly . . . I’m coming down,” Recchi told The Daily News shortly after the trade was announced.
The Bruins, who are at home to the Phoenix Coyotes tonight, also acquired a 2010 second-round draft pick, while surrendering defenceman Matt Lashoff, 22, and right-winger Martins Karsums, 23.
Recchi, who turned 41 on Feb. 1, joins his seventh NHL team. He has won Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins (1991) and Carolina Hurricanes (2006). Last summer, he signed a one-year contract worth US$1.5 million with the Lightning, which was under new ownership.
Two summers ago, Recchi was part of a group that purchased the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers, a team for which he played two seasons (1986-88). His number has been retired by the Blazers and the street in front of Interior Savings Centre is named Mark Recchi Way.
As the NHL trade deadline passed in mid-afternoon, Recchi was waiting to hear from Boston general manager Peter Chiarelli before heading for Boston.
“I had heard Boston but it was so quiet I hadn’t heard anything (definite),” Recchi said. “I heard there were a few other teams that were involved, a few that were talking, but I just didn’t know.”
Recchi said he doesn’t have any pals on the Bruins’ roster, although he and Boston defenceman Aaron Ward won the 2006 Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes.
“Other than him, that’s it,” Recchi said.
As for a role, he expects to be looked upon for the same things he brought the Hurricanes after they acquired him at the trade deadline in 2006.
“They’re deep,” Recchi said of the Bruins. “My first thought is to just go in there and try to fit in. Whatever they want . . . whatever they need. Kind of the same thing as Carolina.
“I would assume they’re looking at a depth forward. If there are injuries, I can move up a little bit. That was fine with me in ’06 and it’s fine now. If I get the opportunity to win again, why not?”
Recchi played a major role in Carolina’s run to the 2006 championship, picking up 16 points, including seven goals, in 25 playoff games.
With the Lightning, Recchi totaled 45 points, including 32 assists, in 62 games. He earned five assists in an 8-6 victory over the Flames in Calgary on Sunday night, becoming the oldest player in NHL history to set up five goals in one game.
Asked if he would do the Tampa Bay thing all over again, Recchi quickly replied: “Yeah, I would. I think the ownership (Len Barrie and Oren Koules) has real good intentions . . . I just think they need somebody experienced in here. They need an experienced hockey person to come in and run the whole thing.”
While his family will remain in Tampa Bay through the school year, Recchi expected to fly to Boston last night or this morning. He said he would be available to play tonight “if they want me.”
When he plays, he’ll have to wear a number other than his usual No. 8. The Bruins have retired that number, which was worn by winger Cam Neely.
Recchi is the oldest midseason acquisition by the Bruins since they picked up goaltender Jacques Plante from the Toronto Maple Leafs during the 1972-73 season. Plante was 44 at the time.
Lashoff has been playing with the AHL’s Providence Bruins. The 22nd overall pick in the 2005 draft, he had 21 points in 33 games in the AHL and one assists in 16 games with Boston.
Karsums, a Latvian, had one assist in six games with the Bruins, who had reassigned him to their AHL affiliate in Providence on Tuesday. A second-round pick by the Bruins in 2004, he had 41 points in 43 games with Providence.
The Bruins also acquired defenceman Steve Montador, 29, from the Anaheim Ducks for forward Petteri Nokelainen, who had been playing a limited role with Boston.
Meanwhile, two other former Blazers forwards were on the move yesterday.
Centre Erik Christensen, an offseason resident of Kamloops, moved from the Atlanta Thrashers to the Anaheim Ducks for centre Eric O’Dell, who has 30 goals with the OHL’s Sudbury Wolves. O’Dell, 18, was the 39th overall pick by the Ducks in the 2008 draft.
The 25-year-old Christensen, who moved from Pittsburgh to Atlanta at the 2008 trade deadline, has 19 points in 47 games with the Thrashers. He played for the Blazers from 1999-2004 and is the last Kamloops player to score 50 goals and win a WHL scoring championship. He had 108 points, including 54 goals, in 2002-03.
The Philadelphia Flyers dealt right-winger Scottie Upshall, who played for the Blazers from 2000-03, and a second-round draft pick to the Phoenix Coyotes for Daniel Carcillo, an energy/enforcer type. Carcillo leads the NHL in penalty minutes, with 174 in 54 games.
Upshall, 25, was selected by the Nashville Predators with the sixth pick of the 2002 NHL draft. He has 21 points, including seven goals, in 55 games with the Flyers this season.
What this means is that Recchi and Upshall will be on opposing sides tonight in Boston.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
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