Maura Bagley was skeptical at the start of the phone call and nervous at the end of it.
Bagley, who has been a season ticket holder since the early days of the Fleet Center, picked up the phone to a representative from the Bruins telling her that Cam Neely wanted to talk to her. Naturally she wasn’t sure what this was about.
Was it really Cam Neely?
And if so, why was the former Boston star-turned team president calling her?
It was in fact Neely and the Bruins team president explained that for Tuesday’s “Fan Appreciation Day,” the team wanted to reward long-time season-ticket holders for their loyalty during a tough year. So he invited Bagley to come to the locker room before the game and read the lineup to the team. It’s a ceremonial honor often given to celebrities and former players. On Tuesday, it would be a fan from Nahant.
Bagley’s bonafides as a fan are solid. In 2011, she and a friend who she met due to their seat proximity in section 301, flew to Vancouver for Game 7 together to watch ther Bruins win the Stanley Cup. They spent just 36 hours in the city before hurrying back to make the parade.
“Best money I ever spent,” said Bagley, who was wearing a Shawn Thornton No. 22 jersey to Tuesday’s game, in honor of her retired, all-time favorite player, from that team who won in Vancouver.
With the Bruins out of playoffs, Bagley planned to temporarily cheer for the Florida Panthers, who have Thornton in their front office and recent Bruins captain Brad Marchand on their roster.
But before adopting Florida for a short stint, she had to send this Bruins team off on the right note, but she had a concern.
“I said to Cam, ‘Who’s the starting lineup because I don’t know if I can pronounce some of these guys,” she said. “There’s a lot of new players, and their names are really long.”
Joe Sacco made it easy when she and her friend Kevin Legget arrived in the locker room. The interim coach handed her a list of nicknames to read— Pasta (David Pastrnak), Geeks (Morgan Geekie), Lindy (Elias Lindholm), Z (Nikita Zadorov), Yoki (Henri Jokiharju) and Bulldog (Jeremy Swayman).
The Bruins have had Fan Appreciation Night every year, but because the season was disappointing without a postseason trip, they appreciated their fans a little more and increased the caliber of the gifts.
“Obviously this year didn’t go as expected. Our fans are so amazing. They continue to come out and support us. We added a little bit more to it this year,” Neely said. “When you’ve been around a long time, especially here with an Original Six team, they’ve seen a lot. You try to give them more good than bad, but unfortunately, it was a bad year for us this year.”
After the NHL trade deadline, Neely said the Bruins staff began discussing what more they might do this year.
Highlighted among the over 400 things they gave away:
*A trip to the Stadium Series next year in Tampa.
*Dinner and watch game experience with Tuukka Rask and Patrice Bergeron
*A Suite for 2025-26 preseason
*A TD Garden Package with tickets to seven events.
“We had talked about it internally leading up to this final game. We knew we were doing shirts off our back and what else could we do,” he said. “We got a lot of great suggestions for what we could add. We want these guys to leave the building happy.”
It worked in Bagley’s case. She’s not a spotlight seeker by nature and the idea of getting up in front of her favorite team to speak was initially intimidating.
“It was fun. I was a little stressed out, but once I got in there, I was calm,” she said. “It’s unique and it has been a rough year. And we’re not really sure how long the roughness is gonna last. So something like this keeps your interest. I was very nervous, but once I got in there I was O.K. I’m happy that I did it. Because it was definitely out of my comfort zone, but it was fun and and they do make you feel comfortable.”
Be the first to comment