As the team president, it's clear that Neely's fingerprints are all over this team. When he speaks publicly, he gives us a little insight as to what he could be telling the team behind the scenes.
Whether he spoke to his goalie tandem directly, or just used his public comments on Tuesday to call them out, the message seemed to get through to Tim Thomas pretty quickly.
On Tuesday night, Thomas turned away 30 shots in a 4-1 win over the Devils. For Bruins fans, it was a nice return to the Thomas that, quite frankly, B's fans had been spoiled by earlier in the season.
Could Neely have played a role in the return to form?
On Tuesday, speaking with 98.5 The Sports Hub, the Hall of Famer spoke about his goaltending situation. Since both Thomas and Tuukka Rask have been struggling, it has become a pretty general assumption that Thomas would no doubt be the starting goalie once the playoffs roll around. Not so fast, said Neely.
"Tim's struggled a little bit, and I think that has to do with the way the team's played as well, but it's almost like, 'OK guys, show us who's ready to be the goalie for the playoffs,'" Neely said on The Felger and Massarotti Show. "Now it's about these guys both figuring out that they need to get better themselves, and I don't question that's gonna happen."
You have to think that if for some reason Thomas did hear those words on Tuesday, that it wasn't the first time someone, whether it be Neely or someone else in the front office, had expressed that to him.
Whatever the case may be, the veteran goalie responded by ending a skid of four starts in which he had allowed 14 goals. When Neely and the Bruins needed Thomas to be big, he stood up and delivered.
It's not the first time that Neely has taken to the airwaves to wake up his team. He called the team out publicly (and likely more vehemently behind closed doors), and the B's responded in kind. They won nine of their next 13.
Maybe it's just a coincidence that the B's seem to pick up their play when Neely is most critical. Regardless, they showed flashes of the type of hockey that can potentially make them Stanley Cup contenders on Tuesday night. They'll need to sustain that on Thursday night when the traveling circus that is the Montreal Canadiens visit the TD Garden.
That should be more than enough to get a Boston hockey team up. If it's not, though, one other thing that Neely said on Tuesday should do the trick.
"One of the things I've noticed is the compete level hasn't been where it should be or where it needs to be. I think there's times where our players feel like they're a good team and all they need to do sometimes is put the skates on and go out there and get two points."
They won't be able to do that on Thursday night, and there won't be many games down the stretch and especially into the playoffs they will be able to either. The Bruins better heed the president's words the rest of the way, because more often than not, when Cam Neely speaks, he's right.
