Milan Lucic talks about Boston Bruins' journey to the National Hockey League Stanley Cup finals
The journey of Milan Lucic, one of the star players in Boston Bruins, started off when Western Hockey League’s executives saw him as a potential candidate for a team.
"We had another boy on our list, David Rutherford, at the time and we were just going out to watch because (Giants majority owner) Ron Toigo was a family friend of the Rutherford's, so he sent me out to watch David play", recalls Bonner.
"At the same game, Milan was actually there playing for the Ice Hawks, and he fought, did really well … so we ended up listing him as well because we thought we had Matt Kassian on our team, but we thought Milan might be his replacement".
There was a time in the early stages of Lucic’s career when he was considering options of quitting as a player.
Ice Hawks and Lucic spent a good time together after which he parted ways and went for Vancouver Giants.
He was brilliant during the brief time he spent with the team in which he played one regular season game and two play-off games in the Western Conference League. He was 22 years old when he joined the team and was playing the role of a mascot for the team.
Lucic learned a lot from his first season with Giants in the 2005-06 season. He received considerable assistance from the assistant coach of the team, Dan Kesa, who was his uncle.
At the end of the 2006 season, Bruins spotted Lucic and his talent. He was signed by Canucks the next season and was hoping that he would get a chance to play in the team.
Nevertheless, he was selected by Canucks as a second round over-all draft pick in 2006 and brought into the team.
He went back into the WHL where he was absolutely superb to say the least, scoring a total of 30 goals, 68 points out of the 72 games that he played with Giants. This came with the 147 penalty minutes that he bagged.
He was brilliant during the final part of the season, scoring a total of 19 points out of 22 play-off games and was also awarded the Most Valuable Player award at the end of the Memorial Cup 2007.
The 2007-08 season was expected a season for him to shine but he was never able to make an appearance in the season as he was with Bruins.
Even though he was a Canucks’ fan while growing up, he says that all he wants at the moment is to win and get hold of the Stanley Cup.
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=564139
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