arg, that boston team. patrick roy arguably had the greatest playoff career of all time, but his legacy might have been even greater if cam neely wasn't his kryptonite.
the habs and bruins played against each other in the playoffs every year for the first seven seasons of roy's career, including five straight adams finals, and cam neely was in five of those series.
in 1987, neely's first year in boston, the habs swept them but neely introduced himself to monsieur roy, scoring 5 goals, which was half of boston's total in that series.
in 1988, if there's no neely (two goals in the deciding game, including the game winner, his second of the series) could the habs win the series? would they have dispatched the devils next and made the finals? keep in mind that montreal won the wales conference by nine points that year.
roy wins in 1989, as we know, eventually making the finals.
in 1990, roy was excellent except for two stinkers, in which neely scored two goals and two assists. this is peak vezina roy. if no neely, you'd think the habs if they won would easily beat the capitals, whom the bruins swept. that caps team was great, all of the pent up and never realized promise of the langway era finally flowering with clutch scorers taking over (ironically, the bruins beat them with their own former players: dave christian, bobby carpenter, garry galley, and even a cameo from bobby gould). but ciccarelli, who singlehandedly beat the devils in round one, got hurt at the beginning of the second round. john druce, who famously turned into mike bossy against the rangers, turned back into a pumpkin. the habs had this one. could they have taken the 1990 oilers?
1991, that was the cam neely owns patrick roy series. scored the winner in games one and seven (both 2-1 victories), and three of boston's four goals in game five. five out of seven games were one goal games. we always talk about how neely would have done against the penguins. how would roy?
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in total, neely's numbers against roy were 17 goals in 26 games, 3 GWGs. neely added another 2 goals, 1 GWG, in three games along the way against hayward, plus one empty netter.
against all other teams during his boston career, he had 35 goals (and 29 assists, for 64 points) in 60 games, 7 GWGs, so neely was a great player and clutch playoff scorer, no doubt. but man did he ever have roy's number.
if neely "only" produced the same amount as he did against other teams against the habs in those years, could a couple of those series have been flipped? 1990 1991 was that close, at least, that a "normal" neely could have a made a difference.