Mike Milbury

Michael Milbury (born June 17, 1952) is an American former professional ice hockey player currently working as an analyst for the NHL on NBC. He played for twelve seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL), all for the Boston Bruins. He later served as assistant general manager under Harry Sinden and head coach for Boston, as well as general manager and head coach for the New York Islanders.

Playing career

Colgate University

Milbury was a three-year letterman at Colgate University from 1972 to 1974. A defenseman who wore uniform number 7, he was the team's co-leader in assists with 19 in his junior year. As senior captain, he had his best season with the Red Raiders with 30 points (4 goals, 26 assists). He also led the squad in penalty minutes in both campaigns with 68 in 1973 and 85 in 1974. His totals in 76 games played were 6 goals, 55 assists, 61 points and 203 penalty minutes.

Boston Bruins

Immediately after the conclusion of his college hockey career, Milbury played in five games with the Boston Braves, the Bruins' top farm team, in 1974. He signed with the Bruins as a free agent on November 5, 1974, and spent the next two campaigns with the Rochester Americans, the team's new American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate. In both seasons he led the club in penalty minutes with 246 in 1975 and 199 in 1976, finishing fourth and third respectively in the AHL.

He was promoted to the Bruins late in the 1975–76 season, playing in eleven of twelve Stanley Cup playoff matches. Prior to the following NHL campaign, he was a member of the United States team at the inaugural 1976 Canada Cup, getting a goal and three assists in five contests.

In his first three full years with the Bruins, his heavily aggressive style of play was a perfect fit for the overachieving team coached by Don Cherry and featuring similar tough players such as Terry O'Reilly, John Wensink and Stan Jonathan. Milbury helped his team reach consecutive Stanley Cup Finals in 1977 and 1978, with Boston losing both times to the Montreal Canadiens in four and six games respectively.

In his twelve seasons as a defenseman for the Bruins, he appeared in the postseason eleven times. He accumulated more than 200 penalty minutes in 1981 (222) and 1983 (216) and surpassed 100 six other times. He also served as the club's representative with the NHL Players' Association and was outspoken on several controversial issues, notably the role of Alan Eagleson.

Coaching career

Boston Bruins

Milbury became head coach of the Boston Bruins in the 1989–90 season, leading the team to the Presidents' Trophy and an appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals. He was named Executive of the Year by the Sporting News.

He was the head coach of the Wales Conference team at the 1991 All-Star Game, where he generated some controversy by including enforcer Chris Nilan and checker Brian Skrudland ahead of players such as Kirk Muller and Guy Lafleur. However, Nilan and Skrudland both missed the game due to injury. As a result of Milbury's controversial roster picks, the league's board of governors changed their policy so that future teams would be chosen by committee.

Boston College

On March 30, 1994, Boston College announced that Mike Milbury would take over as the head coach of the hockey team, replacing Steve Cedorchuk.However, Milbury abruptly left the job at Boston College before coaching a game, citing "philosophical differences" with the school's athletics department in a press conference held on June 2, 1994.BC eventually hired legendary coach Jerry York, then the head coach at Bowling Green University, to replace Milbury, while Milbury took work as a television analyst.

New York Islanders

Milbury was hired as the Islanders' coach in 1995 and within three months became the general manager as well, but he turned the coaching duties over to Rick Bowness in January 1997. During several of the years that Milbury served as Islanders GM, the team's ownership mandated that he operate the team on an austere budget. In 1999, he was forced to trade star scorer Žigmund Pálffy because team owners no longer wanted to pay his multimillion-dollar contract.

However, Milbury has also been criticized for the many seemingly poor decisions he made in which payroll or orders from upper management were not factors.Many young players and prospects that Milbury traded away went on to have distinguished careers, often eclipsing those of the players he received in return.He traded away defensemen Zdeno Chara, Wade Redden, Bryan Berard, Eric Brewer, Darius Kasparaitis, and Bryan McCabe; goaltenders Roberto Luongo and Tommy Salo; as well as forwards Olli Jokinen, Todd Bertuzzi, Tim Connolly, Jean-Pierre Dumont, and Raffi Torres. Milbury has also come under fire for his poor draft-day decisions such as choosing Rick DiPietro first overall in 2000 over Dany Heatley and Marian Gaborik, as well as his decision to include the 2001 second overall draft pick (Jason Spezza) as part of the Alexei Yashin trade.

In June 2006, Milbury stepped down as Islanders GM to accept a position as Senior Vice President of Charles Wang's sports holdings. In an appearance on Mike and the Mad Dog, Wang did not challenge a suggestion from the hosts that he "fired" Milbury.Milbury resigned from his Senior VP job in May 2007.He said that he missed making hockey-related decisions and would be open to a hockey operations job in another organization.

Television work

American networks NESN, NBC and Versus, plus Canada's TSN, hired Milbury as a studio analyst for the 2007–08 season. He also serves as the studio analyst for the Boston Bruins, and for the past two years, he has participated in the broadcast of the Winter Classic. In July 2008, Milbury signed a two-year contract with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Hockey Night in Canada. He also served as color commentator for “NHL on NBC” telecasts involving Boston Bruins with Kenny Albert and Emmy-Award winning "Inside-the-Glass" reporter Pierre McGuire.

Controversies

P. K. Subban

Milbury has received criticism for comments he made about P. K. Subban in 2017. In April, Milbury said Subban deserved a "rap on the head" for his pre-game warm-up routine, a comment some viewed as racist (Milbury is white, Subban is black and was one of less than 30 black players in the NHL in 2016-17). During a 2017 Stanley Cup Finals game in June between Subban's Nashville Predators and the Pittsburgh Penguins, Subban and Sidney Crosby engaged in a fight that ended with Subban's head bouncing off the ice. Milbury said after the game that Subban "had it coming." When the series moved to Nashville, several fans taunted Milbury over his comments, including some who claimed NBC tried to "bribe" them with a hat in return for handing over their signs that were critical of Milbury which might be picked up on camera.

2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs

During the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs, Milbury made a series of controversial comments that attracted a wide range of responses, from mockery to calls for him to lose his job with NBC.

During an August 4th game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Columbus Blue Jackets, Maple Leafs defenseman Jake Muzzin suffered an injury that Milbury believed he was faking. Milbury encouraged him to stay on the ice and attempt to draw a whistle. Muzzin was ultimately carted off the ice on a stretcher. Milbury's comments were called "both disgusting and unsurprising."

Following a 5-overtime, sudden death game between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Blue Jackets on August 11th, Milbury's idea for the NHL to adapt either a shootout or 3-on-3 format to speed up overtime in the playoffs drew the ire of outspoken former player Sean Avery, who called Milbury a "bozo" and said he should quit or be fired by NBC, adding that sudden death was essential to playoff hockey.

Later that same evening, Milbury tweeted a photo of the CN Tower in Toronto and misidentified it as the Space Needle, located in Seattle.

On August 15th, Milbury criticized the decision made by Tuukka Rask of the Boston Bruins to opt out of the playoffs in the middle of a series, saying "(Nobody's) simply opted to leave the bubble just because they didn’t want to be here and they needed to be with their family." This followed comments Milbury had made two weeks earlier, where he claimed to be a "fan" of Rask while questioning his commitment to hockey after watching an interview in which Rask talked about changing his newborn daughter's diapers. It was revealed four days later on August 19th that an emergency involving his daughter needing medical attention drove Rask's decision to leave the team.

On August 20th while calling a game between the Washington Capitals and New York Islanders, Milbury praised the playoff bubble system designed to isolate teams during the COVID-19 pandemic because there were "not even any women here to disrupt your concentration." His comments received quick condemnation from the NHL itself, as well as from fans and analysts alike (including reporters from ESPN, The Sports Network, Sportsnet and The Hockey Guy), and prompted calls for him to be fired. Milbury apologized the next day, and NBC released a statement saying the issue had been addressed, though they did not publicly elaborate any further, nor did they indicate whether Milbury would face any discipline. The Washington Post later reported that NBC had removed Milbury from that evening's broadcast schedule, and would not announce the following weekend's broadcasting teams until Saturday morning.

Writing for The Athletic in an article titled Do we honestly have no better options than Mike Milbury?, author Katie Strang considered Milbury's comments on women in hockey, Rask, and Muzzin on the whole and concluded, "This is about standards. Milbury has not evolved with the times and, perhaps most importantly, he hasn’t demonstrated a desire to do so. Instead, he seems like someone who either lacks the awareness to realize how many people he alienates on a nightly basis or realizes it and doesn’t care. Either should be disqualifying."

Milbury gained notoriety for what occurred following a 4–3 Bruins victory over the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on December 23, 1979. During an on-ice fray between the players from both sides, a Rangers fan cut Stan Jonathan's face with a rolled-up program and grabbed his hockey stick. Terry O'Reilly climbed over the Plexiglas and went into the stands in pursuit of the offender, followed by Peter McNab and other teammates. Milbury, who had actually reached the visitors locker room when his teammates started going into the stands, raced back to join his colleagues in the brawl. He caught the unruly spectator, removed one of his shoes and, while holding the heel end, slapped him hard once with the sole side before being restrained. Subsequently, NHL president John Ziegler suspended O'Reilly for eight games and McNab and Milbury for six, with each being fined $500. This incident also resulted in the installation of higher glass panels enclosing rinks in hockey arenas.

Regular season and playoffs

International