“Every winter in Columbus, he’d make a rink in the backyard, which was not the easiest thing to do with the climate, but we’d get some good action on it. So, some good memories,” Sean Kuraly said after a recent Bruins practice. “I enjoyed helping how I could, and we kind of learned over the years how to make it better, little tricks and things to do to kind of keep the ice in better shape and have it ready longer and all that kind of stuff. There were tons of neighborhood kids. I don’t know, we usually got about 15 days of ice maybe. It was good.”
From his early days of skating on ponds near his grandparents’ home in Toronto over Christmas breaks, through his youth hockey days and on to his junior, college, international, and NHL career, Rick Kuraly was always at the center for Sean.
“My dad was always coaching my teams growing up in Columbus and stuff,” said Sean.
Rick did not have a harsh style. Tender teachings and subtle tips were how he delivered his points.
“No one’s seen me play more hockey than my dad, for sure. And I don’t think anybody, nobody ever will. He’s seen me play my whole life and basically watched every single practice and game growing up, for sure. And definitely didn’t miss barely any NHL games. If he missed it, he’d rewatch it the next day,” said Sean. “But his advice as a hockey player to me was always just, ‘Be honest and play hard and be a good teammate and do the right things.’ And he loved talking about the simple things like going to the net, keeping your stick on the ice, and just the basics. It never got too intricate. Anytime he would say something, it was always just going back to the basic things and not trying to get too complicated.”
Once Sean got to the NHL, conversations became efficient and efficacious.
“I wouldn’t call him after the game and say, ‘Hey, how do you think I played?’ I knew. But we’d talk. And the NHL is hard, so since I’ve been in the NHL, it’s usually just positive,” said Sean. “But he always has some advice to sneak in there somehow in a gentle, maybe not-so-gentle way. But, he’d always just point out kind things that good players on the team were doing and how I could do some of those things too, or something like that. But it was always just positive stuff since I’ve been in the NHL.”
Rick’s advice came from experience. He wasn’t just a run-of-the-mill hockey dad. Rick Kuraly is one of the most accomplished players in the history of the Miami University program. He played for the Oxford, Ohio, school from 1979-83 and is its only 100-goal scorer.
His list of mosts is impressive:
▪ Most goals (101).
▪ Most goals in a game (five).
▪ Most power-play goals (36).
▪ Most hat tricks (nine).
In addition, Rick is third on the all-time scoring list (179 points) and is tied for the longest point streak at 17 games. He was inducted into the Miami Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014, and his name and No. 9 hang on a brick wall at Goggin Ice Center.
A sign honoring Rick Kuraly is shown outside Goggin Ice Center at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.Miami (Ohio) Athletics Department
Sean, who also played at Miami and also wore No. 9, learned of his dad’s exploits on his own. Rick was not a bragger.
“When I was younger, I’d go stay over at the hockey school at Miami,” Sean said. “So, you kind of figured it out. When I’d go there, there were some plaques on the wall and eventually his number went up at the new rink and stuff. So, I think that’s when I kind of realized that he was a good player.”
Rick died last month after a short illness, discovered just weeks after Sean signed a free agent deal to return to Boston. He was 65.
“We found out, in late July this year, he had stage four pancreatic cancer and then a week later he was in the hospital, Aug. 3, and he had to have an emergency colectomy and unfortunately didn’t make it out of the hospital after that. It was a month and a day, Sept. 4, he passed, just complication after complication,” said Sean. “Unfortunately, the cancer was just moving too quickly, and we just caught it way too late. The pancreatic cancer seems to be just a really silent, silent grower and it just gets so big. Unfortunately, there was nothing we could do about it.”
Though it was an excruciating time, Sean and his family were buoyed by being able to provide comfort to Rick.
“It was me and my brothers. We got to spend a lot of time with him the last month,” Sean said. “We were at the hospital every day and spending time hanging out, we got to talk and have conversations. So, we felt really fortunate about that time.”
Sean was especially grateful for the support of Rick’s many friends and former teammates who visited.
“Throughout his last month in the hospital, his teammates came through the hospital every single day and a couple of them spent the night with my dad when one of us — me or my brothers — couldn’t,” he said. “At the end of his life, those were the guys that were there and hanging out with him and I think at the end of the day gave him more time to live. And he was always really excited to see them. He had so many visitors, mostly his teammates.”
Something Rick wanted to do this season was travel to all the away venues to see Sean play, so his ex-teammates are living that wish for him. Two attended the opener in Washington.
“And there’s kind of this Excel spreadsheet with this alumni thing that people are signing up to come and check out every away rink this year,” said Kuraly, who will take a picture with attendees at each arena. “We’re planning on making a collage of all those after the year. It’s really cool. So that’ll be fun.”
A No. 9 sticker in honor of Rick Kuraly is shown on the helmet of Miami hockey player Casper Nassen, who is a Bruins draft pick.Miami (Ohio) Athletics Department
A scholarship in Rick Kuraly’s name is being set up at Miami, whose hockey players will wear No. 9 decals on their helmets this season.
“I think it’s a really cool way to honor him at a place that had so much impact on his life,” said Sean. “And this year, remembering his kind of bucket list thing to do was to come and see every rink. It’ll be fun to have that there and have a little memory of my dad at each of those games.”
JOINING THE CLUB
Another Bourque in Black and Gold
The Providence Bruins have a familiar face behind the bench this season, but you won’t see him in skates unless you wander into a practice.
Ryan Bourque, fresh off leading Cushing Academy to the NEPSAC Elite 8 title in his one season as coach, has returned to his AHL roots as one of Ryan Mougenel’s assistants.
The son of Bruins Hall of Famer Ray — the resemblance is absolutely uncanny — Ryan finished his playing career in 2020 after collecting 85 goals and 203 points in 585 AHL games with Hartford, Hershey, Bridgeport, and Charlotte.
Now he gets a chance to make his mark in the organization for which his father and brother, Chris, played. He couldn’t be more excited for the chance.
“Anytime you get an opportunity to work for an organization like the Bruins, it’s special. But I think with my upbringing, and I say it all the time, my dad, it’s been a family since Day 1 with the Bruins, and he had a super long career wearing the Black and Gold and then my brother had the opportunity to play for both Providence and Boston as well. But I was kind of the missing link there,” Bourque told the Globe at last month’s Prospects Challenge in Buffalo. “It’s kind of funny, when you grow up in the locker rooms at a very young age and now to be working for the organization and helping out in even a small way with the future of their organization, it’s an honor and it’s something that I’m really excited about and just very fortunate and grateful for.”
He took some time from hockey after his playing days for “a short stint in sales,” but the lure of the sport he grew up loving was too strong. Coaching was a natural next step.
Bourque started his coaching career as an assistant with the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL in 2021. He also was an assistant with the US National Team Development Program, where he coached Bruins draftees James Hagens and William Moore in 2023-24.
“I was always kind of a guy that was a leader on the teams that I played for and kind of an extension to the coaching staffs,” Bourque said. “I retired and stepped away from the game completely for a solid 12 months. And I think that break, even when I was playing, as much as I loved helping out my teammates and the game itself, it was not something I saw in my future. But then being away from it for a year … it was kind of love from Day 1.”
Watching Bourque run players through drills and then make his points during whiteboard instructions, it’s clear he’s a natural.
“Just the opportunity you have to have an influence on these kids and help them not only on the ice but off the ice with some of the struggles and the adversity that they face, it’s something that I went through and I’ve walked in their shoes and I feel like I went through a lot of different experiences where I can really help them in some of the battles and adversities that they’re going to be facing,” he said.
Mougenel called Bourque “a student of the game,” and likes what he brings to their staff’s dynamic.
“He’s super inquisitive. He’s been around a lot of great people in his path to coaching and I just really liked his demeanor and how he talked about players,” said Mougenel. “He’s going to be real good for our forwards and he’s got a great offensive mind too. So, I’m excited for him. I think he’s hungry, humble, fun. He’s got a good energy to him, so we’re excited to get him on board.”
Both Matthew (pictured, right) and Brady Tkachuk are injured.Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images/Getty
ETC.
US needs healthy Tkachuks in Olympics
The NHL is currently Tkachuk-less and that’s no good.
Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk (torn adductor muscle) isn’t expected to make his season debut until December, and now little brother Brady could miss two months because of a hand injury the Ottawa captain suffered in Week 1.
Getting both back on the ice is important to their fan bases, sure, but getting those “lunatics” (as their dad, Keith, affectionately calls them) healthy in time for February’s Olympic Games is paramount to the Americans’ chances at the medal stand.
The Tkachuks were the lifeblood of Uncle Sam’s team at the 4 Nations Face-Off (or the Confrontation des 4 Nations for our French-Canadian friends). Their patriotism and pugnaciousness will be needed again.
Matthew’s ailment is just one of a few devastating blows to the Panthers, who will be without captain Aleksander Barkov (knee) for the season and defenseman Dmitry Kulikov (labral tear) for five months.
Fitting tribute to Dryden
Hats off to the Canadiens for their stirring tribute to the late Ken Dryden, the greatest goalie in the storied franchise’s history. In addition to a video, the Canadiens placed Dryden’s iconic mask atop a net at the Bell Centre on Tuesday.
When researching Dryden’s remarkable career, I came across this exquisitely descriptive quote from a 2009 Sports Illustrated article from S.L. Price where Dryden talked about facing Bobby Orr:
“He brought others with him; he wanted them involved,” Dryden said. “That’s what made him so different: It felt like a five-player stampede moving toward you — and at his pace. He pushed his teammates, [because] you’re playing with the best player in the league and he’s giving you the puck and you just can’t mess it up. You had to be better than you’d ever been.”
It’s no wonder why Dryden excelled at color commentary, too.
Lane Hutson, who played collegiately at Boston University, signed an eight-year contract extension with the Montreal Canadiens. AP Photo/Carlos Osorio/Associated Press
Quiz time: What pair of brothers has the most points in NHL history? Answer below … Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson signed an eight-year extension for $70.8 million, and it’s considered by many in NHL circles as a bargain. What a world! Truth be told, it is a bargain by today’s standards. An $8.85m average annual value is franchise friendly for a defender (with offensive acumen and power-play skill) of Hutson’s excellence … It’s easy to be a fan of the Panthers — and affordable as well. According to Ticketmaster, the get-in price on Opening Night in Sunrise to see Paul Maurice’s fun bunch raise their second straight Stanley Cup banner was $33 — the lowest price across the league (by $10) for each franchise’s first home game of the season. By contrast, the highest price was in Montreal at $142 (US bucks). The Bruins checked in at No. 11 ($83) … Save the date: The Dropkick Murphys will perform following the Springfield Thunderbirds game against the Providence Bruins at MassMutual Convention Center Exhibition Hall on March 11. No truth to the rumor they’re changing their name to the Puckdrop Murphys for the night. (I’ll show myself out.) Get the details at springfieldthunderbirds.com … Happy belated birthday to Willie O’Ree. The Bruins and NHL barrier breaker turned 90 on Oct. 15 … All your hockey mates in Australia will get to see live games after the NHL and the Nine Network agreed to a deal to broadcast games free of charge. Games (21 in total) will run every Saturday morning at 10 — perhaps a little too early for some shrimp on the barbie … You thought you had a busy holiday weekend? Zdeno Chara ran the Chicago Marathon last Sunday (3 hours, 25 minutes) and was back on the job Monday afternoon for the Bruins’ matinee in Boston … Quiz answer: The Gretzky boys Wayne (2,857 points) and Brent (4) combined for 2,861.
Jim McBride can be reached at james.mcbride@globe.com. Follow him @globejimmcbride.