Mark Recchi: From the Ice to the Bench | FEATURE

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Mark Recchi | Speak of the Devils
Mark Recchi sat in a chair with a glass of wine in his hand and the Pacific Ocean in front of him. Recchi, who was joined by then Boston Bruins teammate Shawn Thornton, was letting the moment sink in. He knew that the next game he played in the National Hockey League - Game 7 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final - would be his last.
"I'd known riding down the end it was probably going to be it," said Recchi, who invited Thornton to join him that fateful evening. "It was a beautiful setting. We had a view of the Pacific Ocean and sipped on a glass of wine. I was at peace with it. I knew that was going to be it."
The following day, June 15, the 43-year-old pulled a jersey over his shoulder pads for the 1,842nd and final time in his career. On the ice, he helped setup Brad Marchand's second-period goal to give Boston a critical 2-0 lead against Vancouver. It would be his final point.
Marchand's second goal of the game would be an empty-net that sealed a 4-0 Game 7 victory for Boston, helping Recchi raise the holy chalice for the third time in his career.
"To end up winning was the icing on the cake," recalled the Kamloops native. "We had a great group in Boston and had been through a lot in the two-and-a-half years I was there together. To be able to do it in my home province (British Columbia). My brothers were there. It was a special night."

Recchi was joined following the win by broadcaster Ron MacLean, who asked about his future.
"This is it," Recchi responded, making his retirement official. But not before he would carry the Cup high above his head for one final glorious lap.
"I had a great run," Recchi told the Speak of the Devils podcast. "It was time for me to move on and do some other things."
Other things started with a break away from game for a few years, though he did coach one of his son's youth hockey teams. He moved back to the Pittsburgh area, the city where he raised his first Stanley Cup 20 years prior in 1991.
Whilst being around the Penguins organization, then general manager Jim Rutherford recruited Recchi to join the team's hockey operations department as a development coach in 2014. In his role, Recchi would win two more championships with the Penguins, back-to-back, in 2016-17.
But when assistant coach Rick Tocchet accepted a head coaching job in Arizona, Recchi was asked to join his first coaching staff in 2017, and he would later join New Jersey in 2019.
Recchi's approach to coaching stems a lot from his own personality.
"I'm very positive with the players. If there's a negative, you try to follow it up with some positive feedback," he said. "If you do it in the right way, the player is going to respond properly. You're not beating down on them. You're working with them. You're in it together. They know you're there to help them."
Recchi, who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2017, has worked with the club's forward group, which includes superstar Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, Pavel Zacha, Jesper Bratt, and now rookie Dawson Mercer.
"They're all great young men," Recchi said. "They want to be players; they want to be great. We built a great relationship. We trust each other. We push them to get better."
Recchi is still a very young coach with this being his fifth year behind the bench, but he's already learned a lot from his experiences. And he understands his role with the team.
"The head coach has more of the hammer. We're there to support the head coach," Recchi said. "We have to send the same message. We have to all be intertwined as coaches. If players sense there is something going on and somebody doesn't agree with the head coach - there are arguments, we discuss things as coaches and we don't always agree on them. But when we leave that (coaches) room, we've all agreed on something and no one would ever know. I think that's important for the players to know that the coaching staff is all in."
It's been 10 years since Recchi peered out at the Pacific Ocean on the eve of his career finale. He may not be on the ice anymore, but once a player, always a player.
As he said of his playing days: "There's nothing better than that feeling of going out and competing and having some success, the failures, you fight through the adversity. That's all the stuff I missed when I stopped playing.
"Hockey has given me so much. I'm thankful. It's been a great journey."