NIFTY CHOICE BY BRUINS (Sullivan column): Rick Middleton deserves to have his jersey number put on ice

Here's two thumbs up for the Bruins deciding to retire Rick Middleton’s No. 16 jersey number.

No Bruin in my memory, including Mr. Orr, could turn defensemen inside out like Middleton. It wasn't about speed with Middleton, though he probably had slightly better than average speed; he just had that amazing knack for slipping past opponents. Sometimes it even looked like he would “lose’ the puck briefly as part of his attack. It would be in his feet one second, back on his stick next, and then in the net.

Click here for Middleton highlights video.

Middleton’s nickname of Nifty was good enough. Slippery would have been more accurate but that's just not a cool nickname. Maybe Elusive? Or Vision, a reference to the Marvel Universe hero who makes his body turn ghost-like when convenient. Let’s check some old videos for an infinity stone implanted in Middleton’s forehead.

Once Nifty/Vision had the puck across the blue line, you could feel the excited anticipatory buzz in the old Boston Garden. And Middleton could finish, too. Shots and dekes.

Alex Kogler, 66, of Fall River, the former Southeastern Massachusetts University (now UMD) hockey coach and former owner of the legendary Butler’s Donuts in Westport, was a minor league hockey teammate of Middleton, with the Providence Reds for the 1973-74. It was Kogler’s second year with the Reds, the New York Rangers’ AHL affiliate, and Middleton came in as a first-round draft choice.

“He was extremely talented,” Kogler said. “He wasn’t big. He wasn’t that fast. But no one could take the puck away from him. And he could score to the top corner laying on his back.”

Kogler said as a hot-shot prospect in an era when much more nasty stick work (slashing) was common, Middleton, a Lady Byng Award (sportsmanship) winner with the Bruins, was not intimidated. “He was a lot tougher than people might think,” Kogler said.

Middleton’s career took off after he came to the Bruins from the Rangers in an ultimately very one-sided trade, for a past-prime Ken Hodge. As a young player, Kogler said, Middleton enjoyed his alcohol too much and it affected his play, though he was still good enough to be the AHL’s rookie of the year and a first-team all-star.

Middleton was no one-man party bus in the Rangers’ organization. The Rangers of the mid-1970s were not known for taking the best care of their bodies, the result, some speculate, of lucrative (for the time) guaranteed contracts resulting from competition from the World Hockey Association. Kogler recalled visiting Madison Square Garden in New York City when he was rehabilitating an injury. A look inside the locker room revealed a gaggle of Rangers smoking cigarettes and drinking beer.

Kogler said Middleton started to get his career in better focus when he went to Sweden to play.

“He started to straighten himself out a little bit,” he said. “All the talent he had, there was no stopping him. He just had to get his head together.”

Middleton, Kogler said, was never a head case. The No. 1 draft pick fit right in with his Providence Reds brothers. Not spoiled. Not arrogant. “A real good, regular guy,” said Kogler, who also played forward. “Rick was always a great guy.”

As a mostly 1970s and 1980s Bruins watcher, I would put Middleton (now president of the Bruins alumni association) on my all-time team, using him at left wing. He would be joined by Jean Ratelle at center, Cam Neely on the right wing, with Bobby Orr and Ray Bourque on defense. Throw Gerry Cheevers in goal.

I was tempted to go with Pete Peters in goal, only so the imaginary fans could chant, “Peeeeete.”

If bored, email Greg Sullivan at gsullivan@heraldnews.com. In Twitter Village he hangs @GregSullivanHN.