Michael James Milbury (born June 17, 1952 in Brighton, Massachusetts) is an American Sportscaster. He is a former Defenseman for the Boston Bruins. He later served as assistant general manager under Harry Sinden and head coach of Boston, as well as GM and coach of the New York Islanders.
Biography[]
Colgate University[]
Milbury played college ice hockey for Colgate University before signing a professional contract with the hometown Boston Bruins of the NHL in 1972/73. He played for for the Bruins in the 1976 Stanley Cup playoffs and later represented the United States team at the inaugural 1976 Canada Cup.
National Hockey League[]
Season Team Lge GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1972-73 Colgate University NCAA 23 2 19 21 68
1973-74 Colgate University NCAA 28 4 26 30 85
1973-74 Boston Braves AHL 5 0 0 0 7 -- - -- -- --
1974-75 Rochester Americans AHL 71 2 15 17 246 8 0 3 3 24
1975-76 Rochester Americans AHL 73 3 15 18 199 3 0 1 1 13
1975-76 Boston Bruins NHL 3 0 0 0 9 11 0 0 0 29
1976-77 Boston Bruins NHL 77 6 18 24 166 13 2 2 4 47
1977-78 Boston Bruins NHL 80 8 30 38 151 15 1 8 9 27
1978-79 Boston Bruins NHL 74 1 34 35 149 11 1 7 8 7
1979-80 Boston Bruins NHL 72 10 13 23 59 10 0 2 2 50
1980-81 Boston Bruins NHL 77 0 18 18 222 2 0 1 1 10
1981-82 Boston Bruins NHL 51 2 10 12 71 11 0 4 4 6
1982-83 Boston Bruins NHL 78 9 15 24 216 -- - -- -- --
1983-84 Boston Bruins NHL 74 2 17 19 159 3 0 0 0 12
1984-85 Boston Bruins NHL 78 3 13 16 152 5 0 0 0 10
1985-86 Boston Bruins NHL 22 2 5 7 102 1 0 0 0 17
1986-87 Boston Bruins NHL 68 6 16 22 96 4 0 0 0 4
NHL Totals: 754 49 189 238 1552 86 4 24 28 219
Boston Bruins[]
Over eleven seasons, Milbury played 754 games as a defenseman for the Bruins. He is well known for an incident which occurred on December 23, 1979, in a game against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Milbury followed his teammates into the stands during a brawl and took a spectator's shoe off. He then used the shoe to beat the spectator.
He 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.
New York Islanders[]
Season Team Lge Type GP W L T Pct Result 1985-86 Boston Bruins NHL Assistant --- 1987-88 Maine Mariners AHL Head 80 44 25 7 0.61875 Lost in round 2 1988-89 Maine Mariners AHL Head 80 32 40 8 0.45000 Out of Playoffs 1989-90 Boston Bruins NHL Head 80 46 25 9 0.63125 Lost in Finals 1990-91 Boston Bruins NHL Head 80 44 24 12 0.62500 Lost in round 3 1995-96 New York Islanders NHL Head 82 22 50 10 0.32927 Out of Playoffs 1996-97 New York Islanders NHL Head 45 13 23 9 0.38889 Replaced Midseason 1997-98 New York Islanders NHL Head 19 8 9 2 0.47368 Out of Playoffs 1998-99 New York Islanders NHL Head --- Replaced Midseason
He is a well-known figure in the National Hockey League for his controversial (and often quotable) style, as well as for his penchant for blockbuster trades.
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 Zigmund Palffy because team owners no longer wanted to pay his multi-million dollar contract.
However, Milbury has also been criticized for the many decisions he made in which payroll or orders for 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 has traded away defensemen Zdeno Chara, Wade Redden, Bryan Berard, Eric Brewer, Darius Kasparaitis, and Bryan McCabe; goalies Roberto Luongo and Tommy Salo, as well as forwards Olli Jokinen, Todd Bertuzzi, Raffi Torres. Milbury has also come under fire for his 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 and NBC, and TSN in Canada hired Milbury as an analyst for the 07/08 season.
In July 2008 Milbury signed a 2 year contract with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Hockey Night in Canada.
| Preceded by Terry O'Reilly |
Head Coaches of the Boston Bruins 1988—1991 |
Succeeded by Rick Bowness |
| Preceded by Lorne Henning |
Head Coaches of the New York Islanders 1995—1997 |
Succeeded by Rick Bowness |
| Preceded by Rick Bowness |
Head Coaches of the New York Islanders 1998 |
Succeeded by Bill Stewart |
| Preceded by Don Maloney |
General Managers of the New York Islanders 1995—2006 |
Succeeded by Neil Smith |
| Boston Bruins Head Coaches | |
|---|---|
| Ross • Denneny • F. Patrick • Ross • Weiland • Ross • Clapper • Boucher • L. Patrick • Schmidt • Watson • Schmidt • Sinden • Johnson • Guidolin • Cherry • Creighton • Sinden • Cheevers • Sinden • Goring • O'Reilly • Milbury • Bowness • Sutter • Kasper • Burns • Keenan • Ftorek • O'Connell • Sullivan • Lewis • Julien • Cassidy • Montgomery | |
| New York Islanders Head Coaches | |
|---|---|
| Goyette • Ingarfield • Arbour • Simpson • Arbour • Henning • Milbury • Bowness • Milbury • Stewart • Goring • Henning • Laviolette • Stirling • Shaw • Nolan • Arbour • Nolan • Gordon • Capuano • Weight • Trotz | |
External links[]
| This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Mike Milbury. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA). |