Since I have followed BU John Cullen has always been my favorite Terrier.
Therefore I was very happy to see this article in the Hockey News.
 
Reprinted without permission.
 
PRODIGAL SON CULLEN BACK
 
             By Mark Brender
 
John Cullen is no literary critic, but he knows irony when he sees it.
 
The one-time 94-point scorer returned this summer to Pittsburgh-the scene of
his greatest successes-to play for coach Ed Johnston. Johnston was the man
who, as general manager of the Hartford Whalers, traded for Cullen and
subsequently lost his job.
 
The Penguins still employ all three players from the trade-Ron Francis, Ulf
Samuelsson and Grant Jenningsand won two Stanley Cups.
 
The only winner in Hartford was Brian Burke. He took Johnston's job.
 
"It's a very ironic thing going on here," said Cullen, who signed as a free
agent. "E.J. took a lot of heat for that trade. Of all the things that have
happened in my career, that's one thing that doesn't sit well with me."
 
He insists redemption is not a factor in his triumphant return. In his first
six games he had two goals and seven points (he currently has 5 goals and 12
points in 10 games). Both goals were oneman highlight shows.
 
Here's more irony. Cullen put his Pittsburgh home up for sale after the
trade to Hartford. He talked to Jennings, then a homeless man, as their
paths crossed. Cullen rented him the house.
 
This summer the two talked again.
Cullen: "You're going to have to get out of my house."
Jennings: "Why, did you sell it?"
Cullen: "No, I'm coming back to live in it."
 
And hopefully, to revive his hockey life-preferably without injuries.
Nothing else is more responsible for Cullen's fall from a first-line
replacement for Mario Lemieux in Pittsbwgh to a stand-in for Mike Eastwood
with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
 
First the back went out in Hartford. He had surgery. Then it was a trade to
Toronto, a neck injury, a sprained ankle, shattered confidence and a
permanent spot in the Maple Leaf Gardens press box.
 
Cullen knows he wasn't himself. The visible pressure was on to be Leafs'
second-line scoring center behind Doug Gilmour, but the out-ofstep disc in
an his neck was applying a more painful, inescapable heat.
 
So he started getting away from his game. Out with the feistiness, in with
finesse. Wrong decision.
 
"I was probably trying to do all the wrong things. I'm a scorer and I've got
to create points. When you get two or three shifts a game it's tough to score."
 
He had turned into a $950,000 fourth-liner. It's a price the Leafs weren't
willing to pay last season, so they bought him out of his contract.
 
"Of course you doubt yourself," he said. "In the papers in Toronto all I
heard was they need a second-line center, they've got to trade for a
second-line center and that's supposed to be me.
 
"Did I think I was finished' Cullen paused. "I don't think so."
 
But in Pittsburgh, he's healthy for the first time in nearly four years,
which he attributes partly to extra rest from the lockout. The local rave is
a hit Cullen took to set up linemate and best friend Kevin Stevens for a
goal against the New York Islanders Jan. 29.
 
"Joe Reekie came across and almost decapitated him," Johnston said. "But
John just bounced back up. I think he has got revived a bit here."
 
It helps to be in good company. In Toronto his linemates included the likes
of Rob Pearson, Bill Berg, Mark Osborne and anyone else who has touch as the
fifth sense.
 
Stevens and Joey Mullen they are not. In six games, Stevens had four goals
and Mullen five. The line is a big reason the Penguins started the season
with six consecutive wins.
 
"Everybody; including myself, is fortunate to be on a team where five or six
guys can score 40 or 50 goals," Stevens said. "It's a team that has other
guys who can take a little bit of the pressure off him."
 
In Pittsburgh, no one forgets Cullen had 94 points in 65 games while Lemieux
sat out most of the season in 1990-91.
 
"There's no quitting in him," Stevens said "That's what makes him a great
player."
 
 
Sean Pickett
Go BU Terriers, 1994 Hockey East Champions!
BU Hockey Page:  http://www.tiac.net/users/spickett/hockey.html
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