The only thing missing was the double-breasted suit.
The Bruins’ Matt Grzelcyk and Connor Clifton nearly nailed their Halloween costumes for the team’s annual party on Wednesday; they would have been spot-on, but Clifton didn’t have enough time to find a vintage Jack Edwards suit.
“I would have given him an old double-breasted suit and a gold tie if he had asked,” said the real Edwards, the NESN play-by-play voice of the Bruins.
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Clifton laughed. “I know,” he said. “It was kind of last-minute, so we put together what we could. It was funny.”
Because Grzelcyk and Clifton are defensive partners, they wanted to combine for an epic Halloween costume, but they were coming up short. The team was returning from a recent road trip, and teammate Danton Heinen came up with a perfect idea during the flight.
Jack and Brick.
Edwards and former Bruin Andy Brickley are longtime broadcast partners who are around the team just as much as the players themselves. But Grzelcyk and Clifton are relative newcomers to the league, and they were a bit nervous about how it would go over. So, they asked veteran Torey Krug for his thoughts. Krug thought it would be a classic move.
“He told us we should do it,” Grzelcyk said. “We were trying to think of other ideas, but we just ran with it.”
Even without the double-breasted suit, the pair became the talk of the party. Besides Heinen and Krug, the rest of the team had no idea what was coming. Jack and Brick didn’t know about it until the next day.
“This is the greatest tribute — ever,” Edwards told The Athletic in a text message. “I laughed for about two minutes straight, then copied (the photo) and texted my family.”
After hearing about the text Edwards sent to his family and friends, Grzelcyk responded: “Yes. That’s awesome.”
Grzelcyk, playing the role of Brickley, pulled off the look thanks to a bright red tie and salt-and-pepper hair. In fact, Charlie McAvoy’s girlfriend applied the hair and makeup job for Grzelcyk.
“It was perfect,” Grzelcyk said.
Like Brickley, a native of Melrose, Mass., Grzelcyk is a local boy from Charlestown and has been watching Jack and Brick his entire life. So, to play the part was fun.
“It was awesome,” Grzelcyk said. “We were giving fake interviews and everything.”
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Clifton was the first player to arrive at the party. Initially, no one understood who he was supposed to be, since Grzelcyk was running late. The pairing needed to unite during the party — and remain in close proximity — so it was clear who they were portraying.
“That was the confusing part, because we had to stay together,” Grzelcyk said. “Some of the wives and girlfriends were asking, ‘Who are you?’ I didn’t know how to explain it.”
They had the suits. They had the hair and glasses. They attempted to get real headsets but had to settle for ones pirated from their Xbox.
Those fake interviews, they said, were busts. As much fun as it was, the thought of maybe turning serious and having a career in broadcasting when their respective playing careers end remains a foreign idea.
“I give them a ton of credit. Even trying to just screw around with the guys, it was incredibly hard to just keep talking and make it interesting. I give them a lot of credit, and I don’t think I could pull it off,” Grzelcyk said.
Clifton concurs.
“They’re pretty awesome,” he said. “I don’t think I could do something like that. I don’t think I’d be good at it.”
At first, the Bruins defensemen thought their gag would remain under wraps, not expecting that the team photo would go public. They should know better, of course, in the age of social media. But the person who leaked the photo may certainly have been a genuine surprise. It was captain Zdeno Chara, at 42 the only non-millennial on the roster, who sent it out on his Instagram account.
“We were pretty nervous to see how they were going to take it,” Grzelcyk said. “I think they’ll like it.”
Fortunately, as they now know, it was well-received by Edwards and Brickley.
“I love the fact that they had fun with it and put the effort in,” Brickley said. “In a strange way, you feel like you’re part of the group that they would do that. Halloween parties, as far as hockey players, are spectacular. It reminded me of some of the Halloween parties I attend and some of the great costumes.”
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During his playing career, Brickley attended a party at Cam Neely’s house dressed as a Massachusetts state trooper.
“Nobody was sure if it was me or an actual policeman working a detail,” Brickley said with a laugh.
Other years, he dressed as Indiana Jones or as one of the Coneheads from “Saturday Night Live.” He wanted to dress as deceased union boss Jimmy Hoffa one season, but the team didn’t have a party that year.
Because the Bruins were off Wednesday, the coaching staff decided to have a brief practice Thursday just to get the legs going.
“They probably had a good time,” said coach Bruce Cassidy. “I hope they had a good time. I love their Halloween spirit. Last year, it was the Peaky Blinders, so these guys have good spirits.”
Speaking of the popular Netflix series, after a few players dressed as characters from the early-20th-century English gang show last Halloween, the entire team decided to make Peaky Blinders the theme for last season’s Winter Classic at Notre Dame. That kind of camaraderie translated onto the ice and was a big reason for the deep playoff run last spring.
“I think it took them to the final last year, how close they were,” Brickley said. “I think that’s why they had an awesome month of October when the prominent question was: What are they going to be like after such a heartbreaking (Game 7) loss? We may ask that question two months from now, but the unity they have, the bonding they have is spectacular.”
After the team’s practice Thursday, the players were still laughing and talking about the Jack and Brick costumes.
“The Halloween party just cements what we all believe to be true — this group is as tight as you can get,” Brickley said.
(Photo of Bruins Halloween: Zdeno Chara via Bruins)
