The Bruins community is mourning at the passing of one of the great characters in the club’s century-long history, Lyndon Byers, who died on Friday at the age of 61.
Byers’ passing was announced on Facebook by his wife Annie, who wrote that she and their son Will were still processing the difficult news and asked for space as they do so.
“Please know (or as LB would have said ‘not for nothing’) we recognize how many people loved and cared for him and considered him a friend. Keep LB in your memory, remember his smile and know how much he cared about all of you,” she wrote.
A cause of death was not immediately known, though he had been battling health issues.
Byers was part of the late 1980s, early ‘90s Bruins’ team that finally broke the Montreal curse, beating the Canadiens for the first time in a playoff series in 45 years, and went to two Stanley Cup Finals.
A high-scoring forward in junior hockey (he had 89 points in 58 games in his last season with the Regina Pats), he was drafted in the second round by the Bruins in 1982. But he found his niche in the NHL – a much different environment from the one we see today – the hard way. He dropped the gloves with any and all comers, much to the delight of fans and teammates. He played 260 games for the Bruins before finishing his career with the San Jose Sharks. In three seasons from 1987-90, he amassed 613 penalty minutes in 145 games.
A statement from the club read in part, “Lyndon was a fan favorite across his nine seasons in the Black and Gold thanks to his rugged, rough-and-tumble style and was a key cog on the B’s teams that made trips to the Stanley Cup final in 1988 and 1990… A son of Nipawin, Saskatchewan, Lyndon became a true Bostonian and we will miss him dearly. He is forever a part of our Bruins’ family.”
Andy Brickley, NESN analyst and former teammate of Byers, held his former teammate in the highest regard.
“LB was one of my all-time favorite teammates, for a number of reasons, for the protection he gave everyone on the ice, including the high-end skill players. He was always a team-first player and he absolutely loved being a Boston Bruin,” said Brickley. “Whenever I heard that LB was in the building in the alumni box, I made a point of rushing down from the booth in between periods to say hi, that’s how much I respected and admired what he did. He played hard and lived hard and he did everything he could to be a professional hockey player in Boston. And because he was so socially approachable off the ice, he would come into the locker room and regale us all with the stories of a life well lived.”
During his career with the Bruins, Brickley played throughout the lineup, sometimes on the top line and sometimes down in the lineup with Byers.
“He made sure that we felt that our line as every bit as important as any other line on the team,” said Brickley.
Former teammate Bob Sweeney, now the President of the Boston Bruins Foundation, visited Byers in the hospital recently. Much like Brickley, Sweeney remembered Byers as the ultimate standup guy as a player and person, someone who was always available for charity work.
“A lot of people don’t realize this, but LB was a really skilled player in junior and was a second-round pick. But when he got to the NHL, he found a different path. He had all of our backs. And he was a guy who would do anything for any of us,” said Sweeney.
Byers, who had a post-playing career in radio at WAAF, was known for his gregarious personality and sense of humor. Brickley relayed a story from 1988 when Brickley was still a member of the New Jersey Devils. Brickley was on the ice getting ready for a faceoff when then-Devils coach Jim Schoenfeld called him off and replaced him with tough guy Dave Maley, who cozied up next to Byers.
The predictable ensuing fisticuffs was one of the rare occasions that Byers absorbed a lopsided L.
On his way to the penalty box, Byers skated by the bench and yelled, “Why didn’t anyone tell me he was a lefty!”
“True story,” said Sweeney with a chuckle. “He was yelling at all of us.”
Added Brickley: “But that was LB. He knew it was all part of his job and you win some, you lose some. And he could laugh about it.”
Arrangements for a celebration of life will be made in the coming days.
