David Pastrnak’s benching is a reminder of an earlier event that didn’t sit well with Cam Neely

I don’t remember Manny Ramirez, Tom Brady or Larry Bird being on the bench much. It’s a hockey thing. And usually that’s not a problem.

Except once here when it was.

In January 1996, 34-year-old rookie Bruins coach Steve Kasper sat with Cam Neely and Kevin Stevens for a game in Toronto that ended in a 4-4 tie. Neely, a nine-year Bruins veteran and alternate captain playing in the final year of his career, didn’t take it well, and neither did Bruins fans.

“That was a pretty standard way to go about doing something,” Neely, 30, said after the bench. “If I have to use that to motivate the way I play, then I’m no better than him.”

It was super difficult. Neely had been Kasper’s Bruin teammate for three seasons (along with defenseman Don Sweeney in 1988-89) before Kasper became coach.

I was wondering what the chain of command is when a hockey superstar is disciplined. Should a coach let the bosses upstairs let it run their course?

“A coach gets to make those decisions,” said Harry Sinden, who coached Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito and Derek Sanderson, among others. “But when I was coaching, I didn’t do much with that. I usually weathered the storm when it came to star players, no matter how they played.”

After his stint behind the bench, Sinden eventually became president of the Bruins for decades. He remembers when young coach Kasper decided to send Neely and Stevens a message in Toronto.

“Kasper contacted me and I told him he could do it if he wanted to,” Sinden said. “I would lose my coach if I denied him that.”

All these years later, Neely is now the Bruins team president. I contacted him to discuss his extended benching, but he politely declined, noting that his benching and Pastrnak’s were completely different situations.

Neely said Montgomery has the authority to make in-game decisions about playing time for superstars. So Monty didn’t have to look up when Pastrnak was on the bench.

Kasper was fired a year after benching Neely when he failed to get the Bruins into the 1997 playoffs. He never got a second chance to be a head coach in the NHL. He is a hockey enthusiast, has worked as a scout for the Maple Leafs (becoming director of professional scouting) and coached around the world, including stints in China, Russia, Germany, Hungary and (currently) Slovakia.

He even spent time delivering mail in Andover.

“I saw him during the pandemic,” recalled WBZ’s Dan Roche, who lives in Andover. “One day I was walking the dog and noticed that the postman was at my house, but I wasn’t really paying attention. Then I heard a familiar voice say, “Hey, Dan.” It was Steve Kasper, who delivered my mail!

“Great guy. I think he had just finished coaching in China, he had been walking a lot, was bored and saw the sign asking for help at the post office. He seemed happy.”

Quiz: Name six NHL players with 30 or more hat tricks in the regular season (answer below).

Drake Maye vs. Caleb Williams at Soldier Field. Bring your popcorn.

I’m glad I went to see Kansas City on January 20, 2019 the Patriots defeated the Chiefs 37-31 (in overtime) in the AFC Championship game in front of 77,034 frigid fans at Arrowhead. It’s an important passing of the torch moment in NFL history.

Two weeks later, the Patriots won their last Super Bowl and things have only gone downhill since then. The Chiefs, meanwhile, have turned into what the Patriots once were.

In 2024, the Chiefs (8-0) have the coach, the quarterback and the magic formula to win even if they don’t have the best team. Their excruciating loss to the Patriots at home in the cold turned them into the team they are today. Six of their eight wins this year have been by 7 points or less.

If they beat the Broncos on Sunday, they will have 15 straight wins, the longest streak since the Packers won 19 in a row from 2010 to 2011.

The Red Sox’s irrelevance is underscored when reviewing national media reports from the general managers’ meetings in San Antonio over the past week. Remember the days when the Sox were key figures in almost every discussion about newly available high-priced talent? Now they are largely ignored unless Scott Boras is planting rumors to get them back into the game.

While the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers and Phillies haggle and haggle in an effort to get better, the Red Sox who no longer act like the great Red Sox are content to be the non-factor Rays. They haven’t been the same since the late Larry Lucchino was knocked to the curb. The big splash for fans this past week was another year of Rob Refsnyder And a qualifying offer to Nick Pivetta. Whee!

The death of Luis Tiant hit hard in Red Sox Nation, and many fans remain outraged that Tiant was not elected to Baseball’s Hall of Fame during his lifetime. Statistically, Tiant was as good as contemporaries Catfish Hunter (first ballot) and Don Drysdale (10th ballot), both of whom live in Cooperstown.

Tiant fared poorly in the BBWAA voting, never getting more than 31 percent (well below the required 75 percent) in 15 tries. He subsequently participated in the votes of the veterans committee six times.

Tiant will be discussed again next month when a 16-member Classic Era Committee (Hall of Famers, longtime executives and media members/historians) meets during the Winter Meetings in Dallas. The Hall likes to keep voters’ names quiet until late in the game to avoid excessive lobbying. I will try to give you their names as they become available to encourage as much lobbying for Luis as possible.

Tiant will be considered along with Dick Allen, Dave Parker, Steve Garvey, Tommy John, Ken Boyer, Vic Harris and John Donaldson. It’s a difficult numbers game because a candidate needs 75 percent of the vote and committee members can vote for a maximum of three candidates.

Before the Yankee collapsed in the fifth inning of Game 5 of the World Series against the Dodgers, Joel Sherman of the New York Post said this team reminded him of the 1977 Philadelphia 76ers.

Those Sixers were a star-studded thrill ride, with high-flying talents like George McGinnis, World B. Free, Darryl Dawkins, Julius Erving and Jellybean Bryant. They were like the Yanks of 2024, all muscle and long home runs, big money and big names. Also weak on fundamentals.

Based on sheer talent, the ’77 Sixers should have beaten the Blazers in the finals, but they lost in six. With all their poor baserunning and sloppy fielding, the 2024 Yankees lost the World Series in five.

David Aldridge, John Hollinger and the staff of The Athletic NBA have released “The Basketball 100,” a book ranking the top 100 players in NBA history. Top 10: 1. Michael Jordan; 2. LeBron James; 3. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; 4. Bill Russel; 5. Magic Johnson; 6. Wilt Kamerheer; 7. Shaquille O’Neal; 8.Tim Duncan; 9. Larry Vogel; 10: Kobe Bryant.

Kevin Garnett came in at number 18, John Havlicek at 29, Bob Cousy at 40, Paul Pierce at 51, Kevin McHale at 52, Ray Allen at 55, Dave Cowens at 61, Tiny Archibald at 70, Robert Parish at 71, Bill Walton at 74, Sam Jones at 77, Kyrie Irving at 80, Dennis Johnson at 88, Jayson Tatum at 91 and Bill Sharman at 93.

Let the arguments begin.

The NCAA women’s basketball regular-season game of the year will be USC at UConn at the XL Center in Hartford on Dec. 21 at 8 p.m. JuJu Watkins vs. Paige Bueckers. It is a repeat of a final regional meeting between the two last spring.

Watkins had a busy summer, making a splash at the Cannes Film Festival and throwing out a ceremonial first pitch at a Dodgers game in June.

Bueckers is of course not the only hoops story in Storrs. The male Huskies are trying to win a third consecutive NCAA championship, which hasn’t happened since John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins won seven in a row from 1967-73 (hello, Lew Alcindor and Bill Walton). More recently, Duke (1991-92) and Florida (2006-07) tried and failed to win three straight.

According to USA Today, the 2024 Ohio State Buckeyes football team cost $41 million – $20 million for players, $10 million for head coach Ryan Day’s contract and $11.4 million for assistant coaches.

The teddy bear in Gronk’s new USAA ad with Sam Elliott is wearing a Buccaneers jersey. No Patriots jersey.

Anagram of the week: Sale and Skubal. Unfortunately, it made us blind.

The Orioles are exploring the addition of David Ross to Brandon Hyde’s coaching staff. Nice idea.

Happy 100th birthday to Brockton cartoonist legend Eddie Germano, who reaches the century mark on November 15.

Quiz answer: Wayne Gretzky (50), Mario Lemieux (40), Mike Bossy (39), Brett Hull (33), Phil Esposito (32), Alex Ovechkin (30).

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Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @dan_shaughnessy.