The Voice Of The Bruins

"Oh, Fred," replied Sanderson, "you're a Canadien fan."

"He keeps me young," Cusick says with a chuckle. "He understands every facet of hockey. But we disagree sometimes, and I let him know it. Derek will say to me, 'What do you know about it? You're just a pond skater.' "

Cusick responds in kind. "He sets me up at least once a game," says Sanderson. "Once in Chicago, on the air, he said to me, 'You think this [play-by-play] is easy? You try it.' For 20 seconds I was speechless."

"They squabble like an old married couple," says Heidi Holland, the Bruins' media relations director. But there is also genuine affection. They golf together regularly, often with Sinden and Bruin vice president Tom Johnson, and sponsor a celebrity golf tournament on the Cape.

In 1988, Fred's acceptance speech for the Lester Patrick Award, given for outstanding service to hockey in the U.S., became a tribute to Sanderson's remarkable turnaround from years and years of drug and alcohol abuse.

Sanderson says of Cusick, "He's like a father to me. I've got metal hips. They can ache, and I have to limp. You've got those long lines at customs in Montreal and Toronto or the long walk in the L.A. airport. And Fred carries my bags. You're on a two-week road trip, and you've got lots of stuff in there. But he just goes to the bus and grabs my bags, and I carry his briefcase.

"He's a very classy guy."