Mark Recchi has watched hundreds of great hockey players during his 24 seasons playing junior hockey, riding minor league  buses and largely enjoying the good life of the NHL.
 
To put it in perspective, the 41-year-old Recchi and former Bruins goaltender Bill Ranford, who has been retired since the turn of the century, both began their prospective hockey careers on the same New Westminster Bruins junior team back in the mid-1980’s.
 
That’s the kind of sheer ice time Recchi has logged over a Hall of Fame caliber career with 500 plus career goals and nearly 1,500 points overall.
 
The fire hydrant-sized forward has watched big and skilled behemoths/teammates like 6-foot-3, 230-pound Pittsburgh Penguins forward Kevin Stephens, and 6-foot-3, 228-pound John Leclair make a handsome living out of turning big bodies and superior positioning into bushels of goals.
 
A quick look at the 5-foot-10, 195-pound Recchi doesn’t immediately conjure up images of goalie-screening goliaths like Stephens or Leclair, but the “Wrecking Ball” is still managing to play that same sort of big man’s game for the B’s.
 
“No. 1 you’ve got to be willing to go there and a lot of it comes down to hand-eye coordination,” said Recchi. “A lot of it just comes down to good body positioning as well, and getting into the right lanes where the puck is going to come by you.
 
“If you’re on the wrong side of the D-man then you’re never going to get the tip,” added Recchi, who marks the Bruins as his 7th NHL team since starting as a fourth round pick for the Penguins back in 1988. “It’s something you need to work at to get better at it. Leclair was great at getting his big body in there and getting a stick on the puck. He was the best that I ever played with.”
 
Recchi has four goals and a pair of assists in nine games with the Bruins since coming over in a deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning back on March 4, and he’s given the Black and Gold the exact combination of net-front presence and opportunistic stick that was desperately needed.
 
Just weeks before the deadline deal, Recchi had scored on a trademark tipped puck in front of the net during the second period of an eventual Bruins’ loss in late February – and that little demonstration essentially served as a sneak preview for the gritty game he’s brought with him to the Hub.
 
“I remember that goal. It was a shot from the point and he was just standing there in front and made an unbelievable tip on it for the goal. It was probably a tip that shouldn’t have even happened,” said B’s rookie Blake Wheeler. “He’s a testament that it doesn’t have to be pretty to score goals. It’s just about the end result that really matters.
 
“He’s played in this league for so long and in so many situations, and it kind of teaches you that, even though the action is going on at 100-mph, you can set up in a good spot in the offensive zone and maybe the puck is going to find its way back to you.”
 
The skating might not be everything it once was for the skilled scorer and Recchi picks his spots more as a 41-year-old than he might have during his 100 point scoring days with the Penguins and Flyers back in the 1990’s. But the hands – a veritable craftsman tool for a bona fide scorer – remain as good they’ve ever been for Recchi.
 
“Recchi is blessed with an unbelievable pair of hands,” said Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli, who pulled the trigger on the deadline deal that brought the needed veteran help back to Causeway Street.
 
The miraculous pair of hands allow him to easily move the puck on the power play and still rack up assists, but his superior hand/eye coordination and knack for spacing in front of the net have made him a huge factor in the “dirty areas” of the ice. Recchi has an uncanny knack for gaining position underneath a defender and basically camping inside or outside the defender depending on where his point shooter is attacking from.
 
Years of experience have turned into automatic instinct for the veteran, who has already tipped a handful of pucks from the dangers area around the cage toward opposing nets. Several bids have shot high or wide of their intended bull’s-eye, but the majority end up on net and create “second effort” scoring opportunities for a hockey team clearly in need of them.
 
The notion that a player like Recchi, who spent much of his career sniping shots from the slot and beating goaltenders with quick strike bids from the faceoff circles, is now making his bones amid the tall trees at the goal mouth is a testament to the courage and tenacity of simply not giving in.
 
“I used to be able to score some goals from the outside before, but (the net) is where they’re coming from now,” said Recchi. “That’s where I know I’ve got to go, or I’m not going to score. If you go to the net, then you’re going to create problems.”
 
Already we’ve seen Recchi creating his “problems”: his first score with the B’s where he took successive big hits from defensemen in front of the net, but instead absorbed the shock of the banging bodies before forcing a rebounded puck past the goaltender.
 
There’s almost an art to tipping those pucks amidst the stick-swinging chaos and heavy body traffic in front of the cage, and Recchi’s positioning and stick work could serve as an excellent Gritty Hockey 101 classroom for young big bodies like Wheeler and Milan Lucic.
 
“Recchi reinforces the fact that you can be really, really old and still play the game,” said Bruins defenseman Aaron Ward. “Sometimes lessons learned over a career can really come back and help you. He can get in those hard to reach places (near the net). He’s tough to play against. He gets his rear end in there and gets body position, and is still there near the net for the rebounds and the tips.
 
“That’s not skill, that’s part of your personality,” added Ward. “It takes courage. He’s a guy that, no matter if it’s (Zdeno Chara) or me sending it in from the point, he’s going to stand there and get an opportunity to tip it because he has that bravery. He’ll stay in position to screen the goalie or tip the puck.”
 
Recchi may never be the biggest Bruin on the ice, but his gritty production since the trade has been far from small.
 
Joe Haggerty covers the Bruins for WEEI.com. He can be reached at jhaggerty@weei.com.