Boston Bruins
The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team has been in existence since 1924, making them the third-oldest active team in the NHL, and the oldest in the United States.
The Bruins are one of the "Original Six" NHL teams, along with the Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Blackhawks, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, and Toronto Maple Leafs. They have won six Stanley Cup championships, tied for fourth-most of any team with the Blackhawks, and tied for second-most for an NHL team based in the United States. The Bruins have also won the Presidents' Trophy four times, with their most recent win in 2022–23 having amassed 135 points—the most in one season in NHL history.
The first facility to host the Bruins was the Boston Arena, the world's oldest indoor ice hockey facility still in use for the sport at any level of competition. Following the Bruins' departure from the Boston Arena, the team played its home games at the Boston Garden for 67 seasons, beginning in 1928 and concluding in 1995, when they moved to TD Garden.
History
Early years (1924–1942)
In 1924, the NHL made the decision to expand to the United States. The previous year in 1923, sports promoter Thomas Duggan received options on three NHL franchises for the United States, and sold one to Boston grocery magnate Charles Adams. The team was one of the NHL's first expansion teams, and the first NHL team to be based in the United States. Adams' first act as owner was to hire Art Ross, a former player and innovator, as general manager. Ross, with assistance from his secretary, came up with "Bruins" for a team nickname. The team's nickname also went along with the team's original uniform colors of brown and yellow, which came from Adams' grocery chain, First National Stores.On December 1, 1924, the Bruins won the first ever NHL game played in the United States, hosting the Montreal Maroons at Boston Arena, with Smokey Harris scoring the first-ever Bruins goal, spurring the Bruins to a 2–1 win. This would be one of the few high points of the season, as the Bruins lost their next 11 games and only managed a 6–24–0 record, finishing in last place in its first season. The Bruins played three more seasons at the Arena, after which they became the main tenant of Boston Garden.
The Bruins improved in their second season to a winning 17–15–4 record, which originally held the record for the biggest single-season improvement in NHL history. However, they missed out on the third and final playoff berth by one point to the expansion Pittsburgh Pirates.
In their third season, Ross took advantage of the collapse of the Western Hockey League to purchase several western stars, including the team's first great star, defenseman Eddie Shore. With the Bruins, he would go on to become one of the greatest players in NHL history. Boston qualified for the then-expanded playoffs. In their first-ever playoff run, the Bruins reached the Stanley Cup Final where they lost to the Ottawa Senators. The Stanley Cup-winning game for the Senators would see Bruins' Billy Coutu attack the referee, earning him a ban from the NHL for life, the only in league history.
File:Tiny Thompson.jpg|thumb|upright|Tiny Thompson was the goaltender for the Bruins from 1928 to 1938. He helped the team win its first Stanley Cup in.
The 1928–29 season was the first played at Boston Garden. It also featured the NHL debut of goaltender Tiny Thompson, who assisted the Bruins in defeating the New York Rangers to win their first Stanley Cup.
In 1929–30, the Bruins posted the best-ever regular season winning percentage in the NHL because of a 38–5–1 record, but lost to the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Final. In 1936, owner Charles Adams transferred ownership to his son Weston Adams.
In 1939, the team captured its second Stanley Cup. That year, Thompson was traded to make room for rookie goaltender Frank Brimsek. Brimsek had an award-winning season, capturing the Vezina and Calder Trophies, becoming the first rookie named to the NHL first All-Star team, and earning the nickname "Mr. Zero". The team skating in front of Brimsek included Bill Cowley, Shore, Dit Clapper and "Sudden Death" Mel Hill, together with the "Kraut line" of center Milt Schmidt, right winger Bobby Bauer and left winger Woody Dumart.
In the 1939–40 season, Shore was traded to the New York Americans for his final NHL season. In 1941, the Bruins won their third Stanley Cup after losing only eight games and finishing first in the regular season. World War II affected the Bruins more than most teams; Brimsek and the "Krauts" all enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force following the 1941 Cup win.
Original Six era (1942–1967)
The NHL had by 1942 been reduced, for the next 25 years, to the six teams that would come to be called the "Original Six".In 1944, Bruins' Herb Cain set the then-NHL record for points in a season with 82.
The stars returned from World War II for the 1945–46 season, and Clapper led the team back to the Stanley Cup Final as player-coach. He retired as a player after the next season, becoming the first player to play twenty NHL seasons. Clapper retired as a player in 1947 then retired as coach in 1949. His retirement as coach came at the same time as goalie Frank Brimsek requesting a trade, to which he was granted one on September 8, 1949.
File:Walter A. Brown, Boston Celtics, 1960.jpg|thumb|upright|left|In 1951, Walter A. Brown purchased the Boston Bruins from Weston Adams.
Owner Weston began facing financial trouble at the start of the 1950s. He accepted a buyout offer from Walter A. Brown, the owner of the Boston Celtics and the Garden, in 1951. The Bruins did not have regular success during this era, aside from appearances in the,, and 1958 Stanley Cup Final. In 1954, Art Ross retired and Lynn Patrick took over as general manager. During the 1954–55 season, an incident occurred between the Bruins and the Montreal Canadiens. Bruins defenseman Hal Laycoe high-sticked Canadiens star Maurice Richard in the head, and Richard went after Laycoe, going as far as punching a linesman to get to Laycoe. Following his removal from the game, the Montreal fans began to riot, only calming down after Richard told them to. On June 3, 1955, the Bruins completed a nine-player trade with the Detroit Red Wings to acquire goaltender Terry Sawchuk as well as forward Marcel Bonin. However, Sawchuk's playing ability would be affected after contracting infectious mononucleosis and he would quit hockey midway through the 1956–57 season. On June 10, 1957, Sawchuk was dealt back to the Red Wings in exchange for Johnny Bucyk.
On January 18, 1958, the first-ever black NHL player, Willie O'Ree, stepped onto the ice for the Bruins. He played in 45 games for the Bruins over the 1957–58 and 1960–61 seasons. The "Uke Line"—named for the Ukrainian heritage of Johnny Bucyk, Vic Stasiuk, and Bronco Horvath—was formed in 1957 and enjoyed four seasons together until Stasiuk's trade to the Red Wings in 1961.
At the 1964 NHL amateur draft, the Bruins drafted Ken Dryden, but traded his rights to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for two prospects. In 1966, head coach Milt Schmidt took over as general manager as Lynn Patrick retired.
Expansion and the Big Bad Bruins (1967–1979)
Weston Adams took back ownership the Bruins in 1964 after Brown's death. Adams signed future superstar defenseman Bobby Orr, who entered the league in 1966. Orr was that season's winner of the Calder Memorial Trophy for Rookie of the Year and named to the second NHL All-Star Team. Despite Orr's stellar rookie season, the Bruins would miss the playoffs.The next season, Boston made the playoffs for the first of 29 consecutive seasons, an all-time record. The Bruins then obtained forwards Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield from Chicago in a deal celebrated as one of the most one-sided in hockey history. Esposito, who centered a line with Hodge and Wayne Cashman, became the league's top goal scorer and the first NHL player to break the 100-point mark. With other stars like forwards Bucyk, John McKenzie, Derek Sanderson, and Hodge, defenders like Dallas Smith and goaltender Gerry Cheevers, the "Big Bad Bruins" became one of the league's top teams from the late 1960s into the 1980s.
In 1970, a 29-year Stanley Cup drought came to an end in Boston as the Bruins defeated the St. Louis Blues in four games in the 1970 Stanley Cup Final. Orr scored the game-winning goal in overtime to clinch the Stanley Cup. The same season was Orr's most awarded; he won his third of eight consecutive Norris Trophies as the top defenseman in the NHL, the Art Ross Trophy, the Conn Smythe Trophy, and the Hart Memorial Trophy, the only player to win those four awards in the same season.
While head coach Harry Sinden temporarily retired from ice hockey before the 1970–71 season to enter business, the Bruins continued to dominate the league. They had seven of the league's top ten scorers, set the record for wins in a season, and in a league that had never seen a 100-point scorer before the 1968–69 season, the Bruins had four that year. All four were named First Team All-Stars. Boston was favored to repeat as Cup champions but lost to the Ken Dryden-led Canadiens in seven games.
While the Bruins were not quite as dominant the next season, Esposito and Orr finished first and second in the scoring standings and Boston regained the Stanley Cup by defeating the New York Rangers in six games in the 1972 Stanley Cup Final.
The 1972–73 season saw upheaval for the Bruins. Former head coach Sinden became the general manager. Bruins players Gerry Cheevers, Derek Sanderson, Johnny McKenzie, and Ted Green left to join the World Hockey Association. Coach Tom Johnson was fired 52 games into the season, replaced by Bep Guidolin. The Adams family, which had owned the team since its founding in the 1920s, sold it to Storer Broadcasting. The Bruins' season came to a premature end in a first-round loss to the Rangers in the 1973 playoffs. In 1974, the Bruins regained their first-place standing in the regular season, along with another 100-point season from Orr, his fifth consecutive. However, they lost the 1974 Stanley Cup Final in an upset to the Philadelphia Flyers.
File:Terry O'Reilly 78-79.JPG|upright|thumb|left|Terry O'Reilly was drafted by the Bruins 14th overall in the 1971 draft. He played his entire career with the Bruins from 1971 to 1985.
Don Cherry stepped behind the bench as the new coach in 1974–75. The Bruins stocked themselves with enforcers and grinders, and remained competitive under Cherry's reign, the so-called "Lunch Pail A.C"., behind players such as Gregg Sheppard, Terry O'Reilly, Stan Jonathan and Peter McNab. The Bruins placed second in the Adams Division, and lost to the Chicago Black Hawks in the first round of the 1975 playoffs, losing a best-of-three series, two games to one.
Prior to the 1975–76 season, Sportsystem Corporation, composed of current owner Jeremy Jacobs and his two brothers, purchased the Bruins. Continuing with Sinden's rebuilding of the team, the Bruins traded Esposito and Carol Vadnais to the Rangers for Brad Park, Jean Ratelle, and Joe Zanussi. The Bruins made the semifinals again, but lost to the Flyers. Orr left as a free agent to Chicago in the offseason.
Before the 1976–77 season, the Bruins completed another trade with the Rangers acquiring Rick Middleton for Hodge. Later in the season, Cheevers returned, and the Bruins defeated the Flyers in the semifinals, but were swept by the Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Final. The story repeated itself in 1978—with a balanced attack that saw Boston have 11 players with 20+ goal seasons, still the NHL record—as the Bruins made the Cup Final once more, but lost in six games to Montreal. After that series, John Bucyk retired, holding virtually every Bruins' career longevity and scoring mark to that time.
The 1979 semifinals series against the Canadiens proved to be Cherry's undoing. In the deciding seventh game, the Bruins, up by a goal, were called for having too many men on the ice in the late stages of the third period. Montreal tied the game on the ensuing power play and won in overtime. Cherry was dismissed as head coach thereafter.