The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey Ice hockey is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use sticks to direct a puck into the opposing team's goal. It is a fast-paced physical sport. Ice hockey is most popular in areas that are sufficiently cold for natural reliable seasonal ice cover, such as Canada, the Czech Republic, Latvia, the Nordic countries (especially Finland and team based in Boston Boston (pronounced /ˈbɒstən/ ) is the capital and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. Boston city proper had a 2009, Massachusetts Massachusetts has been significant throughout American history. Plymouth was the second permanent English settlement in North America. Many of Massachusetts's towns were founded by colonists from England in the 1620s and 1630s. The Merrimack Valley has been, since 1650, a center of creativity through the poetic word. America's first published poet. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference The Eastern Conference is one of two conferences in the National Hockey League (NHL) used to divide teams. Its counterpart is the Western Conference of the National Hockey League The National Hockey League , often abbreviated to the NHL, is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which six are located in Canada and twenty-four in the United States. Headquartered in New York City, the NHL is widely considered to be the premier (NHL). The team has been in existence since 1924, entering the league as the first United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language-based expansion franchise. They are also an Original Six The Original Six is a term for the group of six teams that comprised the National Hockey League for the 25 seasons between the 1942–43 season and the 1967 NHL Expansion. The name is something of a misnomer, since there were other NHL franchises that ceased operations before 1942, including some that were founded before some of the Original Six team, along with the Toronto Maple Leafs The Toronto Maple Leafs are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The organization, one of the "Original Six" members of the NHL, is officially known as the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and is the leading, Detroit Red Wings, New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in New York, New York, United States. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Playing their home games at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one of the oldest teams in the NHL, having joined in 1926 as an expansion, Montreal Canadiens The Montreal Canadiens are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The club is officially known as le Club de hockey Canadien, and Chicago Blackhawks The Chicago Blackhawks are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . They have won three Stanley Cup Championships and fourteen division titles since their founding in 1926. The Blackhawks are one of the Original Six NHL teams, along. Boston currently has the second highest total of Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup is an ice hockey club trophy, awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoffs champion. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, The Holy Grail, or facetiously (chiefly by sportswriters) as Lord Stanley's Mug. The Stanley Cup is surrounded by numerous legends and traditions, the oldest of which is the championships won by an American team at five, with the Detroit Red Wings winning 11. Their home arena is the TD Garden TD Garden is a sports arena in Boston, Massachusetts. It is named after its sponsor, TD Bank, N.A. and is often simply called The Garden, The New Garden/Boston Garden II , or the traditional Boston Garden. It was formerly known as the FleetCenter and the Shawmut Center (title sponsor Shawmut Bank was bought by FleetBoston Financial before the, where they have played since 1995 after leaving the Boston Garden (which had been their home since 1928).

History

The Pre-World War II years

In 1923, at the convincing of Boston Boston (pronounced /ˈbɒstən/ ) is the capital and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. Boston city proper had a 2009 grocery tycoon Charles Adams, the National Hockey League The National Hockey League , often abbreviated to the NHL, is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which six are located in Canada and twenty-four in the United States. Headquartered in New York City, the NHL is widely considered to be the premier decided to expand to the United States. Adams had fallen in love with hockey while watching the 1924 Stanley Cup Finals between the NHL champion Montreal Canadiens The Montreal Canadiens are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The club is officially known as le Club de hockey Canadien and the WCHL champion Calgary Tigers. He persuaded the NHL to grant him a franchise for Boston, which occurred on November 1, 1924. With the Montreal Maroons, the team was one of the NHL's first expansion teams.

Adams' first act was to hire Art Ross, a former star player and innovator, as general manager. Ross was the face of the franchise for the next thirty years, including four separate stints as coach.

Adams directed Ross to come up with a nickname that would portray an untamed animal displaying speed, agility, and cunning. Ross came up with "Bruins", an Old English word used for brown bears in classic folk-tales. The team's bearlike nickname also went along with the team's original uniform colors of brown and yellow, which came from Adams' grocery chain, First National Stores.^[1]

On December 1, 1924, the new Bruins team played their first NHL game against the Maroons, at Boston Arena Matthews Arena, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the oldest surviving indoor ice hockey arena, and the oldest multi-purpose athletic building still in use, in the world. It opened in 1910 on what is now the east end of Northeastern University's campus, and is currently owned by the university. It is the original home of the NHL Boston Bruins,, with the Bruins winning the game by a 2-1 score. But the team only managed a 6-24-0 record (for last place) in its first season. They played three more seasons at the Arena, after which the Bruins became the main tenant of the famous Boston Garden,[1] while the old Boston Arena facility—the world's oldest existing indoor ice hockey venue—was eventually taken over by Northeastern University Northeastern University , is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. Northeastern has six colleges and offers 65 undergraduate majors. At the graduate level, the University offers more than 125 programs and awards masters, doctoral, and professional degrees in law and business, and renamed Matthews Arena Matthews Arena, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the oldest surviving indoor ice hockey arena, and the oldest multi-purpose athletic building still in use, in the world. It opened in 1910 on what is now the east end of Northeastern University's campus, and is currently owned by the university. It is the original home of the NHL Boston Bruins, when the university renovated it in 1979.

In their third season, 1926–27, the team markedly improved. Ross took advantage of the collapse of the Western Hockey League to purchase several western stars, including the team's first great star, a defenseman from Fort Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan named Eddie Shore. The Bruins reached the Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup is an ice hockey club trophy, awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoffs champion. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, The Holy Grail, or facetiously (chiefly by sportswriters) as Lord Stanley's Mug. The Stanley Cup is surrounded by numerous legends and traditions, the oldest of which is the Final despite finishing only one game above .500, but lost to the Ottawa Senators The Ottawa Senators, officially the Ottawa Hockey Club , was an amateur, later becoming a professional, men's ice hockey team based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada from 1883 to 1954 and a member of the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1917 to 1934. The club had several nicknames, such as the Generals in the 1890s, Silver Seven from 1903 to 1907 and in the first Cup Final to be between exclusively NHL teams. In 1929 the Bruins defeated the New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in New York, New York, United States. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Playing their home games at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one of the oldest teams in the NHL, having joined in 1926 as an expansion to win their first Stanley Cup. Standout players on the first championship team included Shore, Harry Oliver, Dit Clapper, Dutch Gainor and goaltender The goaltender in ice hockey is the player who defends his team's goal net by stopping shots of the puck from entering his team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goalie usually plays in or near the area in front of the net called the goal crease (often referred to simply as the crease or the net). Because of the power of Tiny Thompson. The 1928–29 season was the first played at Boston Garden, which Adams had built after guaranteeing his backers $500,000 in gate receipts over the next five years.

The season after that, 1929–30, the Bruins posted the best-ever regular season winning percentage in the NHL (an astonishing .875, winning 38 out of 44 games, a record which still stands) and shattered numerous team scoring records, but lost to the Montreal Canadiens The Montreal Canadiens are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The club is officially known as le Club de hockey Canadien in the Cup Final.

The 1930s Bruins teams included Shore, Thompson, Clapper, Babe Siebert and Cooney Weiland. The team led the league's standings five times in that decade. In 1939, the team changed its uniform colors from brown and yellow to the current black and gold, and captured the second Stanley Cup in franchise history. That year, Thompson was traded for rookie Rookie is a term for a person who is in his or her first year of play of their sport or has little or no professional experience. The term also has the more general meaning of anyone new to a profession, training or activity , or occasionally to a freshman (especially in athletic teams) 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 Thompson included Bill Cowley, Shore, Clapper and "Sudden Death" Mel Hill (who scored three overtime goals in one playoff series), together with the "Kraut Line" of center Milt Schmidt, right winger Bobby Bauer and left winger Woody Dumart.

In 1940 Shore was traded to the struggling 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. It was their last Stanley Cup for 29 years.

World War II and the "Original Six" era

World War II Albania · Australia · Austria · Azerbaijan · Belarus · Belgium · Brazil · Bulgaria · Burma · Cambodia · Canada · Ceylon (Sri Lanka) · Channel Islands · China · Czechoslovakia · Denmark · Dutch East Indies · Egypt · Estonia · Finland · France · Germany · Gibraltar · Greece · Greenland · Hong Kong · Hungary · Iceland · affected the Bruins more than most teams; Brimsek and the "Krauts" all enlisted after the 1940–41 Cup win, and lost the most productive years of their careers at war. Cowley, assisted by veteran player Clapper and Busher Jackson, was the team's remaining star. Even though the NHL had by 1943 been reduced to the six teams that would in the modern era be called the "Original Six The Original Six is a term for the group of six teams that comprised the National Hockey League for the 25 seasons between the 1942–43 season and the 1967 NHL Expansion. The name is something of a misnomer, since there were other NHL franchises that ceased operations before 1942, including some that were founded before some of the Original Six", talent was depleted enough that freak seasons could take place, as in 1944, when Bruin Herb Cain would set the then-NHL record for points in a season with 82. But the Bruins did not make the playoffs that season, and Cain was out of the NHL two seasons later.

The stars returned 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, but stayed on as coach for two more years. Brimsek proved to be not as good as he was before the war, and after 1946 the Bruins lost in the first playoff round three straight years, resulting in Clapper's resignation. Brimsek was traded to the last-place Chicago Black Hawks The Chicago Blackhawks are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . They have won three Stanley Cup Championships and fourteen division titles since their founding in 1926. The Blackhawks are one of the Original Six NHL teams, along in 1949, followed by the unexpected lifetime ban of promising young star Don Gallinger on suspicion of gambling. The only remaining quality young player who stayed with the team for any length was forward Johnny Peirson, recognizable to fans of a later era as the Bruins' television color commentator in the 1970s.

During the 1948–49 season, the original form of the "spoked-B" logo, with a small number "24" to the left of the capital B signifying the calendar year in the 20th century in which the Bruins team first played, and a similarly small "49" to the right of the "B", for the then-current season's calendar year in the 20th century,^[2] appeared on their home uniforms—a nod to the Boston area's nickname of "The Hub". The following season, the logo was modified into the basic "spoked-B" form that was be used, virtually unchanged (except for certain proportions within the logo), through the 1993–94 season.

The 1950s began with Charles Adams' son Weston (who had been team president since 1936) facing financial trouble. He was forced to accept a buyout offer from Walter A. Brown, the owner of the National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association, often abbreviated to the NBA, is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America which composes thirty 30 franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada. It is an active member of USA Basketball , which is recognized by the International's Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics are a professional basketball team based in Boston, Massachusetts. They play in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association . Founded in 1946, the team is currently owned by Boston Basketball Partners L.L.C. and coached by Doc Rivers, with Danny Ainge as the President of Basketball and the Garden, in 1951. Although there were some instances of success (such as making the Stanley Cup Final in 1953, 1957 and 1958, only to lose to the Montreal Canadiens The Montreal Canadiens are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The club is officially known as le Club de hockey Canadien each time), the Bruins mustered only four winning seasons between 1947 and 1967. They missed the playoffs eight straight years between 1960 and 1967.

In 1954, on New Year's Day, Robert Skrak, an assistant to Frank Zamboni Frank Joseph Zamboni, Jr. was a U.S. inventor whose most famous invention is the modern ice resurfacer, the inventor of the best known ice resurfacing An ice resurfacer is a truck-like vehicle or smaller device used to clean and smooth the surface of an ice rink. The first ice resurfacer was developed by Frank Zamboni in 1949 in the city of Paramount, California. Frank J. Zamboni & Co, Inc. and other companies manufacture ice resurfacing machines. Zamboni is a federally (U.S.) and machine of the time, demonstrated a very early model of the machine at Boston Garden to the team management, and as a result, the Bruins ordered one of the then-produced "Model E" resurfacers to be used at the Garden, the first known NHL team to acquire one of the soon-to-be-ubiquitous "Zambonis" for their own use. The Bruins' Zamboni Model E, factory serial number 21—used as late as the 1980s on an emergency basis—eventually ended up in the Hockey Hall of Fame The Hockey Hall of Fame is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the history of ice hockey, it is both a museum and a hall of fame. It holds exhibits about players, teams, National Hockey League (NHL) records, memorabilia and NHL trophies, including the Stanley Cup. Originally in Kingston, Ontario, the Hockey Hall of Fame was first in Toronto in 1988 for preservation.^[3]

On January 18, 1958, a milestone in NHL history occurred as the first black Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light. Although black is sometimes described as an "achromatic", or hueless, color, in practice it can be considered a color, as in expressions like "black cat" or "black paint" person ever to play in the NHL stepped onto the ice for the Bruins, New Brunswick New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only constitutionally bilingual province (English and French) in the federation. The provincial capital is Fredericton. Statistics Canada estimates the provincial population in 2009 to be 750,457; a majority are English-speaking, but there is also a large Francophone minority (33%-born left wing Willie O'Ree. He played in 45 games for the Bruins over the 1957–58 and 1960–61 seasons, scoring six goals and ten assists in his NHL career.

During this period, the farm system of the Bruins was not as expansive or well-developed as most of the other five teams. The Bruins sought players not protected by the other teams, and in like fashion to the aforementioned signing of Willie O'Ree, the team signed Tommy Williams from the 1960 Olympic-gold medal winning American national men's hockey team ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language—at the time the only American player in the NHL—in 1962. The "Uke Line"—named for the Ukrainian Ukraine (pronounced /juːˈkreɪn/ ew-KRAYN; Ukrainian: Україна, transliterated: Ukrayina, [ukrɑˈjinɑ]) is the second largest country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by the Russian Federation to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of heritage of Johnny Bucyk and Vic Stasiuk (their linemate, Bronco Horvath, was Hungarian Hungary /ˈhʌŋɡəri/ (Hungarian: Magyarország [ˈmɒɟɒrorsaːɡ] ( listen)), officially the Republic of Hungary (Magyar Köztársaság listen (help·info)), is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin in Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a)—came to Boston in 1957 and enjoyed four productive offensive seasons, heralding, along with scoring stalwarts Don McKenney & Fleming MacKell, the successful era of the late 1950s. There followed a long and difficult reconstruction period in the early, mid 1960s.

Expansion and the Big Bad Bruins

Weston Adams repurchased the Bruins in 1964 after Brown's death and set about rebuilding the team. Adams signed a defenseman from Parry Sound, Ontario, named Bobby Orr Robert Gordon Orr, OC is a retired Canadian ice hockey player. A defenceman, he is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest hockey players of all time. His National Hockey League (NHL) career included two seasons with the Chicago Black Hawks and the rest of his career with the Boston Bruins, who entered the league in 1966 and became, in the eyes of many, the greatest player of all time. He was announced that season's winner of the Calder Memorial Trophy for Rookie of the Year and named to the Second NHL All-Star Team. When asked about Orr's NHL debut game, October 19, 1966, against the Detroit Red Wings, then-Bruins coach Harry Sinden recalled:

"Our fans had heard about this kid for a few years now. There was a lot of pressure on him, but he met all the expectations. He was a star from the moment they played the national anthem "The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort McHenry", a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships in Chesapeake Bay during the Battle of Fort in the opening game of the season".

The Bruins then obtained young forwards Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield from Chicago Chicago ( /ʃɨˈkɑːɡoʊ/ or /ʃɨˈkɔːɡoʊ/) is the largest city in both Illinois and the Midwest, and the third most populous city in the United States, with over 2.8 million living within the city limits. Its metropolitan area, commonly named "Chicagoland", is the 26th most populous in the world, home to an estimated 9.7 million in a deal that was celebrated as one of the most one-sided in hockey history. Hodge and Stanfield became key elements of the Bruins' success, and 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, setting many goal- and point-scoring records. Esposito remains one of four players to win the Art Ross Trophy four consecutive seasons (the other three are Jaromir Jagr, Wayne Gretzky Wayne Douglas Gretzky, CC LLD (pronounced /ˈɡrɛtski/; born January 26, 1961) is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey player. Nicknamed "The Great One", Gretzky was called "the greatest player of all time" in Total Hockey: The Official Encyclopedia of the NHL. He is generally regarded as the best player in the history and Gordie Howe). With other stars like forwards Bucyk, John McKenzie, Derek Sanderson and Hodge, steady 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 Final. Orr scored the game-winning goal in overtime to clinch the Stanley Cup. The same season was Orr's most awarded—the third of eight consecutive years he won the James Norris Memorial Trophy as the top defenseman in the NHL—and he won the Art Ross Trophy, the Conn Smythe Trophy, and the Hart Memorial Trophy, the only player to win those four awards all in the same season.

"No one, absolutely no one,could have finished a goal in like manner. For Years Orr had been described as someone who was graceful, elegant, powerful, without fear-poetry in motion. All these epithets were captured and immortalized in the photos of the goal that won the 1970 Stanley Cup".

^[4]

The 1970–71 season was, in retrospect, the high watermark of the Seventies for Boston. While Sinden temporarily retired from hockey to enter business (he was replaced by ex-Bruin and Canadien defenseman Tom Johnson Thomas Christian "Tomcat" Johnson was a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman who played for the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins in the National Hockey League) the Bruins set dozens of offensive scoring records: they had seven of the league's top ten scorers—a feat not achieved before or since—set the record for wins in a season, and in a league that had never seen a 100–point scorer before 1969, the Bruins had four that year. All four (Orr, Esposito, Bucyk and Hodge) were named First Team All-Stars, a feat matched in the expansion era only by the 1976–77 Canadiens. Boston were favored to repeat as Cup champions, but ran into a roadblock in the playoffs. Up 5–1 at one point in game two of the quarterfinals against the Canadiens (and rookie goaltender Ken Dryden), the Bruins squandered the lead to lose 7–5. The Bruins never recovered and lost the series in seven games.

While the Bruins were not quite as dominant the next season (although only three points behind the 1971 pace), Esposito and Orr were once again one-two in the scoring standings (followed by Bucyk in ninth place) and they regained the Stanley Cup by defeating the New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in New York, New York, United States. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Playing their home games at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one of the oldest teams in the NHL, having joined in 1926 as an expansion in six games in the Finals. The 1972 Cup win is Boston's most recent. Rangers blueliner Brad Park, who came runner-up to Orr's (then) five-year monopoly on the Norris Trophy, said, "Bobby Orr was—didn't make—the difference".

Boston remained a strong contender through the 1970s (despite losing Cheevers, McKenzie, Sanderson, and other stars to the World Hockey Association The World Hockey Association was a professional ice hockey league that operated in North America from 1972 to 1979. It was the first major competition for the National Hockey League (NHL) since the collapse of the Western Hockey League in 1926. Although the WHA was not the first league since that time to attempt to challenge the NHL's supremacy,), only to come up short in the playoffs. Although they had three 100–point scorers on the team (Esposito, Orr, and Hodge), they lost the 1974 Final to the Philadelphia Flyers The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League and are the current Eastern Conference Champions. Part of the 1967 NHL Expansion, the Flyers were the first non-Original Six team to win the Stanley Cup,.

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.

Orr left the Bruins for the Hawks in 1976, and retired after many knee operations in 1979. The Bruins traded Esposito and Carol Vadnais for Brad Park, Jean Ratelle and Joe Zanussi to the Rangers. The trade was particularly controversial for both Bruins and Rangers fans, as Esposito was one of the most popular Bruins players, while Park and Ratelle were Rangers stalwarts. However, Park and Ratelle maintained their skill level with Boston, with Park filling the void left by Orr.^[5] They made the semifinals again, losing to the Flyers.

Cheevers returned from the WHA in 1976, and the Bruins got past the Flyers in the semifinals, but lost to the Canadiens in the Final for the Cup. The story repeated itself in 1978—with a balanced attack that saw Boston have eleven players with 20+ goal seasons, still the NHL record—as the Bruins made the Final once more, but lost to a Canadiens team that had recorded the best regular season in modern history. After that series, Johnny Bucyk retired, holding virtually every Bruins' career longevity and scoring mark to that time.

The 1979 semifinal series against the Habs 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. Never popular with Harry Sinden, by then the Bruins' general manager, Cherry left the team in the off-season for the Colorado Rockies.

At Madison Square Garden, on December 23, 1979, a New York Rangers fan stole Stan Jonathan's stick, hitting him with it during a post-game scrum. When other fans got involved, Terry O'Reilly charged into the stands followed by his teammates. The game's TV commentator remarked that "they're going to pull that guy apart". O'Reilly, a future team captain, received an eight-game suspension for the brawl. TV Clip

The Eighties and Nineties

Coupled with front-office dislike of Cherry's outspoken ways, 1979 saw new head coach Fred Creighton—himself replaced by a newly-retired Cheevers the following year—and the coming of Ray Bourque. The defenseman remained with the team for over two decades, one of the great stars of all-time and the face of the Bruins for many years.

The Bruins made the playoffs every year through the 1980s behind stars such as Park, Bourque and Rick Middleton—and had the league's best record in 1983 behind a Vezina Trophy-winning season from ex-Flyer goaltender Pete Peeters—but usually did not get very far in the playoffs.

Bourque, Cam Neely and Keith Crowder led the Bruins to another Cup Final appearance in 1988 against the Edmonton Oilers The Edmonton Oilers are an ice hockey team based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. They are members of the Northwest Division in the Western Conference of the National Hockey League.^[6] The Bruins lost in a four-game sweep, but a memorable moment in the would-be fourth game ensued, when in the second period with the game tied 3–3, a blown fuse put the lights out at the Boston Garden. The rest of the game was cancelled and the series shifted to Edmonton. The Oilers completed the sweep, 6–3, back at Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton, in what was originally scheduled as Game Five.

Boston returned to the Stanley Cup Final in 1990 (with Neely, Bourque, Craig Janney, Bobby Carpenter and rookie Don Sweeney, and former Oiler goalie Andy Moog and Reggie Lemelin splitting goaltending duties), but again lost to the Oilers, this time in five games.

In 1988, 1990, 1992 and 1994, they defeated their Original Six arch-nemesis Montreal Canadiens in the playoffs, getting some revenge for a rivalry which had in recent decades been lopsided in the Canadiens' favor in playoff action. In 1991 and 1992, they suffered two consecutive Conference Final losses to the eventual Cup champion, the Mario Lemieux-led Pittsburgh Penguins.

Since the 1993 season, Boston had not gotten past the second round of the playoffs despite the talent of Adam Oates, Rick Tocchet and Jozef Stumpel. The 1993 season ended disappointingly for several reasons. Despite finishing with the second-best regular season record after Pittsburgh, Boston was swept in the first-round by the Buffalo Sabres. During the postseason awards ceremony, Bruin players finished as runner-up on many of the honors—Bourque for the Norris, Oates for the Art Ross and Lady Byng Trophy, Joe Juneau (who had broken the NHL record for assists in a season by a left-winger, a mark he still holds) for the Calder Trophy, Dave Poulin for the Frank J. Selke Trophy, Moog for the William M. Jennings Trophy, and coach Brian Sutter for the Jack Adams Award), although Bourque made the NHL All-Star First Team and Juneau the NHL All-Rookie Team.

The 1995 season would be the Bruins' last at the Boston Garden. The final official match played in the Garden was a 3-0 loss to the New Jersey Devils in the 1995 playoffs; the Bruins went on to play the final game at the fabled arena on September 28, 1995, in an exhibition matchup against the Canadiens. They subsequently moved into the FleetCenter, now known as the TD Garden.

In 1997, Boston missed the playoffs for the first time in thirty years (and for the first time in the expansion era), having set the North American major professional record for most consecutive seasons in the playoffs.

Historically, their most bitter rivals have been the Montreal Canadiens, whom the Bruins have played a record thirty times in the playoffs. The Bruins also have a rivalry with the New York Rangers, and the Hartford Whalers.

The 21st century

After a 3-4-1 start, the Bruins fired head coach Pat Burns and went with Mike Keenan for the rest of the way. Despite a fifteen-point improvement from the previous season, the Bruins missed the playoffs in 2000–01 by just one point. Leading scorer Jason Allison led the Bruins.

The following season, 2001–02, the Bruins improved again with another thirteen points, winning their first Northeast Division title since 1993 with a core built around Joe Thornton, Sergei Samsonov, Brian Rolston, Bill Guerin, Mike Knuble and the newly acquired Glen Murray. Their regular season success did not translate to the postseason, as they lost in six games to the underdog eighth-place Canadiens in the first round.

The 2002–03 season found the Bruins platooning their goaltending staff between Steve Shields and John Grahame for most of the season. A mid-season trade brought in veteran Jeff Hackett. In the midst of a late-season slump, general manager Mike O'Connell fired head coach Robbie Ftorek with nine games to go and named himself interim coach. The Bruins managed to finish seventh in the East, but lost to the eventual Stanley Cup Champion New Jersey Devils in five games.

In 2003–04, the Bruins began the season with ex-Toronto Maple Leaf goalie Felix Potvin. Later in the season, the Bruins put rookie Andrew Raycroft into the starting role. Raycroft eventually won the Calder Award that season. The Bruins went on to win another division title and appeared to get past the first round for the first time in five years with a 3–1 series lead on the rival Canadiens. The Canadiens rallied back, however, to win three straight games, upsetting the Bruins.

The 2004–05 NHL season was wiped out by a lockout, and the Bruins had a lot of space within the new salary cap implemented for 2005–06. Bruins management eschewed younger free agents in favor of older veterans such as Alexei Zhamnov and Brian Leetch. The newcomers were oft-injured, and by the end of November, the Bruins team traded their captain and franchise player, Joe Thornton (who went on to win the Art Ross and Hart Trophies). In exchange, the Bruins received Marco Sturm, Brad Stuart and Wayne Primeau from the San Jose Sharks. After losing ten of eleven games before the trade, the Bruins came back with a 3–0 victory over the league-leading Ottawa Senators, as rookie goaltender Hannu Toivonen earned his first career NHL shutout. When Toivonen went down with an injury in January, journeyman goalie Tim Thomas started sixteen straight games and brought the Bruins back into the playoff run. Two points out of eighth place at the Winter Olympic break, the Bruins fired general manager Mike O'Connell in March and the Bruins missed the playoffs for the first time in five years.

Peter Chiarelli was hired as the new GM of the team. Head coach Mike Sullivan was fired and Dave Lewis, former coach of the Detroit Red Wings, was hired to replace him. The Bruins signed Zdeno Chara, one of the most coveted defensemen in the NHL and a former NHL All-Star, from the Senators, and Marc Savard, who finished just three points short of a 100–point season in 2005–06 with the Atlanta Thrashers, to long-term deals.

The 2006–07 season ended in the team finishing in last place in the division. The Bruins traded Brad Stuart and Wayne Primeau to the Calgary Flames for Andrew Ference and forward Chuck Kobasew.

The 2007–08 season ended on a bright note for the Bruins when they forced the Canadiens to play a seven-game playoff series, including a memorable Game 6 in which Boston came back to win 5–4. Although Bruins center Patrice Bergeron was injured with a concussion most of the season, youngsters Milan Lucic, David Krejci, Vladimir Sobotka and Petteri Nokelainen showed promise in the playoffs.

Rejuvenation in Boston

After the disappointing 2007 season, Lewis was fired as coach, and the Bruins announced on June 21, 2007, that Claude Julien had been named as the new head coach.^[7] The Bruins also unveiled a new logo, and a brand new shoulder patch closely based on the main jersey logo used until 1932.^[8]

The 2008 campaign saw the Bruins regain some respectability, finishing 41–29–12 and making the playoffs. Despite many injuries, the Bruins pushed the top-seeded Canadiens to seven games in the first round of the playoffs before falling. Their performance, despite a 5-0 loss in the seventh game, rekindled interest in the team in New England, where the Bruins had for years been heavily overshadowed by the Red Sox, Patriots and Celtics.

After a slow start to the 2008–09 season, the Bruins won seventeen of their next twenty games leading many to see them as a revival of the "Big Bad Bruins" from the 1970s and '80s. During the 2009 All-Star Weekend's Skills Competition, captain Zdeno Chara fired the NHL's fastest measured "hardest shot" ever, with a clocked in speed of 105.4 mph (169.7 km/h) velocity. The number of injured players in the season saw many call-ups from the Bruins' AHL Providence Bruins farm team, with rookie defenseman Matt Hunwick and forward Byron Bitz seeing success. The Bruins went on to have the best record in the Eastern Conference and qualified for the playoffs for the fifth time in nine years, facing the Canadiens in the playoffs for the fourth time during that span, defeating them in a four game sweep before losing in seven games to the Carolina Hurricanes in the conference semifinals.

The 2009 summer off-season saw the departure of long-time defensive forward P.J. Axelsson from Sweden, who signed a multi-year contract [2] with his hometown Frolunda HC team. With Maple Leafs G.M. Brian Burke threatening an offer sheet and Bruins management unable to meet his salary demands, forward Phil Kessel was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs for a trio of future draft picks.

On January 1, 2010, the Bruins won the 2010 NHL Winter Classic over the Philadelphia Flyers in a 2-1 overtime decision at Fenway Park, thus becoming the first home team to win an outdoor classic game. However, following the New Year's Day game, the Bruins, hobbled by injuries, would go through a five-week long period of lackluster play, with only two wins and compiling ten regulation losses earning them only eight points in the Eastern Conference standings in that 15-game long period, before breaking the losing streak in an away game against the Canadiens on February 7, with Tuukka Rask shutting out the Habs 3-0. The win over the Canadiens was the first of four successive victories leading into the break in play for the NHL's participation in the 2010 Winter Olympics, and established Tuukka Rask as the number one goaltender for the Bruins, as Tim Thomas would only start eight of the 22 games remaining in the post-Olympic period of the season, with Rask winning eight of his post-Olympic starts, including two shutouts.

The importance of former Sabre forward Daniel Paille's acquisition by the Bruins, and his emergence as a penalty killing forward, was emphasized on April 10, 2010, as Paille, Steve Begin, and Blake Wheeler combined for the first-ever known trio of short handed goals within one penalty kill, in only 1:04 of game time, in a home game against the Carolina Hurricanes, helping the Bruins to sixth place in the NHL Eastern Conference, and a 2010 NHL playoff opening round appearance against the Buffalo Sabres, which they won 4 games to 2 games. Boston became only the third team in NHL history to lose a playoff series after leading 3-0 when they lost in Game 7 to the Philadelphia Flyers after losing a 3-0 lead in the second round on May 14, 2010.

On April 13, 2010 the Boston Bruins received the second overall draft pick for the 2010 draft to be held in Los Angeles, CA at the Staples Center, selecting Tyler Seguin in the first round on June 25, 2010. After the season ended, Cam Neely was named on June 16, 2010 as the new team president of the Bruins.^[9]

Ownership

Since 1975 the team has been owned by Jeremy Jacobs. Jacobs represents the club on the NHL's Board of Governors, and serves on its Executive Committee. At the NHL Board of Governors meeting in June 2007, Jacobs was elected Chairman of the Board, replacing the Calgary Flames' Harley Hotchkiss, who stepped down after 12 years in the position. He has frequently been listed by Sports Business Journal as one of the most influential people in sports in its annual poll^[10] and by Hockey News.^[11]

Jacobs company owns the TD Garden and he is partners with John Henry, owner of the Red Sox, in the New England Sports Network(NESN). Prior to the new collective bargaining agreement, fans felt team management was not willing to spend to win the Stanley Cup.^[12] In his 35 years as owner, the Bruins have not won the Stanley Cup. While his public image has improved with a complete change in management including new General Manager Peter Chiarelli, Coach Claude Julien and Cam Neely's arrival, the management of the team in the past earned him spots on ESPN.com's "Page 2" polls of "The Worst Owners in Sports",^[13] and #7 on their 2005 "Greediest Owners In sports" list.^[14]

Fortunately, Jacobs has invested in the team and rebuilding the front office to make the team more competitive. The Bruins were the second highest ranked team in the NHL in the 2008-2009 season and were the top seeded team in the East.

The current administrators in the Bruins front office are:

• Jeremy Jacobs- Owner
• Charlie Jacobs- Principal
• Peter Chiarelli- General Manager
• Cam Neely- President^[15]
• Harry Sinden- Senior Advisor to the Owner

"Unofficial" theme songs

When Boston television station WSBK-TV began showing Bruins games on television in 1967, the television station's managers wanted to come up with a suitable piece of music to air for the introduction of each Bruins game. Because the Boston Ballet's annual Christmas performance of The Nutcracker had become closely identified with Boston, The Ventures' instrumental rock version of the Nutcracker's overture, known as "Nutty", itself likely being inspired by the somewhat earlier Nut Rocker, was selected as the opening piece of music for Bruins telecasts. The song "Nutty" has been identified with the Bruins ever since, even though NESN, who now airs almost all of the Bruins' regular season and playoff games, has used a piece of original instrumental rock music for Bruins telecasts, that it had also used with all its Boston Red Sox televised games through the 2008 MLB season. The song "Nutty" is still sometimes played at the TD Garden during Bruins games. "Nutty" has also been covered by popular Boston Celtic punk band Dropkick Murphys. Dropkick Murphys have also written a song about the Bruins, called "Time to Go" (released on their 2003 album Blackout), and have performed at Bruins games several times.

In the early 1970s, WSBK ran a weekly highlights show hosted by Tom Larson. The instrumental song "Toad" by the late-60s British supergroup Cream was the opening and closing theme for the show.

On ice, the song "Paree", a 1920s hit tune written by Leo Robin and Jose Padilla, has been played as an organ instrumental for decades, typically as the players enter the arena just before the start of each period and, for many years, after each Bruins' goal. It was introduced by John Kiley, the organist for the Bruins, the Boston Red Sox and the Boston Celtics from the 1950s through the 1980s, and is still played during Bruins' games.

The song "Kernkraft 400 (Sport Chant Stadium Remix)" by Zombie Nation is also a popular song at Bruins games, as it is played after every Bruins goal scored on home ice, and the exact same tune has started to be used at Fenway Park after every Boston Red Sox home run.

After every Bruins' win at the TD Garden, the song "Dirty Water", by the Standells, is played. The song is also played after every home game win for the Boston Red Sox, and has become an unofficial anthem for the city of Boston.

Season-by-season record

This is a partial list of the last five seasons completed by the Bruins. For the full season-by-season history, see List of Boston Bruins seasons

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime Losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes

Players

Current roster

Updated July 14, 2010.^[16]

Honored members

Hall of Famers

Players

• Marty Barry, C, 1929–35, inducted 1965
• Bobby Bauer, RW, 1935–52, inducted 1996
• Leo Boivin, D, 1954–66, inducted 1986
• Raymond Bourque, D, 1979–2000, inducted 2004
• Frank Brimsek, G, 1938–49, inducted 1966
• Johnny Bucyk, LW, 1957–78, inducted 1981
• Billy Burch, LW, 1932–33, inducted 1974
• Gerry Cheevers, G, 1965–80, inducted 1985
• Dit Clapper, D, 1927–47, inducted 1947
• Sprague Cleghorn, D, 1925–28, inducted 1948
• Paul Coffey, D, 2000–01, inducted 2004
• Roy Conacher, LW, 1938–45, inducted 1998
• Bun Cook, LW, 1936–37, inducted 1995
• Bill Cowley, C, 1935–47, inducted 1968
• Cy Denneny, LW, 1928–29, inducted 1959
• Woody Dumart, LW, 1935–54, inducted 1992
• Phil Esposito, C, 1967–76, inducted 1984
• Fernie Flaman, D, 1944–50 & 1954–61, inducted 1990
• Frank Frederickson, C, 1926–28, inducted 1958
• Busher Jackson, LW-D, 1941–44, inducted 1971
• Tom Johnson, D, 1963–65, inducted 1970
• Duke Keats, C, 1926, inducted 1958
• Guy Lapointe, D, 1983–84, inducted 1993

• Brian Leetch, D, 2005–06, inducted 2009
• Harry Lumley, G, 1957–60, inducted 1980
• Mickey MacKay, C, 1928–1930, inducted 1952
• Sylvio Mantha, D, 1937, inducted 1960
• Joe Mullen, RW, 1995–96, inducted 2000
• Cam Neely, RW, 1986–96, inducted 2005
• Harry Oliver, C, 1926–34, inducted 1967
• Bobby Orr, D, 1966–76, inducted 1979
• Brad Park, D, 1975–83, inducted 1988
• Bernie Parent, G, 1965–67, inducted 1984
• Jacques Plante, G, 1973, inducted 1978
• Babe Pratt, D, 1946–47, inducted 1966
• Bill Quackenbush, D, 1949–56, inducted 1976
• Jean Ratelle, C, 1975–81, inducted 1985
• Terry Sawchuk, G, 1955–57, inducted 1971
• Milt Schmidt, C, 1936–55, inducted 1961
• Eddie Shore, D, 1926–40, inducted 1947
• Babe Siebert, D, 1933–36, inducted 1964
• Hooley Smith, C, 1936–37, inducted 1972
• Allan Stanley, D, 1956–58, inducted 1981
• Nels Stewart, RW-D, 1933–37, inducted 1962
• Tiny Thompson, G, 1928–39, inducted 1959
• Cooney Weiland, C, 1928–32 & 1935–39, inducted 1971

Builders

• Charles Adams, President, 1924–36, inducted 1960
• Weston Adams, Sr., Director; President, 1936–51, inducted 1972
• Walter A. Brown, President, 1951–64, inducted 1962
• Frank Patrick, Head coach, 1934–36, inducted 1958
• Art Ross, Head coach; General Manager, 1924–54, inducted 1945
• Harry Sinden, Head coach; General Manager; President; Senior Advisor, 1966–present, inducted 1983

Retired numbers

• 2 Eddie Shore, D, 1926–40, number retired January 1, 1947
• 3 Lionel Hitchman, D, 1925–34, number retired February 22, 1934, first professional hockey player to have number retired
• 4 Bobby Orr, D, 1966–76, number retired January 9, 1979
• 5 Aubrey "Dit" Clapper, D, 1927–47, number retired February 12, 1947
• 7 Phil Esposito, C, 1967–75, number retired December 3, 1987
• 8 Cam Neely, RW, 1986–96, number retired January 12, 2004
• 9 Johnny Bucyk, LW, 1955–78, number retired March 13, 1980
• 15 Milt Schmidt, LW, 1936–55, number retired March 13, 1980
• 24 Terry O'Reilly, RW, 1972–85, number retired October 24, 2002
• 77 Ray Bourque, D, 1979–2000, number retired October 4, 2001

The Bruins also honor the NHL's league-wide retirement of Wayne Gretzky's #99.

First-round draft picks

• 1963: Orest Romashyna (third overall)
• 1964: Alex Campbell (second overall)
• 1965: Joe Bailey (fourth overall)
• 1966: Barry Gibbs (first overall)
• 1967: Meehan Bonnar (10th overall)
• 1968: Danny Schock (12th overall)
• 1969: Don Tannahill (third overall), Frank Spring (fourth overall), & Ivan Boldirev (11th overall)
• 1970: Reggie Leach (third overall), Rick MacLeish (fourth overall), Ron Plumb (ninth overall), & Bob Stewart (13th overall)
• 1971: Ron Jones (sixth overall) & Terry O'Reilly (14th overall)
• 1972: Mike Bloom (16th overall)
• 1973: Andre Savard (sixth overall)
• 1974: Don Larway (18th overall)
• 1975: Doug Halward (14th overall)
• 1976: Clayton Pachal (16th overall)
• 1977: Dwight Foster (16th overall)
• 1978: Al Secord (16th overall)
• 1979: Ray Bourque (eighth overall) & Brad McCrimmon (15th overall)
• 1980: Barry Pederson (18th overall)
• 1981: Normand Leveille (14th overall)
• 1982: Gord Kluzak (first overall)
• 1983: Nevin Markwart (21st overall)
• 1984: Dave Pasin (19th overall)
• 1986: Craig Janney (13th overall)

• 1987: Glen Wesley (third overall) & Stephane Quintal (14th overall)
• 1988: Robert Cimetta (18th overall)
• 1989: Shayne Stevenson (17th overall)
• 1990: Bryan Smolinski (21st overall)
• 1991: Glen Murray (18th overall)
• 1992: Dmitri Kvartalnov (16th overall)
• 1993: Kevyn Adams (25th overall)
• 1994: Evgeni Ryabchikov (21st overall)
• 1995: Kyle McLaren (ninth overall) & Sean Brown (21st overall)
• 1996: Johnathan Aitken (eighth overall)
• 1997: Joe Thornton (first overall) & Sergei Samsonov (eighth overall)
• 1998: None
• 1999: Nick Boynton (21st overall)
• 2000: Lars Jonsson (seventh overall) & Martin Samuelsson (27th overall)
• 2001: Shaone Morrisonn (19th overall)
• 2002: Hannu Toivonen (29th overall)
• 2003: Mark Stuart (21st overall)
• 2004: None
• 2005: Matt Lashoff (22nd overall)
• 2006: Phil Kessel (fifth overall)
• 2007: Zach Hamill (eighth overall)
• 2008: Joe Colborne (16th overall)
• 2009: Jordan Caron (25th overall)
• 2010: Tyler Seguin (2nd overall)

Franchise scoring leaders

These are the top-ten point-scorers in franchise history. Figures are updated after each completed NHL regular season.

Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games Played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game; * = current Bruins player

NHL awards and trophies

Stanley Cup

• 1928–29, 1938–39, 1940–41, 1969–70, 1971–72

Presidents' Trophy

• 1989–90

Prince of Wales Trophy

• 1927–28, 1928–29, 1929–30, 1930–31, 1932–33, 1934–35, 1937–38, 1938–39, 1939–40, 1940–41, 1970–71, 1971–72, 1973–74, 1987–88, 1989–90

Art Ross Trophy

• Phil Esposito: 1968–69, 1970–71, 1971–72, 1972–73, 1973–74
• Bobby Orr: 1969–70, 1974–75
• Joe Thornton*: 2005–06

(* traded to the San Jose Sharks during the 2005–06 season)

Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy

• Charlie Simmer: 1985–86
• Gord Kluzak: 1989–90
• Cam Neely: 1993–94
• Phil Kessel: 2006–07

Calder Memorial Trophy

• Frank Brimsek: 1938–39 (trophy known as "Calder Trophy")
• Jack Gelineau: 1949–50
• Larry Regan: 1956–57
• Bobby Orr: 1966–67
• Derek Sanderson: 1967–68
• Ray Bourque: 1979–80
• Sergei Samsonov: 1997–98
• Andrew Raycroft: 2003–04

Conn Smythe Trophy

• Bobby Orr: 1969–70, 1971–72

Frank J. Selke Trophy

• Steve Kasper: 1981–82

Hart Memorial Trophy

• Eddie Shore: 1932–33, 1934–35, 1935–36, 1937–38
• Bill Cowley: 1940–41, 1942–43
• Milt Schmidt: 1950–51

• Phil Esposito: 1968–69, 1973–74
• Bobby Orr: 1969–70, 1970–71, 1971–72
• Joe Thornton*: 2005–06

(* traded to the San Jose Sharks during the 2005–06 season)

Jack Adams Award

• Don Cherry: 1975–76
• Pat Burns: 1997–98
• Claude Julien: 2008-09

James Norris Memorial Trophy

• Bobby Orr: 1967–68, 1968–69, 1969–70, 1970–71, 1971–72, 1972–73, 1973–74, 1974–75
• Ray Bourque: 1986–87, 1987–88, 1989–90, 1990–91, 1993–94
• Zdeno Chara: 2008-09

King Clancy Memorial Trophy

• Ray Bourque: 1991–92
• Dave Poulin: 1992–93

Lady Byng Memorial Trophy

• Bobby Bauer: 1939–40, 1940–41, 1946–47
• Don McKenny: 1959–60
• John Bucyk: 1970–71, 1973–74
• Rick Middleton: 1981–82

Lester B. Pearson Award

• Phil Esposito: 1970–71, 1972–73
• Bobby Orr: 1974–75

Lester Patrick Trophy

• Charles F. Adams: 1966–67
• Walter A. Brown: 1967–68
• Eddie Shore: 1969–70
• Cooney Weiland: 1971–72
• John Bucyk: 1976–77
• Phil Esposito: 1977–78
• Bobby Orr: 1978–79
• Milt Schmidt: 1995–96
• Harry Sinden: 1998–99
• Willie O'Ree: 2002–03
• Ray Bourque: 2002–03

NHL Leading Scorer (prior to awarding of Art Ross Trophy)

• Herb Cain: 1943–44
• Bill Cowley: 1940–41
• Milt Schmidt: 1939–40
• Cooney Weiland: 1929–30

NHL Plus-Minus Award

• David Krejci: 2008–09

Roger Crozier Saving Grace Award

• Tim Thomas: 2008–09
• Tuukka Rask 2009-10

Vezina Trophy

• Tiny Thompson: 1929–30, 1932–33, 1935–36, 1937–38
• Frank Brimsek: 1938–39, 1941–42
• Pete Peeters: 1982–83
• Tim Thomas: 2008-09

William M. Jennings Trophy

• Andy Moog & Rejean Lemelin: 1989–90
• Tim Thomas & Manny Fernandez: 2008–09

Team awards

The Bruins have several team awards that are traditionally awarded at the last home game of the regular season.

• Elizabeth C. Dufresne Trophy Best player in home games
• Seventh Player Award Player performing most beyond expectations
• Eddie Shore Award Player with most hustle and determination
• John P. Bucyk Award Community service
• Bruins Radio Network Three-Star Awards Most three-star selections

Franchise individual records

• Most goals in a season: Phil Esposito, 76 (1970–71)
• Most assists in a season: Bobby Orr, 102 (1970–71)
• Most points in a season: Phil Esposito, 152 (1970–71)
• Most penalty minutes in a season: Jay Miller, 304 (1987–88)
• Lowest goals against average in a season: Frank Brimsek, 1.56, (1938–39)
• Most points per game in a season: Bill Cowley, 1.97 (1943–44)
• Most points in a season, defenseman: Bobby Orr, 139 (1970–71)
• Most points in a season, rookie: Joe Juneau, 102 (1992–93)
• Most wins in a season: Pete Peeters, 40 (1982–83)
• Most shutouts in a season: Hal Winkler, 15 (1927–28)
• Consecutive games streak: John Bucyk, 418 (January 23, 1969–March 2, 1975)
• Longest point scoring streak: Bronco Horvath, 22 games, (1959–60)

Leaders

Team captains

• No captain, 1924–27
• Lionel Hitchman, 1927–31
• George Owen, 1931–32
• Dit Clapper, 1932–38
• Cooney Weiland, 1938–39
• Dit Clapper, 1939–46
• John Crawford, 1946–50
• Milt Schmidt, 1950–55
• Ed Sandford, 1955
• Fernie Flaman, 1955–61
• Don McKenney, 1961–63
• Leo Boivin, 1963–66
• John Bucyk, 1966–67

• No captain, 1967–73
• John Bucyk, 1973–77
• Wayne Cashman, 1977–83
• Terry O'Reilly, 1983–85
• Ray Bourque & Rick Middleton, 1985–88 (co-captains)
• Ray Bourque, 1988–2000
• Jason Allison, 2000–01
• No captain, 2001–02
• Joe Thornton, 2002–05
• No captain, 2005–06
• Zdeno Chara, 2006– present

General managers

The current general manager is Peter Chiarelli. Chiarelli was hired on May 26, 2006 as the General Manager of the Boston Bruins. He was signed to a four-year contract. Chiarelli was previously the assistant general manager for the Ottawa Senators. The Senators were given a conditional draft pick for relinquishing Chiarelli. On June 19, 2009 Chiarelli received a four-year contract extension through 2013-2014.

Head coaches

The current head coach is Claude Julien who was hired on June 22, 2007. On February 17, 2009, Julien coached his 200th winning NHL game, a 5-1 Bruins road game defeat of the Carolina Hurricanes. On June 18, 2009, Julien was awarded the Jack Adams Award as the best coach in the NHL.

Media and broadcasters

• NESN

Jack Edwards–TV play-by-play Andy Brickley–TV color analyst Naoko Funayama–TV rink-side reporter^[17]

• 98.5 The Sports Hub

Dave Goucher-Radio play-by-play Bob Beers-Radio color analyst

See also

• List of Boston Bruins head coaches
• List of Boston Bruins seasons
• Bruins-Canadiens Rivalry
• List of NHL players
• List of NHL seasons
• List of Stanley Cup champions
• Rene Rancourt, singer of the national anthem for most Bruins home games.
• The Sports Museum (at TD Garden)

References

Notes

1. ^ Donovan (1997).
2. ^ "www.sportslogos.net/logo.php?id=6515". http://www.sportslogos.net/logo.php?id=6515.
3. ^ "The Zamboni Story", Zamboni.com.
4. ^ Hockey's Greatest Teams="Bruins"
5. ^ CNN. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/hockey/nhl/news/2001/02/15/sayitaintso_bruins/. Retrieved April 26, 2010.
6. ^ "Devilish Feat By The Bruins". CNN. May 23, 1988. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1067342/index.htm. Retrieved April 26, 2010.
7. ^ "Boston Bruins Name Claude Julien Head Coach", Bruins website, June 21, 2007.
8. ^ Edelson, Kevin. "Dressed for Success?", New England Hockey Journal, June 21, 2007.
9. ^ Boston Bruins website "Cam Neely Named President of the Boston Bruins", June 16, 2010.
10. ^ www.sportsbusinessjournal.com
11. ^ www.hockeynews.com
12. ^ "NHL Team Valuations". Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/finance/lists/31/2004/LIR.jhtml?passListId=31&passYear=2004&passListType=Misc&uniqueId=313364&datatype=Misc.
13. ^ "The Worst Owners In Sports". http://espn.go.com/page2/s/2001/0710/1224543.html.
14. ^ "The Greediest Owners in Sports". http://espn.go.com/page2/s/list/owners/greediest.html.
15. ^ "Neely to be named Bruins president". http://www.weei.com/sports/boston/this-just-in/2124340/report-neely-be-named-bruins-president.
16. ^ "Boston Bruins - Team - Roster". Boston Bruins. http://bruins.nhl.com/club/roster.htm. Retrieved 2010-07-01.
17. ^ "NESN Hires Naoko Funayama". NESN.com. 2008-08-07. http://www.nesn.com/content/about/story.aspx?content_id=af7a2f16-bf8a-4144-b5b0-a3fe61bd9c2b. Retrieved 2008-09-22.

Bibliography

• Donovan, Michael Leo (1997). The Name Game: Football, Baseball, Hockey & Basketball How Your Favorite Sports Teams Were Named. Toronto: Warwick Publishing. ISBN 1895629748.

Further reading

• Boston Bruins: Greatest Moments and Players Stan Fischler, Published by Sports Masters ISBN 1-58261-374-5
• Black and Gold: Four Decades of the Boston Bruins in Photographs Rob Simpson and Steve Babineau, Wiley Publishing ISBN 0-470-15473-X

External links

• Official website of the Boston Bruins
• Boston Bruins Alumni veteran exhibition team

Categories: Boston Bruins | Sports clubs established in 1924 | Sports in Boston, Massachusetts | Ice hockey teams in Massachusetts | Northeast Division (NHL)

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