49 Fun Facts About Bruins

Founded in 1924, the Bruins hold which distinction among today's NHL franchises?

Oldest American team. The Bruins won the first NHL game played on American soil, 2-1 on December 1, 1924, then lost 24 of their remaining 29 games and finished last.

Which Boston businessman founded the Bruins in 1924 and later had an NHL division named after him?

Charles Adams also helped pay for Boston Garden, and his son and grandson ran the club after him. The Adams Division, the Bruins' home from 1974 to 1993, carried the family name.

The Bruins' original brown-and-yellow uniform colors were borrowed from what?

First National Stores grocery chain. The club's founder was so fond of brown that a 1924 Boston Globe story noted his 50 stores, four racehorses, Guernsey cows and even his hens all came in the same shade.

Which former player served as the Bruins' first general manager, a post he held 30 years?

Art Ross ran the Bruins until 1954 and reshaped the game's hardware as well: the NHL adopted his designs for both the puck and the goal net, and its scoring trophy has carried his name since the late 1940s.

In Game 7 of a 2013 playoff series, the Bruins wiped out a 4-1 third-period deficit to stun which team in overtime?

Toronto Maple Leafs. Boston scored twice in the final 82 seconds with its goalie pulled, then won 5-4 in overtime, the first Game 7 win by a team that trailed by three goals in the third period.

The Bruins' 25-season 'Original Six' era ended in 1967 with what?

Expansion to twelve teams. The 'Original Six' label is a misnomer, since the league began in 1917 without four of them, and the Bruins did not arrive until its eighth season.

The Bruins won their first Stanley Cup in 1929, in the first final between two American teams, by beating whom?

New York Rangers. The defending champions lost both games of a best-of-three as Boston won all five of its playoff games, only four years after finishing last in its first season.

Bruin Gregory Campbell finished a 2013 playoff penalty kill after a slap shot left him with what injury?

A broken leg. The shot snapped his right fibula, yet he got back up and stayed out for more than a minute of a Pittsburgh power play, helping kill the penalty in a game Boston won in double overtime.

Which bruising Bruins defenceman won four Hart Trophies in the 1930s and ended Ace Bailey's career with one check?

Eddie Shore nearly lost an ear in a clash with a new teammate, found a doctor willing to sew it back on, and refused anesthetic while it was done. He and Bailey shook hands before a benefit game in 1934.

How did the rival Canadiens salute the war-bound Kraut Line in 1942?

Carried them off the ice. Boston had just won 8-1, yet Montreal's players hoisted the three linemates onto their shoulders as the Boston Garden crowd roared, a send-off before the trio joined the air force.

What NHL first did the Kraut Line achieve in 1939-40?

Finished first, second and third in league scoring. The three were boyhood friends from the German community of Kitchener, Ontario, hence the name; Montreal's Punch Line and Detroit's Production Line later matched the sweep.

Which Kraut Line centre later coached the Bruins and, as GM, built the 1970 and 1972 champions?

Milt Schmidt came back from wartime air force service to win the 1951 Hart Trophy as league MVP. No one has won more Stanley Cups with Boston: two as a player and two as general manager.

Which rookie goaltender, 'Mr. Zero', won both the Calder and Vezina for the 1938-39 champion Bruins?

Frank Brimsek replaced Tiny Thompson, the long-established star Boston had just sold to Detroit, and won over a stunned home crowd with six shutouts almost at once, which is how he became 'Mr. Zero'.

Which Bruins winger became the NHL's first Black player in a January 1958 game at the Montreal Forum?

Willie O'Ree played with a secret: a puck had left him almost blind in his right eye two years earlier, and he told no one because the league barred players who could not see out of both eyes.

Bobby Orr's famous overtime goal in 1970 completed a four-game sweep of which team?

The St. Louis Blues were swept for Boston's first Cup in 29 years; the same two teams met again in the 2019 Final with the opposite result.

Who set up Bobby Orr's Cup-winning goal in 1970 with a give-and-go pass from behind the net?

Derek Sanderson fed Orr from behind the net; the two remained close for life, and Orr later paid for his friend's rehab.

Bobby Orr remains the only defenceman ever to do what?

Win the NHL scoring title. He did it twice with his end-to-end rushes, but one knee operation followed another, and his ruined knees ended his career at just 30.

The bronze Bobby Orr statue outside TD Garden, unveiled in 2010, depicts him doing what?

Airborne just after scoring in 1970. Opposing defenceman Noel Picard tripped him as the Cup-winning shot went in, and Orr has said he saw it cross the line and jumped, so he took off flat out.

In 1967 the Bruins got Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield from which team?

The Chicago Black Hawks took Pit Martin, Gilles Marotte and Jack Norris in the May 1967 deal; the following spring the Bruins made the playoffs for the first of 29 straight seasons.

Bumper stickers read 'Jesus saves', adding that Phil Esposito does what?

Scores on the rebound. The stickers answered critics who called him a garbage collector for parking himself in front of the net; his 76 goals in 1970-71 stood as the NHL record until Wayne Gretzky passed it in 1982.

What did Ray Bourque do as Phil Esposito's number was retired in 1987?

Peeled off his No. 7 jersey to reveal a No. 77. The switch had been kept from Esposito, who was handed the old sweater on the spot, and Bourque wore 77 for the rest of his career.

In March 2000, after 21 Boston seasons, Ray Bourque was traded to which team, where he won a Cup?

Colorado Avalanche. He won the Cup in the last game of his career, a Game 7 in 2001, and captain Joe Sakic broke with custom by handing him the trophy first; days later he showed it to thousands at a rally in Boston.

Which Bruins captain and former first overall pick was traded to San Jose in 2005, then named league MVP that season?

Joe Thornton went west for three players that November and ended the season with the Hart Trophy, while Boston missed the playoffs and fired the general manager who traded him.

Which right winger, the archetypal NHL power forward, came from Vancouver for Barry Pederson in 1986?

Cam Neely arrived on his 21st birthday. After thigh and knee injuries limited him to 22 games over two seasons, he came back in 1993-94 to score 50 goals in just 44 games, and he became club president in 2010.

Which team beat the Bruins in both the 1988 and 1990 Stanley Cup Finals?

The Edmonton Oilers swept Boston in 1988 behind playoff MVP Wayne Gretzky, then won again in five games in 1990 even though they had traded him away in between.

What suspended Game 4 of the 1988 Final at Boston Garden with the score tied 3-3?

A power failure hit late in the second period of a game already halted several times by fog in the steamy old building. The crowd was sent home, the game was never finished, and the visitors completed their sweep at home two days later.

Old Boston Garden gave the bruising Bruins a home edge because its rink was what?

Shorter and narrower than standard. At 191 by 83 feet it gave up nine feet of length and two of width, so visitors had less room to skate and, as one put it, had to change their game plan for the bumping and grinding.

Which athlete's name did the Bruins' arena reject after a 2005 eBay naming auction?

Derek Jeter Center. A Yankees fan won the day as a joke, but the arena ruled his choice 'obscene and vulgar'; his Red Sox-fan college roommate then raised the bid to $8,600, for the 86-year curse, and honoured the Jimmy Fund instead.

The Bruins' main crest nods to which nickname for Boston?

The Hub goes back to Oliver Wendell Holmes, who wrote that Boston's State House was the hub of the solar system. The spoked wheel crest arrived in 1948 for the club's 25th anniversary and is its longest-running emblem.

The Bruins' gold third jersey of 1995 to 2006 was nicknamed for its gentle-looking logo's likeness to which character?

Winnie the Pooh. The sad-eyed bear earned the gold sweater the name Pooh Bear jersey; it was dropped after 2006, yet the club revived the look in white as a 2022 throwback.

Leading late in Game 7 of the 1979 semifinal in Montreal, the Bruins were penalized for what?

Too many men on the ice with under three minutes left. Guy Lafleur tied it on the power play, Montreal won in overtime, and Don Cherry never coached Boston again.

How many NHL games did Don Cherry play as a Bruin before his later fame as a coach and broadcaster?

Just 1 game, in the 1955 playoffs, was his whole NHL playing career. After 16 minor-league seasons he coached Boston's grinding 'Lunch Pail A.C.' to four first-place finishes and was named coach of the year in 1976.

Gerry Cheevers was the first goaltender to decorate his mask with what?

Stitch marks where pucks had hit. He had used a soft practice shot as an excuse to head for the dressing room, so trainer John 'Frosty' Forristall painted a fake scar on the white mask as a gag, then added more with every hit.

Gerry Cheevers's NHL-record 1971-72 streak was 32 games without what?

A loss. He went 24-0-8 from mid-November to late March, Boston won the Stanley Cup that spring, and that summer he left for the rival WHA.

Which Bruins winger was nicknamed 'Taz', after the Tasmanian Devil?

Terry O'Reilly got the name from teammate Phil Esposito for his whirling, crashing style. When his No. 24 was retired in 2002 he made his entrance from the penalty box, a nod to his club-record 2,095 penalty minutes.

At which arena did Mike Milbury beat a fan with the fan's own shoe in December 1979?

Madison Square Garden. After a fan hit Stan Jonathan with a rolled-up program and made off with his stick, nearly the whole team went over the glass; three Bruins were suspended and the arena put in higher glass.

Which future Canadiens Hall of Fame goalie did the Bruins draft in 1964, then trade to Montreal for two prospects?

Ken Dryden had played just six NHL games when he stopped the defending champion Bruins in a seven-game upset in 1971. Neither prospect Boston got for him ever reached the NHL.

Which team had Zdeno Chara just left when the Bruins signed him and named him captain in 2006?

Ottawa Senators let him leave as a free agent. At 6 ft 9 the tallest player in NHL history, he captained Boston for all 14 of his seasons there, then came back in 2022 to retire on a one-day contract.

When Zdeno Chara won the Norris Trophy in 2009, he became the first player from which country to do so?

Slovakia. Chara broke the hold of Sweden's Nicklas Lidstrom, who had won six of the previous seven awards, and his 108.8 mph slap shot in 2012 is still the hardest recorded at an NHL skills contest.

Who scored two goals, including the Cup-winner, in the Bruins' 4-0 Game 7 victory in Vancouver in 2011?

Patrice Bergeron scored the opener and a shorthanded third goal. It was the only road win of the series: the home team had taken each of the first six games.

What did Bruins goalie Tim Thomas famously skip in January 2012?

The White House visit with President Obama drew every other active Bruin. Thomas said he had exercised his right 'as a Free Citizen', then sat out the entire next season before Boston traded his rights.

Which goaltender holds the Bruins' records for regular-season games (564) and wins (308)?

Tuukka Rask never played for Toronto, which drafted him and then traded him in 2006 for Andrew Raycroft, a former Bruins rookie of the year who lasted two seasons there.

The Bruins beat which team 2-1 in overtime at Fenway Park in the 2010 Winter Classic?

The Philadelphia Flyers lost to Marco Sturm's overtime goal, then had their revenge that spring: trailing Boston 3-0 in a playoff series, they won four straight.

Which team upset the record-setting 2022-23 Bruins in the first round after trailing 3-1?

The Florida Panthers tied Game 7 with a minute left and won it in overtime. They had finished 43 points behind Boston, yet went on to reach the Stanley Cup Final.

Which first-year Bruins coach led the 2022-23 team to an NHL-record 65 wins?

Jim Montgomery was named coach of the year for it, yet Boston fired him just 20 games into his third season, and another club hired him five days later.

Which Bruins goaltender scored an empty-net goal in February 2023 and won the Vezina Trophy that season?

Linus Ullmark shot the length of the ice into an empty Vancouver net on February 25, 2023; his post-win 'goalie hug' with Swayman became a team ritual.

David Pastrnak became the first Bruin to win which NHL award, sharing it with Ovechkin in 2019-20?

The Maurice 'Rocket' Richard Trophy for most goals dates only from 1999, long after Phil Esposito led the league six years running. Pastrnak and Ovechkin tied on 48 when the pandemic cut the season short.

Who was named captain of the Bruins in September 2023, after the previous captain retired?

Brad Marchand, a third-round pick in 2006, wore the 'C' until he was traded away at the March 2025 deadline, then won a second Cup with his new club that spring.

Which Bruin was the oldest player to score 50 goals in a season, at 35, until Ovechkin in 2022?

Johnny Bucyk scored 51 that season, 1970-71, and won the Lady Byng Trophy for gentlemanly play with just eight penalty minutes, despite a reputation for punishing hip checks.