Boston Bruins

The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and one of the most storied franchises in North American professional sports. Competing in the Atlantic Division of the National Hockey League's (NHL) Eastern Conference, the Bruins were established in 1924 and hold the distinction of being the NHL's oldest American franchise. They 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. The Bruins have won the Stanley Cup six times — in 1929, 1939, 1941, 1970, 1972, and 2011. The team plays its home games at TD Garden and is identified by its distinctive black and gold colors.

Founding and Early Years

November 1, 1924 was a landmark day for both the city of Boston and the National Hockey League. On that date, Charles Francis Adams paid the NHL a rumored $15,000 and received in return an entitlement to the first United States entry into the league. After watching the 1924 Stanley Cup Finals, Adams became enamored with the sport of hockey and set his sights on bringing an NHL franchise to Boston, ultimately convincing league officials to grant him an expansion team — making it the first American NHL franchise, as up to that point the NHL operated exclusively in Canada.

Adams held a contest to name his new club, specifying that the basic colors be brown with yellow trim — the color scheme of his Brookside stores — and that the team name relate to an untamed animal embodying size, strength, agility, and ferocity. He received dozens of entries, none of which satisfied him, until his secretary came upon the idea of "Bruins." Adams made perhaps his smartest move in naming Art Ross to the positions of General Manager and coach.

On December 1, 1924, the Bruins played their first NHL game — and the first NHL game ever played in the United States — against the Montreal Maroons at Boston Arena, with forward Smokey Harris scoring the first-ever Bruins goal, spurring the Bruins to a 2–1 win. However, the Bruins only managed a 6–24–0 record that inaugural season and finished in last place.

The Bruins played three more seasons at the Arena, after which they became the main tenant of the newly built Boston Garden, while the old Boston Arena facility was eventually taken over by Northeastern University and renamed Matthews Arena when the university renovated it in 1979.

The horizons brightened considerably during the 1926–27 season when Charles Adams acquired the collapsing Western Canada Hockey League, bringing an influx of new talent to the Bruins, including the inimitable Eddie Shore, an Edmonton farm boy who became a stalwart of the team for many years. He was the first defenseman to take the puck from behind his own net and rush electrifyingly up ice, and also became renowned as one of the toughest players to ever play the game.

The 1928–29 season was the first played at Boston Garden, and also featured the NHL debut of goaltender Tiny Thompson, who helped the Bruins defeat the New York Rangers to win their first Stanley Cup. The 1929 Stanley Cup Finals marked the first time in Stanley Cup history that two American-based teams met in the Final. In 1929–30, the Bruins posted the best-ever regular season winning percentage in NHL history — .875, on a 38–5–1 record — though they lost to the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Final.

The Golden Eras: 1930s–1940s and the "Big Bad Bruins"

All told, the first fifteen years of the Bruins' existence in the NHL were glorious ones — the team had eight first-place finishes in the league or their division, reached the Stanley Cup Final four times, and twice won the championship. The early Bruins teams featured future Hall of Fame members Eddie Shore, Aubrey ("Dit") Clapper, and Cecil ("Tiny") Thompson, and the franchise took home two more Stanley Cups, after the 1938–39 and 1940–41 seasons, behind goaltending great Frank Brimsek.

World War II intervened in the early 1940s, with stars Milt Schmidt, Bobby Bauer, and Woody Dumart enlisting in the Royal Canadian Air Force, along with Brimsek and others leaving for the war effort. Milt Schmidt retired in December 1954, assuming the coaching reins from Lynn Patrick, but the team continued its decline in the early 1960s, with an eight-year drought of playoff appearances from 1960–67 being the longest such stretch in Bruins history.

In June 1966, a youngster named Bobby Orr was signed to his first Bruins contract, and in the ensuing season won the Calder Trophy and a Second-Team All-Star berth. At the conclusion of the 1966–67 season, Milt Schmidt was named General Manager and immediately made one of the biggest deals in Bruins history, acquiring Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge, and Fred Stanfield from Chicago for Pit Martin, Gil Marotte, and Jack Norris.

These proved to be magical years for Bruins fans as Orr set league records and standards for defensemen, Esposito became the first player in NHL history to record a 100+ point season, and goaltender Gerry Cheevers seemed to stop everything that came his way. In 1969–70, Orr became the only player ever to win four trophies in a single season — the Norris, Hart, Ross, and Smythe Trophies.

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 Cup. In 1970–71, the Bruins set 35 team and individual league records in compiling a 57–14–7 record, while Orr became the first player in league history to record consecutive 100+ point seasons and Esposito shattered league scoring marks with 76 goals and 76 assists for 152 points. The magic returned in 1971–72 as the Stanley Cup returned to Boston for a second time in three years.

Notable Players and Legacies

The franchise has produced some of the greatest players in the history of professional hockey. In the Hockey Hall of Fame, 51 players and six builders of the sport are associated with the Boston team.

Eddie Shore, the team's first great star, was a seven-time All-Star and won the Hart Trophy as the league's most valuable player four times. In 1927–28, he set an NHL record for penalty minutes in a season with 165 in 44 games.

Bobby Orr, a defenseman, was the Bruins' most popular player until he left the team after the 1975–76 season, netting three league Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards from 1970 to 1972 and leading the team to Stanley Cup wins in both 1970 and 1972. Orr was one of the top players ever in the NHL, with eight straight Norris Trophies among his many achievements.

All-time franchise records include Johnny Bucyk as the all-time goals leader with 545, and Ray Bourque as the all-time points leader with 1,506. Phil Esposito holds the single-season records for most goals (76) and most points (152), both set in 1970–71.

Future Hall of Fame defenseman Ray Bourque joined the Bruins in 1979 and quickly became the new face of the franchise, playing for the team for almost two decades. The Bruins consistently contended during this period, as evidenced by their NHL-record 29 consecutive playoff appearances between 1968 and 1996.

On January 18, 1958, a milestone in NHL history occurred when Willie O'Ree, a New Brunswick-born left wing, became the first Black player ever to play in the NHL when he stepped onto the ice for the Bruins. He played in 45 games for Boston over the 1957–58 and 1960–61 seasons, scoring six goals and ten assists in his NHL career.

Home Venues

The first facility to host the Bruins was Boston Arena (now known as Matthews Arena), the world's oldest indoor ice hockey facility — built in 1909–10 — still in use for the sport at any level of competition. Following the Bruins' departure from 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.

On November 20, 1928, the Bruins played their first game in the Boston Garden, losing their home opener to the Canadiens 1–0, with a huge crowd estimated at 17,000 breaking down the Garden doors to attend. The Boston Garden would host Boston sports history for nearly seven decades before being demolished in 1998.

The Bruins now play their home games at TD Garden, also the home of the Boston Celtics. In a notable piece of hockey equipment history, in 1954 the Bruins became the first known NHL team to acquire a Zamboni ice resurfacing machine for their own use at Boston Garden. Their 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 in Toronto in 1988 for preservation.

Recent History and Championships

After playing through a stretch of seasons from 1997–98 to 2007–08 that saw the Bruins lose in the first round of the playoffs in five of their six postseason appearances, the team returned to the Stanley Cup Finals after a 20-year absence in 2010–11. Behind the outstanding play of goaltender Tim Thomas — who set a Finals record by recording 238 saves over the course of the series — the Bruins defeated the Vancouver Canucks in seven games to capture their sixth championship.

On January 1, 2010, the Bruins won the Winter Classic over the Philadelphia Flyers in a 2–1 overtime decision at Fenway Park, becoming the first home team to win an outdoor classic game.

The Bruins returned to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2012–13 but lost in six games to the Chicago Blackhawks, and in 2013–14 had the best record in the NHL before being eliminated in the second round of the playoffs. In 2018–19, they again advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals, led by goaltender Tuukka Rask, but lost a seven-game series to the St. Louis Blues.

The Bruins have 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.

Community Involvement

In addition to their on-ice play, the Boston Bruins maintain a strong commitment to charitable endeavors primarily through the Boston Bruins Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works with other charitable organizations focused on health and wellness, education, and athletics, aiming to create a strong support system for children and families throughout Greater Boston. Since its creation in 2003, the Foundation has raised more than $54 million through various programs and events. One of its most notable efforts was B Inclusive, a partnership with Special Olympics Massachusetts that included a $1 million donation and an array of initiatives designed to encourage inclusion and support overall health and wellness.