50 Fun Facts About Bruins

In what year did the Bruins begin play, making them the oldest NHL franchise based in the United States?

The Bruins took the ice on December 1, 1924 as the NHL's first American club; among active teams only Montreal and Toronto are older.

Which Boston grocery magnate bought the franchise that became the Bruins?

Charles Adams, owner of a grocery chain, paid $15,000 for the franchise after sports promoter Thomas Duggan, who held options on three US franchises, sold him one.

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

The First National Stores grocery chain, owned by the club's founder, used brown and yellow; the Bruins wore them until switching to black and gold in the mid-1930s and revived the look for the 2010 Winter Classic.

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

Art Ross ran the Bruins as general manager until 1954, coaching them in several stints along the way, and later donated the Art Ross Trophy for the NHL's leading scorer.

The Bruins won the first NHL game ever played in the United States, in 1924, against which opponent?

The Montreal Maroons, also new to the league that season, lost 2-1 at Boston Arena in a rare high point for a Bruins team that finished last at 6-24-0.

Which of these teams was NOT one of the Original Six alongside the Bruins?

The Pittsburgh Penguins arrived in the 1967 expansion; only Montreal and Toronto are true charter members, and the 'Original Six' were simply the only teams from 1942 to 1967.

How many Stanley Cups have the Bruins won?

6 Cups (1929, 1939, 1941, 1970, 1972 and 2011) tie the Bruins with Chicago for fourth-most, behind Montreal (24), Toronto (13) and Detroit (11).

The Bruins won their first Stanley Cup in 1929 by beating which team in a best-of-three final?

The New York Rangers fell in two straight; Boston did not lose a single playoff game that spring, a feat no team repeated until Detroit's 1952 sweep.

Whose No. 3 became the first number ever retired by the Bruins, in February 1934?

Lionel Hitchman's No. 3 was only the second number retired in North American pro sports, eight days after Toronto retired Ace Bailey's No. 6.

Which bruising Bruins defenceman was nicknamed 'the Edmonton Express'?

Eddie Shore won the Hart Trophy four times, a record for a defenceman that even Bobby Orr's three could not match, and later owned the AHL's Springfield Indians for decades.

Which player was NOT a member of the Bruins' famed Kraut Line?

Bill Cowley centred a different line; the Kraut Line's three all grew up together in Kitchener, Ontario, and enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force together in 1942.

What did the Kraut Line achieve in the 1939-40 season that no NHL line had done before?

The Kraut Line finished first, second and third in league scoring in 1939-40, a feat matched only by Montreal's Punch Line in 1944-45 and Detroit's Production Line in 1949-50.

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

Milt Schmidt is the only person in franchise history to serve as captain, coach and general manager; his No. 15 hangs in the rafters.

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

Frank Brimsek earned the 'Mr. Zero' nickname with six shutouts in his first eight NHL games, posting a 1.56 goals-against average as the Bruins won the 1939 Cup.

Willie O'Ree became the NHL's first Black player on January 18, 1958, when the Bruins faced which team?

The Montreal Canadiens lost 3-0 at the Forum that night; O'Ree kept a secret that would have barred him: an errant puck had left him blind in his right eye two years earlier.

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.

Which photographer captured the iconic image of Bobby Orr flying through the air after his 1970 goal?

Ray Lussier of the Boston Record-American took the shot; Orr was airborne because defenceman Noel Picard tripped him just after the puck went in.

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

The statue shows Orr airborne just after scoring in 1970; it was unveiled on May 10, 2010, exactly 40 years to the day after the goal it captures.

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.

How many goals did Phil Esposito score in 1970-71, a record until Wayne Gretzky broke it in 1982?

76 goals came on a record 550 shots; Esposito was on hand in Buffalo to hand Gretzky the puck when the record fell in February 1982.

At the December 1987 ceremony retiring Phil Esposito's No. 7, what did Ray Bourque do?

Bourque peeled off his No. 7 jersey to reveal a No. 77 underneath; he had been permitted to keep 7 indefinitely but surrendered it that night and 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?

The Colorado Avalanche won the 2001 Cup in Bourque's final game; days later he brought the Cup back to Boston for a rally of some 20,000 fans at City Hall Plaza.

Boston's 1979 first-round pick used on Ray Bourque came from trading which goaltender to the Kings?

Ron Grahame went to Los Angeles in 1978 for the pick that became eighth overall; GM Harry Sinden actually wanted Keith Brown, who went to Chicago one pick earlier, so the Bruins 'settled' for Bourque.

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

Cam Neely, 'Bam-Bam Cam', later scored 50 goals in just 44 games in 1993-94 and became the team's president in 2010.

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

The Edmonton Oilers swept Boston in 1988, with Wayne Gretzky taking the Conn Smythe, and won the 1990 series in five games.

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

A power failure plunged the Garden into darkness in the second period; the emergency generator did not start, and the game was replayed in full two days later on the road.

Which boxing promoter designed Boston Garden and built the third New York arena of the same name?

Tex Rickard, the promoter behind the New York arena it copied, opened the Boston building in 1928; it outlived its Manhattan namesake by nearly three decades.

In what year did the Bruins leave the old Boston Garden for the FleetCenter (TD Garden)?

The FleetCenter opened in 1995; the Bruins' first game there, on October 7, 1995, was a 4-4 tie with the Islanders.

The eight spokes on the Bruins' 'Spoked-B' logo nod to which nickname for Boston?

The Hub, short for 'Hub of the Universe', is the nickname; the wheel logo debuted for the club's 25th anniversary in 1948 and has been reworked several times, most notably in 2007.

Which future pro hockey player named the Bruins' mascot Blades as a nine-year-old in 2000?

Jillian Dempsey, who later captained Boston's professional women's teams, supplied the name Blades for the bear mascot introduced in 2000.

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 coach Don Cherry was fired soon after.

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

Just 1 game, a 1955 playoff appearance, before a long minor-league career; as coach he built the 'Lunch Pail A.C.', named for its blue-collar grinding style.

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

Stitch marks where pucks had hit: trainer John 'Frosty' Forristall drew the first stitches on the mask as a joke after a practice shot, and Cheevers kept adding them.

How many consecutive games did Gerry Cheevers go without a loss in 1971-72?

32 games (24 wins, 8 ties) set the NHL unbeaten record for a goaltender; he capped the season with a shutout in the Cup-clinching Game 6 in New York.

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

Terry O'Reilly was 'Bloody O'Reilly' to the press; he topped 200 penalty minutes five straight seasons and later coached the team.

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

Madison Square Garden, December 23, 1979: a fan smacked Stan Jonathan with a rolled-up program and stole his stick, and several Bruins climbed the glass in pursuit.

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

Ken Dryden then beat the heavily favoured Bruins in the 1971 playoffs and haunted them for the rest of the decade; Boston got Guy Allen and Paul Reid in return.

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

The Ottawa Senators let him go as a free agent in 2006; at 6 ft 9 in the tallest player in NHL history, he wore the 'C' for all fourteen of his Boston seasons.

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

Slovakia: Chara was only the second European winner overall, after Nicklas Lidstrom, and won the All-Star hardest-shot contest with a 103.1 mph blast in 2008.

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

Patrice Bergeron's Cup-winner also put him in the Triple Gold Club; he went on to win a record six Selke Trophies and is engraved on the Cup as Bergeron-Cleary.

What did Tim Thomas famously skip in January 2012, the only active Bruin to do so?

The White House visit with President Obama went ahead without him; he said he was exercising his rights 'as a Free Citizen', sat out the entire following season, and his rights were traded to the Islanders.

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

Tuukka Rask came from Toronto in a 2006 trade for Andrew Raycroft before he had played an NHL game, a deal widely ranked among the Leafs' worst.

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

The Philadelphia Flyers fell to Marco Sturm's overtime tip-in, and Boston became the first home team to win a Winter Classic.

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

The Florida Panthers won three straight, and Boston joined the 2007 Patriots, 2001 Mariners and 2015-16 Warriors among record regular seasons that ended without a title.

How many regular-season games did the Bruins win in 2022-23, more than any team before?

65 wins broke the previous NHL mark of 62, and the Bruins' 135 points also topped the 1976-77 Canadiens' 132.

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, awarded since 1999, had never gone to a Bruin; Pastrnak's 48 goals tied Ovechkin in a season cut short by the pandemic.

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, 'Chief', scored 51 in 1970-71 and retired with 545 goals as a Bruin, a franchise record that stood for decades afterward.