32 NHL Cities in 32 Days: Boston Bruins

Alexis Bazydola
May 3, 2020
5 min read

The Location: Boston, Massachusetts

The Boston Bruins play at the TD Garden arena in Boston, Massachusetts. They share this space with the Boston Celtics. Since opening in 1995, TD Garden has become a world-renowned venue hosting over 200 events per year. This 755,000 square foot facility was renovated in 2014 to add new technology, enhanced concession experiences and upgrades to the concourses. For a hockey game, this venue can seat just over 17,500 fans. While home of the Bruins and Celtics it is also home to another Boston hockey tradition: the Beanpot. This iconic event brings four Boston universities together to battle it out for the coveted Beanpot.

The Bruins began play at Boston Arena in 1924. While eventually vacating this arena, it is still used today as Northeastern University’s home rink and was renamed to Matthews Arena. The Bruins played at the Boston Garden from 1928 until their move to TD Garden in 1995.

Team History

As an original six franchise of the NHL, the Boston Bruins have quite the history. In 1924, the NHL decided to expand to the United States. The Bruins became the first NHL team in the United States by being awarded their expansion on November 1, 1924. Owner, Charles Adams, enlisted the help of Art Ross as the general manager. Ross would become the face of the franchise for the next 30 years and would have four stints as head coach during that time. While there was no expansion draft at the time, Boston was forced to make due with NHL castoffs as the U.S. franchise was met with much speculation in Canada.

It would take until 1929 for the Bruins to gain momentum and win a Stanley Cup defeating the New York Rangers. One season after moving to the Boston Garden, the Bruins made another Stanley Cup Final appearance but lost to the Montreal Canadians. In 1939, the team’s colors morphed in to the black and gold we see today from their original brown and yellow. This same year the Bruins went on to win another Stanley Cup. They would win again in 1941, but this would lead to a 29-year drought for the Bruins.

In 1942, the Original Six era began. This era was not without struggles for the Bruins. Not only were they struggling to keep top notch players, they also struggled financially. Weston Adams, son of Charles Adams and new owner, was forced to take a buyout deal in 1951 from the owner of the Boston Celtics, Walter Brown. Although they made the Stanley Cup Final three times during this era, they were only able to put together eight winning seasons.

The Bruins made history when the first African American played in the NHL. Willie O’Ree played in 45 games for the Bruins during the 57-58 and 60-61 seasons. In 1967, Weston Adams repurchased the team and began to rebuild the struggling Bruins. In 1966, Adams signed defenseman Bobby Orr. He would go on to win that year’s Calder Memorial trophy for Rookie of the Year and become one of the greatest hockey players of all time.

After Orr’s first season, the Bruins would go on to make the playoffs for the first time in 29 straight seasons. In a deal with Chicago, the Bruins obtained Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge, and Fred Stanfield who would become essential to the success of the franchise. The “Big Bad Bruins” were a force to be reckoned with well in to the 1980s.

In 1970, the Bruins won their first Stanley Cup in 29 years. This same year, Orr became a highly decorated player winning the Norris Trophy, Art Ross Trophy, Conn Smythe Trophy, and Hart Memorial Trophy. He is the only player to win four major awards in one year. The 1970-71 season the Bruins yet again set many records: they had seven of the team’s top 10 scorers, set the record for wins in a season and had four 100-point scorers. While they were favored to repeat as Cup champions, they were defeated by the Canadians in seven games.

While the Bruins saw many ups and downs after the 70-71 season, in 1979 they drafted a new player that would become the face of the franchise for years to come, Ray Bourque. Although they made the playoffs every year throughout the 80s, they always fell short of making the finals. The 90s were also full of tumult for the Bruins; however, they moved in to their new facility, the FleetCenter (now known as TD Garden) in 1995. In 1997, the Bruins missed the playoffs for the first time in 30 years. Then general manager Harry Sinden wanted Bourque to be able to finish off his career as a Stanley Cup Champion thus trading him to the Colorado Avalanche.

It would not be until the 2001-02 season until the Bruins would make it to the playoffs again. With a core built around Joe Thornton, Sergei Samsonov, Brian Rolston, Bill Guerin, Mike Knuble and Glen Murray, the team would win their first Northeast Division title since 1993. They were not successful in the playoffs, however, and lost to the Montreal Canadians in the first round.

After the 04-05 lockout, the Bruins management went after younger talent with the new salary cap space. The Bruins were yet again met with competitive struggles and traded their captain, Joe Thornton to the San Jose Sharks. They would again miss the playoffs this year which forced a new management regime in Peter Chiarelli as general manager and Dave Lewis as head coach. They also signed Zdeno Chara and Marc Savard during the free agency period. These changes could not inspire wins, the Bruins fired Lewis and hired Claude Julien in June 2007.

It would take the team until 2011 to make it back to the Stanley Cup Finals, the first time since 1990. They would go on to win the Cup that year over the Vancouver Canucks. As it was in the past, the Bruins again struggled after this Stanley Cup win. In 2013-14 they would go on to win the Presidents’ Trophy, but they fell in the second round of the playoffs to the Canadians.

In April 2015, Peter Chiarelli was fired as general manager and Don Sweeney took his place. At the end of the 16-17 season, the Bruins also fired head coach Claude Julien with Bruce Cassidy stepping up to interim coach. This season the Bruins qualified for the playoffs for the first time since the 13-14 season but lost to the Ottawa Senators in the first round. The Bruins made another trip to the Finals in the 18-19 season only to lose to the St. Louis Blues in seven games. At the pause of the season, they are the only team with 100 points and are first in the league.

Fanbase

One of the main traditions of the Bruins has definitely become the iconic Bon Jovi song “Livin’ on a Prayer.” While this is not their goal song, it is a song that gets their fans amped up and ready to support the team.

The Bruins’ mascot, Blades the Bruin, is also known to hype up the fans. Organs are also a huge part of hockey games, not just in Boston. While the team was known to enter the ice to a popular organ song in the 80s, it is still used throughout Bruins games today. Today, the Bruins enter the ice to “Coachise” by Audioslave and play “Joker and the Thief” by Wolfmother before the opening faceoff. "Kernkraft 400 (Sport Chant Stadium Remix)" by Zombie Nation currently plays as the Bruins goal song.