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Ah, hockey in the summer, where things come to a grinding halt for about two months in between one long season and another. To fill the void we at Eye on Hockey thought it would be fun to make an all-time team for each of the 30 organizations in the NHL today.
The ground rules: The teams will consist of a center, two wings (regardless of which side), two defensemen and a goaltender. A player must have spent at least 200 games with a franchise to be considered. So Bobby Orr won't be on the Blackhawks' roster or Wayne Gretzky for St. Louis.
Here we have the final of the Original Six franchises in our all-time series, the Boston Bruins. While they haven't won the Cup a ton thanks to a long dry spell that was snapped just a few years back, the Bruins have always been a playoff team, or so it seems. With six Stanley Cup titles overall to their credit, you know the B's will fit right in with the rest of the Original Six squads in being steeped with skill.
What makes the Bruins interesting is that their all-time team really isn't that hard to make. They have been blessed with some of the absolute greatest players and they are evenly spread throughout the roster. It's pretty much sure-fire guy after sure-fire guy until you get to the net.
Just know if there were a spot for fist-pumping anthem singers, well that would be easy too.
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| Center |
Phil Esposito: Esposito didn't start nor did he end his career in Boston, he just played there in his prime and holy smokes was it ever a prime. He made his way to Boston in 1967 via a trade with Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield for Pit Martin, Jack Norris and Gilles Marotte. I think Boston did pretty well in that deal.
There was no denying that Esposito was the prime scorer in the game during his day and it wasn't even close. Esposito became the first player to score 100 points in a season, blowing away the triple-digit mark in 1968-69 with 126 points thanks in part to a league-high 77 assists. All he did after that was lead the NHL in goals in each of the next six seasons in Boston with totals of 43, 76, 66, 55, 68 and 61. Only twice in his eight full seasons with the Bruins did Esposito not reach 100 points and in one of those two seasons he only had 99. What a disappointment.
His scoring ways led to the birth of a pretty great slogan in Beantown.
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Of course Espo hasn't been exactly cordial with the Bruins since he was traded to the Rangers. Remember this quote before the Stanley Cup Final this season? "I have no feeling for these teams [the Bruins and Blackhawks]. There's nothing emotional about it. They both got rid of me, traded me. So screw them." Or how he said he was "all Tampa Bay" in the Eastern Conference finals two seasons ago since he helped found that franchise? No matter for these purposes, he was the too good for too many years in Boston to not make this roster.
| Wings |
John Bucyk: Bucyk began his Boston career in a somewhat intimidating way, having come to the Bruins in a trade for the great goalie Terry Sawchuk from Detroit. But he has never looked back and been all Boston since then.
To this day Bucyk remains the Bruins' all-time goal-scoring leader with 545, well ahead of Esposito's 459 as a Bruin. Until Ray Bourque came along, he also was the leader in games played (1,436) and points (1,339) in the spoked B. From his arrival in Boston in 1957-58 until he retired in 1977-78, he was a consistent threat and led the Bruins in points for much of his time until he got a few big-scoring teammates around him as well. His best season came in 1970-71 when he finished with 51 goals and 65 assists for 116 points, all career highs.
Bucyk might be Mr. Bruin -- to this day he remains part of the organization as Director of Road Services and his name was engraved on the Cup in 2011.
Cam Neely: At first I thought it was pretty clear who the second winger would be though there were certainly some other candidates I had to consider as well. Rick Middleton and Ken Hodge come to mind right away but in the end, despite less time in Boston, I stuck with Neely.
He didn't last a long time in the NHL but still amassed some pretty ridiculous numbers and became an icon for the Bruins in the 1980s and '90s. Neely had back-to-back seasons of 50 goals (55 in 1989-90, 51 in '90-91) before turning in a remarkable 50 goals in 49 games in 1993-94. All the way to the end he was very productive and an excellent player. It's a shame he dealt with so many injuries during his career. Had he been able to stay healthy and hadn't had to retire at just 30 years old, it's a wonder where he would have ended up in the Bruins' record book. As it stands he's still fifth all time in goals with 344 as a Bruin and is ninth in points despite being nowhere near the top 10 in games played.
Besides, I'm not going to try and tell Seabass he's not on the team.
| Defensemen |
Bobby Orr: Let's see here, the most dominating defenseman -- possibly most dominating player -- to ever play the game and almost his whole career with the Bruins? Yeah, this one isn't a tough call.
What Orr did in his all-too brief career was simply remarkable. He single-handedly transformed the way defensemen played the game forever and finished a career that many consider the best in hockey history, even if it really only was nine seasons long for all practical purposes. From 1969-70 through 1974-75, Orr never had less than 101 points. In five of those six years he had at least 117 and led the NHL in assists in five of six seasons as well, including 102 in '70-71.
He won the Calder Trophy as the top rookie, won the Norris a record eight times as the best defenseman, won the Art Ross Trophy twice, was a three-time Hart Trophy winner as the regular-season MVP and picked up two Conn Smythe Trophies as the playoff MVP. He also led the Bruins to the Stanley Cup twice and had THE goal in franchise history, a moment that will never be forgotten in Boston.
Raymond Bourque: Good thing there are two defensemen because there is no way that Bourque could be left off this list. If Orr is the best defenseman not only in Bruins history but league history, then Bourque isn't too far behind. He holds the NHL records for goals and assists by a defenseman (so you can deduce he also leads in points) and is atop many of the categories in Bruins history as well. Games (1,518), assists (1,111) and points (1,506) are all best in franchise history while his 395 goals are fourth. He won the Calder Trophy and then the Norris five times while also making 18 All-Star Game appearances in a Bruins sweater.
Not only was he an exceptional player, but Bourque was the Bruins. He left the Bruins as the longest-tenured captain in NHL history, leading them from 1988 until 2000. Not to mention he served three years as a co-captain with Rick Middleton. He also graciously surrendered the No. 7 when it was retired for Phil Esposito, taking the number 77 for the rest of his career.
The only thing Bourque couldn't do in Boston was win the Stanley Cup. He asked to be sent out of town so he could finally get a shot at hoisting the Cup and he did just that with the Colorado Avalanche in one of the greatest Cup moments ever. He was so good and beloved in Boston that nobody cared he won the Cup with another team -- everybody was thrilled, as they showed when he brought the Cup to Boston.
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| Goaltender |
Tiny Thompson: This was by far the toughest choice to make on the Bruins' list with four excellent options. Gerry Cheevers, Frank Brimsek and, yes, Tim Thomas, all have very good arguments to be here too and really, you would be justified going with any one of them. It's three Hall of Famers and then Thomas. I was actually most tempted by Thomas believe it or not because he had some of the most amazing seasons we've ever seen from a goaltender, won two Vezinas and a Conn Smythe. But in the end I went with the other TT, Tiny, thanks to a longer timeframe with the Bruins.
Well that and the fact that he was pretty excellent in his own right during his time. He began his career in 1928-29 by leading the league in wins and helping the Bruins win the Stanley Cup. It was a different era and all but he still finished with an awesome 1.15 goals-against average that season, perhaps his best ever. But it was hardly all downhill from there. Thompson led the league in wins four more times and was a workhorse for the Bruins. From 1932-33 until '37-38, Thompson played every single game the Bruins had.
Thompson won the Vezina Trophy four times and finished with 74 shutouts as a Bruin, more than twice as many as Brimsek, the next closest Bruin.
| Notable Omissions |
Wayne Cashman, Ken Hodge, Rick Middleton, Adam Oates, Eddie Shore, Dit Clapper, Gerry Cheevers, Frank Brimsek, Tim Thomas, Zdeno Chara, Milt Schmidt, Bobby Bauer, Woody Dumart, Brad Park, Terry O'Reilly, Peter McNab, Derek Sanderson
