The Boston Bruins

 

                     photo credit: https://thehockeynews.com/news/nhl-logo-rankings-no-7-boston-bruins

In 1924, (1) the National Hockey League decided to expand to the United States. The previous year in 1923, Thomas Duggan received options on three NHL franchises in the U.S. and sold one to Boston grocery magnate Charles Adams. The team was one of the NHL’s first expansion teams, and the first NHL team to be based in the U.S. Adam’s first act was to hire Art Ross, a former star player and innovator, as general manager. Ross was the face of the franchise for the next thirty years, including four separate stints as coach.

Ross came up with “Bruins” for a team nickname, a name known for brown bears used in classic folk tales. The team’s nickname also went along with the team’s original uniform colors of brown and yellow, which came from Adams’ grocery chain, First National Stores. (6)(7)

December 1st, 1924, the Bruins won the first ever NHL game played on U.S. soil,(8) against the Montreal Maroons at Boston Arena, with Smokey Harris scoring the first-ever Bruins goal, (9) spurring the Bruins to a 2-1 win. This would be one of the few high points of the season, as the Bruins only managed a 6-24-0 record and finished in last place in its first season. The Bruins played three more seasons at the Arena, after which they became the main tenant of the Boston Garden. (10)

The Bruins improved in their second season to a winning record, but they missed out on the third and final playoff berth by one point to the expansion Pittsburgh Pirates. In their third season, 1926-27, Ross took advantage of the Western Hockey League to purchase several Western stars, including the team’s first great star, defenseman Eddie Shore. Boston qualified for the then-expanded playoffs by a comfortable margin.

In their first-ever playoff run, the Bruins reached the Stanley Cup Finals where they lost to the Ottawa Senators in the first Stanley Cup Finals to be between exclusively NHL teams. In 1929 the Bruins defeated the New York Rangers to win their first Stanley Cup. Standout players on the first championship team included Shore, Harry Oliver, Dit Clapper, Dutch Gainor, and goaltender Tiny Thompson. The 1928 – 1929 season was the first played at Boston Garden. The season after that, 1929-1930, the Bruins posted the best-ever regular season winning percentage in the NHL (.875, a record which still stands) and shattered numerous scoring records, but lost to the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Finals.

The 1930s Bruins teams included Shore, Thompson, Clapper, Babe Siebert, and Cooney Weiland. The team led the league five times in the decade. In 1939, the team captured its second Stanley Cup. That year, Thompson was traded for rookie goaltender Frank Brimsek. Brimsek had an award-winning season, capturing the Vezina and Calder Trophies, becoming the first rookie named to the NHL's first All-Star team, and earning the nickname “Mr. Zero.” The team skating in front of Brimsek included Bill Cowley, Shore, Clapper, and “Sudden Death” Mel Hill (who scored three overtime goals in one playoff series), together with the “Kraut Line” of center Milt Schmidt, right winger Bobby Bauer and left winger Woody Dumart.

Shore was traded in 1940 to the struggling New York Americans for his final NHL season. In 1941the Bruins won their third Stanley Cup after losing only eight games and finishing first in the regular season. It was their last Stanley Cup in 29 years. World War II affected the Bruins more than most teams; Brimsek and the “Krauts” all enlisted after the 1940-1941 Cup win and lost the post-productive years of their careers at war. Cowley, assisted by veteran players Clapper and Busher Jackson, was the team’s remaining star.

Here are a few photos to go along with the many names mentioned:

 Thomas Duggan
Photo Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Duggan

      
 Charles Adams
Photo Credit: https://www.bostonbruinsalumni.com/news/previous/19

 
Photo Credit: https://thirdstringgoalie.blogspot.com/2016/01/1910-11-montreal-wanderers-art-ross.html

      
 Smokey Harris
Photo Credit: https://hockeygods.com/images/12076
-mokey_Harris_outside_Denman_Arena___Vancouver_Millionaires_1912

Photo Credit: https://www.stadiumtalk.com/s/toughest-hockey-players-nhl-history-b28fb40c4fff4526

The New York Islanders

Photo Credit: https://1000logos.net/islanders-logo/

The New York Islanders (colloquially known as the Isles) are a professional ice hockey team based in Elmont, New York. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference, and UBS Arena. They are one of three franchises in the New York metropolitan area, along with the New Jersey Devils, and New York Rangers, and their fanbase resides primarily on Long Island. In the fall of 1972, the emerging World Hockey Association (WHA) planned to place its New York team, the New York Raiders, in Nassau County’s brand-new Nassau Veterans Memorial Stadium. County officials did not consider the WHA a major league and wanted to keep the Raiders out. William Shea, who had helped bring Major League Baseball’s New York Mets to the area a decade earlier, was enlisted to bring an NHL team to Long Island. Although Shea had previously worked with upstart rival leagues including the aborted Continental League (baseball), the American Football League, and the American Basketball Association, his ultimate goal in these efforts had always been to try to persuade the established leagues to grant second franchises to New York as had been the case with the Mets (and also the New York Jets (NFL) and New York Nets (NBA), as a result of those teams’ leagues merging with their established rivals)

        photo credit:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Islanders 

In contrast, Shea decided there was no need to work with the WHA since unlike the initial results of his previous approaches to established leagues in the other major sports, Shea immediately found NHL president Clarence Campbell to be receptive to adding a second team in New York. Nevertheless, the Islanders’ bid faced opposition from the New York Rangers who did not want additional competition in the New York area. Eventually, Campbell and Shea persuaded the Rangers’ owners, Madison Square Garden, to reconsider. Rangers’ president Bill Jennings weighed the pros and cons. Another local NHL team would be compelled to compensate the Rangers for sharing the New York area. On the other hand, a WHA team would owe the Rangers nothing unless it was included in a potential NHL-WHA merger, a prospect to which both Campbell and Shea were adamantly opposed. Finally, consenting to the establishment of an NHL franchise in suburban Nassau County would help to ensure the vast majority of the Rangers fanbase within New York City proper would continue to support the older franchise, and reduce the prospect of a rival league eventually establishing a team and fanbase there.

Despite expanding to 14 teams just two years prior, the NHL awarded a Long Island-based franchise to clothing manufacturer Roy Boe, owner of the American Basketball Association’s New York Nets, on November 8, 1971. (https://books.google.com/books?id=no8-Q-ZE1z0C) The terms included a $6 million ($41.98 million in 2022 dollars) franchise fee plus a $5 million ($34.98 million in 2022 dollars) territorial fee to the Rangers. An expansion franchise was also given to Atlanta (the Flames) to keep the schedule balanced and to prevent the WHA from entering the growing market at the newly built Omni Coliseum.

The New York Islanders name was unveiled by the franchise on February 15, 1972, at a press conference held across the street from Roosevelt Raceway (https://www.nytimes.com/1972/02/16/archives/li-hockey-club-hires-exoakland-aide.html) at a restaurant owned by Burt Bacharach. Many expected it to use the “Long Island Ducks”, after the Eastern Hockey League team that played there from 1959 to 1973. The team was soon named the “Isles” by the local newspapers. The Islander's arrival effectively doomed the Raiders, who played in Madison Square Garden under difficult lease terms and were forced to move to Cherry Hill, New Jersey in the middle of their second season (https://web.archive.org/web/20150419111503/http://www.whahockey.com/raiders.html).

Former California Golden Seals executive vice president Bill Torrey was named as the team’s general manager at the same press conference as the franchise’s name unveiling (https://www.nytimes.com/1972/02/16/archives/li-hockey-club-hires-exoakland-aide.html). The Islanders secured veteran forward Ed Westfall, defensemen Gerry Hart, and goaltender Billy Smith in the 1972 Expansion Draft, along with junior hockey stars Billy Harris, Lorne Henning, and Bobby Nystrom in the 1972 Amateur Draft. Soon after the draft, Phil Goyette was named as the team’s first head coach, however, he was fired halfway through the season and replaced by Earl Ingarfield and assistant coach Aut Erickson. Unlike most other expansion teams’ general managers, Torrey made few trades for veteran players in the early years, as he was committed to building the team through the draft.

By September 1972, the Islanders were waiting for the Nassau Coliseum to be completed as well as their practice facility “The Royal Ice Rink” in Kings Park. The team was forced to practice as late as October 6th, the day before their first game, at the Rangers practice rink in New Hyde Park (https://www.nytimes.com/1972/10/07/archives/islanders-make-debut-tonight-in-li-rink-rangers-at-wings.html).