The Roaming Photographer

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: