The Boston Bruins will celebrate their centennial season in 2023-24, giving fans hundreds of opportunities to celebrate 100 years of professional hockey in New England. Whether we discuss the team’s greatest players or remember some of their most iconic moments, there will be plenty to discuss regarding the league’s oldest American-based franchise.
Related: Bruins’ Leading Scorers by Decade
Considering legendary players have worn the Spoke B, with names like Ray Bourque, Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, and Tuukka Rask calling Boston home, their impact not only in the community but also in the league remains widely discussed years after retirement. Although each finds themselves attached to several important team records, with many going unchallenged for the foreseeable future, we decided to discuss what could be described as the seven most unbreakable records in Bruins history.
Keith Crowder’s Penalty Minutes in a Game
The current NHL record for penalty minutes accumulated in a single game is held by Randy Holt, who had 67 minutes on Mar. 11, 1979, in a contest between the Los Angeles Kings and Philadelphia Flyers. Although many players have tried to break the record, the closest any member of the Bruins has ever gotten was Keith Crowder, who had 43 in a contest against the Minnesota North Stars on Feb. 26, 1981.
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The record has stood for over 40 seasons, with only one other Boston skater, Chris Nilan, coming close with 42 minutes in March 1991, leaving these two alone at the top. Interestingly, Brantt Myhres is the only player this century to collect 31 penalty minutes in a contest in November 2002, meaning this record could last another 40 years, given today’s crackdown on major infractions.
NHL Record of 65 Wins and 135 Points
During the 2022-23 season, the Bruins became the best statistical team of all time, breaking the NHL record for wins and points, finishing the 82-game season with 65 wins and 135 points. Although they did not go on to win the Stanley Cup, losing in the first round, head coach Jim Montgomery won the Jack Adams Award as Coach of the Year. Furthermore, Linus Ullmark took home the Vezina Trophy as the league’s best goalie.
At the same time, he shared the William M. Jennings Trophy with his partner Jeremy Swayman for surrendering the fewest goals during the year. Meanwhile, former captain Patrice Bergeron set an NHL record by earning his sixth Frank J. Selke Trophy as the league’s top defensive forward. Even though the players found individual and team success during the regular season, they failed to win it all, which doesn’t take away from their accomplishments during one of the most impossible-to-duplicate regular seasons in history.
Terry O’Reilly Career Penalty Minutes
Terry “Taz” O’Reilly played his entire career with the Bruins, skating in one of the roughest eras in NHL history, the 1970s. Between 1977 and 1982, he amassed 1,117 penalty minutes, averaging 279 a year. By the end of his 14-year career in 1985, O’Reilly finished with 2,095 penalty minutes, which ranks 44th all-time amongst NHL players.
After 891 matches, where he averaged 2.35 penalty minutes a game, O’Reilly remains the only player in Bruins history to surpass 2,000 penalty minutes, with his closest competition being Mike Milbury, who amassed 1,552 minutes in 754 games. Interestingly, Brad Marchand is the only active player with over 900 penalty minutes and is on the verge of becoming the 10th skater to reach 1,000 minutes. However, at 36, there’s no chance he will climb into the top three, let alone challenge for the top spot.
Tiny Thompson’s Career Shutout and Goals Against Average Totals
In 1928, Tiny Thompson, then 25, made his NHL debut. He would win the Vezina Trophy four times and a Stanley Cup championship in 1929 before being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1959. Although he played with the Detroit Red Wings for two years at the end of his career, he’s undoubtedly one of the greatest statistical goaltenders in team history.
Between 1928 and 1938, Thompson led the league in games played nine times, wins on five occasions, goals against average (GAA) four times, and shutouts four times. After 468 games in Boston, he left with two records that remain unchallenged over 85 years later. Statistically, Thompson recorded 74 shutouts and has the lowest GAA (1.99) for any netminder who played at least 100 games.
Related: Bruins’ Leading Scorers by Decade
Interestingly, as Ullmark and Swayman approach 100 contests in the Bruins’ crease, they are the only goalies close to challenging Thompson’s mark with a GAA under 2.28, the number Rask retired with after 15 seasons.
Ray Bourque’s Games Played, Shots, and Career Points Records
Bourque spent 21 years patrolling the blueline at Boston Garden and TD Garden, climbing the all-time scoring lists and finishing as the NHL’s leading scorer amongst defensemen with 1,579 points. As heartbreaking as it was for most Bruins fans, the team’s longest-tenured captain left in 2000 to pursue a Stanley Cup title with the Colorado Avalanche, which he would win in 2001.
Unsurprisingly, Bourque owns several team records, including games played (1,518), shots (5,950), and points (1,506), with most of them nearly impossible to break by anyone currently playing in the organization. Perspectively, Bergeron just retired after 19 years wearing a Bruins jersey and didn’t come close to catching Bourque in any of these categories. After 2022-23, the former six-time Selke Trophy winner came 224 games, 466 points, and 1,976 shots short of those milestones.
Considering current Bruins player David Pastrnak has his sights set on Johnny Bucyk’s goal record (545), Marchand is the only skater within a stone’s throw of Bourque’s total. However, as mentioned earlier, on the backside of his career, he’s a long shot to reach the top spot in any category, although there’s a chance he finishes in the top five.
Bobby Orr’s Eight Norris Trophy Wins
Although there is no way to decide who the greatest player in NHL history is, the measuring stick usually focuses on statistics, Stanley Cup titles, and individual awards. Even though Wayne Gretzky is the only player with 2,000 points, Bobby Orr remains the only defenseman to capture the Norris Trophy a record eight times. Additionally, he won the award in eight straight seasons, from 1967 to 1975, an NHL record that may never be broken.
Historically, only six defensemen have scored 100 points in the regular season, with Orr accomplishing the feat six times before anyone else reached the milestone. Furthermore, he remains the only defender to win the Art Ross Trophy as the league’s leading scorer in 1970 and 1975. Although we could discuss the possibility of other defensemen becoming the top scorer in the NHL, there’s no denying Orr’s place amongst the immortals remains unchallenged, with an unbreakable eight-year reign as the league’s best defender.
Only two other Boston players, Bourque, and Zdeno Chara, have had the honor of winning the Norris Trophy with the team, so there’s no chance someone will step up and go on a historical run like Orr did in the early 1970s.
Gerry Cheeves’ 33 Game Undefeated Streak
Gerry Cheevers is a Hall of Famer netminder who led the Bruins to two Stanley Cup victories in 1970 and 1972. As one of the best goalies in franchise history, his claim to fame is an NHL record that will never be broken in the modern era, and that is a 33-game undefeated streak. Interestingly, Cheevers broke the previous record during the 1971-72 season, surpassing the mark set by another former Bruins goalie, Frank Brimsek, in 1940-41. Collectively, the franchise owns three of the top four longest undefeated streaks in NHL history.
After a loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Nov. 11, 1981, in his sixth game of the season, Cheevers would not lose another game until Mar. 29, 1972, compiling a record 24-0-8 streak over 33 games. During this unbelievable stretch, he gave up just 76 goals for a 2.33 GAA while making 930 saves for a .924 save percentage. Additionally, Cheevers recorded two shutouts and earned 21 penalty minutes.
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Although plenty of games pushed the streak to its breaking point, Cheevers overcame several outings of four or more goals to get a win or tie to remain undefeated. Interestingly, he swept the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers in four contests but struggled against the Pittsburgh Penguins, going 1-0-3 in four meetings.
According to Records.NHL.com, only two netminders since 1990 have produced an undefeated streak of 20 games, with Chris Osgood reaching 21 in 1995-96 and Mike Richter getting to 20 in 1993-94. Despite the advancement in goalie equipment and playing techniques, it would take a remarkable performance for anyone to challenge Cheever’s record, whether they played in Boston or another NHL city.
Historical Perspective
As mentioned, the Bruins have a remarkable history, including six Stanley Cup championships. Although every player who sets or breaks a team record deserves recognition, listing all those accomplishments in one place is difficult. However, since some of these franchise milestones are also NHL records, it is easy to sort out which ones deserve highlighting. This serves as a reminder that Boston has had some of the game’s most dominant players in its lineups.