Boston Bruins: Remembering past Stanley Cup Final appearances
It’s been exactly six years since Boston had Stanley Cup Final fever. It’s been 49 years since the Bruins swept the St. Louis Blues in the Stanley Cup Final to win the then fourth Cup in their franchise history.
Beginning next Monday, two teams will knuckle down and compete for the Stanley Cup. The Boston Bruins will aim for their seventh elusive trophy and the St. Louis Blues for their first ever.
The very first time the Boston Bruins made it to the playoffs, in 1927 they also made the Stanley Cup Final. However, the Bruins lost to the Ottawa Senators. That time, 92 years ago, the Stanley Cup Final was played up to two wins regardless of the ties. The Senators won two games and two games ended up in a tie. The Sens hoisted the Stanley Cup in Ottawa on April 13 that year.
90 years back in 1929, the Boston Bruins won their first ever Stanley Cup against the New York Rangers in the old Madison Square Garden, with Bill Carson scoring late in the third period to win the Stanley Cup for Boston. Well, that’s not the last time when the Bruins lifted the Stanley Cup in New York, surely a beloved city for all Boston Bruins’ fans.
The following year, the Boston Bruins advanced to the Stanley Cup Final again, this time to meet the Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens won the Stanley Cup back in Montreal. The Bruins had to wait until 1939 to get to the Stanley Cup Final again.
The Bruins met the Toronto Maple Leafs in a then new final series system, where the team has to win four games in a best-of-seven series. The Bruins won in five games, clinching at home in the old Boston Garden. It was Roy Conacher with the Cup-winning tally in that Game 5.
Just two years later, the Bruins returned to the Stanley Cup Final after they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round, back then, the semi-final of the playoffs. In that Stanley Cup Final in 1941, the Bruins swept the Detroit Red Wings with Bobby Hauer scored a Cup-winning goal in Detroit in Game 4 on April 12.
Two years later in 1943, the Red Wings got their revenge as they swept the Bruins in the Stanley Cup Final and hoisted the Cup at Boston Garden. In 1946, the B’s returned to the Stanley Cup Final, but lost to the Montreal Canadiens. again.
Not a pleasant fact for the Bruins for sure, but the Canadiens and the Bruins have met in the Stanley Cup Final seven times and the Habs have won all of those meetings.
Before their Stanley Cup run in 1970, the Boston Bruins lost another three Stanley Cup finals against the Canadiens since 1946.
It happened in five games in 1953, in five games in 1957 and in six games in 1958. After chasing the Cup for so long without any great luck, the Bruins missed the playoffs for eight straight years from 1960 until 1967. In 1968, the Blues made it to the Stanley Cup Final in their first ever NHL season but lost to Montreal, and did the same a year later; Boston still not managing to reach the final hurdle.
Then in 1970, a promising team beat the St. Louis Blues in just four games. In Game 1, John Bucyk powered the Bruins to a 6-1 win with a hat trick. In Game 2, the Bruins won 6-2. Back in Boston Garden for Game 3, the Blues opened the scoring but John McKenzie won the game for Boston in a 4-1 victory; McKenzie sadly passed away last June. In Game 4, the Blues put together their best effort in the series, but John Bucyk tied it up with less than seven minutes to go to force the overtime.
In that overtime, just 40 seconds in, Bobby Orr scored his first goal of that Stanley Cup Final to end the 31-year drought without the Cup for Boston. It was Orr’s ninth overall tally of the playoffs, but what timing for such an iconic Cup-clinching goal for the legendary number 4!
Just please don’t get beaten in the first round next year by the Montreal Canadiens… Okay, let’s pass! Did I ever mention that the Bruins got swept by the Habs in 1968 in the first round after they ended their longest ever drought without the playoffs? Let’s pass, again!
In 1972, the Bruins made their way back to the Stanley Cup Final and faced the New York Rangers. Bobby Orr, the Bruins hero from 1970, had just one goal in the playoffs; he scored four in the Cup Final, including a Cup-clinching goal in Game 6, where the Bruins won 3-0 in New York to hoist their fifth Stanley Cup.
Don’t worry, next year the Rangers beat the Bruins in the first round, not Montreal!
The Boston Bruins two-year cycles were stopped, as they made the Stanley Cup Final in 1974, but lost in six games to the Philadelphia Flyers.
Three years later, not two years, as had become seemingly normal, the Bruins came back to play for the Cup in 1977, just to get swept by the… I think you can figure this one out.
But then the Bruins made it back to the final the very next year in 1978, this time in six games… Boston lost to Montreal, again.
Between 1984 and 1987 the Bruins suffered a disastrous run of four straight eliminations by the Montreal Canadiens in the first round. In 1988 the Bruins BEAT the Montreal Canadiens in the second round and advanced to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 10 years. However, the Bruins got swept by the Edmonton Oilers. Nevertheless, it was Wayne Gretzky against the B’s and one of the Bruins home games got suspended because of a power failure. Bad luck!
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Remember those two-year cycles? In 1990, Boston returned to the Stanley Cup Final, lost again to the Oilers. What’s interesting about that Final?
The Boston Bruins came back to force overtime in Game 1 from a 2-0 deficit with goals from Ray Bourque but lost in triple overtime. That definitely predestined the Bruins in that series.
We then move to the current decade and the Boston Bruins had waited an incredible 21 years to even play in another cup final. In 2011, the Bruins BEAT the Montreal Canadiens in the first round and went on to win the Stanley Cup against the Vancouver Canucks. Patrice Bergeron became the scorer of a sixth Cup-clinching goal for the Bruins in their franchise history.
Once again, a famous two-year cycle, the Bruins returned to the Cup Final in 2013 but lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games.
Now in 2019, six years later, just as in 1929 or 1939, the Bruins will battle for the Stanley Cup again. They already have the memory of beating one team in the Cup Final two times; the Rangers in 1931 and 1972. If that was the case, the Bruins would hoist the Stanley Cup in Boston against the St. Louis Blues just like in 1970.
The Boston Bruins have made it to the Stanley Cup Final for the 21st time in their history. In those previous 20 occasions, the Bruins are 6-13.
Next. Bruins versus Blues confirmed. dark
Not counting those finals with the Montreal Canadiens, the B’s are ‘just’ 6-6, which looks much better. But they are 1-0 against the St. Louis Blues. That’s a positive, hopefully.