1961-62 season
Record: 15-47-8 (38 points)
The offseason leading up to the 1961-62 brought a ton of change to the Bruins franchise. In May 1961, Bruins captain Fern Flaman announced his retirement from the NHL. Flaman signed on with the Bruins’ minor league affiliate, the Providence Reds, to become their player/coach. Flaman finished his 17-year career (14 with Boston) with 34 goals and 174 assists in 911 games.
The Bruins lost another star in June when the Chicago Blackhawks claimed Bronco Horvath during the intra-league draft. Slowed by a hand injury, Horvath totaled just 30 points during the ’60-61 season. The previous season he scored 80 points and was runner-up for the Art Ross Trophy, missing out by only one point. Horvath finished his time in Boston totaling 103 goals and 112 assists over 227 games. This loss left Johnny Bucyk as the lone player left from the B’s famed Uke Line.
Also in June, the Bruins hired Providence Reds bench boss Phil Watson, to be their new head coach. This move had been long rumored as Watson and GM Lynn Patrick were close friends and former linemates on the New York Rangers.
“I don’t predict anything. We may not win all our early games because we’ll have an inexperienced team…But we’ll give them something good to look at…Nobody will go home grumbling, win or lose,” Watson said in his introduction interview with the Boston Globe.
He was right in his prediction, in fact, this Bruins team did not win many games at all. This team holds the record for the longest winless streak in Bruins history, going 20 games without a win from January 28 to March 11 that season. Boston finished in last place once again.
There were a few individual bright spots during the season. Bucyk proved he didn’t need his Uke line partners to be successful, finishing the season as the Bruins top scorer with 60 points, and new B’s captain, Don McKenney, led the team with 22 goals and totaling 55 points. Another promising bright spot was Murray Oliver, the young forward who Boston received in the Stasiuk/Labine trade. Oliver set a career-high with 46 points and was on his way to an even more successful 1962-63 season.