The Worst Period in Boston Bruins History

The Boston Bruins have spoiled the city and their fans in recent years with high quality hockey and success. Over the past seven seasons, the Bruins have qualified for the playoffs each year, have won two Presidents’ Trophies (2020, 2023), made a Stanley Cup Final appearance (2019), and had a record-breaking 2022-2023 season. The B’s have had trouble capturing the Stanley Cup since 2011, but it’s calming to know that sports’ greatest prize is within reach.

Now let’s take a step back into the past, to the seasons from 1960-1967, when things weren’t so great. Playoffs at the end of the regular season were not a reality, placing anywhere above last in the standings was nearly impossible, and the only records being broken were negative. A period full of uncertainty, losing, and change, that would eventually bring a great new era to the franchise. (Note: all quotes in this article were from the Boston Globe archives).

1960-61 season

Record: 15-42-13 (43 points)

The Bruins didn’t come into the 1960s without their stars. Don McKenney, Jerry Toppazzini, and the Uke Line (Bronco Horvath, Johnny Bucyk, and Vic Stasiuk) led the way in scoring. Doug Mohns played both forward and defense, while defenseman Leo Boivin and team captain Fern Flaman secured the back end of the ice. Coaching this squad was “The Ultimate Bruin’, Milt Schmidt.

The 1960-61 season started off rough, with the Bruins not getting their first win until the ninth game of the season. They beat the New York Rangers in Boston, 6-4. By January 22, the team had only mustered up 10 total wins, something had to change.

A day later it was announced that forwards Leo Labine and Stasiuk had been traded to the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for center Murray Oliver, and left-wingers Gary Aldcorn, and Tommy McCarthy. Bruins General Manager, Lynn Patrick, deemed this trade as the beginning of a new ‘youth movement’ in Boston.

“We’re rebuilding for the future,” Patrick said. “We needed a good young center and I feel we got one in Oliver.”

Another move that was being rumored for months before the season ended, was the removal of Schmidt as head coach. Schmidt still had two years left on a three-year contract and had coached the B’s to two consecutive Cup Finals just a couple of seasons prior. 

The rumors were true, the day after the final game of the season, Schmidt was fired as head coach, and moved to the assistant GM position. 

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.

1962-63 season

Record: 14-39-17 (45 points)

After an awful 1961-62, the Bruins started this new season with a 5-0 victory over the Montreal Canadiens. That would be their only win until late November though, as the team went on the second-longest winless streak in Bruins history, going without a win for 16 games, from October 13 to November 24.

During this winless streak, coach Watson was fired after 14 games. He finished his Bruins coaching stint with a 16-55-13 record. Assistant GM and former coach Milt Schmidt was brought back as head coach.

Upon returning to the bench Schmidt made one thing clear, rookie goaltender Ed Johnston, was his guy.

“Ed Johnston will be my goalie,” said Schmidt. “I’m not in favor of two goaltenders.”

Johnston finished the season with an 11-27-10 record in 50 games, averaging a .893 save percentage and 3.98 goals against.

On February 4, 1963, the Bruins traded captain Don McKenney to the Rangers for 10-year veteran, Dean Prentice. The Bruins were losing their second captain in two seasons. GM Patrick declared that the B’s would not be immediately naming a new captain, but instead having Johnny Bucyk, Leo Boivin, and Doug Mohns, alternating in the role. McKenney finished his 9 seasons as a Bruin with 195 goals and 267 assists in 592 games.

In another dreadful season there were a few good accomplishments to distract from all the bad. Bucyk and Oliver set new career highs in points finishing in first and second in team scoring, with 66 and 62 points respectively. Also, even though the team finished with one less win than the previous two seasons, they finished with more total points in the standings, in their last-place effort.

1963-64 season

Record: 18-40-12 (48 points) 

The Bruins started the 1963-64 season in an all too familiar predicament, going winless in their first seven games. In December, the B’s would enter a different territory they hadn’t seen in a long time.

The Bruins defeated the Blackhawks 2-1 on December 12. The win bolstered Boston out of last place for the first time in three years, edging out the New York Rangers by two points. The Blackhawks had only lost four games all season up to that point, twice to the Bruins.

So this is where everything turned around for the Bruins, they would stay out of last place, no more embarrassing winless streaks, and make their way back into the playoffs, right? Wrong.

Days later, Boston would find themselves back in an 11-game winless streak and in last place again by the end of December. Schmidt took this time to call out Johnny Bucyk’s below-par performance.

“Bucyk is a guy who could do a lot for us if he puts his mind to it. He just has to go out there and punish himself,” Schmidt told reporters. 

“If something doesn’t start happening pretty soon, though, I won’t hesitate about breaking them up,” Schmidt clarified when asked about splitting up Boston’s top scoring line of Bucyk, Oliver, and Tommy Williams. “As I said, a lot depends on Bucyk and whether he is willing to punish himself for the good of the team.”

The Bruins were able to put together a three game win streak in mid-January, but the woes continued after that. The Bruins finished the season in last, but improved in points for the second season in a row.

1964-65 season

Record: 21-43-6 (48 points)

Milt Schmidt signed a new two-year contract in April 1964 to keep him on as head coach. His new contract also stated that he was able to ‘serve in any other vital capacity in which his background and long experience may better enhance the present all-important Bruins player development program’. Bruins Chairman Weston Adams, described Schmidt’s new position as a ‘trouble shooter’.

Over the days of June 8 and June 9, the Bruins made two trades with the Blackhawks. Doug Mohns, Jerry Toppazzini, and Matt Ravlich were off to Chicago while Reggie Fleming, Ab McDonald, and Murray Balfour were heading to Boston. Mohns finished his 11-year career in Boston with 118 goals and 229 assists in 711 games, while Toppazzini recorded 151 goals and 218 assists over 661 games. Topper was also wrapping up 11 (non-consecutive) years with Boston.

The Bruins began the 1964-65 season on a nine-game winless streak, and only won four out of their first 18 games. Despite the 4-11-3 record, Bruins bruiser Ted Green was proving how valuable he was on bth ends of the ice.

The Bruins just toppled the Rangers in a 6-1 Thanksgiving victory, where Green scored a goal and two assists, taking the team lead in scoring. 

“He’s working hard at becoming a good hockey player and he’s getting there fast,” Schmidt said of Green. “Sure he’ll still take a poke at someone once in awhile but almost all the time now he’s thinking hockey. Before, he was looking for someone to step into most of the time.”

Green finished the season in fourth on the team in points with 35, and led the B’s with 156 penalty minutes. New acquisition Fleming, also impressed this season, landing in third on the team with 41 points and second in penalty minutes with 140.

The Bruins finished in last for the fifth year in a row, gaining three more wins than the previous season.

1966-67 season

Record: 17-43-10 (44 points)

Once the 1965-66 season ended, Milt Schmidt was given the choice to retain his head coaching job or not. If he chose not to, he would still have his assistant general manager job. Schmidt expressed frustration about all the losing seasons but also talked about the potential in the youth and the future.

“These kids cut their teeth in the NHL this year and finish fifth for the first time in five years. Next year they’ll be better. Things will improve. My whole perspective could be changed a month from now.”

As predicted, his perspective did change a month later. Schmidt decided to leave his head coaching position and on May 10, the Bruins hired Harry Sinden as his replacement. Sinden had been coaching various minor-league affiliates of the Bruins the past five years, including coaching the CPHL’s Oklahoma City Blazers to the Jack Adam’s Cup  in 1966.

“My early years were the best,” Schmidt said about his time coaching. “Then the bottom dropped out. It got more trying, and more frustrating, until this past season. We should have changed to youth earlier. Older players do get down on a losing club.”

The newest addition to the Bruins youth movement, would prove to be their greatest. 

An 18-year-old Bobby Orr was about to make his NHL debut. Orr had been signed with the Bruins for the past four years since he signed off his playing rights to the Bruins after they discovered him while scouting two other players.

Orr made an impact instantly. He scored his first point in the first game of the season, and scored his first goal three games in, against the Canadiens in a 3-2 loss. Attendance soared whenever Boston was on the road, as fans gathered to see the spectacle. 

“Bobby Orr’s potential is unlimited,” said GM Emms. “He could be another Eddie Shore.” Orr garnered endless praise similar to this from players and managers around the league. 

Boston’s brass were so impressed with his offensive prowess, that they even had him playing center at a point during the season while Tommy Williams and Johnny Bucyk were injured. Over four games at the position, Orr scored a goal and two assists, but the experiment was ended once Williams and Bucyk were able to return. Sinden decided it was best to keep Orr on defense as he handled the puck more often and was more aggressive in his natural position.

The Bruins closed out the 1966-67 season on a six-game losing streak, landing in last place once again. New Bruins captain, Bucyk, led the team in scoring with 48 points, and Orr was not too far behind with 41 in his rookie season.

Boston came limping out of the ‘Original Six’ era. They held the NHL record for the longest stretch without a playoff appearance, missing them for the last eight seasons. 

Their misery would not last much longer, after an offseason where Schmidt would replace Emms as GM and pull off the most important trade in Bruins history, the whole identity of the franchise was about to change.