Alex Ovechkin breaking Wayne Gretzky's record brings joy to hockey and beyond sports
'We did it!' he told teammates in an electric visiting arena with over 17,000 fans locked in on his every move. 'It's history! Yeah!'
Ovechkin celebrated No. 895 with the same joy he oozed after so many of his first 894, bellyflopping onto the ice like he did into fountains in Washington when he and the Capitals won the Stanley Cup in 2018. That was the high-water mark for the franchise earning its first championship, but this stuck out in a different way.
The Cup gets handed out once a year. Ovechkin broke a record that stood for more than three decades, with the chance for his reign to last even longer. At a time of the season in a team-centric sport that is usually reserved only for playoff races, Ovechkin's 'GR8 Chase' captivated the hockey community and brought joy not only to the sport but the rest of the world eager to witness something special.
'It's a testament to Ovi,' said center Dylan Strome, who along with Tom Wilson had the assists on Ovechkin's record-breaker Sunday in a 4-1 loss to the New York Islanders. 'Everyone wants to see him succeed because he's such a happy guy. It doesn't matter if he scores a goal or someone else scores a goal: He's just as happy. And I think that's a credit to him and his character, and you could see why other people are so happy for him because of the way he treats other people.'
The charismatic Russian superstar has made a career out of scoring like no one else and commemorating the moment even better. Whether it was jumping into the glass or mimicking that his stick was on fire, Ovechkin became one of the faces of the game for how he always acted like a little kid playing a grown-up sport.
'You just smile every time you see it,' coach Spencer Carbery said, echoing Strome about Ovechkin being just as happy to see his teammates score. 'It speaks to him, but also who he is as a captain and as a leader, of the happiness and joy that he has to win and to see others have success and others to score goals, as well.'
No team or goaltender wanted to be the one to give up No. 895, but the Islanders — and netminder Ilya Sorokin, specifically, giving Ovechkin his stick when asked — still had full appreciation of the moment they were a part of.
'No matter what team you were cheering for tonight, everyone was a hockey fan,' Islanders captain Anders Lee said. 'Everyone on our side and their side can appreciate Ovi's accomplishment.'
The run-up to the accomplishment was half the fun. Goal-counters from Washington to Moscow tracked the quest. Ticket prices surged and subsided based on how close Ovechkin was to catching and passing Gretzky.
If the pressure was mounting on Ovechkin at 39 in the twilight of his career, he sure didn't show it. And the Capitals made it their life's work to get him the record.
It finally came midway through the 77th game out of 82, bringing relief to everyone involved.
'Over the last couple of weeks, it has now turned into he's right there,' Carbery said. 'And for us, especially as coaches, we go to the hundreds and hundreds of hours that we've been trying to figure out ways to get him the next goal. (When) you've been working 80-hour weeks for the last two years to try to help get the next goal, it's a pretty special moment for us to celebrate.'
The NHL and the Capitals put together a video montage of greats from Simone Biles and Michael Phelps to Tom Brady, LeBron James and Derek Jeter to congratulate Ovechkin. In that moment, it was clear this accomplishment transcended hockey — and even sports.
'It's great for the game,' Ovechkin said. 'It's great for us to be involved for this moment. ... Right now, people celebrate, people are happy and I'm just happy to be a part of it.'
Longtime teammate John Carlson, who assisted on the tying 894th goal on Friday night in the first half of a wild weekend party, said he and the Capitals 'were just along for the ride.' So was everyone else watching, and Ovechkin provided a ride of a lifetime.
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San Francisco Chronicle
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Pakistan wins 3rd T20 by 13 runs to clinch a 2-1 series victory over West Indies
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New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
The Premier League is two weeks from starting, but the FA Cup has already begun
About 13 miles separate Wembley from Rotherhithe, once a patchwork of thriving docks and bustling wharfs in London but now the leafy home to Fisher FC and the only British pub licensed to sell U.S. postage stamps. There's little to link these two districts. On a very clear day, locals suggest it's possible to catch a glimpse of the famous arch that towers over the national stadium when standing on Stave Hill. Advertisement Today, though, is not about sightseeing. Today is about the 2025-26 FA Cup getting underway, with hundreds of grassroots clubs from up and down the land doing battle in the extra preliminary round of a competition that will culminate next May in a Wembley final. Few here at Fisher's modest St Paul's Sports Ground to watch the tie against fellow amateur side Camberley Town expect today's victors to still be in the cup come the autumn, never mind walking out at Wembley in 287 days. 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But it remains the most storied competition in the world. First played in 1871, the cup has created innumerable heroes, ranging from Wembley winners to those who have caused a famous 'giant-killing', where a top-flight side has been slain by a lower league team in a fashion similar to David getting one over Goliath in the Bible. Sir Stanley Matthews and Ronnie Radford may not seem natural bedfellows. One became football's first knight of the realm in 1965, while the other worked all his life as a joiner and carpenter. Advertisement But the two men are forever entwined in FA Cup folklore. Matthews had the 1953 final named in his honour after Blackpool triumphed 4-3 against Bolton Wanderers. Radford scored arguably the most famous goal in the competition's history as non-League Hereford United knocked out top-flight Newcastle United 19 years later. This sense of inclusivity remains today, with 747 teams from the Premier League down to level 10 of the English football pyramid competing in this year's competition. In a way, Fisher's picturesque home, sitting just a stone's throw from the River Thames and hemmed in on three sides by trees, embodies this unusual mix of haves and have-nots. The stadium itself is basic. There's a main stand of around 150 seats down one side and a small covered terrace, dubbed the 'Dockers End', that runs to just six steps and barely covers the width of the six-yard box. But what gives this homely setting a big business feel is a backdrop featuring the cluster of gleaming skyscrapers making up Canary Wharf, that beacon for 1990s Docklands regeneration. 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Even that involved a mammoth eight ties, as replays were needed to get past Sutton Common Rovers, Sittingbourne and Spelthorne Sports before finally bowing out to Welling United from three tiers above in National League South, again after a replay that drew a record crowd of 573 to St Paul's. The attendance for Camberley's visit in this season's extra preliminary round can't match those numbers. Millwall are playing a friendly against Portuguese top-flight side Estoril Praia just a couple of miles down the road at The Den, which doesn't help. But, still, a turnout of 264 is impressive. It's also slightly above last season's average gate, when they finished fourth in the Southern Counties East Premier Division. Judging by the smattering of club colours on show in nearby riverside pubs during the two hours before kick-off, many are determined to make a day of it. 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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
From The Archive: 20 Incredible Bruins Moments
The Hockey News has released its archive to all THN subscribers: 76 years of history, stories, and features. Subscribe now to view the full THN Archives here Also, go to to subscribe. 20 Incredible Bruins Moments - Nov 13, 2023 - By Ken Campbell As a kid who was indoctrinated into Habs Nation long before people started referring to fan bases as (insert team nickname here) Nations, I had always hated the Boston Bruins. Respected them, but hated them. They always scared me, even with the Montreal Canadiens regularly taking them to the woodshed in the playoffs. Over the years, the fandom has waned, and the grudging respect has turned into admiration. How can you not appreciate the likes of Zdeno Chara and Patrice Bergeron? How can you not give props to an organization that has been so good for so long? The Bruins may have only six Stanley Cups to their credit, but as they enter their 100th season in the NHL, the league's first U.S.-based team has been at times bad and irrelevant, feared and talented, competitive and dynamic. And they've had some of the most exciting and skilled players in the history of the game. As the Bruins celebrate their centennial, it's a good time to take stock of the most incredible moments in franchise history. Here are 20 of the most prominent ones – lots good, some bad and a few ugly. 1. THE GOAL. ENOUGH SAID MAY 10, 1970 WHEN THE BRUINS REACHED the final in 1970, it had been 12 years since they played for the Stanley Cup and an excruciating 29 years without a title. Even though the result was essentially a fait accompli, since the Bruins were facing the third-year St. Louis Blues, it was only fitting that the last game of the four-game sweep was won in dramatic fashion and was ended by the greatest player ever to wear a Bruins uniform. The Blues, after being swept by the Canadiens in both the 1968 and '69 finals, were once again in over their head versus the powerful Bruins. 'I thought they should have won three, maybe even four Cups in a row,' said Scotty Bowman, the Blues coach at the time. 'We made the final three years in a row, and they were the toughest team we faced. They were a powerhouse.' Early in overtime of Game 4, Larry Keenan of the Blues tried to chip the puck up the boards from deep in his zone, but the clear was intercepted by Bobby Orr, who passed it behind the net to Derek Sanderson, then cut to the net. Sanderson returned the pass, and Orr scored just before being tripped by Noel Picard. The mid-air goal celebration was captured by Boston Record-American photographer Ray Lussier and is one of the most iconic sports photos of all-time. 'That was Bobby Orr right in his prime,' Bowman said. 'We even had Jimmy Roberts shadowing him for a while. A defenseman. But we stopped because it didn't work.' 2. HORTON SCORES A GOAL APRIL 27, 2011 REMEMBER WHAT WE WERE saying before about the Bruins' playoff futility against the Canadiens? Well, they managed to even that out in the 1990s and were the better of the two teams in the early 2000s. But the Bruins found themselves in a life-and-death struggle against their nemesis in the first round of the 2011 playoffs. A year after blowing a 3-0 series lead in Round 1 against the Philadelphia Flyers in 2010, the Bruins lost the first two games of their 2011 Round 1 series to Montreal. But they fought back with three straight wins before Montreal forced a winner-take-all contest with a Game 6 victory on home ice. Game 7 was tied 3-3 going into overtime after P.K. Subban scored to tie it with just under two minutes remaining. But Nathan Horton channelled his inner Mel Hill (more on him later) and scored his second overtime goal of the series 5:43 into OT to seal the victory. The Bruins went on to win their first Stanley Cup in 39 years, with their wins over Tampa Bay in the Eastern Conference final and Vancouver in the Cup final both coming in seven games. 3. DIT MOVES TO DEFENSE NOVEMBER 6, 1937 FOR THE FIRST 10 years of his career, Dit Clapper was one of the NHL's premier right wingers, starring on 'The Dynamite Line' along with Cooney Weiland and Dutch Gainor. Clapper, who moved up from defense after his contract was purchased from the Boston Tigers, helped the Bruins to the Stanley Cup in 1929 and finished second in the league to Weiland in goals with 41 in 1929-30. In 1937, Clapper moved to defense, where he forged his Hall of Fame credentials and led the Bruins to two more Cups. Paired with Eddie Shore, Clapper was a first-team all-star three times on defense, becoming the first NHL player to be an all-star both at forward and defense. He was ranked the No. 11 defenseman of all-time by The Hockey News in 2020. With three Stanley Cups as a Bruin, Clapper has won more titles than any other player in a Bruins uniform. 4. MR. ZERO TAKES OVER DECEMBER 1, 1938 TURNS OUT HARRY SINDEN wasn't the only GM of the Bruins to have the courage to trade a franchise icon. Despite the fact Tiny Thompson was coming off a Vezina Trophy-winning season, the fourth of his career with the Bruins, GM Art Ross traded him to Detroit and called up Frank Brimsek for good. In short order, Brimsek went on a heater, posting six shutouts in seven games and breaking the league's record for consecutive minutes without allowing a goal. He won over Bruins fans and earned the nickname 'Mr. Zero.' Brimsek won 33 games that season, was named rookie of the year and led Boston to the Cup. 5. WILLIE O'REE MAKES HISTORY JANUARY 18, 1958 MORE THAN 65 YEARS after he became the first Black player in history to appear in an NHL game, the honors continue to be bestowed on Willie O'Ree. After being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, having his No. 22 retired by the Bruins and receiving a Congressional Gold Medal, O'Ree now has his face on a stamp in Canada. The accolades were well-earned by the man who became known as the 'Jackie Robinson of hockey.' Unlike baseball, there was no color barrier in the NHL, at least not an official one, but that doesn't mean O'Ree didn't face numerous obstacles in his pursuit of an NHL career. 6. THE ESPOSITO TRADE, PART I MAY 15, 1967 WITH THE LEAGUE ON the verge of doubling in size, the Bruins were coming off their eighth straight season of missing the playoffs (remember, four of six teams made the post-season then), six of which they finished dead-last. Even with Orr finishing his rookie season with the Calder Trophy, the Bruins were still the NHL's doormat. All that changed when GM Milt Schmidt made a deal with Chicago that will go down as one of the most lopsided in NHL history, sending rugged defenseman Gilles Marotte, winger Pit Martin and goalie Jack Norris to the Black Hawks in exchange for Phil Esposito and wingers Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield. Esposito was a burgeoning impact player, but he was seen as something of a playoff dud. He took enormous heat for his performance in the Hawks' Round 1 elimination to a Toronto Maple Leafs team that finished 19 points behind Chicago in the regular season, and he had only four goals in 29 post-season games. In Boston, Esposito became one of the greatest scorers the game has ever known, while Hodge also had 7. SINDEN GIVES CANUCKS THE (CAM) SHAFT JUNE 6, 1986 NINETEEN YEARS AFTER TRADING for Esposito, the Bruins took a chance on another young underachiever when they acquired 21-year-old Cam Neely plus a first-round pick in the 1987 draft (which they used to choose Glen Wesley) in exchange for 25-year-old Barry Pederson. When Sinden made the deal, he was trading a two-time 100-point man for a rugged kid who had scored 14 goals the previous year. 'I remember they needed somebody to score goals, and we needed somebody to bang bodies,' Sinden recalled. 'Sometimes, you just get lucky.' The Bruins got more than lucky with the man who became synonymous with Boston hockey and is now the team president. Neely was everything the Canucks thought they were getting when they drafted him ninth overall in 1983 and then some. Neely posted three 50-goal seasons, including 1993-94 when he hit the mark in just 49 games, and he led the Bruins to two Cup finals. After seven solid seasons with the Bruins, Wesley was dealt to the Hartford Whalers for first-round picks in 1995, '96 and '97, the last of which was used to take Sergei Samsonov, who won the Calder Trophy in 1997-98. 8. THE ESPOSITO TRADE, PART II NOVEMBER 7, 1975 OF ALL THE BRILLIANT trades Sinden made over the years, none was riskier than when he decided early in 1975-76 to ship franchise icon Esposito, who was coming off his fifth straight 100-point season, along with defenseman Carol Vadnais, to the New York Rangers for Brad Park, Jean Ratelle and Joe Zanussi. But the deal not only revived the careers of Park and Ratelle and cemented their Hall of Fame credentials, it kept the Bruins as a perennial contender for another eight years. But, man, did the Bruins take some heat in the early days after the deal was done. Think about this for a minute. Esposito was coming off a 61-goal season in 1974-75, the sixth consecutive season he had led the league in goals. Nobody else, not even Wayne Gretzky or Alex Ovechkin, has led the league in goals six straight seasons. Esposito was shocked and devastated by the deal. Even though Esposito had six goals and 16 points in 12 games prior to the trade, Sinden said, 'He wasn't playing well and we had to do something.' As the Bruins' media-relations guy, Nate Greenberg was dispatched to pick up Park at the airport after the deal, and he thought it would be a good idea to stop in at the WBZ-AM radio station to do an hour of a sports talk show. As he and Park were sitting in the waiting room preparing for him to go on the air, they could hear the radio broadcast, and to say the callers were not kind to Park would be an understatement. 'People were calling (Park) every name in the book,' Greenberg said. 'They emasculated him. People were saying, 'Everybody's going to hate that fat f---.' They were killing him. But what he didn't know at the time was that there was a seven-second delay, so all the swears were edited out.' 9. CLOSING TIME ON CAUSEWAY SEPTEMBER 26, 1995 FOR 67 YEARS – SOME of them good, some of them bad, all of them eventful – the Bruins called the old Boston Garden their home. Unfortunately, so did a number of rats. The final event, a pre-season game between the Bruins and the Canadiens, was preceded by a closing ceremony, the pinnacle of which occurred when Bruins captain Ray Bourque took Normand Leveille for a last skate, followed by Orr pushing Leveille's wheelchair around the ice. Grown men in the stands were weeping. The Canadiens get a lot of deserved credit for pulling off these sorts of events, but the Bruins tugged at the heartstrings in a big way with this one. The vision of Leveille, holding his cane supported by Bourque and skating around the ice, is one that will forever endure. Leveille was the Bruins' first-round pick in 1981, and with nine points in the first nine games of his second NHL season, he suffered a brain aneurysm in a game in Vancouver that left him paralyzed. Leveille endured seven hours of surgery and was in a coma for three weeks. The malady robbed Leveille of an NHL career and the Bruins of a player Sinden was convinced would have been a star. 'We thought we had a bona fide Hall of Fame player,' Sinden said. 'He had a terrific shot, and he could really fake his shot then shoot later. He wasn't that big, but he was a tough little guy.' 10. 'KRAUT LINE' GOES TO WAR FEBRUARY 10, 1942 THE TRIO OF SCHMIDT between Woody Dumart and Bobby Bauer grew up giving goalies nightmares in Kitchener, Ont., then brought their act to Boston, where they won Cups in 1939 and '41 and finished 1-2-3 in NHL scoring in 1939-40. They enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force for the Second World War, but not before combining for 11 points in the Bruins' 8-1 win over Montreal at the Boston Garden late in 1941-42. But it was what happened after the game that made it so memorable. Despite being embarrassed by their rivals, the Canadiens carried Schmidt, Dumart and Bauer off the ice on their shoulders. The trio missed the next three years in service to their country, then returned to the Bruins, with Schmidt winning the Hart Trophy in 1950-51. Bruins Forward Is Intriguing Breakout Candidate Boston Bruins forward John Beecher had some growing pains this past season with the Original Six club. In 78 games with the Bruins on the year, he recorded three goals, eight assists, 11 points, and a minus-9 rating. This was after he posted seven goals and 10 points in 52 games during his rookie season in 2023-24. 11. RUNNING UP THAT HILL APRIL 2, 1939 IN THE 107-YEAR HISTORY of the NHL, only once has a player scored three overtime goals in one playoff series. That player was a journeyman by the name of Mel Hill, who earned the nickname 'Sudden Death' for his exploits against the Rangers in the second round of the 1939 playoffs. Hill began his magic by scoring with 35 seconds left in the third overtime of Game 1, then followed up with another OT goal two nights later. After taking a 3-0 stranglehold on the series, the Bruins dropped the next three games and were again in triple overtime in Game 7 when Hill scored exactly eight minutes in. The Bruins went on to win the Cup in five games over Toronto, with Hill opening the scoring in the clinching game. 12. BOURQUE TO ESPOSITO DECEMBER 3, 1987 WHEN BOURQUE BROKE IN with the Bruins in 1979, he didn't become the first player to wear a number of a former superstar – Dickie Moore and Yvan Cournoyer (No. 12), Elmer Lach and Henri Richard (No. 16) and 'Boom Boom' Geoffrion and Guy Lapointe (No. 5) all wore the same number with the Canadiens. But when Bruins decided to retire the No. 7, they were faced with a dilemma. Esposito had worn the number while smashing the record book, and, since wearing numbers higher than 35 was not a thing at the time, Bourque was wearing the same number while becoming an all-time great himself. So Sinden came up with an idea. 'I was driving back from one of our minor-league games in Springfield, wondering what to do about the number,' Sinden said. 'And it came to mind. I said, 'I think I know what we can do.' It wasn't a long-term thing that was thought out by some committee. It just happened in the car one night.' And it resulted in one of the game's most touching moments. During the ceremony, Bourque skated to Esposito, passed him a No. 7 sweater, then removed his own sweater to reveal No. 77, which he wore for the rest of that season and 12 more until he was traded. Bourque's No. 77 was retired by the Bruins in 2001. 'What this young man did tonight,' said Esposito of Bourque, 'is something that I'll never, ever, ever forget, no matter what else happens in my life.' 13. DRYDEN FOR SOME GUY NAMED GUY JUNE 11, 1964 WHEN BRUINS GM SCHMIDT drafted an unknown goalie by the name of Ken Dryden with the 14th overall pick in 1964, then 17 days later flipped him to the Montreal Canadiens for Guy Allen and Paul Reid, little did he know he was setting into motion a series of events that would see their rival acquire one of the biggest Bruin killers. There are many versions of the events, including that the Bruins traded Dryden and Alex Campbell to the Canadiens because they learned after choosing Dryden that he intended to go to Cornell. But that's impossible, since Dryden didn't find out he had even been drafted by the Bruins until well into his NHL career, when Canadiens executive Ron Caron mentioned it in passing. According to Dryden, shortly after the draft, his Jr. B coach called him to say he had been taken by Montreal because it was the Canadiens who called the coach to inform him. We all know how things turned out for Dryden and the Bruins, but life unfolded pretty nicely for Allen as well. He played a couple of years in the minors, then returned to his hometown of Timmins, Ont., where he had a long career in policing, then worked for the Ontario attorney general's office. For his part, Allen harbors zero bitterness. And when Dryden, who later went into federal politics, was on business in Timmins in 2008, he reached out and asked Allen to meet him at the airport. Allen wasn't going to go, but his wife convinced him to, and the two principals in the deal met for the first time. When Dryden asked Allen if there was anything he could do for him, Allen had one simple request. He asked Dryden to sign a picture of the two of them together with the inscription, 'Guy, thanks for putting me into the Hall of Fame.' 'I never thought I'd get it,' Allen said. 'But a couple of months later, it came. Isn't that awesome? I put it in a frame, and now I'm glad I went out to meet him.' 14. THESE BOOTS WEREMADE FOR WHACKING DECEMBER 23, 1979 IF IT HAPPENED TODAY, there probably isn't a number high enough to count the games Terry O'Reilly, Mike Milbury and the rest would be suspended for their actions on Dec. 23, 1979, the night the Bruins went into the stands at Madison Square Garden and Milbury pummelled a Rangers fan with the guy's own shoe. O'Reilly was suspended eight games, Milbury and Peter McNab six each. But, according to the summary, the only penalty in the entire debacle went to Dave Maloney of the Rangers, who earned a game misconduct but didn't sit a minute because the game had already ended with the Bruins winning 4-3. It all went down shortly after Esposito smashed his stick in frustration after being stopped on a breakaway at the buzzer that would have tied the game. And it was a garden-variety scrum until a Rangers fan reached over the glass during an altercation between O'Reilly and Frank 'Seldom' Beaton of the Rangers. After the affair, they managed to get the Bruins' bus into the arena, and Dennis Ryan, a former assistant chief with the NYPD who was the Rangers' security guy, arranged for the Bruins to have six motorcycle cops get the bus to the Lincoln Tunnel. 'We're backing the bus out of the 33rd Street entrance, and people are rocking the bus and throwing stuff at it,' Greenberg said. 'They took us to the mouth of the Lincoln Tunnel, and I was standing in the well of the bus. I said to the six cops, 'Hey, thanks very much, we appreciate it.' Five of them waved back, and the cop that was closest to me gave me the finger.' 15. THE COMEBACK MAY 13, 2013 WITH JUST OVER 10 minutes left in Game 7 of their first-round showdown against Toronto, the Bruins found themselves trailing 4-1. Then Horton scored. Then Tuukka Rask stopped Matt Frattin on a clear breakaway with just under four minutes left. Then Milan Lucic scored. Bergeron tied it 31 seconds later with less than a minute remaining, then capped one of the greatest playoff comebacks in NHL history by scoring at the 6:05 mark of overtime. The Bruins advanced to the final before losing to Chicago, but the comeback personified 'Boston Strong' and galvanized a city that had been rocked by a bombing at the Boston Marathon in which three people were killed and hundreds injured less than a month before. 16. DOWN GOES BOUCHARD! MAY 21, 1978 IN THE FOUR-PLUS DECADES from 1945-46 through 1986-87, the Bruins faced the Canadiens in the playoffs 18 times and lost 18 times. Yikes. But even though the B's didn't beat the Habs in the 1978 final, they won one battle in one of the bloodiest, most lopsided fights in history. There was nothing to suggest that the 5-foot-8, 175-pound Stan Jonathan would be anything but fodder for the 6-foot-2, 205-pound Pierre Bouchard when the two of them squared off in Game 4 of that year's final. But Jonathan started with a dizzying flurry of right hands, then switched to his left and cut Bouchard over the eye, which caused him to bleed profusely. By the time Bouchard had been pulled from the ice, both he and linesman John D'Amico were covered in blood. 'They were a tough team,' said Bowman, the former Canadiens coach. 'A lot tougher than we were. They had Jonathan, O'Reilly, Milbury and (John) Wensink. The problem for Bouchard was that he cut his eye and couldn't see anything.' The Bruins won that game in overtime to tie the series 2-2 and looked to have momentum, but the Canadiens took the next two games to win their third of four straight Stanley Cups. But Bruins fans still have fond memories of that fight. 'Aside from goals, it's probably the thing that is replayed the most at Bruins games,' Greenberg said. 17. SHORE ENDS ACE'S CAREER DECEMBER 12, 1933 ANY DISCUSSION OF THE greatest defensemen in Bruins and NHL history has to include Shore, along with Orr and Bourque. But not only was Shore a great player, he had a mean streak that neither Orr (who was really, really tough) nor Bourque could approach. He was, to be blunt, a nasty piece of work. And in a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, it almost killed Ace Bailey. Shore, reacting to what he thought was a dirty hit by King Clancy, confused Bailey with Clancy and slammed Bailey from behind into the boards. Bailey suffered a fractured skull, went into convulsions on the ice and spent 10 days in a coma. Shore was suspended 16 games, which was one-third of the regular season at the time. The league held an Ace Bailey Benefit Game the next season, which was the precursor to the NHL All-Star Game. 18. TOO MANY MEN. ENOUGH SAID MAY 10, 1979 AFTER SO MANY AGONIZING defeats, the Bruins finally had them. This was it. The curse of the Canadiens was about to be lifted, and the Bruins would go on to win the Cup after dispatching the New York Rangers in the final. After all, this series was the final. With the Bruins leading 4-3 late in the third period, Guy Lafleur went to the Canadiens' bench, and so did Don Marcotte, who was his shadow through the series. And he had done what people thought was an admirable job. After all, Lafleur had only five even-strength goals in the first six games of the series. As quickly as Lafleur got off the ice, he jumped back on. So did Marcotte, which left the Bruins with too many men, because one player – believed to be Jonathan, who had a hat trick in Game 6 – didn't come off the ice. The Bruins were called for too many men on the ice. Then, with 1:14 left, Lafleur 'coming out rather gingerly down the right side,' in the words of play-by-play man Danny Gallivan, took a drop pass from Jacques Lemaire and scored the tying goal before Yvon Lambert scored in overtime. 'In retrospect, you have to control yourself,' Sinden said, 'and we weren't able to do that.' 19. ORR'S HOUSE GETS STUCCOED MARCH 31, 1961 WHEN THE BRUINS BRASS showed up in Gananoque, Ont., for a bantam playoff game in 1961 as a side trip to watch the junior playoffs in nearby Kingston, they were there to watch Doug Higgins and Rick Eaton, stars of the Gananoque team. But it wasn't long before a wispy, 112-pound kid from Parry Sound had them all entranced. Scout Wren Blair, a hockey lifer who later became GM of the Minnesota North Stars, spent a year chasing and wooing Orr. A year later, Orr signed with the Bruins and was dispatched to the Oshawa Generals. As part of the deal, Orr received $10,000, his parents received new cars and the B's paid to have the family home in Parry Sound stuccoed. 20. NEAR-TRAGIC STICK FIGHT SEPTEMBER 21, 1969 A PRE-SEASON GAME IN Ottawa turned ugly and controversial when Bruins defenseman Ted Green and Blues winger Wayne Maki got involved in a stick-swinging duel that went horribly wrong when Maki struck Green in the right temple. It didn't look all that serious at first, but it wasn't long before Sinden, who was behind the B's bench, realized something was very wrong. '(Maki) didn't really mean to hit (Green) where he did,' he said. 'It didn't look serious, but then he stumbled when he got up, and that frightened me. By the time we got him to the hospital, we were worried sick.' Incredibly, the teams played the rest of the game after the incident. For the next couple of hours, Green fought for his life, then underwent an operation to have a metal plate inserted into his skull. Both Green and Maki were charged with assault but were acquitted. Bruins Need Bounce-Back Season From Key Forward The Boston Bruins are hoping to put together a far better season in 2025-26 than they did this past campaign. However, for this to have a real chance of occurring, they will need some of their key players to have bounce-back years. Photo Credit: © Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
