1965–66 Boston Bruins season



The 1965–66 Boston Bruins season was the 42nd season for the franchise. For the first time in six seasons, the Bruins didn't finish in the basement, placing 5th, but missed the playoffs for the seventh consecutive season.

Off-season
In early April 1965, the Bruins announced that Lynn Patrick was promoted to vice-president and Hap Emms was made the team's new general manager. Emms had played over 300 games in the 1920's and 30's and in 1965, was the owner-manager of the Niagara Falls Flyers, one of the Bruins junior teams. Familiar with many of the young players expected to contribute to the Bruins over the next few seasons, Emms also wasted no time in making several trades which brought in several players that would play significant time in 1965-66 for the Bruins. These included Bob Dillabough, Albert Langlois and Parker MacDonald.

He also traded away Orland Kurtenbach and Pat Stapleton (who'd make the All-Star team in 1966) while picking up Gerry Cheevers in the intra-league draft. Cheevers would become Boston's starting goaltender for over a decade and be instrumental in the Bruins winning two Stanley Cup in the 1970's.

Pre-season
Training camp opened on September 28, 1965 in London, Ontario.

October 1, 1965: Boston 4, Oklahoma City Blazers 2 @ Niagara Falls, Ontario

October 3, 1965: Oklahoma City 4, Boston 2 @ London

October 10, 1965: New York Rangers 6, Boston 3 @ Kingston, Ontario

October 12, 1965: Boston 4, Oklahoma City 2 @ St. Thomas, Ontario

October 14, 1965: Boston 2, Toronto Maple Leafs 2 @ Peterborough, Ontario

October 15, 1965: Boston 4, Toronto 2 @ London

The 19th National Hockey League All-Star Game was held at Montreal on October 20, 1965. A team of all-stars that included three Bruins, Ted Green, Murray Oliver and John Bucyk played against the Stanley Cup champion Montreal Canadiens. The All-Stars won 5-2 with Bucyk scoring a goal and Oliver picking up 2 assists.

1965
After no changes to their uniforms for six seasons, the Bruins dropped the gold pants for good, dropped the black jersey (introduced in 1959) for two seasons and dropped the black socks until 2008. The white jersey remained unchanged, as did the gold jersey, black pants and mainly gold socks.

The season saw an incredible amount of flux in the line-up as Emms auditioned juniors and kept making trades. Fourty different players wore the black and gold in 1965-66, a new team record. Defenseman Gilles Marotte made the team after a brief stint in the minors. Eddie Johnston started the season opener in goal, followed by newly acquired Gerry Cheevers playing the second game. Cheevers finished the game but suffered a knee ligament injury and missed six weeks. The NHL had instituted a rule for the 1965-66 season that a backup goalie had to be available on the bench. Junior A goalie Bob Ring was an emergency call-up to be Johnston's backup for the October 30, 1965 game versus the New York Rangers. Early in the second period with the Bruins down 4-1, Johnston suffered a knee injury in a goal mouth pile-up and Ring, wearing jersey #28 (the first time a Bruin wore that number) was forced to play. Eddie Giacomin of the Rangers was also playing in his first NHL game. Ring allowed 4 goals on 21 shots and was dispatched back to the Niagara Falls Flyers, never to play in the NHL again.

Bernie Parent was called up and played 39 games in his first pro season, leading the Bruins in wins and goals against average. Backed by Parent's brilliant goaltending, the Bruins had a decent November, though scoring remained an issue and they were outshot in many games. However, disaster struck during the 6-2 win over the Rangers on November 25, 1965 as defensemen Ted Green, Leo Boivin and Albert Langlois were all injured. Although Boivin and Langlois returned in early December, Green was lost until late December. For the next game on November 27, 1965 versus the Toronto Maple Leafs, blue-liners John Arbour and Barry Ashbee both played their first NHL games. With the score tied 1-1 in the third period, Forbes Kennedy bumped into Leafs goalie Terry Sawchuk, allowing Reg Fleming to score. Referee Bill Friday allowed the goal, resulting in a furious protest from Sawchuk and the Leaf players. While the commotion was going on, Bruins coach Milt Schmidt collapsed. Schmidt was taken to hospital, but insisted he fainted due to being sick with the flu. Fleming's goal held up as the game winner, the last victory the Bruins would enjoy for a month.

Missing their best three defensemen, the Bruins went on a 12 game winless streak. This included games where Detroit and Chicago each netted 10 goals in games against the Bruins. Ron Schock, who had started the season, was sent to the minors. Bill Goldsworthy, Derek Sanderson and Don Marcotte were called up and played their first NHL games in November 1965. Sanderson and Marcotte would be part of the Bruins Stanley Cup teams in the 1970's and Marcotte would play thirteen seasons for Boston. After scoring twice on December 12, 1965, Goldsworthy stayed with the Bruins for 13 games. Even once Boivin and Langlois returned, the winless streak continued. Ed Johnston returned on December 18, 1965 and Cheevers was sent to the minors. On Christmas Day 1965, Ted Green returned to the line-up and showed how much the Bruins missed him. Recording 3 assists, he led the Bruins to a 4-2 win over the Rangers.

After scoring only 6 goals, Parker MacDonald was traded on December 30, 1965 for Pit Martin. A little over a week later, Reg Fleming was traded for John McKenzie. Both had an immediate impact and provided desperately needed scoring from the second line as the Bruins won four consecutive games for the first time since the 1959-60 season. Martin finished fourth in team goals, though he played a little over half the year, while McKenzie chipped in 13 goals. McKenzie would be an important part of the Bruins two Cup winning teams in the 1970's while Martin (with Gilles Marotte) would be part of arguably the most important trade in Bruins history in 1967.

1966
On January 27, 1966, in the last game of the four consecutive wins, Pit Martin scored four goals versus Chicago to pace the Bruins to a 5-3 win. It was the first 4 goal game for a Bruin since Woody Dumart on March 4, 1951 and it gave Martin 10 goals since joining Boston. However, in this game, Ted Green was injured again, suffering a knee ligament tear, and was gone for the season. In the next game on January 29 versus Toronto, late in the third period, Bob Dillabough checked Eddie Shack, who was driving for the Bruins goal. Dillabough bounced off Shack and crashed into Bernie Parent. Parent was knocked out of the game with bruised ribs while Dillabough suffered a severe head gash that required 26 stitches to close. Dillabough played the next game while Parent was back in action after missing only one game.

By February, John McKenzie was playing on the Bruins top line with Oliver and Bucyk. After the Bruins 5-4 win on February 16, 1966 versus Detroit, in which Pit Martin had a Hat trick, Hap Emms traded Dean Prentice and Bruins captain Leo Boivin to the Red Wings for Gary Doak, Ron Murphy and Bill Lesuk. Murphy finished his career with Boston in 1970 while Doak played the rest of the season, was part of the 1970 Bruins Cup team and played 13 seasons for them. Boivin had played a dozen seasons for the Bruins. In the next game on February 19, Boston and Detroit played each other, with the Bruins winning 5-1. Murphy had an assist but the other players involved in the trade were held scoreless. Citing personal reasons, Murphy announced his retirement but indicated he might return the following season (which he did).

The Bruins then went on a seven game losing streak. Going into their last game of the season, the Bruins and Rangers were tied with 46 points. The Rangers tied the Maple Leafs 3-3 in their last game of the season on April 2. The Bruins faced the Chicago Black Hawks on April 3, who had locked up second place. Tied 2-2 early in the third period, John McKenzie and Ron Stewart scored 30 seconds apart for a 4-2 Bruins win. Although they missed the playoffs for the seventh consecutive year, Boston didn't finish in last place. Gilles Marotte finished third in voting for the Calder Memorial Trophy while Bernie Parent was fourth.

Playoffs

 * The Bruins did not qualify for the post season.

Regular Season

 * Scoring
 * Goaltending

Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes; PPG = Power-play goals; SHG = Short-handed goals; GWG = Game-winning goals

MIN = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GA = Goals-against; GAA = Goals-against average; SO = Shutouts

Awards and Records

 * The Bruins did not receive any awards this season.

Transactions

 * Trade Bob McCord, Ab McDonald and Ken Stephanson to the Detroit Red Wings for Bob Dillabough, Ron Harris, Albert Langlois and Parker MacDonald on May 31, 1965.
 * Trade Andy Hebenton, Orland Kurtenbach and Pat Stapleton to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Ron Stewart on June 8, 1965.
 * Select Gerry Cheevers from Toronto, Poul Popiel from the Chicago Black Hawks, Norm Schmitz from the Montreal Canadiens and Keith Wright from the New York Rangers in the intra-league draft on June 9, 1965.
 * Trade Parker MacDonald to Detroit for Pit Martin on December 30, 1965.
 * Trade Reg Fleming to New York for John McKenzie on January 10, 1966.
 * Trade Leo Boivin and Dean Prentice to Detroit for Gary Doak, Bill Lesuk and Ron Murphy on February 16, 1966.

Draft Picks
The 1965 NHL Entry Draft involved picking 16-year-olds. None of the players picked ever played for the Bruins.

Farm Teams
The Bruins development system in 1965-66 was filled with players who would go on to have long NHL careers. However, many would find success with teams other than the Bruins. Led by Bobby Orr, the prospects also included Danny O'Shea, Wayne Cashman, Derek Sanderson, Bill Goldsworthy, Gilles Marotte, Jean Pronovost, Don Marcotte, Jim Lorentz, Doug Favell, J. P. Parisé, Joe Watson, Ross Lonsberry and Terry Crisp.


 * Oshawa Generals - Memorial Cup runner-up
 * Niagara Falls Flyers
 * Estevan Bruins
 * Oklahoma City Blazers (CPHL) - Adams Cup Champions
 * San Francisco Seals (WHL)
 * Hershey Bears (AHL)

Trivia

 * Poul Popiel wore jersey #29 in the season's first game. This was the first time a Bruin wore #29 and was the highest number, up to that time, that a Bruin had ever worn.
 * Gerry Cheevers wore jersey #30 in the season's second game. This was the first time a Bruin wore #30 and was the highest number, up to that time, that a Bruin had ever worn.
 * Bob Ring wore jersey #28 in the season's third game. This was the first time a Bruin wore #28.
 * Skip Krake wore jersey #27 in the season's sixteenth game. This was the first time a Bruin wore #27.
 * Bruins who recorded a Hat trick this season include:
 * Pit Martin had a four goal game during the 5-3 win over the Chicago Black Hawks on January 27, 1966.