1950–51 Boston Bruins season



The 1950–51 Boston Bruins season was the Bruins' 27th season in the NHL. The Bruins finished 4th in the league and lost in the Semi-finals to the Toronto Maple Leafs 4 games to 1 (with one tie).

Off-season
After their failure to make the playoffs the previous year, the Bruins replaced coach George Boucher with Lynn Patrick. Patrick would coach the Bruins for the next four years, groom his replacement Milt Schmidt and then become the Bruins general manager in 1954.

The 4th National Hockey League All-Star Game was held at Detroit on October 8, 1950. Bruins Paul Ronty, Bill Quackenbush and Johnny Peirson played for the All-Stars against the Detroit Red Wings. Peirson assisted on the only goal as the Wings thumped the All-Stars 7-1.

Regular Season
In order to provide better contrast when viewing teams on black and white television, the league had its six member teams pick what jersey (light or dark) they'd wear at home. Montreal chose their red jersey, the Rangers their blue while the other four teams, including the Bruins, adopted their white jerseys for use at home.

After a winless October, GM Art Ross shook the team up by making two multi-player trades on November 16, 1950. Ed Harrison and Zellio Toppazzini went to the New York Rangers for veteran Dunc Fisher while Leo Boivin, Fern Flaman, Phil Maloney and Kenny Smith went to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Vic Lynn and Bill Ezinicki. Both trades saw the Bruins acquire veterans, who'd play their last productive NHL season with the Bruins. The veterans helped the Bruins win with more consistency and make the playoffs. While the Ranger trade had little future impact, the Bruins would come to regret losing Flaman and especially Boivin, a promising 19 year old. They'd re-acquire both by 1954. Flaman would captain the Bruins for six seasons and Boivin for three.

With Jack Crawford leaving the Bruins to become playing-coach of the Hershey Bears, Milt Schmidt became team captain and experienced a renaissance along with his former Kraut Line member Woody Dumart. They finished 1-2 in team scoring, Schmidt finished 5th in league scoring, won the Hart Memorial Trophy as league MVP (beating out Maurice Richard) and was a First Team All-Star. The loan of Max Quackenbush saw him re-united with his brother Bill Quackenbush, the Bruins top defenseman and assistant captain. Max and Bill were sometimes paired together, the first time in Bruins history that a defense pair were brothers.

The Bruins had a very inconsistent season and couldn't put together a significant winning run. Only an eight game winless streak by the New York Rangers in March resulted in Boston edging out the Rangers for the last playoff spot by one point.

Toronto Maple Leafs 4, Boston Bruins 1 (One tie)
Having last met in the 1949 Semi-finals, the Leafs dispatched the Bruins again by a 4-1 series score with one game ending in a tie, the last playoff tie in NHL history.

Game 1 at Maple Leaf Gardens saw two rookie goalies play their first career playoff game. The Bruins Jack Gelineau would record his only career playoff shutout in Game 1 while the Leafs Al Rollins had a fantastic regular season and won the Vezina Trophy. Game 1 wouldn't turn out well for Rollins who gave up a goal to Lorne Ferguson at 14:48 of the first period. Less than two minutes later, Rollins was knocked out of the series after a collision with the Bruins Pete Horeck. Veteran goalie Turk Broda, who'd retire the next season, stepped in for Rollins. Broda gave up a goal early in the third period to Woody Dumart and Gelineau stopped all 24 Leaf shots for a 2-0 win.

Game 2 at Toronto was a rough affair that had a very strange ending. After Bill Barilko put the Leafs up 1-0, he'd become involved in several incidents. The second period saw seven fights break out and Barilko received a game misconduct for a hit on Dunc Fisher that resulted in Fisher leaving the game on a stretcher. Johnny Peirson tied the game up at the 9:26 of the second. The game went scoreless in the third, resulting in overtime. The first OT period was also scoreless and it was 11:45pm on a Saturday night. The city of Toronto had a curfew law that prohibited professional sporting events from occurring on Sunday. As a result, the game ended after one overtime period and was declared a draw. The game is not officially counted in NHL game registers though the statistics in the game are. In OT, Johnny Peirson suffered a broken cheek and was lost for the remainder of the series.

Game 3 at Boston Garden saw the 36 year old Broda play brilliantly and shut the Bruins out. Cal Gardner opened the scoring at 3:02 of the second period on a solo rush. Stopped in front of the Bruins net by Bill Quackenbush and Murray Henderson, he managed to get off a shot as he was falling that eluded Gelineau. Fern Flaman got revenge for the Bruins trading him with a Power play goal on a point shot at 13:11. Max Bentley added a goal in the third period and the series was tied.

Game 4 at Boston saw the Leafs outlast the Bruins who opened the scoring at 7:50 of the first period with Dunc Fisher's only point of the series. The Leafs Sid Smith evened the score on the power play with the Bruins Bill Ezinicki in the box. Max Bentley put the Leafs up for good two minutes later. Barilko's second of the series in the third period finished a 3-1 win and a 2-1-1 series lead for the Leafs.

Game 5 at Toronto was held after a three day layoff. With Gord Henry replacing Jack Gelineau in the Bruins net, the Leafs dominated the ailing Bruins with two goals by Joe Klukay (including one shorthanded), Fleming Mackell and Ted Kennedy before Bill Ezinicki scored a consolation goal for the Bruins.

Game 6 at Boston saw the Leafs win the series with a 6-0 whitewashing of the Bruins with Gord Henry again in net. Klukay scored twice with individual markers by Kennedy, Mackell, Sid Smith and Tod Sloan. The Leafs took the series 4-1-1.

Regular Season

 * Scoring
 * Goaltending

Playoffs

 * Scoring
 * Goaltending

The tie game on March 31, 1951 was not credited towards the game totals.

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

 * Hart Memorial Trophy: Milt Schmidt
 * Lady Byng Memorial Trophy: Woody Dumart, Runner-up
 * Milt Schmidt, Centre, NHL First Team All-Star
 * Bill Quackenbush, Defence, NHL First Team All-Star

Transactions

 * Trade Ed Harrison and Zellio Toppazzini to the New York Rangers for Dunc Fisher on November 16, 1950.
 * Trade Leo Boivin, Fern Flaman, Phil Maloney and Kenny Smith to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Vic Lynn and Bill Ezinicki on November 16, 1950.
 * Trade Steve Kraftcheck to the Detroit Red Wings for the loan of Max Quackenbush for the 1950-51 season on December 5, 1950.
 * Trade Ross Lowe to the Montreal Canadiens for Hal Laycoe on February 14, 1951.

Farm Team

 * Hershey Bears, American Hockey League

Trivia

 * Hal Laycoe scored in his Bruins debut in a 7-3 win over the Chicago Black Hawks on February 18, 1951.
 * Defenseman Ed Reigle became the second Bruin to wear four different jersey numbers in a season. Reigle wore 6, 10, 18 and 24. In the 1933–34 Boston Bruins season, Myles Lane also wore four different numbers.
 * Bruins who recorded a Hat trick this season include:
 * Woody Dumart had a four goal game during the 10-2 win over Chicago on March 4, 1951.