1925–26 Boston Bruins season

1925–26 Boston Bruins
Division	4th NHL
1925–26 record	17-15-4
Goals for	92 (1st, tie)
Goals against	85 (4th)
Team information
General manager	Art Ross
Coach	Art Ross
Captain	Sprague Cleghorn
Arena	Boston Arena
Team leaders
Goals	Carson Cooper (28)
Assists	Jimmy Herberts (9)
Points	Carson Cooper (36)
Penalty minutes	Lionel Hitchman (82)
Wins	Doc Stewart (16)
Goals against average	Doc Stewart (2.21)

The 1925–26 Boston Bruins season was the team's 2nd in the NHL. The Bruins finished 4th in the league, failing to make the playoffs by a single point.

Regular Season

Joe Matte sporting the Bruins 1925-26 jersey.

The Bruins replaced the jerseys worn in their expansion year with ones that featured brown, gold and white striping. The numbers were changed from white to brown and though the logo was the same as the previous year, the coloring was changed. This would be the only season the Bruins wore these jerseys.

Opening the season with a 2-1 loss to the expansion Pittsburgh Pirates, it looked initially as if the Bruins would turn in as poor a season as the year before, as they won only two of their first ten games. After wins on December 29 and January 5 (in which Carson Cooper scored the first Hat trick in Bruins history in a 3-0 win over Pittsburgh), the Bruins went 1-4-3 for the rest of January.

However, from a 5-0 shutout victory over the Montreal Maroons on January 30, the Bruins won 13 of their last 17 games. A 2-1 overtime loss to the Pirates on March 12 being the difference to lose out on a playoff berth to Pittsburgh by a single point. The winning percentage improvement of .328 from the previous season was a NHL record at the time, and remains the third best single season improvement ever.

1925-26 Bruins line-up.

A healthy Carson Cooper contributed to a near doubling of goals scored to lead the league, while the purchase of veteran star defenseman Sprague Cleghorn from the Montreal Maroons solidified the defense. Despite Cleghorn suffering a knee injury in the opener against Pittsburgh that sidelined him for a month, goals allowed decline by over a third from the previous season. Cleghorn finished as the runner-up for the Hart Memorial Trophy. Cooper and Jimmy Herberts finished second and third respectively in the league scoring race, behind Nels Stewart of the Maroons.

Among other debuts was that of goaltender Moe Roberts, at age 19 the second youngest player in the league and its first Jewish player. Roberts would wind up with one of the longest professional careers on record, playing his final game for the Chicago Black Hawks in 1952, the oldest player ever to play in the NHL before Gordie Howe.

Final Standings

National Hockey League

Teams	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PIM	Pts
Ottawa Senators	36	24	8	4	77	42	341	52
Montreal Maroons	36	20	11	5	91	73	554	45
Pittsburgh Pirates	36	19	16	1	82	70	264	39
Boston Bruins	36	17	15	4	92	85	279	38
New York Americans	36	12	20	4	68	89	361	28
Toronto St. Patricks	36	12	21	3	92	114	325	27
Montreal Canadiens	36	11	24	1	79	108	458	23

Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes
Note: Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold.

Game Log

Regular Season Results
No.	R	Date	Score	Opponent	Record
1	L	November 26, 1925	1–2	Pittsburgh Pirates (1925–26)	0–1–0
2	W	November 28, 1925	3–2	@ Toronto St. Patricks (1925–26)	1–1–0
3	L	December 1, 1925	2–3	Montreal Canadiens (1925–26)	1–2–0
4	L	December 3, 1925	0–2	@ Ottawa Senators (1925–26)	1–3–0
5	L	December 5, 1925	0–4	@ Montreal Maroons (1925–26)	1–4–0
6	W	December 8, 1925	3–2	Montreal Maroons (1925–26)	2–4–0
7	L	December 11, 1925	3–5	@ Pittsburgh Pirates (1925–26)	2–5–0
8	L	December 15, 1925	1–2	Ottawa Senators (1925–26)	2–6–0
9	L	December 19, 1925	5–6 OT	@ Montreal Canadiens (1925–26)	2–7–0
10	L	December 22, 1925	2–3	New York Americans (1925–26)	2–8–0
11	W	December 29, 1925	3–0	Toronto St. Patricks (1925–26)	3–8–0
12	W	January 5, 1926	3–0	Pittsburgh Pirates (1925–26)	4–8–0
13	T	January 7, 1926	2–2 OT	@ New York Americans (1925–26)	4–8–1
14	L	January 9, 1926	2–3	@ Toronto St. Patricks (1925–26)	4–9–1
15	L	January 12, 1926	2–4	Montreal Canadiens (1925–26)	4–10–1
16	L	January 15, 1926	1–5	@ Pittsburgh Pirates (1925–26)	4–11–1
17	T	January 19, 1926	3–3 OT	Montreal Maroons (1925–26)	4–11–2
18	T	January 23, 1926	2–2 OT	@ New York Americans (1925–26)	4–11–3
19	L	January 26, 1926	2–8	Ottawa Senators (1925–26)	4–12–3
20	W	January 30, 1926	5–0	@ Montreal Maroons (1925–26)	5–12–3
21	W	February 2, 1926	3–2	Toronto St. Patricks (1925–26)	6–12–3
22	W	February 4, 1926	3–2	@ Ottawa Senators (1925–26)	7–12–3
23	T	February 6, 1926	3–3 OT	@ Montreal Canadiens (1925–26)	7–12–4
24	W	February 9, 1926	4–0	New York Americans (1925–26)	8–12–4
25	W	February 13, 1926	7–4	@ Toronto St. Patricks (1925–26)	9–12–4
26	W	February 16, 1926	3–2 OT	Pittsburgh Pirates (1925–26)	10–12–4
27	W	February 18, 1926	7–3	@ New York Americans (1925–26)	11–12–4
28	W	February 20, 1926	3–1	@ Montreal Canadiens (1925–26)	12–12–4
29	W	February 22, 1926	2–1 OT	Toronto St. Patricks (1925–26)	13–12–4
30	L	February 27, 1926	2–3	@ Ottawa Senators (1925–26)	13–13–4
31	W	March 2, 1926	4–1	Montreal Canadiens (1925–26)	14–13–4
32	W	March 4, 1926	3–2	@ Montreal Maroons (1925–26)	15–13–4
33	W	March 6, 1926	1–0	Ottawa Senators (1925–26)	16–13–4
34	L	March 9, 1926	0–1	New York Americans (1925–26)	16–14–4
35	L	March 12, 1926	1–2 OT	@ Pittsburgh Pirates (1925–26)	16–15–4
36	W	March 16, 1926	1–0	Montreal Maroons (1925–26)	17–15–4

Playoffs

• The Bruins did not qualify for the post season.

Player Stats

Leading Scorers

Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes

			Regular Season						Playoffs
#	Player		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
7	Carson Cooper		36	28	8	36	10		-	-	-	-	-
4	Jimmy Herberts		36	26	9	35	53		-	-	-	-	-
3, 13	Sprague Cleghorn		28	6	8	14	59		-	-	-	-	-
11, 14	Hago Harrington		26	7	4	11	12		-	-	-	-	-
2	Lionel Hitchman		36	7	4	11	82		-	-	-	-	-
8	Red Stuart		33	6	1	7	45		-	-	-	-	-
12	Stan Jackson		28	3	4	7	34		-	-	-	-	-
9	George Geran		33	5	1	6	6		-	-	-	-	-
6	Herb Mitchell		26	3	0	3	16		-	-	-	-	-
5	Normand Shay		13	1	2	3	2		-	-	-	-	-
3, 10, 14	Charles "Moose" Cahill		31	0	1	1	9		-	-	-	-	-
14	Werner Schnarr		1	0	0	0	0		-	-	-	-	-
3	Fred Bourdginon		2	0	0	0	0		-	-	-	-	-
8	Joe Matte		4	0	0	0	0		-	-	-	-	-
6	Charles Larose		6	0	0	0	0		-	-	-	-	-
10	George Redding		6	0	0	0	0		-	-	-	-	-
11	John Brackenborough		6	0	0	0	0		-	-	-	-	-
5	Phil Stevens		17	0	0	0	0		-	-	-	-	-

Goaltenders

Note: GP = Games played; Min = Minutes; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GA = Goals against; SO = Shutouts; GAA = Goals against average

		Regular season									Playoffs
#		Player	GP	Min	W	L	T	GA	SO		GAA	GP	Min	W	L	GA	SO	GAA
1		Doc Stewart	35	2173	16	14	4	80	6		2.21	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1		Moe Roberts	2	85	1	1	0	5	0		3.53	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Awards and Records

• Hart Memorial Trophy: Sprague Cleghorn, Runner-up

Transactions

• Purchase Sprague Cleghorn from the Montreal Canadiens for $5,000 on November 8, 1925.
• Sell Normand Shay to the Toronto St. Pats on January 14, 1926.
• Purchase Phil Stevens on January 17, 1926.

Trivia

• Although Lionel Hitchman would later wear #3 for Bruins (and have it retired), he wore #2 for both the 1924-25 and 1925-26 seasons.
• Firsts in Bruins history accomplished during this season include:
  • First hat trick by Jimmy Herberts during the 3-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on January 5, 1926. Herberts repeated the feat on February 13, 1926 in the 7-4 win over the Toronto St. Pats.
  • First 6 game winning streak from February 9-22, 1926 and first 10 game point streak from January 30-February 22, 1926.
• Other Bruins who recorded a hat trick this season include:
  • Carson Cooper during the 3-2 win over Toronto on February 2, 1926.
  • Hago Harrington during the 7-4 win over Toronto on February 13, 1926.

Gallery

The Bruins 1925-26 defense. Lionel Hitchman, Charles Stewart and Sprague Cleghorn.

Alternate 1925-26 Bruins team picture.

See Also

• 1925–26 NHL season

References

• Klein, Jeff Z. & Reif, Karl-Eric (1997), The Klein & Reif Hockey Compendium, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, ISBN 978-0-7710-4529-5

• Vautour, Kevin (1997), The Bruins Book, Toronto: ECW Press, ISBN 978-1-55022-334-7