1950–51 Boston Bruins season

1950–51 Boston Bruins
Division	4th NHL
1950–51 record	22–30–18
Goals for	178 (3rd)
Goals against	197 (4th)
Team information
General manager	Art Ross
Coach	Lynn Patrick
Captain	Milt Schmidt
Alternate captains	Bill Quackenbush Ed Sandford
Arena	Boston Garden
Team leaders
Goals	Milt Schmidt (22)
Assists	Milt Schmidt (39)
Points	Milt Schmidt (61)
Penalty minutes	Bill Ezinicki (119)
Wins	Jack Gelineau (22)
Goals against average	Jack Gelineau (2.81)

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

Brothers Max and Bill Quackenbush in the Bruins home jerseys worn in the 1950-51 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.

Vic Lynn scores on Ralph "Red" Almas (playing in his only game for Chicago), December 6, 1950.

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.

Final Standings

National Hockey League

	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA
Detroit Red Wings	70	44	13	13	101	236	139
Toronto Maple Leafs	70	41	16	13	95	212	138
Montreal Canadiens	70	25	30	15	65	173	184
Boston Bruins	70	22	30	18	62	178	197
New York Rangers	70	20	29	21	61	169	201
Chicago Black Hawks	70	13	47	10	36	171	280

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

Game Log

Regular Season Results
No.	R	Date	Score	Opponent	Record
1	T	October 14, 1950	1–1	@ Montreal Canadiens (1950–51)	0–0–1
2	L	October 15, 1950	1–2	Montreal Canadiens (1950–51)	0–1–1
3	L	October 18, 1950	0–2	Toronto Maple Leafs (1950–51)	0–2–1
4	T	October 22, 1950	0–0	New York Rangers (1950–51)	0–2–2
5	T	October 25, 1950	1–1	@ New York Rangers (1950–51)	0–2–3
6	L	October 28, 1950	2–4	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1950–51)	0–3–3
7	L	October 29, 1950	0–2	@ Detroit Red Wings (1950–51)	0–4–3
8	L	November 2, 1950	2–5	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1950–51)	0–5–3
9	W	November 4, 1950	3–2	@ Montreal Canadiens (1950–51)	1–5–3
10	L	November 5, 1950	2–4	@ Detroit Red Wings (1950–51)	1–6–3
11	T	November 8, 1950	3–3	Detroit Red Wings (1950–51)	1–6–4
12	L	November 11, 1950	2–4	Chicago Black Hawks (1950–51)	1–7–4
13	L	November 12, 1950	0–7	Toronto Maple Leafs (1950–51)	1–8–4
14	W	November 15, 1950	4–3	@ New York Rangers (1950–51)	2–8–4
15	L	November 18, 1950	1–2	Detroit Red Wings (1950–51)	2–9–4
16	W	November 19, 1950	3–1	Toronto Maple Leafs (1950–51)	3–9–4
17	L	November 23, 1950	1–4	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1950–51)	3–10–4
18	T	November 25, 1950	3–3	New York Rangers (1950–51)	3–10–5
19	L	November 26, 1950	1–3	Montreal Canadiens (1950–51)	3–11–5
20	W	November 29, 1950	6–3	Detroit Red Wings (1950–51)	4–11–5
21	L	December 2, 1950	2–3	New York Rangers (1950–51)	4–12–5
22	W	December 3, 1950	5–3	@ New York Rangers (1950–51)	5–12–5
23	W	December 6, 1950	5–4	Chicago Black Hawks (1950–51)	6–12–5
24	W	December 7, 1950	3–0	@ Montreal Canadiens (1950–51)	7–12–5
25	L	December 9, 1950	1–8	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1950–51)	7–13–5
26	W	December 10, 1950	5–2	Montreal Canadiens (1950–51)	8–13–5
27	L	December 14, 1950	2–4	@ Detroit Red Wings (1950–51)	8–14–5
28	L	December 16, 1950	1–4	Detroit Red Wings (1950–51)	8–15–5
29	L	December 17, 1950	2–4	Toronto Maple Leafs (1950–51)	8–16–5
30	T	December 20, 1950	4–4	@ New York Rangers (1950–51)	8–16–6
31	W	December 21, 1950	3–1	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1950–51)	9–16–6
32	T	December 23, 1950	2–2	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1950–51)	9–16–7
33	W	December 25, 1950	7–4	Chicago Black Hawks (1950–51)	10–16–7
34	T	December 27, 1950	4–4	Chicago Black Hawks (1950–51)	10–16–8
35	L	December 31, 1950	0–3	@ New York Rangers (1950–51)	10–17–8
36	W	January 1, 1951	3–2	New York Rangers (1950–51)	11–17–8
37	W	January 4, 1951	4–2	@ Montreal Canadiens (1950–51)	12–17–8
38	L	January 7, 1951	0–3	@ Detroit Red Wings (1950–51)	12–18–8
39	W	January 9, 1951	5–4	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1950–51)	13–18–8
40	L	January 13, 1951	0–4	@ Montreal Canadiens (1950–51)	13–19–8
41	W	January 14, 1951	5–1	Chicago Black Hawks (1950–51)	14–19–8
42	T	January 17, 1951	3–3	@ New York Rangers (1950–51)	14–19–9
43	L	January 20, 1951	1–2	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1950–51)	14–20–9
44	W	January 21, 1951	5–1	New York Rangers (1950–51)	15–20–9
45	T	January 25, 1951	3–3	@ Detroit Red Wings (1950–51)	15–20–10
46	W	January 27, 1951	3–0	Detroit Red Wings (1950–51)	16–20–10
47	T	January 28, 1951	1–1	Montreal Canadiens (1950–51)	16–20–11
48	L	February 1, 1951	2–5	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1950–51)	16–21–11
49	L	February 3, 1951	1–4	@ Montreal Canadiens (1950–51)	16–22–11
50	T	February 4, 1951	3–3	Toronto Maple Leafs (1950–51)	16–22–12
51	T	February 7, 1951	2–2	New York Rangers (1950–51)	16–22–13
52	W	February 10, 1951	6–0	Montreal Canadiens (1950–51)	17–22–13
53	L	February 11, 1951	1–2	Detroit Red Wings (1950–51)	17–23–13
54	W	February 18, 1951	7–3	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1950–51)	18–23–13
55	T	February 19, 1951	2–2	@ Detroit Red Wings (1950–51)	18–23–14
56	T	February 21, 1951	2–2	@ New York Rangers (1950–51)	18–23–15
57	L	February 24, 1951	2–6	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1950–51)	18–24–15
58	W	February 25, 1951	3–2	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1950–51)	19–24–15
59	T	February 28, 1951	1–1	Detroit Red Wings (1950–51)	19–24–16
60	T	March 3, 1951	3–3	New York Rangers (1950–51)	19–24–17
61	W	March 4, 1951	10–2	Chicago Black Hawks (1950–51)	20–24–17
62	L	March 7, 1951	2–3	Montreal Canadiens (1950–51)	20–25–17
63	L	March 10, 1951	3–5	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1950–51)	20–26–17
64	W	March 11, 1951	3–1	Toronto Maple Leafs (1950–51)	21–26–17
65	L	March 15, 1951	0–4	@ Detroit Red Wings (1950–51)	21–27–17
66	L	March 17, 1951	1–3	@ Montreal Canadiens (1950–51)	21–28–17
67	T	March 18, 1951	2–2	Montreal Canadiens (1950–51)	21–28–18
68	W	March 21, 1951	6–5	Chicago Black Hawks (1950–51)	22–28–18
69	L	March 24, 1951	1–4	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1950–51)	22–29–18
70	L	March 25, 1951	0–1	Toronto Maple Leafs (1950–51)	22–30–18

Playoffs

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.

#	Date	Visitor	Score	Home	Record
1	March 28	Boston Bruins	2-0	Toronto Maple Leafs	1-0
2	March 31	Boston Bruins	1-1 (OT)	Toronto Maple Leafs	1-0-1
3	April 1	Toronto Maple Leafs	3-0	Boston Bruins	1-1-1
4	April 3	Toronto Maple Leafs	3-1	Boston Bruins	2-1-1
5	April 7	Boston Bruins	1-4	Toronto Maple Leafs	1-1-3
6	April 8	Toronto Maple Leafs	6-0	Boston Bruins	4-1-1

Player Stats

Regular Season

Scoring

#	Player	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
15	Schmidt, MiltMilt Schmidt	C/D	62	22	39	61	33
14	Dumart, WoodyWoody Dumart	LW	70	20	21	41	7
23	Peirson, JohnnyJohnny Peirson	RW	70	19	19	38	43
16, 19	Ezinicki, BillBill Ezinicki	RW	53	16	19	35	119
26	Ferguson, LorneLorne Ferguson	LW	70	16	17	33	31
20	Ronty, PaulPaul Ronty	C	70	10	22	32	20
9	Fisher, DuncDunc Fisher	RW	53	9	20	29	20
11	Quackenbush, BillBill Quackenbush	D	70	5	24	29	12
7	Sandford, EdEd Sandford	LW	51	10	13	23	33
25	Horeck, PetePete Horeck	LW	66	10	13	23	57
6	Lynn, VicVic Lynn	LW/D	56	14	6	20	69
8	Henderson, MurrayMurray Henderson	D	66	4	7	11	37
4	Quackenbush, MaxMax Quackenbush	D	47	4	6	10	26
17	Creighton, DaveDave Creighton	C	56	5	4	9	4
22	Kryzanowski, EdEd Kryzanowski	D	69	3	6	9	10
10, 24	Lowe, RossRoss Lowe	D/LW	43	5	3	8	40
18	Smith, KennyKenny Smith	LW	14	1	3	4	11
21	Maloney, PhilPhil Maloney	C	13	2	0	2	2
10	Laycoe, HalHal Laycoe	D	6	1	1	2	4
10	Flaman, FernFern Flaman	D	14	1	1	2	37
6, 10, 18, 24	Reigle, EdEd Reigle	D	17	0	2	2	25
16	Harrison, EdEd Harrison	C/LW	9	1	0	1	0
19	Toppazzini, ZellioZellio Toppazzini	RW	4	0	1	1	0
21	Armstrong, BobBob Armstrong	D	2	0	0	0	2
4	Kraftcheck, StephenStephen Kraftcheck	D	22	0	0	0	8
1	Gelineau, JackJack Gelineau	G	70	0	0	0	4

Goaltending

Player	MIN	GP	W	L	T	GA	GAA	SO
Gelineau, JackJack Gelineau	4200	70	22	30	18	197	2.81	4
Team:	4200	70	22	30	18	197	2.81	4

Playoffs

Scoring

#	Player	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
14	Dumart, WoodyWoody Dumart	LW	6	1	2	3	0
23	Peirson, JohnnyJohnny Peirson	RW	2	1	1	2	2
16, 19	Ezinicki, BillBill Ezinicki	RW	6	1	1	2	18
26	Ferguson, LorneLorne Ferguson	LW	6	1	0	1	2
9	Fisher, DuncDunc Fisher	RW	6	1	0	1	0
17	Creighton, DaveDave Creighton	C	5	0	1	1	0
10	Laycoe, HalHal Laycoe	D	6	0	1	1	5
11	Quackenbush, BillBill Quackenbush	D	6	0	1	1	0
20	Ronty, PaulPaul Ronty	C	6	0	1	1	2
7	Sandford, EdEd Sandford	LW	6	0	1	1	4
15	Schmidt, MiltMilt Schmidt	C/D	6	0	1	1	7
23	McIntyre, JackJack McIntyre	LW	2	0	0	0	0
21	Sullivan, RedRed Sullivan	C	2	0	0	0	2
25	Horeck, PetePete Horeck	LW	4	0	0	0	13
8	Henderson, MurrayMurray Henderson	D	5	0	0	0	2
18, 24	Kraftcheck, StephenStephen Kraftcheck	D	6	0	0	0	7
22	Kryzanowski, EdEd Kryzanowski	D	6	0	0	0	2
6	Lynn, VicVic Lynn	LW/D	5	0	0	0	2
4	Quackenbush, MaxMax Quackenbush	D	6	0	0	0	4
1	Henry, GordGord Henry	G	2	0	0	0	0
1	Gelineau, JackJack Gelineau	G	4	0	0	0	0

Goaltending

Player	MIN	GP	W	L	GA	GAA	SO
Gelineau, JackJack Gelineau	260	4	1	2	7	1.62	1
Henry, GordGord Henry	120	2	0	2	10	5.00	0
Team:	380	5	1	4	17	2.68	1

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.

Gallery

Kenny Smith scraps with Maurice Richard, October 15, 1950.

75 minutes in penalties called, October 15, 1950.

Jack Gelineau and Murray Henderson defend against Ray Timgren in Game 2 of the 1951 Semi-finals, March 31, 1951.

Milt Schmidt and Gord Henry defend in Game 5 of the 1951 Semi-finals, April 7, 1951.

Milt Schmidt feted as the 1951 Hart Trophy winner as NHL MVP.

See Also

• 1950–51 NHL season

References

• 1950–51 Boston Bruins Games. Hockey-reference.com. Retrieved on 2009-05-06.