NIFTY AND NUMBER 16
The history of the Boston Bruins is rich and multi-layered. Founded in 1924 the franchise is the NHL’s third-oldest (following Montreal and Toronto) and the oldest in the United States.
Part of the Original Six joining the aforementioned along with Chicago, Detroit and the New York Rangers, the B’s have won 6 Stanley Cups and twenty-five Division championships.
Eddie Shore, Harry Oliver, Dit Clapper, Dutch Gainor and goaltender Tiny Thompson anchored the club’s first Cup-winning team in 1929.
The next season the 1929-’30 the Bruins posted the best-ever regular season winning percentage in NHL annals, an eye-popping .875 winning 38 of 44 games, a record which has stood the test of time and will forever. They lost to Montreal, already a fierce and hated rival, in that year’s Cup Final.
They wouldn’t win their second Stanley Cup until 1939.
In the ’30s Shore, Clapper and Thompson were joined by Babe Siebert and Cooney Weiland and the B’s topped the league’s standings five times in the decade.
But it wasn’t until ’39 that with a change of uniform colors from brown and gold to the current black and gold and the arrival of rookie goaltender Frank “Mr. Zero” Brimsek acquired in a trade for Thompson, that their second Cup was hoisted.
Brimsek was nuts that season, capturing the Vezina and Calder Trophies and becoming the first rookie named to the NHL First All-Star Team. Skating in front of him were Bill “Cowboy” Cowley, Shore, Clapper and “Sudden Death” Mel Hill who scored three overtime goals in one playoff series, the semi-finals against the Rangers. Milt Schmidt, Bobby Bauer and Woody Dumart comprising the famous “Kraut Line” also began to skate into B’s history and played prominent roles.
In 1941 the Bruins won their third Stanley Cup after losing only eight games of 48 (a winning percentage of .833) in the entire campaign and finishing first at the close of the regular season. Shore was gone, traded in 1940 to the struggling New York Americans and Cowley, the regular season’s top scorer and MVP took the reins.
When World War II decimated the B’s power-packed roster, “Cowboy” — though ably assisted by Clapper and Busher Jackson — was essentially the last pin standing, the team’s sole remaining star.
Brimsek and the “Krauts” all enlisted after the ’40-’41 Cup victory robbing them of their most productive years and Lord Stanley’s hardware would not return to Boston until 1970. Pockets of success dotted the Fifties in the form of Cup Final appearances in 1953, 1957 and 1958 — only to lose to the Canadiens each time fueling the vitriol between the two — but between 1947 and 1967 the Bruins had only four winning seasons.
They missed the playoffs eight straight years between 1960 and 1967.
There were milestones and watershed moments nonetheless.
In 1954 the team was the first in the NHL to acquire the “Zamboni” ice resurfacing machine for their own use which quickly trended around the league, becoming de rigueur. The Bruins’ Zamboni Model E, factory serial number 21 used as late as the 1980s on an emergency basis eventually wound up in the Hockey Hall of Fame for preservation in 1988.
On January 18, 1958 real history was made when the NHL’s first black player, Willie O’Ree suited up for the B’s. In parts of the 1957-’58 and 1960-’61 seasons O’Ree played in 45 games tallying 4 goals and ten assists. The “Jackie Robinson of ice hockey,” blind in one eye from the time he was a youngster, will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in November 2018.
Aggressively seeking players left unprotected by the other five teams owing to a dearth of talent in their own underdeveloped farm system, in 1962 the Bruins signed Tommy Williams from the 1960 U.S Olympic gold medal-winning hockey team, making him the first American to play in the NHL since Brimsek and at the time, the only one.
The late ’50s also featured the emergence of the “Uke Line,” saluting the Ukrainian heritage of Johnny Bucyk, Vic Stasiuk and Bronco Horvath. The line enjoyed four productive offensive seasons keynoting the successful era along with the presence of scoring stalwarts Don McKenney and Fleming MacKell.
The problem was that the killer drought of the early-to-mid/late-’60s was looming, and then with defiance, staring the franchise directly in the kisser.
Thank God for Bobby Orr.
He changed the face of the Bruins franchise and revolutionized the game while becoming in the eyes of many, the greatest player who ever donned the blades. (There shall be no debate here).
But immediately before Orr’s arrival and even in his stellar rookie season NHL hockey in the Hub was dismal. From 1959-’60 through 1966-’67 the B’s finished 6th. (of 6 clubs) five times and 5th. three, missing the playoffs each year. Between ’61 and ’63, they won just 44 regular season games of 210.
By 1967-’68 and 1968-’69 however the tide had clearly turned as the team notched 37 and 42 wins respectively. They made the playoffs finally in ’67-’68 and for the next 29 consecutive seasons.
Said then-coach Harry Sinden about Orr when asked about his debut on October 19,1966 against Detroit:
“Our fans had heard about this kid for a few years now. There was a lot of pressure on him, but he met all the expectations. He was a star from the moment they played the national anthem in the opening game of the season.”
After GM Milt Schmidt — he of “Kraut Line” renown — engineered one of the most lopsided deals in league history on May 15, 1967 netting the Bruins Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge and Freddie Stanfield from Chicago for Gilles Marotte, Pit Martin and Jack Norris, the gloves flew off with a vengeance.
Pilferage? Yes. Genius? Sure. With that singular move, Schmidt cemented his legacy in Bruins executive lore.
Holdovers Bucyk and the fresh-faced Orr were also joined by Wayne Cashman, John McKenzie, the next Calder Trophy winner Derek Sanderson (1967-’68), Dallas Smith and Gerry Cheevers among other notables and the “Big Bad Bruins” were born.
From the late 1960s through the ’80s and beyond they were one of the NHL’s top teams. Year in and year out.
Cup wins in 1970 and 1972 represented the crowning moments for a very competitive club and a trip to the 1974 Final which they lost to Philadelphia in an upset was proof positive that the Bruins remained elite. After that, albeit with trips to the Final in ’77 and ’78 — losses to the Canadiens in both — they slithered back to the ranks of the competitive, not appearing in the Final again until 1988.
They made the playoffs every year through the 1980s powered by a new cast of characters including Ray Bourque, Brad Park, Cam Neely and Rick Middleton.
Ironically, Middleton was acquired from the Rangers on May 26,1976 for none other than right winger Ken Hodge, a 50-goal scorer (1973-’74) and two-time 105-point man (1970-’71; 1973-’74).
Another steal? You tell me. Middleton, to be known as “Nifty,” was also a right winger who was ten years Hodge’s junior and considered a swifter and superior skater. Hodge played only one more season before his career was over and Middleton who would learn to overcome his defensive deficiencies thanks in large measure to head coach Don Cherry became a superstar in Boston over the next twelve seasons.
A solid two-way player and strong leader Middleton had hands like silk, softer than a baby’s behind. Oh yes. He had some pretty fair moves too. Nifty.
Middleton scored a hat trick in his first game as a Bruin and finished with 898 points in 881 games while sporting a black and gold sweater, good for fourth all-time behind Bourque (1506); Bucyk (1339); and Esposito (1012). His 402 goals ranked third; his 496 assists sixth.
As a Bruin he averaged more than a point per game over his twelve seasons and was regarded as one of the best one-on-one players ever. And mercy, could he shoot and score. In a comprehensive NHL player list of 250 compiled by Hockey Reference, “Nifty” ranked #6 overall in career shooting percentage (19.7%). Among players with 400+ goals to their credit, his ranking all-time jumps to #2.
His most prolific season came in 1981-’82, the year he won the Lady Byng Trophy awarded annually to the NHL “player adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability.” He tallied a career-high 51 goals and was named to the NHL’s Second All-Star Team. (He was a three-time NHL All-Star).
In the next campaign he led the Bruins to the league’s best regular season record (50–20–10; 110 Pts.) and set still unbroken records for the most points scored in the playoffs by a player not advancing to the Cup Final (33) and for a single playoff series (19 in the quarterfinals against Buffalo).
In 1983-’84 Middleton ironically tied Hodge’s team record for most points scored in a season by a right winger (105), a mark which still stands. He played in three Cup Finals and scored 100 playoff points in 114 contests.
On November 29, 2018 in a pregame ceremony before a contest against the New York Islanders at TD Garden, a banner saluting “Richard D. Middleton — 16–1976–1988” will be raised to the rafters and assume its rightful position.
His #16 — with apologies to Leo Labine (1952-’61) and Derek “Turk” Sanderson (1968-’74) who wore the sweater with great pride before him — will be the eleventh in Bruins history to be retired. Lionel Hitchman #3–1934; Aubrey (Dit) Clapper #5–1947; Eddie Shore #2–1949; Milt Schmidt #15–1957; Bobby Orr #4–1979; John Bucyk #9–1980; Phil Esposito #7–1987; Ray Bourque #77–2001; Terry O’Reilly #24–2002; & Cam Neely #8–2004 would all agree that this honor is well-deserved.
As for “Nifty?” He still can’t believe it.
“To me, it knocked me off the chair. It certainly was not something I expected from the call in July to hear something like that. Although, I can’t lie, I’ve certainly thought about it many times, especially with no one wearing the number 16 in a few years. It’s been in the back of my mind, but you never know when these things happen or if they’re ever going to happen, so when it hit me, it was like a sledge-hammer. And I’m still in shock…It was just a dream come true…It’s a special, special honor to me to be included with the other 10 people that are up there.. A very special group of hockey players that date back to the beginning of the Boston Bruins, and to be included on that list I can’t even explain what kind of an honor that is.”
When you start with the thank-yous “Nifty” make sure those golden hands of yours are duly recognized.
Just give them a quick glance and a quiet nod; that would be keeping in character.
AS A BRUIN: 402 G (Third behind Bucyk — 545 and Espo-459); 496 A (Sixth behind Bourque-1111; Bucyk-794; Orr-624; Espo-553; and Cashman-516); 898 Points in 881 G (Fourth all-time: Bourque — 1506; Bucyk — 1339; Espo — 1012).
AS A BRUIN: Averaged more than a point per game over 12 seasons.
B’s top point-scorer 1979-’82; top goal-scorer 1979-’84; 51 G 1981-’82: (Neely; Bucyk; Esposito; & Hodge — other B’s 50+ single-season goal scorers).
[Editor’s Note: This piece was written by Mr. Kaplan in August 2018.]
