Boston Bruins

The Boston Bruins are an American professional ice hockey team based in Boston, Massachusetts, that plays in the National Hockey League's (NHL's) Atlantic Division of its Eastern Conference. The Bruins were the first American team to join the NHL when, in 1924, grocery magnate Charles Adams petitioned the NHL to expand to the United States with his team in Boston as the first, and are one of the Original Six teams in the NHL. The team enjoyed success relatively early, winning their first Stanley Cup over the New York Rangers in 1929, before going on to win the Stanley Cup five more times in 1939, 1941, 1970, 1972, and 2011. The team plays out of the TD Garden arena, where the team moved to in 1995 after playing at the Boston Garden for sixty-seven seasons, from 1928 to 1995. The team originally played out of the Boston Arena (now known as the Matthews Arena), which was built in 1909–1910 and is the oldest indoor ice hockey facility still in use.

Fans celebrating the Boston Bruins at the TD Garden.

On November 1, 1924, Charles Adams paid the NHL a rumored $15,000 to receive a piece of paper that imparted upon the grocery store tycoon the privilege of starting the first NHL franchise in the United States and becoming the first formal expansion team of the NHL. Adams, originally from Vermont, ran a series of grocery stores called First National Stores, which had a yellow and brown color scheme, which would inform the early logo and jersey colors.

The original Boston Bruins brown and yellow sweater.

Many teams find ways to name their teams, with many expansion teams searching for a name through naming contests. However, when it comes to the Boston Bruins, several stories contradict each other on how the team was named. One story goes that Charles Adams placed a contest that sought a name for the team that would preferably relate to an untamed animal embodied with size, strength, agility, ferocity, and cunning while also fitting the brown and yellow color scheme. This story continues that he received several suggestions but was unhappy with all of them. That is where the story diverges. In one version of the story, Adams' secretary came upon the idea of "Bruins" while the other story holds that Adams's new general manager and coach, Art Ross, came to him with the name "Bruins." In yet another version of the story, Adams did not hold a naming contest but brought the problem to Ross, who came up with the Bruins name.

In either way, heading into the team's inaugural season, they were the Boston Bruins. The name "bruin" comes from an old English term for a brown bear, which came from the Dutch word "bruin" which referred to the color brown. The term was also used in the popular medieval children's fable "History of Reynard the Fox." And the name stuck. It embodied exactly what Charles Adams wanted to identify with his franchise, especially the brown aspect, as rumor held that Adams loved the color brown to the point that his horses, cows, pigs, and hens were all brown.

Entering the 1924–1925 season, the Boston Bruins had a brown and "gold" jersey, which featured Boston's first attempt at a logo. This logo saw a bear on the prowl surrounded by a "Boston" wordmark above the bear and a "Bruins" wordmark underneath. Each wordmark featured a different font, while the bear was missing a leg. The jersey the team wore in that first season was a brown jersey with yellow striping on the sleeves and at the jersey's waist. Over the next few seasons, the team iterated upon the logo, changing the colors and the jersey pattern and introducing more striping on the sleeve and the waist, with white as a basic color (this was before teams had two different jerseys for home and away games).

The variations of Boston's main logo through the years.

The first major change to the logo was introduced for the 1935–1936 season. The team pivoted away from brown and yellow to a black and gold color scheme (although in this case, yellow means a brighter shade of yellow). These jerseys also introduced a new team look that did away with a log in favor of placing the players' numbers on both the front and back of the jersey (similar to football jerseys) with a single "B" on the one shoulder. These remained fairly plain jerseys, which were placed on a white background with black and yellow striping on the jerseys' shoulders, sleeves, and waist. During this period, the team introduced a single "B" on the front of a jersey (for 1932–1935) and included a yellow jersey that included a "Bruins" wordmark on the jersey, which was the team's first "alternate" jersey that would be used for four seasons. Meanwhile, the logo-less "number" jerseys lasted over twelve seasons before they were retired.

The first version of the "Spoked-B" (which has been the team's main logo for the majority of its history) was first introduced in the 1948–1949 season, when the team introduced a new logo for the team's twenty-fifth season. The main jersey for the team at the time had returned to the plain B crest, but the font was very different from the modern version, with a jaunty yellow B on a black spoked background and with a "24" and "49" on its spokes to represent the team's twenty-five seasons.

The "jaunty" original Spoked-B logo brought in for the team's 25th season.

In 1949–1950, the Bruins made the "Spoked-B" a full-time logo. Rather than the more jaunty original logo, the new version was a blocky-black B with a yellow outline, which had yellow spokes radiating out from the B with a black circle surrounding the B. The spoked logo has drawn interest into what it means, as it lacks explicit reference to the team's name, with some suggesting the spokes are meant to represent either the cycle of life, the circularity of sports as a constant rebirth, a sunburst design, or some other. One consensus has suggested the logo was based on a description of Boston from Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., an American physician and poet of the 1800s, who referenced Boston as the "hub of the solar system" and, hence, the hub-and-spoke design of the "Spoked-B" logo.

Boston continued to tweak their uniform design, shifting the color of and thickness of their stripes, adding and removing yellow shoulder yokes, and often shifting the design of the jersey around abiding trends in jersey design. The "Spoked-B" went through alterations as well. For 1995–1996, the team's jersey and logo was updated, with the new "Spoked-B" gaining black outlines on the yellow parts of the logo, and yellow outlining to the black parts, to further complicate the logo but also to add greater depth to the logo and make it more attractive on television. The logo also worked on the team's home and away jerseys, where previously the team used different logos depending on whether the team played at home or away.

The remixed "Centennial Season" Spoked-B logo.

The fourth version of the "Spoked-B" was introduced in the 2007–2008 season, with the introduction of the Reebok Edge uniform system. This logo further separated the large "B" in the center of the logo from the spokes, a small change that added further depth to the logo and, along with thicker accents, gave the logo a more modern and aggressive appearance. Boston remixed the "Spoked-B" logo for the 2023–2024 season, the team's centennial season, along with a new jersey, which included sparkling gold thread to celebrate the team's one hundred seasons and which the team said would be worn for only the single season.

Return of the "Pooh Bear" for Boston's Reverse Retro jersey.

Introduced in the 1995 season as an alternate logo, the Bruins introduced a bear-head logo that is often described as "Winnie the Pooh." No doubt intended to build on the weirdly proportioned and sketched "Bruin head" of the 1976–1977 season, the "Winnie the Pooh" logo was perhaps intended to be aggressive or photorealistic; instead, it has a pensive, if not pained-looking face, looking more likely that it is about to be mounted on a wall rather than attack an opponent. The logo would be revisited in 2022 during jersey-manufacturer Adidas' Reverse Retro program.

November 1, 1924, was an important day for the city of Boston and the National Hockey League. On this day, Charles Adams paid the rumored $15,000 and returned his entitlement for the first United States entry into the National Hockey League (NHL). The grocery tycoon's first move was to hire Art Ross for the position of general manager and coach. Ross, a native of Naughton, Ontario, was managing a sporting goods store in Montreal at the time he was hired. Known to be a strong and innovative hockey mind, Ross previously invented the beveled-edge puck, the mesh net to catch pucks rather than bounce them back to the playing surface, and the fiber guard for the back of skates to protect the Achilles tendon from injury.

Team picture of the 1924 Boston Bruins.

The team played their first four seasons in the Boston Arena—which still stands as the Matthews Arena—but in the team's first season, they finished last with the team's worst points percentage in franchise history with a record of only six wins in thirty games. The team played their first game on December 1, 1924, against the Montreal Maroons, whom the Bruins beat in a 2–1 win, a high point of the season. The season after, the franchise's second season, they found themselves a point out of the playoffs at the end of the season.

The 1926–1927 Boston Bruins.

Going into the Bruins' third season, 1926–1927, the team improved as Ross was able to take advantage of the collapse of the Western Hockey League to get several stars, including defenseman Eddie Shore. This season saw the rejuvenated team reach the Stanley Cup Final despite finishing only a game above .500, only to lose to the Ottawa Senators. But the Bruins franchise would only need to wait two more seasons before they found themselves once more in the Stanley Cup finals against the New York Rangers. The Bruins defeated the Rangers to earn the franchise's first Stanley Cup. This season saw the team propelled by Shore, along with other star players Harry Oliver, Dit Clapper, Dutch Gainor, and goaltender Tiny Thompson. This was also the first season the team played at Boston Garden.

The Boston Bruins readying to play the Montreal Maroons in 1929.

In the 1929–1930 season, the team earned the best-ever regular season winning percentage in the NHL, winning 38 out of 44 games for a .875 record. However, when reaching the Stanley Cup Finals, they lost to the Montreal Canadiens. Through the 1930s, the team led the league's standings at least five times but continued to fail to win another Stanley Cup. The team changed its uniform colors in the 1934–1935 season from brown and yellow to the black and gold the team continues to wear. As the decade came to a close, the team went on to win its second Stanley Cup in 1939.

This season saw the team trade their previous goaltender—Tiny Thompson—for rookie goaltender Frank Brimsek, who would go on to win the Vezina and Clader Trophies that year, become the first rookie named to the NHL First All-Star Team, and earn himself the nickname "Mr. Zero." The team in front of Brimsek included "Sudden Death" Mel Hill (who scored three overtime goals in one playoff series to earn his nickname) and the "Kraut Line," which included center Milt Schmidt, right winger Bobby Bauer, and left winger Woody Dumart.

The beginning of the Second World War tends to be the marker for the beginning of the Original Six era. The impact of the wartime economy, following a depression across North America, and the loss of players to the war effort of their respective countries, led to the folding of a few NHL franchises that had not previously folded during the Depression era. Various competitor leagues of the NHL also shut down. This left six NHL franchises—Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers, Detroit Red Wings, and Boston Bruins—as the only franchises in the NHL by 1943.

Bruins' forward Herb Cain.

The loss of players leaving the NHL for the war effort affected the Bruins more than most of the teams. Brimsek and the "Kraut Line" all enlisted after the team won their third Stanley Cup in 1940–1941. The loss of talent throughout the NHL led to freak seasons and a strange record, such as the 1944 record set by Boston's Herb Cain for the then-NHL record for points in a season with 82. That mark was set in a season where the Bruins failed to make the playoffs, while Herb Cain would be out of the league in two seasons.

Following the conclusion of the Second World War, the stars of the league, Boston included, returned to the league. Included in that was Dit Clapper, who played the season he returned, only to retire as the first player in the NHL to play twenty seasons. Clapper returned to Boston as a coach for the next season, before losing in the first round of the playoffs for three straight years, after which Clapper resigned his position. The trouble for the Bruins continued, as the team traded goaltender Brimsek to the Chicago Blackhawks in 1949, before young star Don Gallinger was banned from playing in the NHL for life on suspicion of gambling.

Bruins forward wearing the first version of the "Spoked-B" logo in 1949.

Despite the trouble—both on and off the ice—the Bruins worked to celebrate their twenty-fifth season in 1948–1949 and introduced the "Spoked-B" logo with a small "24" and "49" on the horizontal spokes for the first time. Since that time, minus the numbers, the "Spoked-B" logo has been part of the Bruins jerseys and in various iterations since.

By 1936, Charles Adams had stepped aside as team president and primary owner and transferred control to his son, Weston Adams. The 1950s began with Weston facing financial trouble, which forced him to accept an offer to purchase Boston Bruins by Walter A. Brown, the owner of National Basketball Association's Boston Celtics and the Garden, in 1951. The new ownership did not create a spark in Boston, however. Between 1947 and 1967, the team mustered only four winning regular seasons, while missing the playoffs for eight straight seasons between 1960 and 1967. The only times the Bruins made it to the Stanley Cup Finals—in 1953, 1957, and 1958—the Bruins met their bitter rival Montreal Canadiens, who beat them each time.

The "Model E" Zamboni used by the Boston Bruins.

In 1954, on New Year's Day, Robert Skrak, who was then an assistant to Frank Zamboni, the inventor of the best-known ice resurfacing machine, demonstrated a very early model of the machine at Boston Garden to team management. The Bruins ordered one of the machines, known then as the "Model E" resurfacer, to be used at the Boston Garden and the first NHL team known to acquire one of the soon-to-be-ubiquitous "Zambonis" for their use. That machine, purchased by the Bruins, known as a Model E with factory serial number 21, ended up in the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1988 for preservation.

Boston Bruins forward Willie O'Ree.

Part of the Bruins' woes of this period came from the team's poor farm system. The team lacked an expansive or well-developed farm system when compared to the other five teams, and the Bruins began to seek out players who were otherwise unprotected by the other teams. This led the Bruins to sign Willie O'Ree in 1958, the first player of color in the NHL. In a similar fashion, the team signed Tommy Williams from the 1960 Olympic gold medal-winning American national men's hockey team. At the time of Tommy Williams' signing, he was the second American player in the NHL, with the first being Charlie Burns, who also played for the Bruins.

Beginning in 1964, with Weston Adams repurchasing the Bruins, the team began to rebuild the roster. The first move of this would be one of the most impactful, as Adams signed a defenseman from Parry Sound, Ontario, named Bobby Orr. Orr entered the league in 1966 and became, in the eyes of many, one of if not the greatest player of all time. He won the Calder Memorial Trophy for Rookie of the Year and was named to the second NHL All-Star in his first season.

Phil Esposito playing for the Boston Bruins.

Further, the Bruins acquired talented young forwards Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge, and Fred Stanfield from Chicago in a deal that would be very one-sided. Hodge and Stanfield would become important players for the Bruins' success, but Esposito, who centered a line with Hodge and Wayne Cashman, would become a superstar in the league as he went on to become the league's top goal-scorer and the first NHL player to break the one-hundred-point mark. Esposito's success led him to join an exclusive club of players: those who won the Art Ross Trophy (for the league's leader in points) in four consecutive seasons—with the other players including Jaromir Jagr, Wayne Gretzky, and Gordie Howe.

Adding Esposito and Orr to a team that included other star forwards, including Bucyk, John McKenzie, Derek Sanderson, and Hodge. This lineup became one of the league's top teams through the late 1960s and 1970s, often referred to as the "Big Bad Bruins" both for their regular season records and their physical play.

By 1969–1970, the Bruins found themselves back in the playoffs after a regular season where Orr began to set records and new standards for defensemen, including winning four trophies in a single season with the Norris Trophy, Hart Trophy, Art Ross Trophy, and Conn Smythe Trophy. And Phil Esposito became the first player in NHL history to record a 100-plus point season. While in the playoffs, the team came together at the right time.

Tied with the New York Rangers in the quarterfinals at two games apiece, the Bruins reeled off ten straight victories to defeat the Rangers, the Chicago Blackhawks, and the first three Stanley Cup Final games against St. Louis. The final game of the season was in Boston on May 10, 1970, where the Bruins and Blues found themselves tied at three goals each at the end of regulation play. In overtime, Derek Sanderson fed Bobby Orr the puck, who shot and, as the red light turned on, Orr sailed through the air in one of the more iconic hockey photo finishes, as the team ended a twenty-nine-year Stanley Cup drought.

One of the most famous pictures in hockey, Orr scores the Cup-winning goal.

The 1970–1971 season saw the Bruins build on their previous season, as the team set 35 team and individual scoring records on their way to a 57–14–7 record. Orr became the first player in league history to record consecutive 100-plus point seasons, while Esposito broke league scoring records with 76 goals and 76 assists for 152 points. Esposito's entire line (Esposito, Hodge, and Cashman) combined in the season for 140 goals and 336 points. Again, the team was lauded in post-season awards, as Orr won the Norris and Hart Trophies, Esposito won the Art Ross Trophy, and John Bucyk won his first Lady Byng Trophy (for most sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct while playing at a high standard). The chance for any other trophies would, however, be squashed by the Montreal Canadiens in the playoffs.

The next season saw the Bruins return with the same regular season dominance. But they would bring that dominance to the post-season, where the Bruins went through the playoffs losing only three games. They defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs, winning four games to one loss; swept the St. Louis Blues with four straight wins; and found themselves in the final against the New York Rangers. On May 11, 1972, in New York, the Big Bad Bruins won their second Stanley Cup in three years with a victory over the Rangers, and Orr became the first player to win two Conn Smythe Trophies as he once again scored the Cup-winning goal.

Bruins players celebrating a goal during their 1972 Stanley Cup run.

During the mid-1970s, the Bruins continued their regular season domination, as through 1972–1973 to 1978–1979, the team only finished second in their division twice, as they topped their division every other season. Further, Orr continued to win the Norris Trophy and, in 1974–1975, he became the first player to win a league award for eight seasons. Esposito continued his goal-scoring domination and took home the Art Ross Trophy for four consecutive seasons after tallying four straight 60-plus goal campaigns.

Brad Park, traded from the Rangers to Boston, would be a major piece for the team through the 1970s.

However, the lack of Stanley Cup championships after 1972 led general manager Harry Sinden to make changes in 1975–1976. Not only was a new coach, Don Cherry, brought in, but Sinden also traded Esposito and Carol Vadnais to the New York Rangers for Brad Park, Jean Ratelle, and Joe Zanussi in what still ranks as one of the biggest trades in NHL history. Park became a First Team All-Star in his first season with Boston, and Ratelle (who at the time of the trade was in his fifteenth season as a Ranger) found his career rejuvenated and would lead the Bruins in scoring and win the Lady Byng Trophy at the end of the season.

Sinden engineered another major trade on May 26, 1976, which sent Ken Hodge to the Rangers for Rick Middleton, which led to Harry Sinden being named the league's Executive of the Year as the team once again went to the Stanley Cup Final. During Don Cherry's coaching tenure, the team was known for its aggressive play, with the team stocking up on enforcers and grinders to remain competitive, but the style of play would wear on some of its star players. The 1975–1976 season would also be the last Bobby Orr played with Boston, as knee injuries were already threatening his career. After failing to resign, Orr took a contract with the Chicago Blackhawks, where he would only play 26 games before retiring in 1979 after several knee operations.

Don Cherry behind the Bruins bench was as big a figure as his players.

Despite the loss of Orr, Sinden's trades helped cover the loss, with Brad Park emerging as one of the league's best defensemen in the wake of Orr and Ratelle maintaining a high-scoring pace during his time with Boston. But the team still struggled in the post-season. In 1979, in a semi-final series against the Montreal Canadiens, the Bruins found themselves in game seven, up by a goal, in the late stages of a third period, called for too many men on the ice. In the ensuing Montreal power-play, the Canadiens tied the game and went on to win in overtime. This became Don Cherry's downfall. Never popular with general manager Harry Sinden, Cherry was dismissed by Sinden. This would be the unofficial end of the "Big Bad Bruins" era, though the nickname has been applied at other times, with the end of the Orr and Esposito duo.

Boston Bruins' players go after fans.

The 1979–1980 season would be unforgettable. The Bruins had entered a rebuild, recognizing they did not have the talent to make it back to the Stanley Cup Finals and win the ultimate prize. The season was capped by an event on December 23, 1979, after the Bruins beat the New York Rangers 4–3, John Kaptain (a Ranger fan) stole Bruins' player Stan Jonathan's stick and hit him with it during a post-game scrum. This erupted into a fight, with other fans getting involved and Bruins players charging into the stands. During the fight, famously, Mike Milbury pulled off Kaptain's shoe and hit him with it. Players found themselves with suspensions, including Milbury, who was suspended for six games; the entire team was fined, and Kaptain was sentenced to six months in prison.

Bruins superstar defenseman Ray Bourque.

Otherwise, the 1979–1980 season saw little more happen for the Bruins, except for one significant trade of Ron Grahame to the Los Angeles Kings for a first-round pick, which would be the eighth overall and allowed the Bruins to draft Ray Bourque. Bourque would not only turn into the face of the Bruins franchise but would be one of the greatest defensemen of his generation. The Bruins continued to make the playoffs through the 1980s behind Bourque, Brad Park, and Rick Midleton and had the league's best record in 1983, thanks in large part to ex-Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Pete Peeters, who won a Vezina Trophy for his efforts.

Bruins power-forward Cam Neely.

Another stunning trade by general manager Sinden in 1986 brought in Cam Neely from the Vancouver Canucks. Neely almost immediately emerged as one of the league's top-scoring threats and became only the second Bruin in team history to record consecutive 50-goal seasons in 1989–1990 and 1990–1991. Neely paired his scoring threat with heavy hitting and would eventually be termed a "power forward" to define his type of play, which mixed scoring finesse with physical ferocity. Along with goaltenders Reggie Lemelin in 1987 and the 1988 acquisition of Andy Moog led the Bruins back to the Stanley Cup Finals in both 1987–1988 and 1989–1990 but lost both of those finals to the powerhouse Edmonton Oilers, who were working on winning five championships in a seven-year span.

One bright spot of this period came when the Bruins were able to vanquish their post-season foe Montreal Canadiens in 1988, 1990, 1991, and 1992, their first post-season wins over the Canadiens since 1943. The team would also make the Conference Finals in 1990–1991 and 1991–1992, where the team lost both times to eventual Stanly Cup winner Pittsburgh Penguins. In 1993–1994, Neely continued his torrid scoring pace, scoring 50 goals in his forty-fourth game played, which only trailed Wayne Gretzky's 50 goals in thirty-nine games for the fastest 50 goals in league history.

The Boston Gardens, where the Bruins played for 67 years, was retired in 1995.

The 1994–1995 season saw the Bruins retire the Boston Gardens, which had been their home building since its construction in 1928, with the last game played in the building on September 25, 1995. Starting in the 1995–1996 season, the team played in the newly opened FleetCenter (now named TD Garden), with Neely christening the new building with a hat trick in the season-opening game. Ten days after this, Sinden became the first general manager in NHL history to reach 1,000 career victories as a GM.

However, the rest of the 1990s held little for the Bruins. Injuries forced Cam Neely to retire in September 1996, and the Bruins finished the 1996–1997 season with a losing record and missing the post-season for the first time since 1966–1967, ending a remarkable twenty-nine-year stretch of playoff appearances, which previously set a record for the NHL and North American professional sports for consecutive post-season appearances. Otherwise, the season was notable only for Ray Bourque becoming the team's all-time leading scorer. However, the last-place NHL finish pushed the Bruins into the start of a roster rebuild.

Ray Bourque would finally lift the Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche.

As part of the rebuild, Ray Bourque, the long-time Bruin, played his final game in a Bruins uniform on March 4, 2000, as the team's all-time leader in games played, assists, and points and with eighteen First and Second Team All-Star honors and five Norris Trophies to his credit. He was traded to the Colorado Avalanche, where he would finish his storied career and finally win a Stanley Cup.

The Bruins entered the new millennium with a team building around new stars such as Joe Thornton, Sergei Samsonov, Brian Rolston, Bill Guerin, Mike Knuble, and Glen Murray, led by centerman Jason Allison, who led the Bruins in scoring. The Bruins continued to improve, missing the playoffs in 2000–2001 by a single point, before improving in 2001–2002 by thirteen points, winning their first division title since 1993 and making the playoffs. However, the post-season saw the team meet the dreaded Montreal Canadiens in the first round. Despite the Canadiens being the underdog and the Bruins being heavily favored, the Bruins lost in six games.

Bruins' young star forward Joe Thornton.

With the team seeming to build towards becoming a top team in the NHL, the Bruins entered the 2002–2003 season behind two goaltenders—Steve Shields and John Grahame—who would share the game load equally, ideally. However, the team slumped, leading new general manager Mike O'Connell to fire the head coach. The Bruins managed to finish seventh in the Eastern Conference and lost in the first round to eventual Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils in five games. In the 2003–2004 season, the team began the season with ex-Toronto Maple Leaf goaltender Felix Potvin and would win another division title only to meet the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the playoffs. The Bruins took a 3–1 series lead, only for the Canadiens to rally back and win three straight games to upset the Bruins.

The 2004–2005 season was wiped out by the NHL lockout as the league and player's union negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement. Entering the 2005–2006 season, under the new salary cap, the Bruins had a lot of space. Rather than going for younger free agents, the Bruins preferred older veterans, such as Alexei Zhamnov and Brian Leetch, to round out their roster. Unfortunately, these older veterans were oft-injured, leading the Bruins to trade their captain and franchise player Joe Thornton to the San Jose Sharks for Marco Strum, Brad Stuart, and Wayne Primeau. Thornton would go on to win the Art Ross and Hart Trophies with the San Jose Sharks.

Defenseman Zdeno Chara would be named captain shortly after being acquired.

The Bruins lost ten of the previous eleven games before the trade but won their next game after the trade over the league-leading Ottawa Senators. However, at the Winter Olympic break, the Bruins remained outside of a playoff spot and fired general manager Mike O'Connell while the team missed the playoffs for the first time in five years. The Bruins hired Peter Chiarelli as a new general manager, and Dave Lewis, former Detroit Red Wings coach, was brought in as the new Bruins coach. Similarly, the Bruins signed Zdeno Chara (a coveted defenseman) from the Ottawa Senators and Marc Savard from Atlanta Thrashers to long-term deals. After a last-place finish in the 2006-2007 season, the Bruins traded Brad Stuart and Wayne Primeau to the Calgary Flames for–Andrew Ference and Chuck Kobasew.

After the disappointing season, Lewis was fired as a head coach and former Canadiens and New Jersey Devils coach Claude Julien was named as the new Bruins head coach. In the 2007–2008 season, Julien helped bring the team back to respectability with a 41–29–12 record and a playoff berth capped with a seven-game series against the Montreal Canadiens, which they went on to lose. The team was being rejuvenated by younger players, including Patrice Bergeron, Milan Lucic, David Krejci, Vladimir Sobotka, and Petteri Nokelainen, and they entered the 2008–2009 season with promise and would fulfill that promise with the best record in the Eastern Conference and qualified for the playoffs once more. And despite beating the Montreal Canadiens in the playoffs, but would be defeated in seven games by the Carolina Hurricanes.

Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas.

One of the young forwards the Bruins had drafted during their downturn would leave them in the 2009 summer. Phil Kessel and Bruins management were in disagreement over the young forward's salary moving forward, so they traded him to the Toronto Maple Leafs, as the general manager of the Leafs, Brian Burke, was threatening to offer sheet the forward. In return, the Bruins received a trio of future draft picks. During the 2009–2010 season, there was a battle for the starting goaltender's position. This was between Tim Thomas, who had been picked up previously as a journeyman goaltender with stints on various other teams, versus the rookie Tuukka Rask, with Rask asserting himself as the starter and goaltender of the future for the Bruins.

The Bruins recorded the first-ever known trio of short-handed goals scored within one penalty kill and 1:04 of game time as Daniel Paille, Steve Begin, and Blake Wheeler all scored to beat the Carolina Hurricanes and help the Bruins reach the post-season. They would face the Buffalo Sabres in the first round, which the Bruins won four games to two. In the next round, Boston faced the Philadelphia Flyers where they became the third team in NHL history to lose a playoff series after leading 3–0 when they lost in Game 7.

The next season, the Bruins acquired center Chris Kelly from the Ottawa Centers after Marc Savard's return ended due to a concussion. Similarly, toward the end of the season, the Bruins acquired Tomas Kaberle from the Toronto Maple Leafs. And Mark Stuart and Blake Wheeler were traded to the Atlanta Thrashers for Rich Peverley and Boris Valabik. This was all to gear up for the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

In the first series, the Bruins became the first team in NHL history to win a seven-game series without scoring a power-play goal as they eliminated the Montreal Canadiens and also won their first playoff series after trailing 2–0. The Bruins swept the Philadelphia Flyers in the next round, advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 1992. Boston went to seven games with the Tampa Bay Lightning before advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 1990, where they faced the Vancouver Canucks.

The series would be hotly contested, with the Bruins losing 1–0 (on a goal scored with less than 19 seconds in regulation) and 3–2 in overtime in the first two games. Game 3 did not start well for the Bruins as they lost forward Nathan Horton to injury in the first period. But the Bruins would recover and defeat the Canucks 8–1 after scoring four goals in the second and third periods. Game 4 also saw the Bruins defeat the Canucks 4–0, while Vancouver took Game 5 in a close 1–0 game, while the Bruins avoided a Game 6 elimination with a 5–2 defeat of the Canucks.

Bruins' players jumping on the ice to celebrate Stanley Cup win.

The next game would be the first time the Bruins played a Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Finals. The Bruins would ride two goals from each Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron to shut out the Vancouver Canucks and win 4–0 to win the franchise's sixth Stanley Cup in franchise history and breaking a 39-year Stanley Cup drought. The team also became the first in NHL history to win a Game 7 three times in the same playoff run.

While the Bruins began the 2010s with the Stanley Cup, the rest of the decade looked up. However, right off the Stanley Cup win, the team lost players to retirement and free agency, leading the team to tweak their roster. Despite these tweaks, the team, after a poor October record, responded with a near-perfect November in which the team did not lose in regulation, and the team looked up. However, to begin 2012, the team was inconsistent again and began to deal with key injuries. The team ended the season as second in the Eastern Conference and won their division, but they would lose their first-round playoff series against the Washington Capitals.

Star forward Jaromir Jagr playing for the Boston Bruins.

The 2012–2013 season was shortened by another labor dispute and lockout, which included the team parting ways with goaltender Tim Thomas after Thomas decided to sit out when the season began. The Bruins traded him to the New York Islanders. The team spent the shortened season battling the Montreal Canadiens for position in their division, before a loss to the Ottawa Senators lost the Bruins the division. Ahead of the playoffs, the Bruins acquired star forward Jaromir Jagr from the Dallas Stars.

Bruins players celebrate their unlikely Game 7 comeback win against the Leafs.

The first round of the playoffs, the Boston Bruins faced the Toronto Maple Leafs and were forced to a Game 7, where the Leafs took a 4–1 lead in the third period before the Bruins came back late with three goals before scoring in overtime. From there, the Bruins rolled through the New York Rangers in five games and defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference Finals in a four-game sweep to face the Chicago Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup Finals, where the Bruins lost in six games.

The Bruins continued their upward trajectory in the 2013–2014 season, winning the Presidents' Trophy as the regular season's best team with 117 points and finishing first in the new Atlantic Division. But the team failed to go as deep in the playoffs, falling in their second-round series against the dreaded Montreal Canadiens. The 2014–2015 season disappointed; despite having a record good enough for 96 points, the Bruins missed out on the playoffs after the Pittsburgh Penguins and Ottawa Senators clinched the final two playoff spots in the Eastern Conference. The 96 points also marked a record for the most points earned by a team that did not make the playoffs.

Ottawa Senators player celebrates a goal as Bruins collapse and miss playoffs.

With the struggles of the team following the 2014–2015 season, Peter Chiarelli was fired by the Bruins, and Don Sweeney was named the team's new general manager for the 2015–2016 season. Despite hopes for the season to be back in the playoffs, the team struggled, with a poor home record and frequent road losses in the final two months of the regular season. The high spot of the season was the team achieving the franchise's 3,000 wins since its founding. The Bruins, despite their record, had a chance to clinch the final playoff berth with a win on the second-to-last day of the season but lost to the Ottawa Senators. This marked the first time in the salary cap era that the Bruins failed to qualify for the playoffs in two consecutive seasons. As a result, the Bruins fired Claude Julien and promoted Bruce Cassidy.

Cassidy only made slight changes to the way Boston played, emphasizing the team's speed and skill, which resulted in the team finishing third in their division at the end of the 2016–2017 season and seeing the Bruins qualifying for the playoffs, only to lose to the Ottawa Senators in six games. The next season saw the Bruins continue with a relatively similar lineup to reach second in their division and second in the Eastern Conference before reaching the playoffs. There, the Bruins defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games to play the Tampa Bay Lightning, who defeated the Bruins in five games.

Bruins players celebrate during an outdoor game in the 2018–2019 season.

The 2018–2019 season, the Bruins tied for second in the league in points while playing through injuries, with two-thirds of the team's top line missing significant playing time. Still, the team tied for second in the league in points, leading to another first-round defeat of the Toronto Maple Leafs before defeating the Columbus Blue Jackets in the second round and sweeping the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final. This set up a Stanley Cup Finals series between Boston and the St. Louis Blues. Unlike when the Bruins and Blues met in the 1970 Final, there was no Bobby Orr to score the game-winning goal, and the Blues won the seven-game series to secure their franchise's first Stanley Cup.

The 2019–2020 season was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bruins, at the time the season was paused, were first in the Atlantic Division. On August 1, 2020, when the NHL resumed play, the top twelve teams (rather than the usual eight) by conference competed in a round-robin play-in round to see which teams would advance to the Stanley Cup playoffs. The teams were chosen by winning percentage to be one of the twenty-four teams included, while the top four teams in each conference played in a seeding round-robin. The Boston Bruins won the President's Trophy for their regular season record and rolled through the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round of the playoffs in five games before falling to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the next round.

Through the 2021–2022 season, the Bruins were working to continue their post-season success, hoping to continue to move toward a playoff finals series once again. However, there seemed to be cracks appearing with the Bruins, where, despite certain parts of the team continuing to operate at a high level, changes seemed to be necessary to continue to push forward. The team finished fourth in their division, with 107 points, and made it to the first round of the playoffs, where they faced the Carolina Hurricanes and lost in seven games.

While it was not perfect in how it ended, nor did it break the Bruins' winning percentage record from 1929–1930 (of .875), the 2022–2023 season saw the Bruins become the fastest team in NHL history to 100 points and 50 wins, and they surpassed the record for wins set by the 1995–1996 Detroit Red Wings and matched by the 2018–2019 Tampa Bay Lightning (both at 62) by winning 65 games and beat the previous record for points in a single season held by the 1976–1977 Montreal Canadiens (132 points) with 135 points.

The Bruins did not enter the season with high expectations. Most prognosticators and pundits wrote the team off as being too old and slow, while captain Patrice Bergeron and veteran center David Krejci were both question marks to play for the team. Similarly, there were injury concerns around their roster, and the team fired coach Bruce Cassidy in favor of Jim Montgomery despite Cassidy's relative record of success. It seemed the team was primed for regression, not to make records.

Goaltender Linus Ullmark, whose stellar play helped elevate the Bruins to a near-perfect season.

Throughout the season, the Bruins played a quick, organized, detail-oriented style of hockey where the sum of the parts was greater than the individuals, despite incredible seasons from individual players, such as David Pastrnak, who would go on to score 61 goals and 52 assists good for 113 points, and goaltender Linus Ullmark, who had a season goals against average of 1.89 and a save percentage of .938 while earning 40 wins in 47 starts, good enough to win his first Vezina Trophy.

Unfortunately for the Bruins and their record-setting season, the team set up for a first-round series against the Florida Panthers, which held the distinction of being one of the only teams to beat Boston not only once in the regular season, but twice, over the four games the two teams played against each other. The Bruins took an early lead in the series, winning three of the first four games, but in the final three games of the season, the Florida Panthers would find a way to win, winning Game 5 in overtime before beating the Bruins in a lopsided 7–5 Game 6, only to once again win in overtime in a crucial Game 7.

What many in Boston thought would be a team of destiny—destined to win the Stanley Cup—not to be another team to fall victim to the Presidents' Trophy curse, there were some who pointed to underlying analytics to suggest that the Bruins team was not as good as it record indicated. The team turned the page, as every team does, to focus on moving forward and celebrating the franchise's centennial year. This included a new jersey and logo to be used only for the season, as well as an alternate jersey that harkened back to the club's twenty-fifth-anniversary jersey and logo.

On-ice changes led to some concern that this would be the year the team took a step backward, as team captain and star first-line center Patrice Bergeron announced his retirement, followed by the team's second-line center of many seasons David Krejci announcing his retirement. Further, useful forwards such as Nick Foligno and Taylor Hall, who had been key pieces of the team's forward depth, left over the summer, and left stars such as David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand, Charlie McAvoy, and Linus Ullmark to try and carry the torch forward. Despite all of this, the Bruins started their centennial season strong, behind the play of those stars and the goaltending of Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman, leading to a Bruins 10–1–1 record 12 games into the season and six points clear of the next team in their division.