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Early years (1924–1942)

In 1924, the National Hockey League decided to expand to the United States. The previous year in 1923, Thomas Duggan received options on three NHL franchises for the United States, and sold one to Boston grocery magnate Charles Adams. The team was one of the NHL's first expansion teams, and the first NHL team to be based in the United States. Adams' first act was to hire Art Ross, a former star player and innovator, as general manager. Ross was the face of the franchise for the next thirty years, including four separate stints as coach.

Ross came up with "Bruins" for a team nickname, a name for brown bears used in classic folk tales. The team's nickname also went along with the team's original uniform colors of brown and yellow, which came from Adams' grocery chain, First National Stores.

On December 1, 1924, the Bruins won the first ever NHL game played in the United States, hosting the Montreal Maroons, at Boston Arena, with Smokey Harris scoring the first-ever Bruins goal, spurring the Bruins to a 2–1 win. This would be one of the few high points of the season, as the Bruins only managed a 6–24–0 record and finished in last place in its first season. The Bruins played three more seasons at the Arena, after which they became the main tenant of Boston Garden.

The Bruins improved in their second season to a winning record, but the Bruins missed out on the third and final playoff berth by one point to the expansion Pittsburgh Pirates. In their third season, 1926–27, Ross took advantage of the collapse of the Western Hockey League to purchase several western stars, including the team's first great star, defenseman Eddie Shore. Boston qualified for the then-expanded playoffs by a comfortable margin.

In their first-ever playoff run, the Bruins reached the Stanley Cup Finals where they lost to the Ottawa Senators in the first Stanley Cup Finals to be between exclusively NHL teams. In 1929 the Bruins defeated the New York Rangers to win their first Stanley Cup. Standout players on the first championship team included Shore, Harry Oliver, Dit Clapper, Dutch Gainor and goaltender Tiny Thompson. The 1928–29 season was the first played at Boston Garden. The season after that, 1929–30, the Bruins posted the best-ever regular season winning percentage in the NHL (.875, a record which still stands) and shattered numerous scoring records, but lost to the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Finals.

The 1930s Bruins teams included Shore, Thompson, Clapper, Babe Siebert and Cooney Weiland. The team led the league five times in the decade. In 1939, the team captured its second Stanley Cup. That year, Thompson was traded for rookie goaltender Frank Brimsek. Brimsek had an award-winning season, capturing the Vezina and Calder Trophies, becoming the first rookie named to the NHL first All-Star team, and earning the nickname "Mr. Zero." The team skating in front of Brimsek included Bill Cowley, Shore, Clapper and "Sudden Death" Mel Hill (who scored three overtime goals in one playoff series), together with the "Kraut Line" of center Milt Schmidt, right winger Bobby Bauer and left winger Woody Dumart.

In 1940 Shore was traded to the struggling New York Americans for his final NHL season. In 1941 the Bruins won their third Stanley Cup after losing only eight games and finishing first in the regular season. It was their last Stanley Cup for 29 years. World War II affected the Bruins more than most teams; Brimsek and the "Krauts" all enlisted after the 1940–41 Cup win, and lost the most productive years of their careers at war. Cowley, assisted by veteran player Clapper and Busher Jackson, was the team's remaining star.

Original Six era (1942–1967)

The NHL had by 1942 been reduced, for the next 25 years, to the six teams that would come to be called the "Original Six" after the 1967–68 season, and in 1944, Bruin Herb Cain set the then-NHL record for points in a season with 82. But the Bruins did not make the playoffs that season.

The stars returned for the 1945–46 season, and Clapper led the team back to the Stanley Cup Finals as player-coach. He retired as a player after the next season, becoming the first player to play twenty NHL seasons. Brimsek proved to be not as good as he was before the war, and after 1946 the Bruins lost in the first playoff round three straight years. After Brimsek was traded to the Blackhawks, the only remaining quality young player was forward Johnny Peirson.

During the 1948–49 season, the original form of the "spoked-B" logo, with a small number "24" to the left of the capital B signifying the calendar year in the 20th century in which the Bruins team first played, and a similarly small "49" to the right of the "B", appeared on their home uniforms. The following season, the logo was modified into the basic "spoked-B" form that was to be used thereafter.

The 1950s began with Charles Adams' son Weston facing financial trouble. He was forced to accept a buyout offer from Walter A. Brown, the owner of the Boston Celtics and the Garden, in 1951. Although there were some instances of success (such as making the Stanley Cup Finals in 1953, 1957, and 1958, only to lose to the Montreal Canadiens each time), the Bruins mustered only four winning seasons between 1947 and 1967. They missed the playoffs eight straight years between 1960 and 1967.

On January 18, 1958, the first-ever black NHL player, Willie O'Ree, stepped onto the ice for the Bruins. He played in 45 games for the Bruins over the 1957–58 and 1960–61 seasons. The "Uke Line"—named for the Ukrainian heritage of Johnny Bucyk, Vic Stasiuk, and Bronco Horvath – came to Boston in 1957 and enjoyed four productive offensive seasons, heralding, along with scoring stalwarts Don McKenney and Fleming MacKell, the successful era of the late 1950s. There followed a long and difficult reconstruction period in the early to mid-1960s.

Expansion and the Big Bad Bruins (1967–1979)

Weston Adams repurchased the Bruins in 1964 after Brown's death. Adams signed future superstar defenseman Bobby Orr, who entered the league in 1966. Orr was that season's winner of the Calder Memorial Trophy for Rookie of the Year and named to the second NHL All-Star Team. Despite Orr's stellar rookie season, the Bruins would miss the playoffs.

The next season, Boston made the playoffs for the first of 29 straight seasons, an all-time record. The Bruins then obtained forwards Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield from Chicago in a deal celebrated as one of the most one-sided in hockey history. Hodge and Stanfield became key elements of the Bruins' success, and Esposito, who centered a line with Hodge and Wayne Cashman, became the league's top goal scorer and the first NHL player to break the 100-point mark, setting many goal- and point-scoring records. With other stars like forwards Bucyk, John McKenzie, Derek Sanderson, and Hodge, defenders like Dallas Smith and goaltender Gerry Cheevers, the "Big Bad Bruins" became one of the league's top teams from the late 1960s into the 1980s.

In 1970, a 29-year Stanley Cup drought came to an end in Boston, as the Bruins defeated the St. Louis Blues in four games in the Final. Orr scored the game-winning goal in overtime to clinch the Stanley Cup. The same season was Orr's most awarded—the third of eight consecutive years he won the James Norris Memorial Trophy as the top defenseman in the NHL—and he won the Art Ross Trophy, the Conn Smythe Trophy and the Hart Memorial Trophy, the only player to ever win four major awards in the same season.

While Sinden temporarily retired from hockey before 1970–71 season to enter business (he was replaced by ex-Bruins and Canadiens defenseman Tom Johnson), the Bruins set dozens of offensive scoring records: they had seven of the league's top ten scorers—a feat not achieved before or since—set the record for wins in a season, and in a league that had never seen a 100-point scorer before 1969, the Bruins had four that year. All four (Orr, Esposito, Bucyk and Hodge) were named First Team All-Stars. Boston were favored to repeat as Cup champions but lost to the Canadiens (and rookie goaltender Ken Dryden) in seven games.

While the Bruins were not quite as dominant the next season, Esposito and Orr were once again one-two in the scoring standings and Boston regained the Stanley Cup by defeating the New York Rangers in six games in the Finals.

The 1972–73 season saw upheaval for the Bruins. Former head coach Sinden became the general manager. Bruins players Gerry Cheevers, Derek Sanderson, Johnny McKenzie and Ted Green left to join the World Hockey Association. Coach Tom Johnson was fired 52 games into the season, replaced by Bep Guidolin. The Adams family, which had owned the team since its founding in the 1920s, sold it to Storer Broadcasting. The Bruins' season came to a premature end in a first-round loss to the Rangers in the 1973 playoffs. In 1974, the Bruins regained their first-place standing in the regular season, with three 100-point scorers on the team (Esposito, Orr, and Hodge). However, they lost the 1974 Final in an upset to the Philadelphia Flyers.

Don Cherry stepped behind the bench as the new coach in 1974–75. The Bruins stocked themselves with enforcers and grinders, and remained competitive under Cherry's reign, the so-called "Lunch Pail A.C"., behind players such as Gregg Sheppard, Terry O'Reilly, Stan Jonathan and Peter McNab. This would also turn out to be Orr's final full season in the league, before his knee injuries worsened, as well as the last time Orr and Esposito would finish 1–2 in regular season scoring. The Bruins placed second in the Adams Division, and lost to the Chicago Black Hawks in the first round of the 1975 playoffs, losing a best-of-three series, two games to one.

Continuing with Sinden's rebuilding of the team, the Bruins traded Esposito and Carol Vadnais for Brad Park, Jean Ratelle and Joe Zanussi to the Rangers. The Bruins made the semi-finals again, losing to the Flyers, before losing Orr as a free agent to Chicago in the off-season.

Cheevers returned 1977, and the Bruins got past the Flyers in the semi-finals, but were swept by the Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Finals. The story repeated itself in 1978—with a balanced attack that saw Boston have eleven players with 20+ goal seasons, still the NHL record—as the Bruins made the Final once more, but lost in six games to Montreal. After that series, John Bucyk retired, holding virtually every Bruins' career longevity and scoring mark to that time.

The 1979 semi-final series against the Habs proved to be Cherry's undoing. In the deciding seventh game, the Bruins, up by a goal, were called for having too many men on the ice in the late stages of the third period. Montreal tied the game on the ensuing power play and won in overtime. Cherry was dismissed as head coach thereafter.

Ray Bourque era (1979–2000)

The 1979 season saw a head coach Fred Creighton -- and a trade of goaltender Ron Grahame to the Los Angeles Kings for a first-round pick which was used to select Ray Bourque, one of the greatest defensemen of all-time and the face of the Bruins for over two decades. The Bruins made the playoffs every year through the 1980s behind stars such as Park, Bourque and Rick Middleton—and had the league's best record in 1983 behind a Vezina Trophy–winning season from ex-Flyer goaltender Pete Peeters, with 110 points—but fell short of making the Finals.

Bourque, Cam Neely and Keith Crowder led the Bruins to another Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 1988 against the Edmonton Oilers. The Bruins lost in a four-game sweep. Boston returned to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1990 (with Neely, Bourque, Craig Janney, Bobby Carpenter, and rookie Don Sweeney, and former Oiler goalie Andy Moog and Reggie Lemelin splitting goaltending duties), but again lost to the Oilers, this time in five games.

In the 1987–88 NHL season, the Bruins defeated their Original Six nemesis Montreal Canadiens in the playoffs. In 1991 and 1992, the Bruins suffered two consecutive Conference Final losses to the eventual Cup champion, the Pittsburgh Penguins. Starting from the 1992–93 NHL season onwards, the Bruins had not gotten past the second round of the playoffs until winning the Stanley Cup after the 2011 season.

The 1992–93 season ended disappointingly. Despite finishing with the second-best regular season record after Pittsburgh, Boston was swept in the first round by the Buffalo Sabres. Bourque made the NHL All-Star First Team.

The 1995 season was the Bruins' last at the Boston Garden. The final official match played in the Garden was a 3–0 loss to the New Jersey Devils in the 1995 playoffs; the Bruins went on to play the final game at the old arena on September 28, 1995, in an exhibition matchup against the Canadiens. They subsequently moved into the FleetCenter, now known as the TD Garden. In the 1996 playoffs, the Bruins lost their first-round series to the Florida Panthers in five games.

In 1997, Boston missed the playoffs for the first time in 30 years (and for the first time in the expansion era), having set the North American major professional record for most consecutive seasons in the playoffs. The Bruins lost in the first round of the 1998 playoffs to the Washington Capitals in six games. In 1999, the Bruins defeated the Carolina Hurricanes in six games during the first round of the playoffs. Nevertheless, they would lose to the Sabres in six games in the second round of the playoffs.

The new millennium

In the 1999–2000 season, the Bruins finished in last place in the Northeast Division and failed to qualify for the playoffs. During a game between the Bruins and the Vancouver Canucks on February 21, 2000, Marty McSorley was ejected for using his stick to hit Canucks forward Donald Brashear in the head, and subsequently suspended for what resulted in the rest of his career.

After a mediocre start, the Bruins fired coach Pat Burns in favor of Mike Keenan. Despite a 15-point improvement, the Bruins missed the playoffs in 2000–01, and Keenan was let go. Center Jason Allison led the Bruins in scoring. The following season, 2001–02, the Bruins won their first Northeast Division title since 1993 with a core built around Joe Thornton, Sergei Samsonov, Brian Rolston, Bill Guerin, Mike Knuble and Glen Murray. They lost in six games to the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the playoffs.

The 2002–03 season found the Bruins finishing seventh in the East, but lost to the eventual Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils in five games. In 2003–04, the Bruins won another division title and appeared to get past the first round for the first time in five years with a 3–1 series lead on the rival Canadiens. However, the Canadiens rallied back to win three-straight games, upsetting the Bruins.

The 2004–05 NHL season was wiped out by a lockout, and Bruins management eschewed younger free agents in favor of older veterans. The Bruins fired general manager Mike O'Connell in March and the Bruins missed the playoffs for the first time in five years.

Peter Chiarelli was hired as the new general manager of the team. Head coach Mike Sullivan was fired and Dave Lewis, former coach of the Detroit Red Wings, was hired to replace him. The Bruins signed star defenseman Zdeno Chara, and center Marc Savard. The 2006–07 season ended in the team finishing in last place in the division.

After the disappointing 2007 season, Lewis was fired as coach, replaced by Claude Julien.

The 2008 campaign saw the Bruins finish 41–29–12 and making the playoffs. Although Bruins center Patrice Bergeron was injured with a concussion most of the season, youngsters Milan Lucic, David Krejci and Vladimir Sobotka showed promise in the playoffs.

After a slow start to the 2008–09 season, the Bruins went on to have the best record in the Eastern Conference and qualified for the playoffs for the fifth time in nine years, facing the Canadiens in the playoffs for the fourth time during that span, defeating them in four games before losing in seven games to the Carolina Hurricanes in the conference semi-finals.

On January 1, 2010, the Bruins won the 2010 NHL Winter Classic over the Philadelphia Flyers in a 2–1 overtime decision at Fenway Park, thus becoming the first home team to win an outdoor classic game. They finished in sixth place in the Eastern Conference, and a 2010 NHL playoff opening round appearance against the Buffalo Sabres, which they won 4–2. Boston became only the third team in NHL history to lose a playoff series after leading 3–0 when they lost in Game 7 to the Philadelphia Flyers.

In the 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Bruins eliminated the Montreal Canadiens in seven games. On May 6, the Bruins swept the Philadelphia Flyers in four games to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 1992. Boston then defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in seven games and advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 1990 to face the Vancouver Canucks, defeating them in seven games for the team's first Stanley Cup since 1972. The 2010–11 Bruins were the first team in NHL history to win a Game 7 three times in the same playoff run.

Following their Stanley Cup win, the Bruins lost Mark Recchi to retirement and Michael Ryder and Tomas Kaberle to free agency. The Bruins went on to finish second in the Eastern Conference with 102 points, winning the Northeast Division title, but losing to the Washington Capitals in the first round of the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs in seven games.

During the off-season preceding the lockout, Tim Thomas made his decision to sit out the 2012–13 season; his rights were traded to the New York Islanders. The Bruins battled the Montreal Canadiens for leadership in the Northeast Division all season, before a loss to the Ottawa Senators in a make-up game following the Boston Marathon bombing on April 28 gave the Canadiens the division title.

In the opening round of the 2013 playoffs, the Bruins took on the Toronto Maple Leafs, defeating them in seven games. They went on to beat the New York Rangers in five games and the Pittsburgh Penguins in a four-game sweep to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals and the Chicago Blackhawks, falling in six games, with three going into overtime.

In the 2013–14 season, the Bruins won the Presidents' Trophy after finishing first in the newly formed Atlantic Division with a record of 54–19–9 for 117 points. Their regular season success, however, would not translate into another Eastern Conference Finals appearance. Despite winning their first-round series against the Detroit Red Wings, the team fell to the Canadiens in seven games in the Eastern Conference Semi-finals during the 2014 playoffs.

In the 2014–15 season, the Bruins finished with a record of 41–27–14 for 96 points, missing out on the playoffs by just two points after the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Ottawa Senators clinched the final two playoff spots in the East. The Bruins therefore became only the third team to miss the playoffs after winning the Presidents' Trophy in the previous season. The 96 points they earned that season broke the record for the most points earned by a team that did not make the playoffs.

Don Sweeney era (2015–present)

On April 15, 2015, Peter Chiarelli was fired by the Boston Bruins. On May 20, the Bruins named former player Don Sweeney as the team's new general manager for the 2015–16 season. One recent all-time franchise achievement the Bruins attained in the 2015–16 season is shared by only their greatest rival, the Canadiens – a total of 3,000 wins in the team's existence, achieved by the Bruins on January 8, 2016, in a 4–1 road victory against the New Jersey Devils. The team was seen as a playoff contender throughout the regular season. However, a sub-.500 record on home ice and frequent road losses in the final two months of the regular season resulted in a three-way battle for the final playoff spot in the East. The Bruins had a chance to clinch the final playoff berth with a win over the Ottawa Senators on the second-to-last day of the season, but they lost the game and that combined with a Flyers' win over the Penguins, knocked them out of playoff contention in favor of the Flyers. For the first time since the two seasons following the 2004–05 lockout, the Bruins did not qualify for the playoffs in two consecutive seasons.

During the last two months of the 2016–17 regular season, the Bruins fired head coach Claude Julien and promoted Bruce Cassidy to interim coach. Cassidy's very slight changes in coaching to emphasize the players' speed and hockey skills, as opposed to Julien's, resulted in the Bruins achieving an 18–8–1 record through their remaining regular season games, finishing third in the Atlantic Division and qualifying for the playoffs for the first time since the 2013–14 season. In the first round of the playoffs, the Bruins lost to the Ottawa Senators in six games.

Cassidy returned as head coach for the 2017–18 season, leading the Bruins to the playoffs for the second straight year. They had a record of 50–20–12, including an 18-game point streak, which lasted from December 14, 2017, to January 25, 2018. They finished one point behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for the top spot in the Atlantic Division. They defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round, 4–3, but ultimately lost to the Lightning in round two, 4–1. The season saw young players perform well, including Jake DeBrusk, Danton Heinen, Ryan Donato, and Charlie McAvoy. The Bruins also acquired veterans Rick Nash, Nick Holden, Brian Gionta, and Tommy Wingels through trades or through free-agent signings.

During the 2018–19 season the Bruins finished the regular season in second place in the division with a 49–24–9 overall record. During the trade deadline, the team acquired Charlie Coyle and Marcus Johansson. In the first round of the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs, as in the previous season, they faced the Maple Leafs, defeating them in seven games. In a six-game series, the Bruins defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets in the second round and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2013. The Bruins won the Eastern Conference Finals by sweeping out the Carolina Hurricanes in four games, thus winning the Prince of Wales Trophy and advancing to the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals for the third time in 10 years. They faced the St. Louis Blues in a rematch of the 1970 Stanley Cup Finals. This time, however, the Blues would emerge victorious, winning in seven games.

During the 2019–20 season, the Bruins consistently had the best record in the Atlantic Division and were near the top of the league. During the trade deadline, they acquired Ondrej Kase and Nick Ritchie, both from the Anaheim Ducks, in two separate trades. On March 12, 2020, the NHL season was paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time of the pause, the Bruins were first overall in the league, with 100 points. On May 26, Commissioner Gary Bettman announced that the 2019–20 regular season was completed and that the league would resume with the playoffs. The Bruins were awarded the Presidents' Trophy for the second time in a decade, while David Pastrnak's 48 goals made him the first Bruin to win the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy, which he shared with Alexander Ovechkin. During the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Bruins won the first round against the Carolina Hurricanes in five games, but lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the second round, also in five games. In the 2020–21 season, the Bruins made the 2021 playoffs, where they defeated the Washington Capitals in five games but lost to the New York Islanders in six games. In the next season, the Bruins clinched the 2022 playoffs as the first wild card team but were defeated by the Hurricanes in seven games. Following the season, head coach Cassidy was fired. They then hired Jim Montgomery, previously the head coach of the Dallas Stars, as their next head coach on July 3, 2022.

During the 2022–23 season, the Bruins broke NHL records and led the Atlantic Division for the entire season. First, they set an NHL record for longest home winning streak from the start of a season (14) from October 15 to December 3. Then on March 2, 2023, the Bruins recorded their 100th standings point of the season in their 61st game, becoming the fastest team to 100 points in NHL history, and surpassing the record previously held by the 1976–77 Stanley Cup Champion Montreal Canadiens. Nine days later, they set an all-time NHL record as the fastest team to achieve 50 wins, hitting the mark in 64 games compared to a previous record of 66 games held jointly by the 1995–96 Detroit Red Wings and the 2018–19 Tampa Bay Lightning. In that same game, the Bruins became the third-fastest team in history to clinch a playoff spot during the era of 82-game seasons, trailing only the 1995–96 Detroit Red Wings (59 games) and the 1998–99 Dallas Stars (63 games). On April 9, 2023, the Bruins set the new all-time record for most games won in a season (63), when they defeated the Philadelphia Flyers. Two days later, the Bruins set the new all-time single-season points record (133), when they defeated the Washington Capitals, and they finished the season with 65 wins and 135 points. The Bruins lost to the Florida Panthers in seven games in the opening round of the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs after giving up a 3–1 series lead.