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January 17, 2008, 4:20 pm

The Boston Bruins: Six Decades of Bad Goaltending

All the discussions we’ve been having about Tim Thomas led us to look back on Boston netminders of years past, and boy, what an undistinguished bunch they are. Not once in all the 42 seasons for which we have NHL save percentage stats has a Bruin led the league in that most important goalkeeping category. That may finally change, as Thomas currently leads the NHL in save percentage, the first Bruin to do so in the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, or 2000s.

Below we’ve listed the league leader in save percentage from 1954-55 through to this season, and how the top Bruins goalie did for those campaigns.

The NHL only started keeping the stat in 1982-83; for years prior to that, we thank Edward Yuen of Regina, who painstakingly went through newspaper summaries to reconstruct each season. There are gaps in the ’60s and ’70s in what he was able to reassemble, but what he did compile for all the other seasons he double-, triple- and quadruple-checked in several other papers.

What the stats reveal is that Boston goalers finished second in the league only twice, and never got closer to the leader than five one-hundredths of a point. For most of the other 40 or so seasons, they were way, way down — an appalling legacy of Bruin management’s chronic ineptitude in handling goaltenders and, certainly since the ’80s, Bruin ownership’s chronic lack of concern for providing the team’s fans with a Stanley Cup winner.

Here’s the list, with season, the number of teams in the NHL for that campaign, the league’s top goalie in save percentage, and the best Bruins regular that year:

1954-55 (6)1st: Harry Lumley, Tor, .9296th: Jim Henry, Bos, .899
1955-56 (6)1st: Jacques Plante, Mtl, .9295th: Terry Sawchuk, Bos, .913
1956-57 (6)1st: Glenn Hall, Det, .9276th: Terrt Sawchuk, Bos, .921
1957-58 (6)1st: Gump Worsley, NY, .9293rd: Don Simmons, Bos, .916
1958-59 (6)1st: Jacques Plante, Mtl, .9255th: Don Simmons, Bos, .900
1959-60 (6)1st: Johnny Bower, Tor, .9195th: Don Simmons, Bos, .901
1960-61 (6)1st: Johnny Bower, Tor, .9238th: Bruce Gamble, Bos, .891
1961-62 (6)1st: Jacques Plante, Mtl, .9237th: Bruce Gamble, Bos, .879
1962-63 (6)1st: Glenn Hall, Chi, .9157th: Eddie Johnston, Bos, .892
1963-64 (6)1st: Johnny Bower, Tor, .9335th: Eddie Johnston, Bos, .914
1964-65 (6)1st: Johnny Bower, Tor, .9248th: Eddie Johnston, Bos, .898
1965-66 (6)1st: Johnny Bower, Tor, .9306th: Bernie Parent, Bos, .898
1966-67 (6)1st: Denis DeJordy, Chi, .9228th: Eddie Johnston, Bos, .881
—-—-—-
1970-71 (14)1st: Jacques Plante, Tor, .9425th: Gerry Cheevers, Bos, .918
—-—-—-
1974-75 (18)1st: Rogie Vachon, LA, .92610th: Gilles Gilbert, Bos, .895
1975-76 (18)1st: Ken Dryden, Mtl, .92815th: Gilles Gilbert, Bos, .887
—-—-—-
1982-83 (21)1st: Rollie Melanson, NYI, .9093rd: Pete Peeters, Bos, .904
1983-84 (21)1st: Rollie Melanson, NYI, .90211th: Doug Keans, Bos, .883
1984-85 (21)1st: Pelle Lindbergh, Phi, .89924th: Pete Peeters, Bos, .868
1985-86 (21)1st: Bob Froese, Phi, .90916th: Pete Peeters, Bos-Wsh, .875
1986-87 (21)1st: Ron Hextall, Phi, .9024th: Bill Ranford, Bos, .891
1987-88 (21)1st: Patrick Roy, Mtl, .90011th: Rejean Lemelin, Bos, .889
1988-89 (21)1st: Patrick Roy, Mtl, .90812th: Rejean Lemelin, Bos, .887
1989-90 (21)1st: Patrick Roy, Mtl, .9127th: Andy Moog, Bos, .893
1990-91 (21)1st: Ed Belfour, Chi, .9107th: Andy Moog, Bos, .896
1991-92 (22)1st: Patrick Roy, Mtl, .91412th: Andy Moog, Bos, .887
1992-93 (24)1st: Curtis Joseph, StL, .91129th: Andy Moog, Bos, .876
1993-94 (26)1st: Dominik Hasek, Buf, .93031st: Jon Casey, Bos, .881
1994-95 (26)1st: Dominik Hasek, Buf, .93018th: Blaine Lacher, Bos, .902
1995-96 (26)1st: Dominik Hasek, Buf, .92033rd: Bill Ranford, Edm-Bos, .885
1996-97 (26)1st: Dominik Hasek, Buf, .93036th: Bill Ranford, Bos-Wsh, .887
1997-98 (26)1st: Dominik Hasek, Buf, .9329th: Byron Dafoe, Bos, .914
1998-99 (27)1st: Dominik Hasek, Buf, .9372nd: Byron Dafoe, Bos, .926
1999-00 (28)1st: Ed Belfour, Dal, .91934th: Byron Dafoe, Bos, .889
2000-01 (30)1st: Mike Dunham, Nsh, .92320th: Byron Dafoe, Bos, .906
2001-02 (30)1st: Jose Theodore, Mtl, .93115th: Byron Dafoe, Bos, .907
2002-03 (30)1st: Marty Turco, Dal, .93219th: Jeff Hackett, Bos, .911
2003-04 (30)1st: Mikka Kiprusoff, Cgy, .9335th: Andrew Raycroft, Bos, .926
2004-05 (30)lockout—-
2005-06 (30)1st: Cristobal Huet, Mtl, .9297th: Tim Thomas, Bos, .917
2006-07 (30)1st: Nicklas Backstrom, Min, .92926th: Tim Thomas, Bos, .905
2007-08 (30)1st: Tim Thomas, Bos, .930—-

.
As you can see, the only second-place Bruins were Terry Sawchuk in 1955-56 and Byron Dafoe in 1998-99. The only third-place B’s were Don Simmons in 1957-58 and Pete Peeters in 1982-83 (a performance that won Peeters the Vezina). But even with Peeters, Simmons, Dafoe, and just about any other Bruins goalie who had a good season (Andy Moog, say), bad seasons followed, which in turn was followed by oblivion.

It’s true that this list misses the Bruins’ Stanley Cup years of 1970 and ‘72, and it’s quite possible that those years would have shown Gerry Cheevers high up among the leaders. So grain of salt. But beyond that grain is a whole salt desert of barren Boston goalkeeping — another reason why Tim Thomas’s performance this year is so special.


2 Comments

  1. 1. January 18, 2008 4:14 pm Link

    This selection of bad managerial decisions brought to you by Harry Sinden, a member of the Hall of Fame apparently for having been smart enough to tell Bobby Orr to go get ‘em, kid.

    — Randal
  2. 2. January 21, 2008 1:07 pm Link

    I think Klein is looking at the wrong numbers. True, we haven’t had a save percentage leader in a long time. But none of the goalies he lists between 1987-1995 won the Stanley Cup in the year they led the league. That’s what hockey really boils down to.

    A little of my own research (numbers are taken from hockeydb.com…)

    1987-1988: Grant Fuhr – .881
    1988-1989: Mike Vernon/Rick Wamsley – .897/.881 (respectively)
    1989-1990: Bill Ranford – .887
    1990-1991: Tom Barrasso – .896
    1991-1992: Tom Barrasso – .885
    1992-1993: Patrick Roy – .894
    1993-1994: Mike Richter – .910
    1994-1995: Martin Brodeur – .902

    Those are the Stanley Cup Winning goalies, if memory serves me right, from 1987-1995. I didn’t have enough time to research all the years, but…

    As you’ll see, the Bruins’ goaltenders are fairly close, if not better, than the goaltenders who won the Stanley Cup during those years. With the exception of Moog/Roy in 1992.

    Furthermore, the Buffalo Sabres’ Dominik Hasek led the league in save percentage from 1993-1999, but the Sabres only made it to the cup finals once during his tenure. Sure, he may have been deemed “distinguished,” but his Vezina Trophies didn’t win a cup for Buffalo.

    If Tim Thomas continues to lead the league in save percentage, that’s great. But to say the B’s have been plagued with “bad goaltending” for the past six decades is, in my opinion, a bit of a stretch.

    — Alex C.

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