Orr’s flying goal, O’Ree’s debut among top 10 moments in Bruins history

BOSTON -- It’s been 100 years of championships and heartbreak, of breaking barriers and scoring goals, of winning the Stanley Cup and being called for too many men on the ice. Over the past century, the Boston Bruins have amassed moment after memorable moment, enough to fill multiple top-10 lists.

They have drafted franchise-altering stars. They have won the Cup six times -- and come up just short 14 more. They have scored incredible goals and made incredible saves. They have played indoors and outdoors, in a historic arena and a historic baseball stadium. They have help change the face of the NHL and sent legends to the Hall of Fame.

On Sunday, the Bruins will play in their Centennial Game against their longtime rival Montreal Canadiens at TD Garden (3 p.m. ET; NESN, SN, RDS), marking the 100th anniversary of the first-ever game for the franchise, played Dec. 1, 1924, against the Montreal Maroons.

It’s a celebration of what has happened in their past and what will happen in their future.

Here are the 10 greatest moments in Bruins history:

1. Bobby Orr goes flying

It’s a moment that will forever be etched in bronze: Bobby Orr, soaring through the air, mouth open in triumph, stick raised in celebration.

The goal is one of the most iconic in NHL history, the moment on March 10, 1970, when Orr scored the overtime goal against the St. Louis Blues and clinched the Stanley Cup for the Bruins.

Boston had not won the Cup in 29 years, since 1941, but the greatest defenseman in franchise history -- he was in the third season of a run of eight consecutive Norris Trophy wins as best defenseman in the NHL -- would change all that. Though he had not scored in the first four games of the series, Orr went to the net where he would receive a pass from Derek Sanderson and put the puck past goalie Glenn Hall.

That would have been enough to be one of the greatest moments in franchise history. But Blues defenseman Noel Picard’s stick got stuck in Orr’s skate and he went into the air, leaving the ice as he flew across the goal mouth.

The photograph of the moment would be captured and immortalized, eventually turned into a statue that would grace the Bruins’ home for all-time.

2. Cup returns to Boston, after 39 years

The 2011 Stanley Cup Final had everything: two goalies at the peak of their abilities, physical play, controversial hits, comebacks, pumping of tires, and even biting.

The rivalry between the Vancouver Canucks and Bruins went from nonexistent to bitter in a series that saw the home team take each of the first six games, including Boston coming back from a 2-0 deficit, before a winner-take-all Game 7. That was when the Bruins prevailed, a 4-0 win that included a 37-save shutout by Tim Thomas.

Boston went from the clear underdog in the series against Vancouver, which won the Presidents’ Trophy, to the team taking home the Cup in the end, making legends of players like Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara, Thomas and Brad Marchand and David Krejci. It was the last hurrah for Mark Recchi.

Before Game 7, injured forward Nathan Horton leaned over the bench and sprinkled some Boston water onto the ice at Rogers Arena to bring some of the city with them, some of the home-team advantage that defined the first six games of the series.

It worked. Or the Bruins were not going to be denied. Either way, the Cup would be theirs.

3. Kraut line carried off to war

Sometimes, the world is bigger than a rivalry.

Despite the deep enmity between Boston and Montreal, one of the most moving moments in Bruins history came at the end of the 1942 season, after the Canadiens suffered an 8-1 loss at Boston Garden.

With World War II roiling the globe, the three members of the Bruins’ famous “Kraut line” -- Milt Schmidt, Woody Dumart and Bobby Bauer -- were headed off to fight. The three made up the NHL’s best at the time, having finished as the top scorers in the 1940 season and winning the Cup in 1941. But in 1942, they would join the Royal Canadian Air Force. All three would return to the NHL in 1945-46, having missed three seasons of hockey to serve.

That day, Feb. 10, 1942, after four-point games from Bauer and Dumart and three from Schmidt, the two teams were on the same side. And the Canadiens honored the Kraut line the best way they knew how.

4. The Bruins are ‘Boston Strong’

It’s hard to describe what it was like in the city of Boston after two homemade pressure cooker bombs were detonated near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, killing three people (eventually five) and injuring hundreds. It was such an intimate, personal attack on something that made Boston, Boston.

The city came to a standstill, with Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev at large and the fear and uncertainty casting a shadow over the city.

Two days later, before the brothers had been identified and found, the Bruins were the first Boston team to play, in a game on April 17 against the Buffalo Sabres. With the city still raw and reeling, in an arena filled with metal detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs and blue-and-yellow remembrance ribbons, a video tribute played on the screen.

Anthem singer Rene Rancourt then stepped onto the ice, the public address announcer urging the capacity crowd to sing with him, loudly. He made it as far as “proudly” before the fans took over, many with tears in their eyes, some holding flags and others signs with “Boston Strong,” the song rising in feeling and emotion as it went.

It was a moment no one who saw it, in the building or watching on TV, will ever forget.

5. Willie O’Ree makes his debut

When Willie O'Ree took the ice at the Montreal Forum on Jan. 18, 1958, he was thrilled. This was his NHL debut, a huge day for any hockey player.

It wasn’t until the following day, when O’Ree took a look at the newspaper, that he realized exactly how momentous that game had been. He had broken the color barrier in the NHL.

O’Ree had been called up for two games, one in Montreal, one in Boston, before being returned to the Quebec Aces. He would return to the NHL three seasons later, playing 43 games in 1960-61, with 14 points (four goals, 10 assists).

That would be it for O’Ree, a half-season in the NHL in a career that spanned 23 years on teams all over North America, all of it achieved without the sight in his right eye. And though it would be 16 years before another Black player joined the NHL, with Mike Marson debuting Oct. 9, 1974, O’Ree’s debut -- and his work bringing new faces to the NHL as its longtime diversity ambassador -- made an indelible impact on the game.

6. It was 4-1…

At 5:29 of the third period in Game 7 between the Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2013 Eastern Conference First Round, the Maple Leafs were up by three goals. They had come back from a 3-1 series deficit to force a Game 7, and it looked as though they would be moving on.

Boston had other plans.

Horton scored at 9:19. Milan Lucic scored at 18:38, with goalie Tuukka Rask on the bench. Then, with 50.2 seconds remaining, Bergeron tallied the game-tying goal to send the game into overtime.

He wasn’t done. At 6:05 of the extra session, it was the future Hall of Famer again, with the goal that had radio announcer Dave Goucher yelling, “Bergeron! Bergeron!” had TD Garden in hysterics, and Toronto goalie James Reimer splayed out in the crease.

The Bruins would go on to the 2013 Stanley Cup Final, though they would lose in six games to the Chicago Blackhawks.

7. Cam hits 50

No. 50 came against the Washington Capitals, on March 7, 1994, a tip from just beyond the crease.

Cam Neely lofted his arms in the air in celebration. It was his 50th goal in 44 games, a testament to the tremendous talent Neely brought, talent often sidelined by injuries.

But in 1994, it all came together.

It took until the Bruins’ 66th game of the season for Neely to tally his 50th goal, but it was only the 44th he’d played, putting him among elite company. Only 12 other players have scored 50 goals in a span of 50 games or fewer: Auston Matthews, Mario Lemieux, Alexander Mogilny, Teemu Selanne, Brett Hull, Bernie Nicholls, Jari Kurri, Wayne Gretzky, Mike Bossy, Charlie Simmer, Phil Esposito and Maurice Richard.

Neely, now Bruins president, would play five more games that season. He would not score again and would not play in the Stanley Cup Playoffs because of injuries.

But a run that was both magical and workmanlike got Neely among the game’s great -- and left everyone wondering: Had injuries not derailed his career, what more could Neely have accomplished? What heights could he have reached?

8. Cheevers shuts down the Rangers

It had been just two seasons since the Bruins won the Stanley Cup in 1970 when Gerry Cheevers started in goal for Game 6 of the 1972 Final against the New York Rangers.

He wouldn’t allow the Rangers anything.

With a power-play goal from Orr at 11:18 of the first period -- and two more added in the third -- Cheevers had all he needed to earn his only shutout of the series and the second Cup championship of his career.

It was the culmination of a season in which Cheevers would be literally unbeatable for a span of 136 days. Starting on Nov. 14, 1971, Cheevers would go 24-0 with eight ties and set a new NHL record by going undefeated for 32 consecutive games, beating the 23 of Frank Brimsek from 1940-41, a record Cheevers still holds.

His record has yet to be equaled, but his biggest moment -- and the biggest for the Bruins – came May 11, 1972, a 3-0 shutout of the Rangers that captured the Cup.

9. Winter Classic comes to Fenway

The Winter Classic was still young back in 2010, just the third time the NHL had taken over an outdoor venue and turned it into a hockey wonderland.

That day, Jan. 1, 2010, would be memorable not just for the ice rink built in one of the most famous and beloved baseball stadiums in the country, but also for the drama that played out on the ice, in a 2-1 overtime win for the home team against the Philadelphia Flyers, after Recchi tied it for Boston with only 2:18 remaining in regulation.

At 1:57 of the extra session, Marco Sturm tipped in a pass from Bergeron, sending the crowd of 38,112 home happy.

It was a game that was memorable for all the right reasons, for the spectacle, the novelty, the theater on the ice, for the way the home team’s fans were rewarded. It was so loved that, in 2023, the NHL returned to Fenway Park for another edition, making the stadium the first to host another Winter Classic.

10. The sweater off his back

It would have been a big day anyway.

The Bruins were retiring Phil Esposito’s No. 7 on Dec. 3, 1987, raising it to the rafters, to join the other franchise legends who had already been honored. It was a number that had been worn multiple times since Esposito was traded in 1975, but it was then held by Ray Bourque, who had been handed the number when he made the team for opening night in 1979.

Before the ceremony, Bourque donned a second jersey under his usual No. 7, a plan that had been hatched the day before and remained secret. Then, when on the ice, he skated over to Esposito to present him with a Bruins jersey with his name on it. And as he did, he took off his old No. 7 to reveal the No. 77 hiding beneath.

The two hugged. Esposito was rendered speechless.

Fourteen years later, No. 77 would join No. 7 in the rafters.