1925–26 Boston Bruins season

1925–26 Boston Bruins
1925–26 record	17–15–4 (38 points)
Goals for	92
Goals against	85
Team information
General Manager	Art Ross
Coach	Art Ross
Captain	none
Arena	Boston Arena
Team leaders
Goals	Carson Cooper (28)
Assists	Jimmy Herbert, Sprague Cleghorn (5)
Points	Carson Cooper, Jimmy Herbert (31)
Penalties in minutes	Jimmy Herbert (50)
Wins	Doc Stewart (16)
Goals against average	Charles Stewart (2.21)
<1924–25 1926–27>

The 1925–26 Boston Bruins season was the team's second in the NHL. The Bruins finished fourth in the league standings, failing to make the playoffs.

Regular season

Opening the season with a 2–1 loss to the expansion Pittsburgh Pirates, it looked initially as if the Bruins would turn in as poor a season as the year before, as they won only two of their first ten games, and after two consecutive wins, turned in an 0–5–3 record for most of January.^[1]

From a 5–0 shutout victory over the Maroons on January 30, however, the Bruins won 13 of their last 17 games, a 2–1 overtime loss to the Pirates on March 12 being the difference to lose out on a playoff berth to Pittsburgh by a single point.^[2] The winning percentage improvement of .328 from the previous season was a NHL record at the time, and remains the third best single season improvement ever.^[3]

A healthy Carson Cooper contributed to a near doubling of goals scored to lead the league, while the purchase of veteran star defenseman Sprague Cleghorn from the Montreal Maroons solidified the defense – despite a knee injury in the opener against Pittsburgh that sidelined Cleghorn for a month – and saw goals allowed decline by over a third.^[4] Cooper and Jimmy "Sailor" Herbert finished second and third respectively in the league scoring race, behind Nels Stewart of the Maroons.^[5]

Among other debuts was that of goaltender Moe Roberts, at age 19 the second youngest player in the league and its first Jewish player.^[6] Roberts would wind up with one of the longest professional careers on record, playing his final game for the Chicago Black Hawks in 1951, the oldest player ever to play in the NHL, prior to Gordie Howe. He was the youngest player ever to play goal for twenty years, until surpassed by future Bruin Harry Lumley.

Final standings

National Hockey League

Teams	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PIM	Pts
Ottawa Senators	36	24	8	4	77	42	341	52
Montreal Maroons	36	20	11	5	91	73	554	45
Pittsburgh Pirates	36	19	16	1	82	70	264	39
Boston Bruins	36	17	15	4	92	85	279	38
New York Americans	36	12	20	4	68	89	361	28
Toronto St. Patricks	36	12	21	3	92	114	325	27
Montreal Canadiens	36	11	24	1	79	108	458	23

^[7] Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes
Note: Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold.

Schedule and results

Regular season schedule

No.	R	Date	Score	Opponent	Record
1	L	November 26, 1925	1–2	Pittsburgh Pirates (1925–26)	0–1–0
2	W	November 28, 1925	3–2	@ Toronto St. Patricks (1925–26)	1–1–0
3	L	December 1, 1925	2–3	Montreal Canadiens (1925–26)	1–2–0
4	L	December 3, 1925	0–2	@ Ottawa Senators (1925–26)	1–3–0
5	L	December 5, 1925	0–4	@ Montreal Maroons (1925–26)	1–4–0
6	W	December 8, 1925	3–2	Montreal Maroons (1925–26)	2–4–0
7	L	December 11, 1925	3–5	@ Pittsburgh Pirates (1925–26)	2–5–0
8	L	December 15, 1925	1–2	Ottawa Senators (1925–26)	2–6–0
9	L	December 19, 1925	5–6 OT	@ Montreal Canadiens (1925–26)	2–7–0
10	L	December 22, 1925	2–3	New York Americans (1925–26)	2–8–0
11	W	December 29, 1925	3–0	Toronto St. Patricks (1925–26)	3–8–0
12	W	January 5, 1926	3–0	Pittsburgh Pirates (1925–26)	4–8–0
13	T	January 7, 1926	2–2 OT	@ New York Americans (1925–26)	4–8–1
14	L	January 9, 1926	2–3	@ Toronto St. Patricks (1925–26)	4–9–1
15	L	January 12, 1926	2–4	Montreal Canadiens (1925–26)	4–10–1
16	L	January 15, 1926	1–5	@ Pittsburgh Pirates (1925–26)	4–11–1
17	T	January 19, 1926	3–3 OT	Montreal Maroons (1925–26)	4–11–2
18	T	January 23, 1926	2–2 OT	@ New York Americans (1925–26)	4–11–3
19	L	January 26, 1926	2–8	Ottawa Senators (1925–26)	4–12–3
20	W	January 30, 1926	5–0	@ Montreal Maroons (1925–26)	5–12–3
21	W	February 2, 1926	3–2	Toronto St. Patricks (1925–26)	6–12–3
22	W	February 4, 1926	3–2	@ Ottawa Senators (1925–26)	7–12–3
23	T	February 6, 1926	3–3 OT	@ Montreal Canadiens (1925–26)	7–12–4
24	W	February 9, 1926	4–0	New York Americans (1925–26)	8–12–4
25	W	February 13, 1926	7–4	@ Toronto St. Patricks (1925–26)	9–12–4
26	W	February 16, 1926	3–2 OT	Pittsburgh Pirates (1925–26)	10–12–4
27	W	February 18, 1926	7–3	@ New York Americans (1925–26)	11–12–4
28	W	February 20, 1926	3–1	@ Montreal Canadiens (1925–26)	12–12–4
29	W	February 22, 1926	2–1 OT	Toronto St. Patricks (1925–26)	13–12–4
30	L	February 27, 1926	2–3	@ Ottawa Senators (1925–26)	13–13–4
31	W	March 2, 1926	4–1	Montreal Canadiens (1925–26)	14–13–4
32	W	March 4, 1926	3–2	@ Montreal Maroons (1925–26)	15–13–4
33	W	March 6, 1926	1–0	Ottawa Senators (1925–26)	16–13–4
34	L	March 9, 1926	0–1	New York Americans (1925–26)	16–14–4
35	L	March 12, 1926	1–2 OT	@ Pittsburgh Pirates (1925–26)	16–15–4
36	W	March 16, 1926	1–0	Montreal Maroons (1925–26)	17–15–4

Playoffs

The Bruins did not qualify for the playoffs.

Player statistics

Leading scorers

Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes

		Regular season						Playoffs
Player		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
Carson Cooper		36	28	3	31	10		–	–	–	–	–
Jimmy Herbert		36	26	5	31	47		–	–	–	–	–
Lionel Hitchman		36	7	4	11	70		–	–	–	–	–
Sprague Cleghorn		25	6	5	11	49		–	–	–	–	–
Hago Harrington		26	7	2	9	6		–	–	–	–	–
Red Stuart		33	6	1	7	41		–	–	–	–	–
George Geran		33	5	1	6	6		–	–	–	–	–
Stan Jackson		28	3	3	6	30		–	–	–	–	–
Herb Mitchell		26	3	0	3	14		–	–	–	–	–
Normand Shay		13	2	0	2	2		–	–	–	–	–

Goaltenders

Note: GP = Games played; Min = Minutes; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GA = Goals against; SO = Shutouts; GAA = Goals against average

		Regular season									Playoffs
Player		GP	Min	W	L	T	GA	SO	GAA		GP	Min	W	L	GA	SO	GAA
Doc Stewart		35	2173	16	14	4	80	6	2.21		–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Moe Roberts		2	85	1	1	0	5	0	3.53		–	–	–	–	–	–	–

Transactions

• Purchased Sprague Cleghorn from the Montreal Maroons for $5,000.^[8]

Roster

• #1 Sprague Cleghorn
• #3 Lionel Hitchman
• #4 Jimmy Herbert
• #7 Carson Cooper
• #11 Doc Stewart
• #12 Red Stuart
• #14 Charlie Cahill
• #14 Hago Harrington
• Fred Bergdinon
• John Brackenborough
• George Geran
• Stan Jackson
• Charles Larose
• Joe Matte
• Herb Mitchell
• George Redding
• Moe Roberts
• Werner Schnarr
• Normand Shay
• Paul Stevens

See also

• 1925–26 NHL season

References

• Coleman, Charles L. (1964), Trail of the Stanley Cup, Vol I., Sherbrooke: National Hockey League, OCLC 7485243

• Klein, Jeff Z.; Reif, Karl-Eric (1997), The Klein & Reif Hockey Compendium, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, ISBN 978-0-7710-4529-5

• Vautour, Kevin (1997), The Bruins Book, Toronto: ECW Press, ISBN 978-1-55022-334-7

Notes

1. Vautour 1997, p. 40.
2. Vautour 1997, p. 41.
3. Klein & Reif 1997, p. 63.
4. Coleman 1964, p. 489.
5. Coleman 1964, p. 494.
6. Vautour 1997, p. 39.
7. Standings: NHL Public Relations Department (2008). Dave McCarthy; et al., eds. THE NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE Official Guide & Record Book/2009. National Hockey League. p. 146. ISBN 978-1-894801-14-0.
8. Coleman 1964, p. 488.