page_title: Boston Bruins
section_title: Ray Bourque era (1979–2000)
hierarchical_section_title: Boston Bruins / History / Ray Bourque era (1979–2000)
caption_attribution_description: English: Boston Bruins' defenseman Ray Bourque, at the Bruins' 1981 home opener.
context_page_description: The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. They compete in the National Hockey League as a member of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. The team has been in existence since 1924, making them the third-oldest active team in the NHL, and the oldest to be based in the United States. They are one of the Original Six teams, along with the Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, and Toronto Maple Leafs. The Bruins have won six Stanley Cup championships, tied for fourth most of any team with the Blackhawks, and tied for second most for an NHL team based in the United States, also with the Blackhawks.
  The first facility to host the Bruins was the Boston Arena, the world's oldest indoor ice hockey facility still in use for the sport at any level of competition. Following the Bruins' departure from the Boston Arena, the team played its home games at the Boston Garden for 67 seasons, beginning in 1928 and concluding in 1995, when they moved to the TD Garden.
context_section_description: The 1979 season saw new Head Coach Fred Creighton—himself replaced by the newly retired Cheevers the following year. The Bruins trade of Ron Grahame to the Los Angeles Kings for a first round pick, that turned out to be eighth overall, enabled the Bruins to draft 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 always fell short of making the Finals.
  Bourque, Cam Neely and Keith Crowder led the Bruins to another Cup Final appearance in 1988 against the Edmonton Oilers. The Bruins lost in a four-game sweep, but a memorable moment in the would-be fourth game ensued, when in the second period with the game tied 3–3, a blown fuse put the lights out at the Boston Garden. The rest of the game was cancelled and the series shifted to Edmonton. The Oilers completed the sweep, 6–3, back at Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton in what was originally scheduled as Game 5. The event is considered to be the reason the Bruins began work on a new arena. Boston returned to the Stanley Cup Final 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 – when the Bruins finally broke the Canadiens' 57-year-long (1930–87) playoff win streak against them – through the 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1994 seasons, the Bruins began to amass a playoff series winning streak of their own, in defeating their Original Six nemesis Montreal Canadiens in the playoffs, getting some revenge for a rivalry which had been lopsided in the Canadiens' favour in playoff action, with Montreal having won 18 consecutive playoff series against the Bruins between 1946 and 1987. In 1991 and 1992, the Bruins suffered two consecutive Conference Final losses to the eventual Cup champion, the Mario Lemieux-led 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 for several reasons. Despite finishing with the second-best regular season record after Pittsburgh, Boston was swept in the first-round by the Buffalo Sabres. During the post-season awards ceremony, Bruin players finished as runner-up on many of the honors—Bourque for the Norris, Oates for the Art Ross and Lady Byng Trophy, Joe Juneau (who had broken the NHL record for assists in a season by a left-winger, a mark he still holds) for the Calder Trophy, Dave Poulin for the Frank J. Selke Trophy, Moog for the William M. Jennings Trophy and coach Brian Sutter for the Jack Adams Award. Poulin did win the King Clancy Memorial Trophy, while Bourque made the NHL All-Star First Team and Juneau the NHL All-Rookie Team.
  The 1995 season would be 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
caption: Ray Bourque, shown in 1981 and before switching to his familiar No. 77, led the Bruins to two Stanley Cup Finals appearances in 1988 and 1990.
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