All-Time Bruins D vs Other Teams

[EverettMike]

Okay, another no NHL hockey for 2 weeks in the middle of ****ing February thread.....

So I have two questions for everybody, what does your top-6 Bruins D-core look like, and what teams do you think historically come closest to competing with them?

I'd rank Bruins defensemen like this:

1. Orr
2. Shore
3. Bourque
4. Chara
5. Park
6. Hitchman

I would actually play Chara with Orr and Bourque with Shore though.

Now I don't think any team historically can compete with that group, but which ones have the best case? Who are the less obvious ones outside of Montreal and Toronto?

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[BubbaBoot]

Okay, another no NHL hockey for 2 weeks in the middle of ****ing February thread.....

So I have two questions for everybody, what does your top-6 Bruins D-core look like, and what teams do you think historically come closest to competing with them?

I'd rank Bruins defensemen like this:

1. Orr
2. Shore
3. Bourque
4. Chara
5. Park
6. Hitchman

I would actually play Chara with Orr and Bourque with Shore though.

Now I don't think any team historically can compete with that group, but which ones have the best case? Who are the less obvious ones outside of Montreal and Toronto?

While Lionel Hitchman was terribly underrated, Dit Clapper, Bill Quakenbush and Leo Boivin are all Hall of Famers.

Either way, this is a monster starting 6.

 

[BubbaBoot]

Fernie Flaman is another Bruins defenseman in the Hall of Fame.

 

[Randomtask68]

Detroit off the top of my head

1) Nick Lidstrom
2) Red Kelly
3) Chris Chelios
4) Vladimir Konstantinov
5) Paul Coffey
6) Larry Murphy

Not all of these guys spent their primes with Detroit but if they did they would be a formidable D unit. Boston's all time D is better but Detroit's isn't bad. Lidstrom, Kelly and Coffey all won the Norris Trophy with Detroit.

Edit: Fetisov should be in there somewhere.

 

[DominicT]

Denis Potvin
Kenny Jonsson
Adrian Aucoin
Stefan Persson
Ken Morrow
Can we count Chara here too

 

[Lobster57]

Detroit off the top of my head

1) Nick Lidstrom
2) Red Kelly
3) Chris Chelios
4) Vladimir Konstantinov
5) Paul Coffey
6) Larry Murphy

Not all of these guys spent their primes with Detroit but if they did they would be a formidable D unit. Boston's all time D is better but Detroit's isn't bad. Lidstrom, Kelly and Coffey all won the Norris Trophy with Detroit.

Edit: Fetisov should be in there somewhere.

Coffey won one in Detroit?

 

[Fire Sweeney]

Pierre Pilote
Chris Chelios
Duncan Keith
Doug Wilson
Bill White
Pat Stapleton

 

[amazingcrwns]

Pierre Pilote
Chris Chelios
Duncan Keith
Doug Wilson
Bill White
Pat Stapleton

You forgot Bobby Orr.

 

[Rumpy]

Pierre Pilote
Chris Chelios
Duncan Keith
Doug Wilson
Bill White
Pat Stapleton

Keith Magnusson too

 

[Stone Clode]

Philly?

Pronger
McCrimmon
Howe
Dupont
Desjardins
Watson

I mean its certainly not Detroit, but its not bad.

 

[BubbaBoot]

Montreal

Larry Robinson - Doug Harvey
Serge Savard - Chris Chelios
Sylvio Mantha - Butch Bouchard
Guy Lapointe



Tom Johnson - Jacques Lapierre
Ken Reardon - Rod Langway
JC Tremblay - Jean-Guy Talbot
Terry Harper

Dollard St. Laurent - Eric Desjardins
Craig Ludwig - Mathieu Schneider
Petr Svoboda - Ted Harris
Glen Harmon

Jimmy Roberts

 

[Trap Jesus]

Our's blows every other team out of the water, no matter what Habs fans say. You can't compete with 3 of the top 4 d-men of all-time, not to mention the other guys we could throw in.

I'd have Clapper in there over Hitchman though.

 

[BubbaBoot]

Toronto

Tim Horton - Borje Salming
King Clancy - Red Horner
Allen Stanley - Carl Brewer
Harry Cameron

Bobby Baun



HoF Shortimers

Fernie Flaman
Marcel Pronovost
Babe Pratt
Karry Murphy
Leo Boivin

 

[BubbaBoot]

NYR

Harry Howell - Brad Park
Brian Leetch - Ching Johnson
Bill Gadsby - Babe Pratt
Allan Stanley

Art Coulter - Earl Siebert
Rod Seiling - Jim Nielson
Ott Heller - Dave Maloney
James Patrick

 

[BubbaBoot]

Buffalo has only 1 defenseman in the HoF: Tim Horton, who played but 2 seasons there.

Phil Housley - Mike Ramsey
Alexei Zhitnik - Jim Schoenfeld
Bill Hajt - Doug Bodger
Jerry Korab

 

[Replicator]

You forgot Bobby Orr.

Orr wasn't the same guy with the Blackhawks as he was with the Bruins. I'm not really sure he should be on their list. He certainly didn't play enough games.

 

[Replicator]

Okay, another no NHL hockey for 2 weeks in the middle of ****ing February thread.....

So I have two questions for everybody, what does your top-6 Bruins D-core look like, and what teams do you think historically come closest to competing with them?

I'd rank Bruins defensemen like this:

1. Orr
2. Shore
3. Bourque
4. Chara
5. Park
6. Hitchman

I would actually play Chara with Orr and Bourque with Shore though.

Now I don't think any team historically can compete with that group, but which ones have the best case? Who are the less obvious ones outside of Montreal and Toronto?

I'd put Shore & Park together and run them out first, just so I could spook Tortorella into starting a line brawl

I'm curious how you came up with your pairings. I have no idea what Shore & Hitchman looked like on the ice, never having seen them play.

 

[Pie O My]

You forgot Bobby Orr.

this made me throw up in my mouth a little bit.

 

[Gordon Lightfoot]

Denis Potvin
Kenny Jonsson
Adrian Aucoin
Stefan Persson
Ken Morrow
Can we count Chara here too

I might put Tomas Jonsson in there somewhere, not sure.

 

[EverettMike]

I'd put Shore & Park together and run them out first, just so I could spook Tortorella into starting a line brawl

I'm curious how you came up with your pairings. I have no idea what Shore & Hitchman looked like on the ice, never having seen them play.

It was mostly about taking the guy that I think would allow Orr to do his thing the most, and that is Chara.

From everything I have ever read about Shore, he was an all-around defenseman before they really existed. I mean, the guy won 4 Harts and yet people seem to forget to include him when they talk about the greatest defensemen ever. I have him as the second greatest ever, after Orr.

Him and Bourque might actually be a better pairing than Orr and Chara. They would be able to both do everything on the ice.

Hitchman I just kind of made an educated selection out of the guys that could be the 6th guy. In an alternate dimension, Hall of Famer Gord Kluzak is the easy 6th choice, and in 20 years hopefully Dougie Hamilton is.

 

[amazingcrwns]

Orr wasn't the same guy with the Blackhawks as he was with the Bruins. I'm not really sure he should be on their list. He certainly didn't play enough games.

I won't argue, and I should have included a sarcasm emoticon in my original post. Hope I didn't come across as a jerk.

 

[Pie O My]

I won't argue, and I should have included a sarcasm emoticon in my original post. Hope I didn't come across as a jerk.

the best sarcasm emoticon i can think of for this dreadful moment in hockey history would be the 77-78 topps hockey card of Bobby in full Blackhawk regalia.

 

[BostonBob]

Pierre Pilote
Chris Chelios
Duncan Keith
Doug Wilson
Bill White
Pat Stapleton

You forgot Bobby Orr.

HOW DARE YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I won't argue, and I should have included a sarcasm emoticon in my original post. Hope I didn't come across as a jerk.

the best sarcasm emoticon i can think of for this dreadful moment in hockey history would be the 77-78 topps hockey card of Bobby in full Blackhawk regalia.

Funny that Orr in a Chicago jersey is sitting beside Espo in his Bruins jersey. Nice paint job OPC.

 

[Si Hopkins]

This question of all time Bruins D brings up a couple more for me:

1.) Who are the most offensively gifted Bruins/forwards of all time? Esposito, Schmidt, Bucyk, Neely, Oates. There are more, but really, the most offensively gifted Bruin of all-time is probably their all-time greatest defenseman, right? And Bourque is right up there as well.

2.) If we think of the Bruins as having not just a current identity, the Julien identity, but also an historical identity, it would have to be as a defense first team. From 1966 to 1999 they had perhaps two of the five best defensemen in the history of the game (and three in the top 10 with Park) and then, after a five or six year break, another one who certainly would be in the top 20, right? The best Bruins teams are built from defense out. No wonder Seguin's in Dallas and Kessel's in Toronto. That explains it!

 

[whatsbruin]

This question of all time Bruins D brings up a couple more for me:

1.) Who are the most offensively gifted Bruins/forwards of all time? Esposito, Schmidt, Bucyk, Neely, Oates. There are more, but really, the most offensively gifted Bruin of all-time is probably their all-time greatest defenseman, right? And Bourque is right up there as well.

2.) If we think of the Bruins as having not just a current identity, the Julien identity, but also an historical identity, it would have to be as a defense first team. From 1966 to 1999 they had perhaps two of the five best defensemen in the history of the game (and three in the top 10 with Park) and then, after a five or six year break, another one who certainly would be in the top 20, right? The best Bruins teams are built from defense out. No wonder Seguin's in Dallas and Kessel's in Toronto. That explains it!

I'd say the most offensively gifted Bruin that I can remember would be
Rick Middleton. He may have not scored as many as some of the players you
mentioned, but boy was he good.