Wackiest/Weirdest Bruin ever

[BigGoalBrad]

Im watching basketball and listening to Bill Walton call the game/go off on his tangents and it got me thinking about which current and former Bruins are crazy loons like him?


Lyndon Byers sticks out due to being on the radio and I think Iafrate was supposed to be a little bit out there. Eddie SHore has to be up there I would think. Not sure about recently though they all seem pretty normal IMO. Interested to hear who other posters think would be this.

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[Bruinswillwin77]

Thomas?

 

[GarbageGoal]

Eddie Shack. Most people agree he is the weirdest guy to ever play pro hockey.

Gilles Gilbert I guess was weird too.

 

[kytem2]

1) Marchand
2) Thomas

And thanks to these 2 guys, the Bruins finally won a Stanley Cup in my life time.

 

[DKH]

For those old enough, its Derek and no one else is even close.

my favorite Derek moment and I swear this is true

It's around 1970 and Derek gets a penalty. They send him to the box and back then there was no glass infront of the penalty box, its like the playes bench.

He sits down but leans forward and just rests his forearm on the top with middle finger extended for all to see (clearly it had to be at the ref)

what made it great was my parents went to every game and my grandmother lived with us and she had the color TV. So on Sunday night's I'd go to her room and watch Flipper and then the Bruins game in color (yes we had a black and white back then)....so when Derek is giving the bird and for some reason TV 38 just keeps the camera on it I say something like 'wow, or look at Derek' and my grandmother realizes it tells me to look away or something like that (it was a Zenith with a clicker and I'm sure I had it)

also, Johnny McKenzie in Detroit one time got a penalty at the old Joe Lewis and because their was so many Bruins in the box sat in back of penalty box in a customer seat on the aisle next to a fan. He grabs the beer the guy next to has and takes a swig.

I tell people this and they don't believe but I have seen it somewhere in the past 10 years or so but that was the NHL back then folks- players sitting out penalties next to fans- not just any players but those wild and crazy Bruins of that era.

 

[Fenway]

Eddie Shack. Most people agree he is the weirdest guy to ever play pro hockey.

Gilles Gilbert I guess was weird too.

 

[DKH]

I just want to say something about he NHL as it used to be like.

It was crazy fun, maybe dangerous, but had that bar scene in Total Recall feel to it.

The uniforms, the brawls, the personalities, the rivalries, the stars- it was something else,

The players today may be bigger and faster and more skilled but they were still good enough back then and it was something to behold going to a game.

All hard core hockey fans today would think they found the Holy Grail to see some of those Calgary-Edmonton games in the 1980's, or a Quebec-Montreal blood bath with all those Hunters, and Stastnys. and Flying Frenchmen....and the Bruins and Flyers....seriously you folks would not believe the stuff that went on in those games.

The tickets were cheap, the beer was cheap, you could buy food outside the Garden and bring it in and eat at your seat. The Garden was so disgusting but it had charm.

I had to take a shower after every game and wash my clothes just to get the disgusting smell of tobacco out of me.

The 2011 playoff run was the best time ever- better than anything back then even the Orr Cups but it was hockey like you wouldn't have imagined

 

[2011 Stanley cup]

Derek sanderson

 

[Gator Mike]

Tim Thomas was weird?

 

[DKH]

This would apply to Toronto or maybe Buffalo but not Boston.

He was a Bruins nemesis- think a more talented Dale Weiss being acquired by the Bruins.

Shack was traded for long time Bruins Murray Oliver who was an assistant captain, two time all star, and a former top 10 league scorer.

Shack showed up at the same season with the Espo guys, Derek and a few others from the nucleus of those great Cup teams. He was liked but he still was Eddie Shack the antagonist and not the Entertainer.

Oliver was on the highly successful BOW line with Bucyk and Tommy Williams and although he had his friends he wasn't really here long enough to make his mark as the wild and crazy guy we know of.

 

[GloryDaze4877]

Bobby Schmautz

 

[NeelyDan]

Al Iafrate would rank

 

[Shaun]

Al Iafrate would rank

his quote about empty net goals would give patrick burke a heart attack

 

[VanIsle]

I don't know about wackiest player but wackiest moment is when Milbury beat a fan with a shoe.

 

[Walkenthewalk]

John Wensink looked like a bona fide maniac.. and acted like it too sometimes!!

 

[Artemis]

John Wensink looked like a bona fide maniac.. and acted like it too sometimes!!

Just on the ice though. Off the ice he was a quiet guy.

Eddie Shore was insane. He gets my vote.

 

[Fenway]

Eddie Shore was insane. He gets my vote.

Actually he was my first impulse just hearing the stories.

This story tells it all.

The saga began on the night of Jan. 2, 1929 when Shore’s friend drove him to Boston’s North Station where the train to Canada was taking on coal. When his pal’s car broke down en route, Shore tried to fix the engine, but was unsuccessful. After a few minutes, he glanced at his watch and realized that time was running out.
He’d be fined if he missed the train so he hustled off to the terminal, but it was too late. As the locomotive lurched out of the station, Bruins GM Art Ross suddenly and disturbingly realized Shore was missing. “I ran down the platform trying to jump on the last car of the train and just missed,†Shore said. “I knew I’d be in a jam if I blew that game.â€

Aware his Bruins (6-7-2) were shorthanded because of injuries and not wanting to pay a missed-train fine, Shore was determined to reach Montreal in time for the Maroons game. But a Nor’easter storm already had cancelled all flights and the next express train wouldn’t reach Canada until after game time the next evening.
Just when all seemed lost, Eddie found a cab driver willing to take $100 – big money in those days – to drive him the 350 miles to Canada. They took off just before midnight for an unimaginably dangerous expedition. The good news was Shore almost immediately found an all-night service station where chains were fitted for the tires. The bad news was they were absent such contemporary driving aids such as a defroster, paved superhighways, road patrols and sanders. By any odds, the pair, who at first alternated behind the wheel, seemed doomed for failure as the sleet storm turned into a blinding blizzard. “The poor cabby urged me to turn back to Boston,†Shore recalled.

But Eddie, the indomitable one, would have none of that, though it had become increasingly difficult to see anything through the snow-covered windshield. Fortunately the front window was an old-fashioned, split-glass design and that turned out to be a mixed blessing. “The snow froze my wiper,†Shore remembered, “and I had no visibility so I removed the top half of the windshield.â€
Exposed to the icy blasts and snow, Eddie managed to steer the vehicle into the New Hampshire mountains. But just before dawn the tire chains broke. As luck would have it, he miraculously detected the lights of a construction camp where a worker put on a new set of chains.

By late morning and thoroughly exhausted, Shore pleaded with his driver to relieve him so he could take a nap. The chauffeur agreed, but soon the second pair of chains broke. The chauffeur lost control of the car, crashing it into a deep ditch somewhere along the Quebec countryside. Nobody was hurt so Eddie did the next best thing. He hiked down the road to a farmhouse for help.

According to Shore biographer C. Michael Hiam (Eddie Shore And That Old-Time Hockey), the farmer hitched up his sleigh and took the embattled pair to a railroad station where they caught a train to Montreal and then taxied to the Bruins headquarters at the Windsor Hotel.

Livid over the absence of his ace defender, Ross, who was holding forth with friends in the lobby, did a triple-take when Shore staggered in and nearly fainted at his feet. “Eddie’s eyes were bloodshot,†he said, “his face frostbitten and windburned, his fingers bent and set like claws after gripping the steering wheel so long. And he couldn’t walk straight.â€

Ross told him to forget about the game, but Shore would have none of that namby-pamby nonsense. He played 56 out of the 60 minutes only because twice he was sent to the sin bin for two-minute penalties. A good 22 hours after Shore had chased his team’s Montreal-bound train down the station platform, Boston had won the game, 1-0.

Just to wrap up his Hollywood script, Shore scored the game’s only goal. As a gesture of good will, not to mention good management, Ross decided to rescind the $200 fine.

Until Interstates 89 and 91 were built Vermont has the worst roads in the US.

 

[Kovi]

For those old enough, its Derek and no one else is even close.

my favorite Derek moment and I swear this is true

It's around 1970 and Derek gets a penalty. They send him to the box and back then there was no glass infront of the penalty box, its like the playes bench.

He sits down but leans forward and just rests his forearm on the top with middle finger extended for all to see (clearly it had to be at the ref)

what made it great was my parents went to every game and my grandmother lived with us and she had the color TV. So on Sunday night's I'd go to her room and watch Flipper and then the Bruins game in color (yes we had a black and white back then)....so when Derek is giving the bird and for some reason TV 38 just keeps the camera on it I say something like 'wow, or look at Derek' and my grandmother realizes it tells me to look away or something like that (it was a Zenith with a clicker and I'm sure I had it)

also, Johnny McKenzie in Detroit one time got a penalty at the old Joe Lewis and because their was so many Bruins in the box sat in back of penalty box in a customer seat on the aisle next to a fan. He grabs the beer the guy next to has and takes a swig.

I tell people this and they don't believe but I have seen it somewhere in the past 10 years or so but that was the NHL back then folks- players sitting out penalties next to fans- not just any players but those wild and crazy Bruins of that era.

this ^^

 

[whatsbruin]

For those old enough, its Derek and no one else is even close.

my favorite Derek moment and I swear this is true

It's around 1970 and Derek gets a penalty. They send him to the box and back then there was no glass infront of the penalty box, its like the playes bench.

He sits down but leans forward and just rests his forearm on the top with middle finger extended for all to see (clearly it had to be at the ref)

what made it great was my parents went to every game and my grandmother lived with us and she had the color TV. So on Sunday night's I'd go to her room and watch Flipper and then the Bruins game in color (yes we had a black and white back then)....so when Derek is giving the bird and for some reason TV 38 just keeps the camera on it I say something like 'wow, or look at Derek' and my grandmother realizes it tells me to look away or something like that (it was a Zenith with a clicker and I'm sure I had it)

also, Johnny McKenzie in Detroit one time got a penalty at the old Joe Lewis and because their was so many Bruins in the box sat in back of penalty box in a customer seat on the aisle next to a fan. He grabs the beer the guy next to has and takes a swig.

I tell people this and they don't believe but I have seen it somewhere in the past 10 years or so but that was the NHL back then folks- players sitting out penalties next to fans- not just any players but those wild and crazy Bruins of that era.

I call bs on this story. I'm guessing how old you are, but I doubt you had a color tv with a clicker when Derek was playing.
Most had black and white, that when you shut it off reduced to a small white dot in the middle, then disappeared. You must come from money.

 

[DKH]

Al Iafrate would rank

For limited time this guy right there

His playoff performance against the Habs was legendary including the greatest single most physical defensive shift I ever saw live

Fenway? You able to find that video

 

[BMC]

Tim Thomas was weird?

He was a goaltender and goaltenders by definition are weird

 

[BNHL]

I call bs on this story. I'm guessing how old you are, but I doubt you had a color tv with a clicker when Derek was playing.
Most had black and white, that when you shut it off reduced to a small white dot in the middle, then disappeared. You must come from money.

We had one,72-73. My older brother won it by bowling a perfect game in Dedham.

 

[Number8]

Im watching basketball and listening to Bill Walton call the game/go off on his tangents and it got me thinking about which current and former Bruins are crazy loons like him?


Lyndon Byers sticks out due to being on the radio and I think Iafrate was supposed to be a little bit out there. Eddie SHore has to be up there I would think. Not sure about recently though they all seem pretty normal IMO. Interested to hear who other posters think would be this.

Unfortunately he was pretty banged up by the time he got here. Could skate like the wind and had an absolute rocket of a shot.

And yes, Planet Al was a little bit out there. Actually..... he was waaaay out there.

Also, despite the fact he was decidedly balding on top, he chose to rock the best mullet in the League!

 

[whatsbruin]

We had one,72-73. My older brother won it by bowling a perfect game in Dedham.

I was just busting his chops.
You both were a head of my family.
One TV in the house, with no clicker until about 76.
Not sure when we got a color TV, early 70's ish ?

 

[mikelvl]

Al Iafrate by far. Pretty sure I remember reading that he was all busted up in a bar one night and shattered the front window of it.

https://secure.pqarchiver.com/bosto...tartpage=&desc=Iafrate+pays+for+broken+window

Bruins defenseman Al Iafrate, who according to eyewitnesses got too much of a kick out of window shopping over the weekend, returned to the scene of his crime early yesterday afternoon and paid $300 to Peter Gordon, owner of Walker's Riding Apparel on Boylston Street, for bashing in one of the shop's windows.

Gordon, piecing together a story he said was corroborated by eyewitnesses who identified Iafrate, said the 29-year-old defenseman kicked in the window around 2 a.m. Sunday.

The injury-plagued Iafrate, under contract for $900,000 this season, has not played since the '94 playoffs. The Bruins have refused to pay him this season, contending that his latest injury is not hockey-related, and the sides are headed to an arbitration hearing next Wednesday.