The Spoked B

Posted in Bruins History, 50 Greatest Bruins names June 2nd, 2007

The 50 greatest Bruins names of all time: #21-30

Am I getting down to your favorites? Goooood. I know you guys have a few that you can think of off the tops of your heads. Hopefully I haven’t hit them already. If I have, you may be surprised what’s still out there.

And the list continues. For #41-50 click here, for #31-40 go here and for some last minute additions click here.

#30 - Bill Shill - If there was anyone whose name seemed to have them predestined towards stardom…or at least hawking low-end products with his name on it…it was him. But, alas, playing only 79 NHL games rarely provides you that opportunity. Maybe in the ’90s pal…but not in the ’40s.

#29 - Gord Kluzak - Loved the name then, love it now. It sounds like either a hard-nosed Ukranian player or a Neptunian overlord from a 1950s sci-fi movie. His history of knee injuries are legendary but here’s an interesting piece of trivia: the first NHL player to cause a devastating knee injury to Kluzak? How about this guy when he skated for the Devils?

#28 - Jim “Peggy” O’Neill - Sometimes you just don’t want to know.

#27 - Werner Schnarr - A German who predated the Kraut Line by about 10 years. Hooooooogaannnnnn!!!!

#26 - Aubrey “Dit” Clapper - I’ll be honest with you. He had me at “Aubrey”. Dit was just icing on the cake.

#25 - Rogie Vachon - The guy who most reminded me of Denis “I lose my blouse!” Lemieux. Plus, his “smiley face” mask was always a favorite.

#24 - Cecil “Tiny” Thompson - Usually, people dubbed “Tiny” aren’t small (Thompson was 5′10″, 180 lbs…not bad for the ’20s), or at least don’t play that way. In 12 years, he collected four Vezina trophies and backstopped the B’s to their first Stanley Cup victory in 1929. DON’T call me “Tiny”!

#23 - Clayton Beddoes - This is probably more of a personal favorite of mine because of a faux pas. Knowing a couple of Claytons myself, I thought Beddoes was black before I saw him play. Obviously I was wrong. Hey, for the longest time I thought Johnny Mathis was white too…what the hell do I know?

#22 - Dmitri Kvartalnov - K-Vart was to Russian imports what K-Mart is to designer clothes. Well, at least he produced more than #47 Grigori Panteleev.

#21 - John Quilty - C’mon. Quilty?? Is there a Steve Macrame out there too? And before someone else makes the joke in the comment field, I’ll beat you all to it: Maybe he was part of a “patchwork” defense? <rimshot>

Stay tuned for #11-20!

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 2nd, 2007 at 11:04 am and is filed under Bruins History, 50 Greatest Bruins names. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.