Boston Bruins Top 5 Goalies Of All Time
By Justin Doyle
Tiny Thompson
Hall Of Famer Cecil “Tiny” Thompson was a member of the Boston Bruins for 11 seasons. He played in 468 games, with a record of 252-153. Thompson began his career with the Bruins in the 1928-29 season.
In his first game he had a shutout, becoming the only Hockey Hall Of Fame goalie to do so. He played in all 44 games his first season. He had 12 shutouts and a 1.15 goal-against average, which is the second lowest in League history. First is George Hainsworth with .98 GAA, which he set that same season.
Also that same year Tiny helped the Bruins obtain the teams first Stanley Cup, defeating the Montreal Canadiens and the New York Rangers. Out of five playoff games he played he had 3 shutouts, and only allowed 3 goals.
Thompson won the first of his four Vezina Trophy’s in the 1929-30 season.
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Tiny Thompson finished his career with the Bruins with a goals-against average of only 1.99. He also had 74 shutouts during his time with the Bruins. He will be always know as another one of the greatest goaltenders to ever play the game in the NHL.
Editors Notes: These honorable mentions are from the Site Expert Tanner Rebelo and do not reflect the writers opinions. These goal tenders where omitted from the top five at the writers discretion and are listed below in no particular order. For those of you in the Tuukka Rask camp, a couple of more seasons and he will break into the list.
Honorable Mentions:
Tim Thomas, a goaltender that put the 2011 Boston Bruins team on his back and played at the highest level a goalie might ever play in the NHL. He played for the Bruins over eight NHL seasons with a record of 196-121-45 in 260 starts. Overall his save percentage and goals against average ranks top 5 in team history with a 2.48 GAA and a .921 SV%.
You may never see another goaltender have a run that Thomas had in the 2010-2011 season where he had a .938 SV% and a god like 2.00 GAA on route to a Stanley Cup winning season along with winning his second Vezina Trophy.
Brimsek played for the Boston Bruins for 9 seasons from 1939-1949 playing in 444 games for the Black and Gold. He had a career 2.58 save percentage with the Bruins with a record of 230-144-70, his 230 Bruins wins ranks only 2nd in franchise history behind Tiny Thompson.
His rookie season in 1938-39 was something out of a fairy-tale with the Bruins goaltender recording a 33-9-1 record in 43 games played with an insane 1.56 GAA and 10 shutouts. That means he went out and 23% of the time he recorded a shut for an entire season, just unimaginable in today’s day and age.