The Boston Bruins are a storied franchise with so many great players that have come and gone over their 90 year existence.
Throughout those years the Bruins have created a brand of hockey that will forever be remembered in Black and Gold. Bruins hockey. Tough, big, bad and sometimes ugly.
In this Two Pad Stack miniseries we will be looking at Bruins players who were at the forefront of establishing the ‘Big Bad Bruins’ style of hockey and those who we thin are the club’s toughest players. Believe me, categorising those guys into a Top 10 is hard. Really hard. There will be a whole group of players who will miss out that could have easily made it in – we could easily have done a top 30.
So without further ado, at No.6 of our toughest Bruins is…
JOHN WENSINK
The Boston Bruins fuzzy haired enforcer, John Wensink comes in at no.6. His ‘stylish’ afro was well known around the league, along with his ability to knock people out. His hair and his style of play went hand in hand, as Wensink was said to be a little crazy on the ice.
Before coming to Boston, Wensink played a few years in the AHL where he had already started to make a name for himself. The main reason for the enhanced reputation before even playing in the NHL was after Wensink supposedly tried to bite a guys ear off in the American Hockey League. But don’t let that be your reason to hate on him, sources from overtime have shed light on how much class John Wensink had and still has off the ice.
Once promoted to the Bruins in 1976 by his former AHL coach down at Rochester and Bruins legend, Don Cherry. Wensink, partnering up with Terry O’Reilly and Stan Jonathan, took up the main role of enforcing for this Boston Bruins organisation. In doing so, Wensink had 26 fights in just four full seasons as a Bruin. That might not seem like a whole lot when compared to others on this list, but when you had guys as tough as O’Reilly and Jonathan alongside you, you could imagine you’d have to take turns.
Most Memorable Season
Despite never winning a Stanley Cup, Wensink’s Bruins did make the playoffs in each of his four seasons. However, it was during the regular season when he was most valuable to his team.
Like previous Bruins before him (and after) Wensink was an enforcer/tough guy who was able to help on the scoreboard as well. During the 1978-79 season, the Bruins no.18 had a season high 46 points, tallying 28 goals and 18 assists, along with 106 penalty minutes.
Toughest Season
Its fair to say John Wensink had some big moments as a member of the Boston Bruins, but perhaps his toughest season was in 1977-78. That year saw the Bruins tough guy hit a career high in penalty minutes with 181, along with 17 fights expanding over regular season and post season play.
During this season, Wensink was at the forefront of one of the Bruins most famous or infamous moments. After a brawl broke out on the ice between Boston and the Minnesota North Stars the referees were finally able to bring things to a halt. After Wensink had beat his opponent to the ice he skated over to the North Stars’ bench and pretty much invited the whole team to take a shot at him. Challenging a whole bench isn’t always a smart thing, but for various reasons nobody wanted anything to do with the Bruins winger. Probably the safest option.
Biggest Rival
The Philadelphia Flyers, like the Bruins, had styled their team into a tough, physical unit. So as you could imagine, when these two teams met there would be fireworks more often then not.
There was a bunch of fights during Wensink’s time with Boston against the Flyers. And you can bet that he was involved from time to time. Wensink vs Dave Hoyda met a couple of times in their careers, and without disappointment they put on a show. Hoyda was one of only 3 players that Wensink fought more than once.
At no.6 on this list primarily for his animalistic, crazy style of play that led John Wensink to be one of the leagues most feared characters at the time. It’s hard not to have someone who made such a name for himself in Black and Gold in such a short period of time this high on the list. Sometimes it’s simply the quality of the altercations, rather than number.
Be sure to keep it here for no.5 of the Boston Bruins Top 10 Toughest Players.
