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.7 of our toughest Bruins is…
JAY MILLER
Massachusetts native Jay Miller is next on our countdown. A guy who could easily have landed in the top five on this list has to settle for a little less, but either way here he is packing a punch at No.7.
Drafted out of the University of Massachusetts by the Quebec Nordiques in 1980, Miller found himself being picked up by the Boston Bruins in five years later, where he’d play the role of enforcer in front of his home state crowd.
And boy did he enforce. In his first season as a member of the Bruins Miller racked up 178 penalty minutes in just 48 games during the 1985-86 season and despite only playing five seasons in Boston, the 6ft 2″ winger tallied 860 regular season PIMs during his time in Black and Gold. Most of the his time in the box came from the 87 fights he had as a Bruin, not to mention the 45 times he dropped the gloves in the 1987-88 season.
Miller also racked up the minutes during the post-season, being part of a playoff stint that saw him hit 124 penalty minutes over 12 games.
All of that from just five seasons in Boston. Miller totalled another 74 fights when he was traded to L.A. Now there’s some stats.
Most Memorable Season
Arguably one of Miller’s most memorable seasons has to be his first with Boston with his veyr first game standing out in particular. Miller went after one of the league’s toughest guys in Philadelphia Flyers’ Dave Brown, losing definitively, but not without proving something. Miller proved he had no fear of going after the best fighters the NHL had to offer, all to show he had what it takes to stand toe to toe with any of them.
Toughest Season
When a guy drops the gloves as often as Miller did, it can be hard picking a season that portrays his toughness. But a stand out season in terms of toughness, was the year Miller had 304 penalty minutes in a single season. That year was 1987-88, the same year he had 45 fights.
Miller had opponents from a variety of teams but to the surprise of no one the Flyers, Nordiques and Montreal Canadiens were the teams Miller frequently fought with. In fact seven of Millers first ten fights in that year involved those teams.
Biggest Rival
Few rivalries sparked as much hatred as this one. Perhaps it was the team rivalry or just that they simply disliked each other, but Miller and John Kordic were responsible for some of the best scraps we’ve ever seen. Both slugged it out every time, landing huge punches with both rarely giving in.
Miller dropped ’em with Kordic six times during his time in Boston. That’s pretty much once a year and boy did people look forward to those two lining up next to one another every season.
It’s a classic Bruins/Habs rivalry full of historical fights. This rivalry has to be up there with some of the greatest in both franchises history.
Miller is probably the most frequent fighter on this list and not just as a Bruin. He never really showed signs of slowing down even when he moved to the L.A. Kings in 1989. In Miller’s last season he record 23 fights in the year 1991-92 season.
Be sure to keep it here for No.6 of the Boston Bruins Top 10 Toughest Players.
