The Doggone Bruins May Go All The Way

High up in the dark and smoky regions of the Boston Garden the belief is growing that the current edition of the Bruins—a faceless bunch in comparison with some of its illustrious predecessors—might well bring the Stanley Cup back to Causeway Street. "I saw Eddie Shore and those guys win the Bruins' first Cup in '29, and I saw Orr and Esposito win it in '70 and '72, and I'll tell you, this club could do it," says 63-year-old Roger Naples, president of the Garden's Gallery Gods, the 648 hard-core fans who have made a home of the first two rows of the second balcony and the back of the east-side first balcony.

Last week the Gods were pleased, for the Bruins were skating along with the best record in all the NHL. At the Garden they came from two goals down to tie Winnipeg 2-2 Monday, surged back from the same deficit to beat Quebec 5-3 Thursday and coasted over Hartford 7-4 on Saturday. On Sunday they journeyed to Buffalo, where they won 5-1.

"This group is completely different from any other Boston team I've seen," says Naples, who claims to have missed only four Bruin home games in the last 44 years. "This team doesn't have the big scorers, and you don't see the bench-clearing brawls anymore. The Big Bad Bruins are gone. Nobody comes here saying, 'Let's see a shootout and a free-for-all.' This is a bunch of kids who'll check you all over the ice. Look at them. They work like dogs."

And they're beginning to cotton to that canine handle. "About six weeks ago, [right wing] Keith Crowder started calling us the Dogs because of the way we work and check," says General Manager Harry Sinden, who by means of a 50% turnover in players the past 22 months has converted Boston from an aging team of playoff losers—three games to none to Minnesota in the first round in 1981—to a young pack of Cup contenders. "They're all dogs," says Sinden. "They want to be dogs. They think a dog is a great thing to be."

From the opening whistle the Bruin forecheckers are indeed relentless at hounding their opponents. "We'll have two forwards—and sometimes all three forwards—deep in the offensive zone, working for the puck," says Coach Gerry Cheevers, "but I don't let our defense-men rush in very often. That way, even if all our forwards get trapped, the worst we're going to give up is a three-on-two, which isn't really that high a percentage opportunity."

As a Boston goaltender in the glory years of Orr and Phil Esposito, Cheevers faced more than his share of two- and three-on-ones as the Bruins committed everyone but the stick boy to the attack. The idea was that a 9-7 win was just as good as 2-0.

"Now goals are precious to us," says Sinden, "not so much because we don't score that many as because we know we have the ability to protect the goals we get. We can go into the third period with a one- or two-goal lead and make it stand up." Indeed, through Sunday the Bruins were winning games by an average score of 4.03 to 2.63. Their defense, stingiest in the league at giving up goals, has been strong enough to support a so-so ninth-place offense.

The most conspicuous part of that defense has been the goaltending of first-year Bruin and fourth-year NHLer Pete Peeters, the hottest net-minder west of the U.S.S.R.'s Vladislav Tretiak. Peeters, who came to Boston in a trade with the Flyers last spring for Defenseman Brad McCrimmon, is kicking out shots and sparking the Bruins' breakout play in a style reminiscent of Cheevers'.

"The trade was an out-and-out steal," says Cheevers. "Pete gives us the established starting goaltender we've lacked in recent years.... What can I say about him? The stats say it all."

What the stats say is that, with his win Sunday night, Peeters ran his personal unbeaten streak to 29 games (24-0-5), two games better than the NHL rookie record he set with Philadelphia in 1979-80 and only three short of the all-time NHL mark of 32 games set by Cheevers in 1971-72.