- Boston Braves (AHL)
Pro hockey team
text_color = white
bg_color = maroon
team = Boston Braves
logosize = 120px
city =Boston, Massachusetts
league =American Hockey League
operated = 1971 to 1974
arena =Boston Garden
colors = Maroon, white and black
owner =Storer Communications
affiliates =Boston Bruins
name1 = Boston Braves
dates1 = 1971 to 1974
name2 =Moncton Hawks
dates2 = 1987 to 1994
division_titles = one
(1971-72)The Boston Braves were a professional
ice hockey team inBoston, Massachusetts . They were a member of theAmerican Hockey League from1971 to1974 .The early 1970s saw an unprecedented boom in the popularity of hockey in the greater Boston area, fuelled by the success of the
Bobby Orr andPhil Esposito -ledBoston Bruins . The Bruins had sold out all of their home games at theBoston Garden for years, and the team owners thought that placing their minor-league affiliate in the same arena, made sense on several levels. Previously, the Bruins affiliate was theOklahoma City Blazers of theCentral Hockey League .Naming the team after the eponymous
National League baseball team that had played in Boston until the 1950s, the first season of the Braves was wildly successful. Behind a powerful club led by future big league starsDan Bouchard andRich Leduc , and with other veteran minor-leaguers and future NHL players such asDoug Roberts ,Ross Brooks ,Nick Beverley ,Garry Peters andDan Tannahill , the club tied for first place in its division with the powerfulNova Scotia Voyageurs with a 41-21-14 mark, while proving popular enough in Boston to set league records for single-game and single-season attendance that survived for decades.In its second season, however, competition from the WHA's
New England Whalers served to saturate the market. Furthermore, NHL expansion cost the team its best player, Bouchard, who had been picked by theAtlanta Flames , while WHA defections caused the recall of Brooks to the parent club and Roberts and Peters to the rival league. While scoring declined only slightly, the defense was notably poorer. The team still finished second in the division with a 34-29-13 mark, but attendance had nearly halved.In the Braves' third and final season, the defense collapsed to the point where the team finished out of the playoffs after a 23-40-13 record. With attendance dwindling further and the ebbing of the hockey boom itself in New England, Bruins' management decided to suspend the team; the next season saw the Bruins affiliating with the
Rochester Americans .The Bruins maintained the franchise's existence for many years, paying a nominal fee to the league to keep it dormant, finally selling its rights to the
Winnipeg Jets in 1987 so that the Jets could move it to the Maritimes to become theMoncton Hawks .Team records
;Single Season
* Goals: Ron Anderson, 41, 1973
* Assists: Doug Gibson, 51, 1974
* Points: Gibson, 82, 1974
* Penalty Minutes:Fred O'Donnell , 161, 1972;Career
* Career Games:Neil Murphy , 214
* Career Goals:Bob Gryp , 68
* Career Assists:Rich Leduc , 80
* Career Points: Leduc, 144
* Career Penalty Minutes: Leduc, 227eason-by-season results
;Regular Season
;Playoffs
External links
* [http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/teamseasons.php?tid=182 Boston Braves at hockeydb.com]
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