On December 1, 1924, the Boston Bruins played their first NHL game against their expansion cousins the Montreal Maroons, at Boston Arena, with Canadian skater Smokey Harris scoring the first-ever Bruins goal, spurring the Bruins to a 2-1 win.

Although the 1929-30 Boston Bruins failed to defend their Stanley Cup title, losing in the Stanley Cup Final to the Montreal Canadiens, they nevertheless took advantage of new rules and a powerhouse lineup to post the best single season winning percentage in NHL history (0.875).

In 1939, when rookie goaltender Frank Brimsek earned six shutouts in his first seven games, fans and the media began calling him "Mr. Zero". During that seven game span, he also set the NHL record for the longest shutout streak, 231 minutes and 54 seconds.

Hal Winkler recorded 15 shutouts in 44 games for the 1927-28 Boston Bruins. Despite the NHL's regular season almost doubling in length from what it was that year, Winkler's mark still stands as a Bruins single-season record.

Mike Milbury gained notoriety following a 4-3 Bruins victory over the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on December 23, 1979. During an on-ice fray between the players from both sides, a Rangers fan cut Stan Jonathan's face with a rolled-up program and grabbed his hockey stick. Terry O'Reilly climbed over the Plexiglas and went into the stands in pursuit of the offender, followed by Peter McNab and other teammates. Milbury, who had actually reached the visitors locker room when his teammates started going into the stands, raced back to join the brawl, caught the unruly spectator, and beat him with his own shoe.

From 1968 to 1996, the Boston Bruins made an NHL-record 29 consecutive playoff appearances.

Blades the Bruin is notable because he is the only known bear who does not hibernate. According to the team website, Blades first took an interest in hockey when watching Johnny Bucyk play pond hockey with groups of neighborhood children. One day, he snuck into the back of Bucyk's truck and was taken to the Boston Garden where Bucyk fed him pizza, hot dogs, popcorn, and pop from the concession stand.

In 1970-71, Bruins center Phil Esposito shattered the NHL record for most goals in a season, finishing with 76. The mark stood until 1982, when Wayne Gretzky scored his 77th, 78th and 79th goals against the Buffalo Sabres on February 24, 1982. Esposito was on hand to present the game puck to Gretzky. Esposito also set the NHL single-season point-scoring record in 1971 with 152, a mark later raised by Gretzky to 215. Both of Esposito's marks still stand as franchise records.

The Eddie Shore Award is presented annually to the AHL's best defenseman. A bruiser known for his violence, Shore won the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player four times, the most of any defenseman, and was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1947.

In 1958 the Bruins called African-Canadian Willie O'Ree up from the Quebec Aces, not knowing that he was effectively blind in his right eye due to being hit with a hockey puck two years earlier. O'Ree managed to keep his injury a secret and appeared in 48 games for the Bruins. O'Ree would later note that "racist remarks were much worse in the U.S. cities than in Toronto and Montreal," and that fans would yell, 'Go back to the South' and 'How come you're not picking cotton?' "It didn't bother me," he said. "I just wanted to be a hockey player, and if they couldn't accept that fact, that was their problem, not mine."