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Recently, Down Goes Brown made a list of "best players to play every game for the same franchise." He ranked them and whatever, who cares about that. The Bruins didn't make the list, except for the addendum to the honorable mentions, where he said this:
Wayne Cashman (Bruins, 1964-1983) — It’s disturbingly difficult to work a Bruin onto this list.
It's obvious what he did: Go to the hockey-reference page, scroll to the Career Leaders in GP, and pick the first guy that didn't have a different team. Here, check it out:
Rank | Player | GP w/ Bruins | Other Team |
1. | Raymond Bourque* | 1518 | COL |
2. | John Bucyk* | 1436 | DET |
3. | Don Sweeney | 1052 | DAL |
4. | Wayne Cashman | 1027 | N/A |
5. | Terry O'Reilly | 891 | N/A |
6. | Rick Middleton | 881 | NYR |
7. | Don Marcotte | 868 | N/A |
8. | Dallas Smith | 861 | NYR |
9. | Dit Clapper* | 833 | N/A |
10. | P.J. Axelsson | 797 | N/A |
Is this the best way to do it? It could be. The list is based on Games Played with a team, and this is a list of players with Games Played with a team. Let's look, for a second, at Points with the Bruins instead:
Rank | Player | P w/ Bruins | Other Team |
1. | Raymond Bourque* | 1506 | COL |
2. | John Bucyk* | 1339 | DET |
3. | Phil Esposito* | 1012 | NYR |
4. | Rick Middleton | 898 | NYR |
5. | Bobby Orr* | 888 | CHI |
6. | Wayne Cashman | 793 | N/A |
7. | Ken Hodge | 674 | CHI,NYR |
8. | Terry O'Reilly | 606 | N/A |
9. | Cam Neely* | 590 | VAN |
10. | Peter McNab | 587 | BUF,VAN,NJD |
Huh, there's Wayne Cashman again, then Terry O'Reilly. I suppose it could be one of them. DGB is right, this is disturbing. Oh! Aha! Perhaps we are missing something here! GOALIES! That's right, goalies aren't included on the GP list because most of them play fewer than the whole game. Let's look at Goalies by GP:
Rank | Player | GP w/ Bruins | Other Team(s) |
1. | Tiny Thompson* | 468 | DET |
2. | Frank Brimsek* | 444 | CHI |
Eddie Johnston | 444 | TOR,STL,CHI | |
4. | Gerry Cheevers* | 416 | TOR,CLC(wha) |
5. | Tim Thomas | 378 | FLA |
6. | Byron Dafoe | 283 | WSH,LAK,ATL |
7. | Gilles Gilbert | 277 | MIN,DET |
8. | Andy Moog | 261 | EDM,DAL,MTL |
9. | Jim Henry | 237 | NYR,CHI |
10. | Reggie Lemelin | 183 | ATL,CGY |
Oh, I see. Hmmm. Well, it could have been Thomas, but he's in Florida ruining things. Okay, there's one more venue we haven't exhausted: Retired Numbers. These are the players that the team itself sees as the best. Check it out:
Number | Player | Other Team(s) |
2 | Eddie Shore* | NYA |
3 | Lionel Hitchman | OTT |
4 | Bobby Orr* | CHI |
5 | Dit Clapper* | N/A |
7 | Phil Esposito* | NYR |
8 | Cam Neely* | VAN |
9 | John Bucyk* | DET |
15 | Milt Schmidt* | N/A |
24 | Terry O'Reilly | N/A |
77 | Raymond Bourque* | COL |
So, uh...Dit Clapper, Milt Schmidt, Terry O'Reilly, Wayne Cashman, or P.J. Axelsson: who's the best? Did I miss someone?