April 12, 1941: The Boston Bruins' "Kraut Line"

Left to right: Bobby Bauer, Woody Dumart, Milt Schmidt

April 12, 1941: The Boston Bruins defeat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-1, and complete a 4-game Finals sweep for the Stanley Cup. It is their 3rd Cup win, their 2nd in 2 years.

They were coached by Ralph "Cooney" Weiland, who had played on those 1st 2 Bruin Cup wins. In 1929, he centered Aubrey Victor "Dit" Clapper and James "Dutch" Gainor on "The Dynamite Line," one of hockey's earliest named forward lines. He and Clapper, who had become a defenseman, were still there for the Cup in 1939. Now, he was coaching Clapper.

Weiland is in the Hockey Hall of Fame. So are 7 of his 1941 Bruin players: Clapper; centers Milt Schmidt and Bill Cowley; left wings Roy Conacher and Woody Dumart; right wing Bobby Bauer; and goaltender Frank Brimsek.

Schmidt (Number 15), Dumart (14) and Bauer (17) were known as the Kraut Line, as they were all of German descent. After Canada entered World War II, they became known as the Kitchener Line, after their shared Ontario hometown. That had also been changed: Prior to World War I, Kitchener had been known as Berlin.

Of Bauer, Dumart told the Canadian Press, "There was no better person than Bobby. He gave everything he had. He was the brains of the line, always thinking, and a very clever playmaker." NHL President Clarence Campbell declared, "Bauer was truly an outstanding player. Bobby was a great credit to both professional and amateur hockey."

Of Dumart, later Bruins head coach and general manager Harry Sinden said, "Woody was one of the truly great Bruins and one of the best players in the NHL in his time. He was a true gentleman, and represented the organization well both on and off the ice over many years."

Of Schmidt, later NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said, "It would be a challenge to find anyone who took greater pride in being a Boston Bruin than Milt Schmidt did, be it as a player, an executive or an ambassador over the 80-plus years he served the franchise, the city of Boston and the National Hockey League. Milt's respect for the game was matched by his humility and was mirrored by the great respect with which his opponents, and generations of Bruins players, treated him through the years."

After the 1941-42 season, all 3 men entered the Royal Canadian Air Force, and returned after World War II, to great acclaim. Brimsek, one of the few Americans to make it big in the prewar NHL, enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard, and also successfully resumed his hockey career.

Schmidt later coached the Bruins into the 1957 and 1958 Stanley Cup Finals, losing both to the Montreal Canadiens; and served as the 1st general manager of the Washington Capitals. That didn't work out, and he returned to the Bruin organization, as a consultant, and operated a bar inside the Boston Garden.

It would be 29 years before the Bruins won another Cup, but they won it in 1970, and again in 1972. There would be an even longer drought before they won another, in 2011. Milt Schmidt lived to see all of those, as he was the last survivor of both the 1939 and the 1941 Bruin Cup winners, living until 2017, a few days after being named one of the NHL's 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players. Bauer died in 1964, Weiland in 1985.

*

April 12, 1941 was a Saturday. Baseball season started 2 days later. Football was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And England's Football Association, which would normally be sanctioning games on this day, had suspended competitive matches for the duration of World War II. So there were no other scores on this historic day.