When the Boston Bruins take the ice on October 8 in Washington, DC, Marco Sturm will become the 12th individual in franchise history to play a regular-season game for the Bruins (sorry, Don Cherry) and serve as Boston’s head coach. There have been long tenures from former Bruins players-turned-coaches, short tenures, great and not-so-great, and two of the Bruins’ six Stanley Cups have been won with a former player as bench boss. Among all of them, though, only one was able to call himself the first.
Cooney Weiland: The Player
Ralph ‘Cooney’ Weiland began his NHL career with Boston in the 1928-29 season.