#ThrowbackThursday: The Bruins once iced the puck all game in a protest
Throwback Thursday often brings back a lot of great memories, and a Thursday Reddit post which originally fell under the "Today I Learned" category also works well as a great throwback to the hockey past.
The post recounts the origins of the icing rule in hockey, a change partially caused by an on-ice protest from the Boston Bruins. Back in 1931, there was no icing, and the Bruins were incensed when, during a game against the New York Americans on Nov. 8, the Americans protected a late 3-2 lead by repeatedly blasting the puck down to the other end of the ice at every opportunity.
In a book called "The Official Rules Of Hockey" by James Duplacey, it estimates that the Americans "iced" the puck 50 times. Bruins president Charles Adams was so angry about that form of defense that he instructed his team to play the same exact way in a rematch of the game on Dec. 3, 1931. The game ended in a tie as the Bruins iced the puck 87 times in one game, the book said.
The media wasn't happy with the Bruins and said the team made a mockery of the game, but the book claims that NHL president Frank Calder said at the time that he had seen worse. The league created a no icing rule six years later.
While fans at the time did not think the Bruins' form of protest was funny, fans on Reddit seemed to enjoy the story. It also led to great debate on the Reddit forums about a more recent passive-aggressive protest which occurred back in 2011 when the Flyers protested the Lightning's 1-3-1 trap style of play by refusing to carry the puck out of their own zone. The protest prompted a discussion about the trap at the GM meetings that year.
(h/t Reddit)
