This Day in Hockey History – March 17, 1940 – German Pots of Gold

Mar 17, 2020

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Forget the Irish. St. Patrick’s Day in 1940 was all about the Germans, as in the Boston Bruins’ “Kraut Line.” As a first in NHL history, the three members of the line took the top three spots in the scoring race. Milt Schmidt, Woody Dumart, and Bobby Bauer finished first, second, and third, respectively.

Center Milt Schmidt (No. 15), left winger Woody Dumart (No. 14), and right winger Bobby Bauer (No. 17) had all played together back in their German community at Kitchener, Ontario. They then formed a line for the Providence Reds, and their player/coach, Albert Leduc, nicknamed them the “Sauerkraut Line.” In December 1936, Schmidt received the call up to Boston, where Dumart would join him in February. Bauer played one game for the Bruins that March but did not make the permanent transition until November 1937. The trio finished the scoring race of the 1938-39 season ranked 21-22-23 and led their team to the Stanley Cup.

For their third full season playing together for the Bruins, they moved up 20 spots. The 1939-40 regular season ended with the game on March 17th, held at Boston Garden for about 8,000 fans and guests. Their visitors, the Montreal Canadiens, were “pitifully shorthanded with only 10 players” due to injuries and illness. Whereas, the Bruins had already clinched first place. Before the game, President Frank Calder presented Captain Dit Clapper with the team’s ninth Prince of Wales Trophy. Clapper also received the Dufresne Trophy as Boston’s MVP, and he was meant to keep the trophy permanently as the donors retired the award.

The two teams, for all that they had come into the game so differently, ended the second period knotted at 2-2. Dumart had assisted on the Bruin’s first tally. Then, in the latter half of the final period, the Bruins had a “five-goal barrage.” Schmidt and Dumart accounted for the third and fourth of these goals with Bauer assisting on Dumart’s. The “Kraut Line” had put the icing on the cake.

In the lead in points and assists, 22-year-old Schmidt had accumulated 22 goals and 30 assists for a total of 52 points. His linemates actually tied for second with 43 points. Dumart had 22 goals and 21 assists while Bauer had 17 goals and 26 assists. Bauer would receive his first (of three) Lady Byng Memorial Trophy. Put together, their line had a total of 138 points. Their 1-2-3 finish would only be repeated once, by Montreal’s “Punch Line” during the 1944-45 season.

The very next night, the Bruins began their playoff series against the Rangers. Montreal’s coach, Pit Lepine, had predicted, “The winner of the Bruins-Rangers series should win the cup, and I look for the Bruins to win that one.” He was half right. The Bruins lost in six games, and the Rangers went on to win their last Stanley Cup until 1994.

However, the following postseason, Boston took the prize again, with the “Kraut Line” at the fore. With World War II looming large, all three forwards left the NHL to serve in the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1942 to 1945. The trio returned to the Bruins only to lose the 1946 Cup to the Canadiens.

They remained with Boston until the early 1950s, when they retired one right after the other (Bauer in 1952, Dumart in 1953, and Schmidt in 1954). Schmidt, as last man standing, took over coaching duties midway through the 1954-55 season, and he remained with the Bruins in that capacity for another decade after that. As the team’s general manager during the early 1970s, he became the only Bruin to have his name etched on the Stanley Cup four times.

All three members of the “Kraut Line” have been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Thus far, only Schmidt’s No. 15 has been sent to the Garden’s rafters.