- Gerry Cheevers was named Bruins head coach 46 years ago, on July 7, 1980
- His first coaching win came in goalie pads, subbing for an ejected Don Cherry in 1979
- Read below for the full story behind one of hockey’s strangest coaching debuts
Gerry Cheevers won his first game as a coach while wearing full goalie pads.
On July 7, 1980, the Boston Bruins named Cheevers the 14th head coach in franchise history. His first official win came that October, a 7-2 handling of the Rangers at Boston Garden. The stranger victory on his coaching resume came more than a year before he ever had the title, and he was dressed like a goalie for it.
Go back to March 3, 1979. The Bruins led the Minnesota North Stars 4-0 late in the third period, with rookie Jim “Seaweed” Pettie stopping everything in sight. Then Don Cherry lost it.
Cherry drew a bench minor barking about a charging call on Dwight Foster, and captain Wayne Cashman piled on with a misconduct and a gross misconduct in the same sequence. Referee Greg Madill threw Cherry out of the game.
As Cherry headed for the tunnel, he handed the bench to his backup goalie with two words. “You take over,” Cheevers recalled him saying.
So Cheevers spent the final 16 minutes pacing behind the bench in his sweater and pads, worried about one thing. He wanted to protect the shutout for Pettie, and it held. That was the only shutout Pettie ever posted across his 21-game NHL career.
Cheevers had a soft spot for the kid, whose nickname came from hair that looked like something washed up on a beach. He talked about the young goalie years later.
“Everybody loved Seaweed, including me,” Cheevers said. Pettie died of cancer in 2019 at the age of 65.
Away from the bench, Cheevers is best known for the stitched-up mask that changed how goalies dress. Here’s the story behind it:
The bench job became official the next summer. Cheevers told general manager Harry Sinden at the end of June that he was hanging up the pads for good, per NHL.com. Sinden didn’t fight it. He told Cheevers to come back the following week because he wanted him running the bench.
Take a closer look at the mask that started the trend:
His coaching run lasted parts of five seasons. Cheevers went into the Hall of Fame in 1985, made the franchise’s All-Centennial Team in 2023, and already owned two Stanley Cups from his days in the Boston net. Those 16 minutes he spent coaching in full equipment might be the most Bruins thing he ever did.
