As you've heard by now, HockeyBuzz.com and its bloggers are teaming up to bring you an "ultimate team" while we wait for the real teams to get back to it. Assembling a full roster to compete against other teams' best, picking 20 or so legends to represent an 'all-time' team is no easy feat for a club that's been kicking it around for almost 100 years.

And for Boston, a team rich with a ridiculous history as one of the NHL's Original Six franchises, finding a starting six won't come without some necessary debate. That's where you, the beloved reader, come into play.

With a top line already named, a top-four defense already set, and my thoughts/opinions making up the remaining pieces, it's time that we decide the club's goaltending tandem. But before we delve into that, here's your (and mine) all-time Bruins team so far...

Forwards

Johnny Bucyk (C) - Phil Esposito - Cam Neely

Rationale: This was a line as voted on by the reader, and for obvious reasons. Phil Esposito's career in Black-and-Gold borders on ridiculous, with 1,012 points in just 625 games, and earned him 74 percent of your votes. On the wings, it was a runaway for both the Bruins' all-time leading scorer among forwards Johnny Bucyk (77 percent) and Cam Neely (86 percent).

Wayne Cashman - Adam Oates - Ken Hodge

Rationale: Given Cashman's ability to play on either wing, we'll stick him with Oates and Hodge for this one. Adam Oates, whose stats in Boston were on a near-superhuman level despite a brief six-year tenure in town, makes this club as the team's second-line center without much of a debate really on the table. Hodge, on the other hand, makes it given his ability to thrive with Cashman (and Esposito) during their era of dominance in the early-70's.

Sergei Samsonov - Joe Thornton - Rick Middleton

Rationale: Going with Sammy and Jumbo Joe may seem like a stretch, especially when you look at the lack of playoff progress they made during their era in town, but I can't help but thank these two for helping make me get into hockey as a child. Despite being infatuated with guys like Eric Lindros and Mark Recchi as a kid, Samsonov and Thornton made going to the then-Fleetcenter a worthwhile endeavor for me and my friends, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that. On the right side, going with Nifty is an easy call. The dude's incredibly underrated, and his No. 16 probably should be hanging from the rafters. But alas, it hasn't happened, so a spot on this team must be a nice consolation. Right? Right.

Woody Dumart - Milt Schmidt (A) - Terry O'Reilly

Rationale: It feels wrong leaving the entire Kraut Line off the club, with Terry O'Reilly replacing Bobby Bauer, but the simple fact is that I can't have this be an All-Time B's club without O'Reilly's presence in that lineup. The lone Bruins player with over 2,000 minutes in the box, O'Reilly serves as this club's enforcer, with a scoring touch, of course.

Extra Skaters: P.J Axelsson and Derek Sanderson

Rationale: Sanderson's an easy call for a player that can fill in anywhere in the Boston lineup, especially with his patented faceoff prowess, while P.J Axelsson is a total fanboy pick from my childhood. Love it or leave it. I suggest you love it, 'cause Per-Johan rules.

Defense

Bobby Orr - Ray Bourque (A)
Zdeno Chara (A) - Eddie Shore

Rationale: In a clear win for these four, Bobby Orr (99 percent) and Ray Bourque (97 percent) easily get the call to man the club's top-pairing, while the second pairing features Zdeno Chara (80 percent) and Eddie Shore (52 percent). Good luck containing that first pairing, and even better luck trying to get by that second pair. My goodness.

Dit Clapper - Brad Park

Rationale: Clapper's versatile for his time is more than remarkable, and worth recognition. On the other side, defensemen Brad Park served as the perfect bridge between the Orr and Bourque era of Boston's legendary defensive resume.

Extra: Lionel Hitchman

Rationale: First guy to captain the B's to a Cup. Gotta have that.

There you have it, and as we name the club's final position core, it's onto the goaltenders, where different eras are represented, making this one a tough, tough call for even the most astute observer.

Frank Brimsek (1938-'49)

You know you're a pretty good goaltender when you're nicknamed "Mr. Zero." But for the Boston Bruins, Minnesota-born goaltender Frank Brimsek was Mr. Zero.

One of the game's first truly great American-born players, Brimsek received a call up to Boston following an injury to Tiny Thompson in 1939, and simply never looked back.

Stealing the show (and job from Thompson) with 33 wins in 43 games, Brimsek led the charge for the first place Bruins, who surrendered 29 fewer goals than the second place New York Rangers, before storming towards the franchise's second Stanley Cup. Winning both the Calder and Vezina on the wa, Brimsek's career would include another Vezina ('42) and Stanley Cup ('41) before leaving Boston after the 1948-49 season.

Gerry Cheevers (1965-'80)

Bruins fans will always have a special place in their heart for Gerry Cheevers, and it's not hard to see why. Despite a four-year hiatus from the NHL from '72 to '76, where Cheevers suited up for the Cleveland Crusaders of the WHA, it was a career spent entirely in the Hub for the 5-foot-11 netminder.




Best known for the being the Black-and-Gold's answer in net during the club's golden era from '70 to '72, Cheevers' modest career ended on a solid note, finishing as a runner-up for the 1980 Vezina Trophy.

Tim Thomas (2002-Present)

Political ideologies aside, it's harder to find a B's goalie more dominant and polarizing given the era he played in than Tim Thomas. A journeyman if there ever was one, Thomas clawed his way to Boston, found his niche in Boston playing under the Claude Julien system, and rewarded the Bruins with one of the most astonishing runs any hockey fan has ever seen.

Following a breakout 2008-09 campaign that saw the Michigan-born netminder win his first Vezina Trophy in addition to earning the Jennings Trophy with Manny Fernandez, an injury-riddled 2009-10 struggle nearly saw the mild-mannered backstop traded out of town.

But when deals with Philly and San Jose couldn't be struck, it was back to Boston, and back to proving people wrong. Ditching the Black-and-Gold both on his mask and pads, the 2010-11 version of Thomas bordered on superhuman. Setting the NHL single-season record with a .938 save-percentage, ousting Dom Hasek's 1998-99 season from the leaderboard by literally .001%, the playoffs saw Thomas (somehow) bring his play to another level of excellent.



You done took this ____ to another mother-_______ level, Timmy.

Finishing the playoffs with an unreal .940 save-percentage and 1.98 goals-against-average, winning three Game 7's on the way to Boston's first Cup since 1972, Tim Thomas is the only Bruins goaltender in club history with four 30-win seasons, and will likely go down as the club's best goaltender in the modern era NHL.

No Timmy? No Cup in '11. Simple as that.

Tiny Thompson (1928-'39)

The Bruins' all-time leader in wins, earning victories in 252 of his 468 career games in Boston, Cecil "Tiny" Thompson put together a career that's been simply unmatched by any B's goaltender, and likely to remain that way for the foreseeable future.

Winning the Stanley Cup in his rookie season with Boston, with 26 wins in 44 games to go with a minuscule 1.15 goals against average, Thompson wasn't just the club's first stud 'tender, but also a revolutionary in various aspects in the forever-changing art of goaltending. Most notably, Thompson was the first goaltender to make a save with his glove, record an assist by passing the puck to a defensemen, and was even the first goaltender to take himself off the ice in the waning moments of the game in order for the club to put an extra attacker out there.

Recording 74 shutouts during his tenure in Boston, Thompson's dominance is noted by his four Vezina's, and his franchise-best 1.99 career goals-against-average.

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