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Harry Sinden has been an integral part of the Bruins for over 40 years. He moved into his current role as Senior Advisor to club owner Jeremy Jacobs on August 9, 2006 after 17 seasons as the team President. He is also an Alternate Governor for the team on the NHL's Board of Governors.
Sinden began in the organization in the early 1960s as a player-coach at the minor league level before progressing as a head coach in Boston, as the team's General Manager for 28 seasons and then as President. As a coach and General Manager, he has been part of a Bruins Stanley Cup championship, six Conference titles and ten Division championships and his Boston teams combined for 29 winning seasons. With a 7-4 Boston win at St. Louis on October 17, 1995, he became the first general manager in the history of the NHL to record 1,000 victories and his all-time record as a GM stands at 1170-763-301 for a .591 winning percentage.
Sinden has been a key member of many league committees which bring policy and rule recommendations to the NHL's Board of Governors. The esteem in which he is held in the hockey world was evidenced by his 1983 induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame, as he became the 23rd Bruin enshrined and only the fourth to enter in the Builder's category. In 1997, he was selected as one of the 30 inaugural inductees into the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame. In 1999, he was honored with the league's Lester Patrick Award acknowledging his "outstanding service to hockey in the United States" and he is also a member of the Board of Directors for the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Sinden was a top amateur player in Canada. A defenseman, he captained his Whitby Dunlops team to the 1957 Allan Cup as Canada's Senior Amateur Champions. That team then captured the 1958 World Championship title with seven straight wins while outscoring their opponents, 82-6, in the tournament. He also won a silver medal with Team Canada in the 1960 Olympics in Squaw Valley.
He began with the Bruins organization in 1961 as a player-coach in Kingston, Ontario. Following a coaching stint in Minneapolis, he became a player-coach in Oklahoma City and in 1965-66 led that club to the CHL championship with eight consecutive victories. He moved to Boston to assume the Bruins head coaching position in 1966-67 and a year later, he led the team into the playoffs for the first time in eight seasons. His four-year career behind the Boston bench reached the pinnacle in 1969-70 with the club's first Stanley Cup in 29 years.
Following a two-year stint in private business, Sinden returned to hockey in 1972 when he was asked to coach Team Canada in the classic series between NHL players and the Soviet Union. In recording one of Canada's supreme sporting triumphs, the team overcame a 1-3-1 series deficit by taking three straight one-goal victories in Moscow. He returned to Boston at the conclusion of that series, becoming the fifth General Manager in Bruins history on October 5, 1972.
Sinden and his wife, Eleanor, reside in Winchester. They have four daughters. | 