The Bruins had sold out all of their home games at the Boston Garden for years, and the team owners thought that placing their minor-league affiliate in the same arena made sense on several levels.

Previously, the Bruins' top affiliates were the Hershey Bears of the AHL and the Oklahoma City Blazers of the Central Hockey League.

Behind a powerful club led by future NHL stars Dan Bouchard and Rich Leduc, and with other veteran minor-leaguers and future NHL players such as Doug Roberts, Terry O'Reilly, Ross Brooks, Nick Beverley, Garry Peters and Don Tannahill, the club tied for first place in its division with the powerful Nova Scotia Voyageurs with a 41-21-14 mark, while proving popular enough in Boston to set league records for single-game and single-season attendance that survived for decades.

In its second season, however, competition from the New England Whalers of the World Hockey Association (WHA) served to saturate the market.

Furthermore, NHL expansion cost the team its best player, Bouchard, who had been picked by the Atlanta Flames, while WHA defections caused the recall of Brooks to the parent club and the departure of Roberts and Peters to the rival league.