1/4/1975 Boston Bruins at Minnesota North Stars (first period) Dave Forbes attack on Henry Boucha

This video is the first period of the Jan. 4, 1975 National Hockey League game between the Boston Bruins and the Minnesota North Stars at the Metropolitan Sports Center, won by Boston, 8-0.
It is from the WSBK TV-38 broadcast, with Fred Cusick on play by play and Johnny Peirson on color.
At 8 minutes 22 seconds of the period (16:43 of the video), Boston's Dave Forbes and Minnesota's Henry Boucha had a fight and were penalized. At 15 minutes 54 seconds (29:32 of the vid), with both players out of the penalty boxes and out of camera view, Forbes butt-ended Henry full force in the right eye with his stick.
Boucha suffered a severe injury that ultimately curtailed his career. Forbes was suspended for 10 games and was also taken to court, the case going to trial and resulting in a hung jury. The prosecution decided not to pursue the case any further and the charges against Forbes were dropped. Forbes and the Bruins settled a civil case by paying Boucha more than $1 million.
Notes on the game: The Bruins had reached the Stanley Cup Finals the previous year and had Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito. But it wouldn't be long before Espo and Carol Vadnais were traded for Brad Park and Jean Ratelle ... The North Stars were a wreck, and apparently had an intrasquad brawl before this game ... Wish we had the rest of the action, as I'd love to know how, with all the man-advantage time Minny had in the second, they went from trailing, 1-0, to an 8-0 loss. It does look like they took a ton of penalties ... Orr's knees were toast by now, and he'd soon be gone, too, but he still skates as well as anyone else on the ice, and his positional play is fantastic. His rushes tend to stop at the opponent's blue line, though.
Copyright NHL or any other party. I don't claim the rights to, and don't profit from, this video. I just posted it for historical and educational purposes, and for those who will enjoy it as much as I did.

[@VintageOnline100]

29:32
Just the crowds reaction (how loud) was all you needed to know about how vicious this incident was. For the record, Forbes hit Boucha square in the eye with the butt end of his stick at full force & nearly took his eye out. An official in the penalty box testified that Forbes had yelled at Boucha that he was going to “get him” and it wouldn’t use his fists, he would use his stick”.

[@jethro1963]

The Forbes/Boucha fight was at 16:43 and the Boucha injury at 29:32

[@petegoodwinboston4825]

In the video, yes, thank you. I went by time of game in the blurb.

[@jethro1963]

@@petegoodwinboston4825 Yes, unfortunately RUclips creates a link from that number/time format

[@petegoodwinboston4825]

@@jethro1963 Oh, I gotcha. I'll fix that thanks!

[@jethro1963]

The Bruins were also involved in one of the most infamous on ice incidents that involved the Bruins' Ted Green and the Blues' Wayne Maki in a preseason game in Ottawa on September 21, 1969. Come to think of it, the Bruins come up again in one of the early infamous moments when Eddie Shore flipped Irvine "Ace" Bailey and cracked his skull which ultimately led to the first NHL All Star Game as a benefit for Bailey. And to add another coincidental Bruin factoid, there was another "Ace" Bailey (no relation) who played for the Bruins from 1968-73. Garnet "Ace" Bailey later was the Los Angeles Kings' director of pro scouting and sadly died at the age of 53 while aboard United Airlines Flight 175, which was deliberately crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City during the September 11 attacks.

[@petegoodwinboston4825]

The Maki-Green stick swinging thing was so nasty. GM Milt Schmidt tried to get the rest of the team to wear helmets. When Bobby Orr said no, that was the end of that.

[@jethro1963]

@@petegoodwinboston4825 Green, I believe wore a special type helmet, I'm not sure where it came from. One of the early inventors of hard shell plastic helmets was Charlie Patterson. Early on he used the type of plastic then used in football helmets but on a particularly cold day they splintered so he had to destroy 5000 helmets. In 1969 he then discovered what astronauts were using in their helmets, (Lexan polycarbonate) and used that. Lexan branded polycarbonate is one of the materials that can be used as hockey rink glass.

[@jethro1963]

@@petegoodwinboston4825 When I was a kid, I can still remember the TV commercial for the Patterson helmet. It was bulletproof, they shot a bullet at it. This was in the 70s and a generation above his first designs. I have read Lexan (polycarbonate) can resist a 38 caliber bullet. But no self respecting Canadian kid would go near that helmet. The most cool helmet (the helmet GOAT) was the CCM HT2 model - better known as “the Paul Henderson helmet.” The really cool way to wear it was with the chin strap hanging well below the Adam's apple and, of course, no visor. If you grew up playing hockey in the 1970s and you didn't have a CCM HT2 helmet, you probably wish you did. The white was the most ubiquitous but luckily I had my brother's hand me down in Team Canada red, the absolute coolest. I also had his hand me down Super Tacks, too bad I had other sports interests over hockey

[@petegoodwinboston4825]

@@jethro1963 I know exactly the helmet you're talking about! How interesting!

[@jethro1963]

@@petegoodwinboston4825 I am thinking the Patterson helmet in the commercial didn't look like his "hinged" two piece model of the 60s but more like those big Cooper jobs that Craig Ramsay of the Sabres wore. But I could be wrong.

[@FlintyCobblestone]

Forbes should have been imprisoned.

[@petegoodwinboston4825]

I tend to agree. Unforgivable.

[@traderduke2]

Both men died about 8 months apart (2023/2024).

[@kennywest831]

A dirty play by Forbes, obviously. But Boucha sucker punched Forbes before they had squared off. He wasn't all that innocent himself.