1916-17
Both pro hockey loops dealt with player shortages due to Canada's increasing contribution to World War I. The war did lead to another team being added to the NHA as a military squad, the Toronto based 228th Battalion, joined the league and it included several players that had been with NHA clubs the previous season. However, the biggest noise around the involved, as usual, Eddie Livingstone.
Cy Denneny, who Livingstone had brought from the Toronto Shamrocks to the Blueshirts when he folded the Shamrocks, had found full-time employment with the government in Ottawa and told Livingstone to trade him to Ottawa or he would sit out the season. Livingstone accused the Ottawa Senators club or orchestrating Denneny's move to Ottawa and said he would only take Ottawa star Tommy Dunderdale in return. The Senators refused but Montreal Wanderers owner Sam Lichtenhein, perhaps seeing another opportunity to stick it to his old foe Livingstone, stepped in and offered a contract to Denneny after the league declared the player was free to move clubs. Eventually an agreement with Ottawa was reached and Denneny was dealt to the Senators for a lesser forward by the name of Ken Mallen but animosity between Livingstone and the other owners, particularly Lichtenhein, continued to grow.
The lone change in the PCHA saw the Victoria club move to Spokane where it would become the Canaries. That left the league with defending champion Vancouver Millionaires as it's only Canadian entry.
On the ice the PCHA enjoyed its most competitive season yet as when the dust was settled the four teams were separated by only 3 points. Both Portland, with league MVP Frank Foyston and top goaltender Tommy Murray, and Spokane, led by scoring champ Dick Irvin, finished tied for top spot with 25 points in 24 games but the Rosebuds were given the nod as league champions based on their better record in head-to-head contests. It would mean Portland would be heading East once more (they lost in 4 games to the Montreal Canadiens two years ago) to compete for the Stanley Cup.
The three-time Stanley Cup defending champion Montreal Canadiens once more finished atop the NHA during the regular season, but they were just two points ahead of the Quebec Bulldogs. Offensively their games were a showdown between the great Newsy Lalonde of Montreal and Quebec's Joe Malone, who had a breakout season at 26 and scored 50 points, just two shy of Lalonde who led the league for the seventh time.
At the start of the season the league owners had voted to reinstitute the playoff between the first and second place teams, over the protestations of Toronto's Livingstone who remained livid they were cancelled a year ago. The Bulldogs upset Montreal in the two-game total goal series, winning 3-2 on the road in the opener and 7-5 despite three goals from Lalonde in the second game. The Quebec victory was even more surprising due to the fact that Joe Malone missed the series with a sprained ankle.
*** STANLEY CUP ***
For the first time in four years the Stanley Cup would not feature the Montreal Canadiens as the Quebec Bulldogs prepared to welcome the PCHA champion Portland Rosebuds for the best-of-five series.
With Joe Malone still sidelined the Bulldogs were without their star but still led Portland 2-1 after forty minutes. The Rosebuds would bloom in the final frame as goals by Harry Mummery and Herb Jordan lifted Portland to a 3-2 victory.
Still nursing a tender ankle, Malone did play in the second game. He was not as effective as he usually was but still scored a key goal - a marker late in the opening period after Rusty Crawford had scored twice to give the visiting Rosebuds an early 2-0. The Bulldogs dominated the second period, outscoring Portland 5-1 during that frame including a pair of goals from Duke Keats and after a scoreless third period the series was deadlocked at one following a 6-3 Quebec victory.
The third game was all Quebec as Buck Boucher scored twice, Joe Malone added his second goal of the series and the Bulldogs blanked the Rosebuds 6-0 in a game that saw Quebec netminder Jake Forbes face only 10 shots.
Two nights later the Bulldogs would win their first Stanley Cup with a 3-2 victory. All three of Quebec's goals came in the opening period with Duke Keats, Jack Darragh and Bobby Rowe doing the honours. Portland's Joe Matte would get one back in the second and Harry Oliver cut the deficit to a single goal with 4:56 remaining in regulation time but the Rosebuds could not get the equalizer.
All of the in-fighting between NHA owners came to a head at the yearend meeting. No post-season awards were handed out (FHM did not award them for some reason this season) because the meeting nearly ended up in a fistfight between Livingstone and Lichtenheim. The Toronto owner, still bitter over the decision not to stage a playoff a year ago when his club finished second and the handling of the Cy Denneny situation, was absolutely livid when the remaining owners held a surprise vote not to include his Toronto team in the league the following season.
The reason given was that the 228th Battalion would not be participating for the 1917-18 season, and they felt suspending the operations of the Toronto club would make the most sense as the owners claimed they wanted to keep the league at an even number of teams. Livingstone was furious and lunged at Lichtenheim before the meeting was quickly suspended. On his way out Livingstone vowed he would see the other owners in court.
After many months of legal wranglings, the four other NHA owners found a way around Livingstone's court case. They decided to fold their entire league and start a new one on their own without Livingstone. It marked the end of the National Hockey Association and a few months later the birth of the National Hockey League.
SUMMER/FALL 1917
The Birth of the NHL
If Toronto Blueshirts owner Eddie Livingstone was angry when his fellow NHA owners, over his objections, voted to suspend operations of the National Hockey Association so they could start a new league without him, just imagine how he felt when news broke that the defending Stanley Cup champion Quebec Bulldogs had been sold and decided to move into his territory and call Toronto their new home. The Bulldogs had a championship club but not a championship calibre arena and when their principal owner fell ill and decided to step down the club could not raise the money to stay in Quebec City. Things worked out ideally for their fellow owners in the new National Hockey League, who felt it was unthinkable not to have a team in Canada's second largest city at the time, so the Bulldogs were shut down and a team was awarded to the Toronto Arena Company.
The Arenas, would be the start of the Toronto Maple Leafs franchise, and ownership leased a number of players from Livingstone's Blueshirts, pending the outcome of his still continuing court case, but the club also was granted the rights to former Quebec Bulldogs star Joe Malone. All other Quebec players were declared free agents but Malone was transferred to Toronto. The remaining Arenas players were poached from teams in the PCHA including veteran goaltender Hugh Lehman who returned to his native Ontario after a stellar career with the Vancouver Millionaires.
It would take a full year before the last of Livingstone's suits were either settled or thrown out of court, so the NHA did not officially disband until the fall of 1918. Livingstone made several attempts to launch an Ontario-Quebec based league to rival the NHL but they never got off the ground. He later would purchase an American Hockey League team in Chicago but was forced out by the league as conditions for that league to sign a working agreement with the NHL. Livingstone would focus strictly on amateur hockey in and around Toronto and never return to the pro game.
As for the debut of the NHL, the four team league included two clubs that would remain active today in the Montreal Canadiens, who had already won three Stanley Cups while in the NHA, as well as the new Toronto Arenas team. Rounding out the loop would be Lichtenheim's Montreal Wanderers and the Ottawa Senators.
The Pacific Coast Hockey Association slipped back to three teams as the Spokane Canaries folded, leaving just Portland, Seattle and Vancouver to carry on the loop.
1917-18 :The NHL Debuts
The first season of the National Hockey League did not feel all that much different from the final year of the National Hockey Association. Newsy Lalonde was still the best player in the game and his Montreal Canadiens were once more in the playoffs, having tied with the Cy Denneny led Ottawa Senators for first place, a full ten points ahead of the third place Montreal Wanderers.
The Senators returned to the playoff after a two-year absence and could have had sole possession of first place, but they suffered back to back losses in Montreal on the final weekend of the season, falling 8-5 to the Canadiens before dropping a 4-3 decision to the Wanderers. Ottawa was led by Cy Denneny, who scored 20 goals and trailed only Newsy Lalonde in that category. The Senators, with George Hainesworth between the pipes, surrendered the fewest goals against in the league.
The Canadiens, who had already won three Stanley Cups, once more relied on Newsy Lalonde with Odie Cleghorn providing secondary scoring. Now 34, team captain Didier Pitre dropped to just 24 points but was still a steadying force on the roster. The Habs entered the playoff with Ottawa on a high note, finishing the season with seven consecutive victories including a pair over the Senators.
24-year-old Mickey MacKay had a breakout season for the Montreal Wanderers after coming over from Ottawa. The center scored 17 goals and 45 points, good enough to finish third in the scoring race. Toronto had a dismal season despite Joe Malone's 48 points as goaltender Hugh Lehman found life in the Arenas net much different than his glory days with the Vancouver Millionaires.
NHL PLAYOFF
The two game total goal series was almost over before it began as the Ottawa Senators exploded for three first period goals, including two of the stick of former Quebec Bulldog Duke Keats to take a quick 3-0 lead in game one. By the time the final buzzer sounded the score was 6-0 Ottawa with Keats adding a third goal and a helper. The Habs did what they could in game two but with Ottawa focused on defending their substantial lead all the Canadiens could manage was a 2-1 victory so Ottawa would earn its first chance to play for the Stanley Cup after taking the series by a 7-2 score.
PACIFIC COAST HOCKEY ASSOCIATION
Back to three teams with Spokane's brief period in the league now over, the Portland Rosebuds nosed out the Seattle Metropolitans to win their third PCHA title in four years. Rosebuds forward Frank Foyston and goaltender Tommy Murray repeated as league award winners with Foyston again being named MVP while Murray earned his second nod as the top goaltender in the loop.
Offense was down substantially in the league, by about 50% from the previous season with none of the three clubs averaging as much as four goals per game. No player reached 10 goals on the year with Foyston topping the chart with nine. The MVP was tied for second in scoring behind his Portland teammate Bobby Rowe, who collected just 13 points on the season.
STANLEY CUP
Ottawa was making its first attempt to win the Stanley Cup while the Portland Rosebuds were back for a fourth shot at the title that eluded them on each of their three previous attempts including last year when they lost to the Quebec Bulldogs.
This year the series would be played in both cities with Ottawa hosting the first two games of the series before they headed west to Portland for the remainder of the best-of-five affair.
Like they did in the NHL final against Montreal, the Ottawa Senators came out on fire, scoring twice in the first 58 seconds and taking a 3-1 lead to the dressing room after twenty minutes. It was the exact opposite of the PCHA playing style this season as the two clubs went on a scoring spree and when time expired the Senators had emerged with a 10-5 victory. Cy Denneny scored once and added five assists while Albert Kerr, Duke Keats and Buck Boucher each scored twice for the winners. Portland's Rusty Crawford, who tallied just twice in 18 regular season games for the Rosebuds, had a hat trick in a losing effort.
The second game saw Portland strike first as Frank Foyston scored early on the powerplay but Ottawa responded with four first period goals of their own and went on to a 6-2 victory. Kerr and Boucher each keyed the victory with 3 points apiece.
The long trip west to Portland for the third game did little to change the tone of the series as the Senators quickly wrapped up their first Stanley Cup title by routing the Rosebuds 11-2. Albert Kerr scored three times, Cy Denneny had 5 points and defenseman Lloyd Cook enjoyed a 4-point night for the Senators. Denneny would finish the three game series with 13 points while Kerr had 6 goals and 12 points.