1931
The Start of the NHL historical rerun has began. The league does start with 14 years of history to it. The big ones being the Montreal Canadiens having 4 championships. The GAA leader is Montreals goaltender George Hainsworth who lifetime has a 1.79 GAA.
Point leader is Frank Nighbor with 374 points in his 437 Carear games and 13 years in the league.
Goal leader is Cy Denneny who netted 281 goals in 370 games from the 1917/18 season to his retirement in 1928/29
Clint Benedict currently holds the Goaltender win leaderboard with 190 wins although that will most likely soon be passed by George Hainsworth who enters the year 19 wins behind Benedict and has averaged 24 wins a year the past 5 years with the Canadiens.
Trade Deadline
As the trade deadline rolls around we take a look at the league. The standings have a tight race for 1st to 3rd as the Canadiens, Maple Leafs, and Rangers all battle it out for top place.
The NHL Goal Race sees young stud Charlie Conacher lead it with 19 goals in just 29 games for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The 3rd year player is having to hold off Bill Cook of the Rangers (18) ;Herbie Lewis of the Falcons (17); and Howie Morenz of the Canadiens (17).
The Best helpers in the league are currently Frank Boucher (Rangers) and Joe Primeau (Maple Leafs) who both have 27 assists on the season. Not far behind is possible MVP winner Howie Morenz of the Canadiens who has 24 assists of his own.
The points race is close with Howie Morenz in first with 41 points but Frank Boucher (37) and Jow Primeau (36) are not out of the race yet.
As far as goalies go George Hainsworth has put a great first half of the season together and because of it leads the NHL in wins at 18. He currently sits one win away from tying and 2 wins away from being the winnest goalie in the NHL, not bad for the 36 year old Toronto Native.
There is still 2 more months of hockey left to be played and possibly records to be broken, the NHL season is starting to really heat up!
Regular Season End
The end of the season is here and the boys have been seperated from the men. The Top spot for best team in the NHL, which only two months ago was a hotly contested race, has come to and end. The Toronto Maple Leafs take the number one spot posting a 36-10-2 record to get 74 points and top spot in the League. The Rangers and Canadiens fought hard for the number two and three spots with the Rangers edging out the Candiens by one point, leaving a fun playoff series to happen.
The New York Americans were able to make it into the final playoff spot with a 19-23-6 season, although not many expect them to go far.
The NHL goal race did see Howie Morenz, Charlie Conacher, and Bill Cook battle it out. but in the End Morenz took the title with a 28 goal season. Conacher finished with 26 while Cook netted 23.
In the helpers aspect of the game Frank Boucher and Joe Primeau kept things very interesting but in the end Primeau pulled out the most assits this year with 42 while Boucher settled with 41.
As for the NHL's most points that goes to possible MVP Howie Morenz who got himself 63 points in the 1931-1932 season. Amazingly the next three players Primeau (60), Clancy (58), and Conacher (55) All play for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The second half of the season in the netminder world belonged to and was dominated by Lorne Chabot of the Toronto Maple Leafs. he Finished the season with 34 wins (1st in the league) a GAA of 1.93 (1st) and 6 shutouts (2nd).
The Watch for most wins by a netminder is over however as this year George Hainsworth passed Clint Benedicts' record of 190 to finish the year 2 wins short of 200.
Playoffs
Maple Leafs vs. Americans (Maple Leafs win in 4 games)
The first round of the playoffs for these two teams went about as well as everyone expected it to go, and that's not good for the Americans. The Maple Leafs pounded the Americans scoring 5 goals in 3 of the 4 games (game 3 was a 3-0 win) while netminder Lorne Chabot continued his dominace posting a 1.50 GAA in the 4 games.
Canadiens vs. Rangers (Canadiens win in 7 games)
After the home team took the win in each of the first 6 games in this series things looked good for the Rangers heading back to Madison Square Gardens for game 7. Unfortunately for them they ran into the Juggernat netminder in George Hainsworth and the potent offense of the Candiens and they lost game seven 5-1 with their only goal coming from Bill Cook at 8:42 in the third period.
Goal Leaders after first round
1. Bill Cook (Rangers) - 5
2. Aurel Joliat (Canadiens) - 5
3. Joe Primeau (Maple Leafs) - 4
Assist Leader
1. Bun Cook (Rangers) - 9
2. Howie Morenz (Montreal) - 6
3. 4 players - 5
Maple Leafs vs. Canadiens (Canadiens win in 5)
The time and time again statement comes true, it's not what you do in the regular season that counts but the playoffs. The heavily favourited Maple Leafs walked into the series against Montreal having most of the betting men on their side, however it did not stay that way. The leafs crumbled in a high scoring affair.
What hurt the Leafs the most was losing All-Star quality netminder Lorne Chabot in game one of the series against the Candiens.
Montreals Aurel Joliat destroyed in the second round, netting 6 goals in the 5 games more then any of the other finalists total goals scored all playoffs. The final stats are as followed
Goal Leaders:
1. Aurel Joliat (Montreal) - 11
2. Charlie Conacher (Toronto) - 6
3. Bill Cook (New York) - 5
Assist Leaders:
1. Howie Morenz (Montreal) - 12
2. Bun Cook (New York), Red Horner (Toronto), Joe Primeau (Toronto) - 9
End of Season Awards
MVP - Howie Morenz (Canadiens)
Playoff MVP - Howie Morenz (Canadiens)
Goalie of the Year - Lorne Chabot (Maple Leafs)
Defender of the Year - King Clancy (Maple Leafs)
Rookie of the Year - Cecil Dillon (Rangers) 11-18-29 in 48 games
The Current NHL points leader Frank Nighbor has retired at the age of 39. The 5'9" Pembroke, ON native finished his carear with 262 goals, 121 assists, and 383 points in 460 NHL games. Upon his retirement Frank was NHL most pointed player, 2nd more Goals, and third most Assists, He also was 2nd all time in games played in the NHL.
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