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Old 12-24-2016, 01:53 PM   #18
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1945-46

1945-46

OFF-SEASON
The big news this offseason is the addition of Gordie Howe to the Detroit Red Wings organization. The 17 year old is the highlight of this year's rookie crop that also includes Bill Barilko in Toronto, Cal Gardner with the Rangers and Leo Reise joining Chicago.

The only retirement of note is John Mariucci's decision to hang up the skates after 5 seasons with the Chicago Black Hawks. The defenseman played in 214 career games, scoring 10 goals and adding 39 assists.

No trades of any significance over the offseason. In the preseason I did see that Carl Liscombe had a 6 point game (4G 2A) in a 9-2 Detroit win over Toronto. Liscombe is best known in this sim for setting the single game record for goals (6) and points (9) in a Wings playoff win over Toronto a couple of years back.


REGULAR SEASON
Toronto's Syl Apps became just the third player in NHL history to reach the 600 point plateau. The veteran Toronto Maple Leaf pivot finished the season with 637 points. Charlie Conacher (788) and Dit Clapper (746), both still active, are 1-2 in career points.

The gap between the playoff clubs and have-nots Chicago and New York widened as neither the Hawks or Rangers managed to win 10 games on the season while the other 4 clubs were all well over .500. Montreal, led by Elmer Lach tying his own record with 87 points on the season, finished with the best regular season record for the third straight season.

Maurice Richard missed 6 games with an injury but still led the league with in goals with 37. In 4 seasons the Rocket has scored 141 regular season goals which already has him tied for 30th all-time in the NHL. Gordie Howe, still just 17 years old, spent the entire season in the minor leagues.


Code:
   
		    	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Montreal Canadiens	50 31 11  8   70
Toronto	Maple Leafs	50 29 15  6   64
Detroit Red Wings 	50 29 17  4   62
Boston Bruins		50 27 20  3   57
Chicago Black Hawks	50  9 35  6   24
New York Rangers	50  8 35  7   23

SCORING LEADERS		TEAM GP  G  A  PTS
Elmer Lach		MON  50 28 59  87
Sid Abel		DET  50 32 47  79
Milt Schmidt		BOS  49 33 35  68
Toe Blake		MON  50 25 42  67
Roy Conacher	        BOS  49 19 44  63
Syl Apps		TOR  50 21 39  60
Maurice Richard		MON  44 37 21  58
Bobby Bauer		BOS  50 20 37  57
Max Bentley		CHI  47 21 35  56
Gus Bodnar		TOR  50 20 35  55
PLAYOFFS
The Boston Bruins seem to love long playoff series and they had another 7 game semi-final with the Detroit Red Wings. The Bruins rallied to overcome a 3 games to one deficit, taking Game Six in overtime and winning the 7th game 5-3 thanks to a hat trick from Milt Schmidt. The Bruins have a habit of comeback wins over Detroit as they overcame a 3 games to none deficit in the semi-finals two years ago. Last season Boston was forced to a 7th game in both of their series wins including the finals over Montreal to claim their third Stanley Cup.

The other semi-final saw Montreal easily top Toronto in 5 games setting up a Boston-Montreal rematch.

Game One went to Montreal by a 3-2 score as Buddy O'Connor scored twice for the Habs and defenseman Glen Harmon assisted on all 3 Canadiens markers.

O'Connor was the star of Game Two as he scored again and added a pair of helpers in a 4-2 Montreal victory. A 5th year pro, the 29 year old centre is normally overshadowed by the big guns Lach, Blake and Richard. O'Connor scored 11 times in the regular season this year and added 20 assists. He has 88 career regular season goals in 235 games with another 23 in 44 playoff contests.

Back on home ice the Bruins took a quick lead in Game Three when Herb Cain scored in the first period but Montreal evened the contest when O'Connor set up Wally Stanowski in the second period. The winning goal came off the stick of Montreal's Bob Fillion early in the third period and Turk Broda made that 2-1 lead stand up for the rest of the game

With their back against the wall, Boston got two goals from Cain including the overtime winner to stay alive in the series with a 4-3 victory.

There would be no miracle comeback this time as the Bruins went out meekly in Game Five, falling 6-1 in the Montreal Forum. Kenny Mosdell had a goal and 2 assists in the deciding contest while Rocket Richard added a pair of goals.

Roy Conacher led all playoff performers with 16 points, including 4 goals. His Boston teammate Bobby Bauer was the top goal scorer with 7 but the Conn Smythe Trophy went to Montreal defenseman Wally Stanowski. The 26 year old had 2 goals and 8 assists in 10 games and was dominant on the Canadiens defense logging extra minutes with Kenny Reardon and Butch Bouchard both sidelined for the entire playoffs.

Other Award winners:

HART TROPHY: Sid Abel Detroit (50 GP 32-47-79)

VEZINA TROPHY: Turk Broda Montreal (31-11-6, 2.34)

NORRIS TROPHY: Jack Stewart Detroit (50 GP,11-33-44)

ART ROSS TROPHY: Elmer Lach Montreal (50 GP 28-59-87)

CALDER TROPHY: Marty Pavelich Detroit (50 GP 8-18-26)


The game does not select the all-star team but I will start naming first and second team all-stars
Code:

POS      FIRST TEAM		     SECOND TEAM
G   Turk Broda	     Montreal	Chuck Rayner     Detroit
D   Ken Reardon      Montreal	Jack Crawford    Boston
D   Jack Stewart     Detroit	Wally Stanowski	 Montreal
C   Sid Abel	     Detroit	Elmer Lach	 Montreal   
LW  Toe Blake	     Montreal   Roy Conacher     Boston      	 
RW  Maurice Richard  Montreal   Bobby Bauer	 Boston
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