1948-49
OFFSEASON
Charlie Conacher officially announced his retirement although the Toronto legend had not played an NHL game in 3 seasons. The all-time leader in career goals with 341 and points with 788 played 662 regular season games, all with Toronto. A 9-time Stanley Cup champion, Conacher also won the Conn Smythe Award as playoff MVP twice. He led the NHL in scoring 3 times, was a 2-time MVP and named to the first all-star team on 6 occassions.
Toronto winger Nick Metz also retired after 14 seasons and 636 games in a Leafs uniform. Metz, who won 7 Cups with the Leafs, finished with 192 career goals and 476 points.
Some big name rookies coming in this year led by Jean Beliveau with Montreal, George Armstrong to Toronto along with Gump Worsley and Allan Stanley to the Rangers.
Just before training camp the Leafs dealt 25 year old winger Gaye Stewart to the Chicago Black Hawks in exchange for forwards George Gee and Max McNab. Stewart had a career high 66 points last season and has 313 career points in 302 NHL games, all with Toronto. Gee is a 26 year old center would has 221 points in 355 career games with Chicago. Last year Gee had 17 goals and 17 assists while appearing in all 60 games. McNab is a 24 year old center who has played 4 career NHL games.
The Leafs continued to shake things up by sending 27 year old defenseman Ernie Dickens to Detroit in exchange for Pentti Lund. Dickens has played 227 games over 7 years in Toronto including 44 a year ago. The 22 year old Lund had 32 points in 57 games with Detroit a year ago and added 8 points in the Wings Cup winning playoff run.
REGULAR SEASON
On November 13th Maurice Richard had a 5 goal game in Montreal's 8-3 victory over Boston. On the same night Elmer Lach picked up his 600th career point, an assist on one of Richard's goals. Boston teammates's Milt Schmidt and Bobby Bauer would also reach the 600 point plateau a little later in the season.
For the second year in a row Sid Abel suffered a serious injury. The 30 year old was limited to 11 games last season. This year he played 28 games for suffering a season ending injury. Boston's 32 year old winger Roy Conacher also missed substantial time with an injury. It was the second time in 3 years Conacher was sidelined for much of the season.
As the season started to wind down the league was closely watching Maurice Richard's pursuit of 50 goals. After 41 contests The Rocket had 41 goals. He came close to becoming the league's first 50 goal scorer two years ago but fell one short. In his 42nd game he suffered an injury that cost him 3 contests but did return to score 2 more goals before the end of February. With 9 games remaining in the season, Richard had 43 goals to his credit. With 3 games remaining Richard sat at 46 goals but he would be held off the scoresheet each of the final 3 games and would finish the season with 46 goals and claim the Art Ross Trophy for the second time in his career with 79 points.
The Canadiens would hold off the Detroit Red Wings for the best regular season record with Toronto and Boston claiming the other two post-season berths.
Code:
GP W L T PTS
Montreal Canadiens 60 35 14 11 81
Detroit Red Wings 60 33 15 12 78
Toronto Maple Leafs 60 31 23 6 68
Boston Bruins 60 27 25 8 62
Chicago Black Hawks 60 15 38 7 37
New York Rangers 60 14 40 6 34
SCORING LEADERS TEAM GP G A PTS
Maurice Richard MON 57 46 33 79
Ted Kennedy TOR 60 30 38 68
Milt Schmidt BOS 60 32 35 67
Elmer Lach MON 60 18 47 65
Syl Apps TOR 58 20 39 59
Woody Dumart BOS 60 24 28 52
Kenny Reardon MON 60 9 42 51
Ted Lindsay DET 59 27 23 50
Bep Guidolin BOS 60 18 31 49
Jim Conacher DET 60 21 27 48
PLAYOFFS
With Sid Abel and Ted Lindsay both sidelined for the opening round of the playoffs the Montreal Canadiens had an easy time sweeping the series in 4 games. Toronto also earned a 4 game sweep of Boston in the other series.
Toronto took Game One of the series on the road by a 3-2 score despite Maurice Richard getting both of the Montreal markers. Off-season pickup George Gee was the hero for the Leafs, scoring with less than 5 minutes remaining in regulation to snap the tie.
Two wasn't enough so Richard scored 3 times in Game Two and gave the Canadiens a 3-2 victory to even the series. Toe Blake and Elmer Lach each earned 2 assists. Richard scored twice in the final 13 minutes to erase a 2-1 Toronto lead entering the third period.
Richard did not score in Game Three but he did assist on Toe Blake's insurance goal in a 2-0 Montreal win. Butch Bouchard also scored for the Habs while Turk Broda made 20 saves for the shutout. Leaf goaltender Frank McCool faced 31 Montreal shots.
Red Kelly set up Joe Klukay 6 minutes into overtime to give the Leafs a 3-2 win and even the series at 2 games apiece. Richard and Buddy O'Connor had staked Montreal to an early 2-0 lead but Ted Kennedy scored late in the first and Billy Taylor tied the game early in the third period.
Five different players scored for Toronto as the Leafs took the series lead with a 5-2 victory in Game Five and Toronto would continue the offensive outburst at home in Game Six as the Leafs took the Cup with an 8-4 victory. Ted Kennedy scored twice while Red Kelly had 3 points in the decisive victory.
Kelly, with 4 goals and 6 assists in 10 games was named the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy. Montreal defenseman Kenny Reardon led all playoff performers with 12 points, including 10 assists while Richard was the goal scoring leader with 9 in 10 games. The win was the 11th Cup Title in the sim for Toronto. Boston and Montreal each have 3 and Detroit has the only other one.
Other Award winners:
HART TROPHY: Ted Lindsay Detroit (59GP 27-23-50)
VEZINA TROPHY: Turk Broda Montreal (32-14-8, 2.16)
NORRIS TROPHY: Ken Reardon Montreal (60 GP,9-42-51)
ART ROSS TROPHY: Maurice Richard Montreal (57 GP 46-33-79)
CALDER TROPHY: Allan Stanley New York Rangers (60 GP 3-21-24)
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 Frank McCool Toronto Turk Broda Montreal
D Ken Reardon Montreal Bill Barilko Toronto
D Doug Harvey Montreal Jack Stewart Detroit
C Elmer Lach Montreal Milt Schmidt Boston
LW Ted Lindsay Detroit Woody Dumart Boston
RW Maurice Richard Montreal Ted Kennedy Toronto