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#1 |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Ontario Canada
Posts: 9,735
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The History of Hockey
I have done a number of historical dynasty reports in the past, usually in baseball but some hockey, and I think it is high time I do another hockey one. This one will be a yearly replay of the history of the sport, beginning in 1909 and progressing - I hope- at least through to the end of the Original Six era and into 1967 expansion.
FHM11 will be used and I have the game set to use the FHM development engine. It sacrifices some historical realism but for me that is what I want, I like to see some surprise players emerge and things not go quite as they did in real life. It will be a 1909 start and I plan to progress fairly quickly until the birth of the NHL in the winter of 1917-18. I will be acting as an overseer in that I will not control a team. My interference will be minimal but I plan on making some small adjustments, primarily to advance story lines. I have the draft turned off so we are using the NHL sponsorship rules until the mid-1960s and I may tinker a bit with where players get signed as juniors. For example Rocket Richard needs to be in Montreal and Gordie Howe should start in Detroit but if Mr. Hockey happens to end up with the Rangers - and collects a jacket as a signing bonus- I will allow that. The background stories I interject, particularly with the NHA and PCHA, will be historical based but due to what may happen in FHM as I sim I will take some artistic license. I plan on looking at each season including the Olympics when they occur and the playable minor leagues when they appear, but the major focus will be on the NHL. I hope to, with the aid of daigle91's great csv to html converter when the new version comes out, dive a little deeper into individual player's careers once I get some seasons in. So here goes ![]() The NHA was founded in 1909 by Ambrose O'Brien and disappeared forever in 1917 when the league suspended operations in order to get rid of an unwanted owner, Eddie Livingstone. Plenty happened in its brief tenure, including introducing six-man hockey by removing the rover position in 1911. The NHA also dealt with competition for players with the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, the enlistment of many players for World War I and multiple disagreements between owners, nearly all of which involved Livingstone and his Toronto Shamrocks club. While this replay will focus primarily on the NHL, it will begin with the first playable league in FHM11, the NHA. 1909-10 Much like the NHL being born due to a dispute amongst owners, the NHA got it's start in the same manner. In November 1909 the senior amateur league in Central Canada was the Eastern Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, which consisted of four teams in the Quebec Bulldogs, Ottawa Senators, Montreal Shamrocks and Montreal Wanderers. The Wanderers had just been purchased by P.J. Doran who owned the Jubilee Rink in Montreal and planned to move the Wanderers there. However, it was smaller than the Wanderers current rink - the Montreal Arena- which meant visiting teams would earn less on their games in the Wanderers new arena. The ACHA wanted to prevent the Wanderers from switching rinks so the existing ACHA owners, minus the Wanderers, looked to form a new league called the Canadian Hockey Association.Meanwhile Ambrose O'Brien, founder of the Renfrew Creamery Kings team, was seeking admission to the new CHA so his club would be eligible to compete for the Stanley Cup. His bid to join was turned down, and he happened to run into the Wanderers owner, who had also been rejected by the CHA. The pair decided to form their own league called the National Hockey Association with the Montreal Wanderers and three teams controlled by O'Brien in the Renfrew outfit as well as the Haileybury Comets and the Cobalt Silver Kings. The league would be rounded out with the addition of the Ottawa Senators along with two more Montreal teams, called the Canadiens and Shamrocks. Those seven teams played a 12 game schedule before the Montreal Wanderers were declared champion with an 8-3-1 record. O'Brien's Creamery Kings also finished 8-3-1 but the Wanderers were awarded the title on a tiebreaker. The two clubs had split their two meetings during the season with Renfrew winning 6-2 in Montreal in January before the Wanderers returned the favour with a 5-4 win on the road in late February. The Wanderers, led by league scoring champion Jimmy Gardner, had the better goal differential at +22, compared to Renfrew's +11, and as a result the Montreal Wanderers were declared champions. 26-year-old Lester Patrick was named the league's Most Valuable Player. Patrick, who also played basketball while attending McGill University, was lured to Renfrew from a western team by O'Brien for an unheard of sum of $3,000. His brother Frank, a defenseman, had joined him and the duo enjoyed great success with Lester leading the Creamery Kings in scoring with 15 points. That total was two shy of Jimmy Gardner's league best 17 points for the Wanderers but Lester Patrick earned the nod over Gardner and Renfrew's Cyclone Taylor to be named MVP. The top goaltender award went Ottawa's George Broughton, who led the league with a 2.96 goals against average. ![]()
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Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles |
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#2 |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Ontario Canada
Posts: 9,735
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1910-11 & 1911-12
1910-11 NHA The league shrank in size for the 1910-11 season as one of the Montreal teams- the Shamrocks- along with two of the teams O'Brien was associated with in the Haileybury and Cobalt entries all dropped out. One new team was added as the Quebec Athletics joined the league. An important note that would play a key role in the birth of the NHL was that the Montreal Wanderers would incorporate with Sam Lichtenhein taking a majority position. Lichtenhein, born in Chicago but grew up in Montreal, was also the owner of baseball's Montreal Royals but more importantly to the history of hockey, he would have numerous clashes with a future club owner over the next few years and that would play a key role in the NHA's demise and the birth of the NHL.The first seeds of discontent were sown as the league imposed a $5,000 salary cap, which quickly led to widespread dissatisfaction amongst the players, even to the point where there were rumours of a players' union. Players also talked over forming a league of their own, but arenas were under NHA control. On the ice O'Brien's Renfrew Creamery Kings were again forced to settle for second place on a tie-breaker. The Kings and the newcomers from Quebec each finished with 21 points at 10-5-1 but once more the Kings were denied a title as the Athletics had the better goal differential. The Montreal Canadiens finished an impressive third thanks to a rising star in 22-year-old forward Newsy Lalonde. Lalonde scored 5 times while playing in just six games a year ago and this time around tallied 13 goals and 7 assists in 16 games to lead the NHA in both points and goals. Lalonde was named the league's Most Valuable Player, nosing out last year's winner Lester Patrick of Renfrew and another young scoring star in Quebec's Joe Malone. The 21-year-old Athletics star finished with 11 goals and 16 points. Renfrew's High Lehman, who had a sparking 2.18 goals against average, was tabbed as the loop's top netminder. ![]() 1911-12 NHA The NHA also faced a major challenge from the west as a number of players -most notably the Patrick brothers- bolted to join a new league based in British Columbia called the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. The PCHA would feature just three teams in its debut season: the New Westminster Royals, Vancouver Millionaires and Victoria Senators. Despite the fact that PCHA clubs raided the NHA for players, the NHA allowed a player-organized team of all-stars to play an exhibition series out west against the PCHA after the season. That moved proved poor for the NHA, as several eastern stars including Cyclone Taylor would be enticed to join the PCHA the following season. The Montreal Canadiens, with 23 points on an 11-6-1 record, breezed to their first National Hockey Association title as Newsy Lalonde once more dominated the league. The 23-year-old scored 25 goals and accumulated 43 points in just 18 games to win the scoring title once again and was rewarded with his second consecutive league MVP award. The New Westminster Royals were the class of the PCHA, posting a perfect 16-0-0 record led by 24 goals and 31 points from Harry Smith, who had moved over from the now-defunct Renfrew club. They Royals also boasted a 25-year-old goalie by the name of Georges Vezina, who saw some action with Renfrew two years ago but had spent the past season playing amateur hockey. Vezina posted a sparkling 2.03 GAA and was named the top netminder in the PCHA. The Stanley Cup was around in this era but it was a challenge trophy at this point and not yet available in FHM so there would be no championship series between the Canadiens and Royals to determine who was the best team in the country. That would change but not for a few years. ![]()
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Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles |
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#3 |
All Star Starter
Join Date: Jan 2021
Posts: 1,464
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Nice
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#4 |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Ontario Canada
Posts: 9,735
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1912-13 & 1913-14
1912-13 The arena situation finally sorted out in Toronto and it allowed the NHA to expand by not one, but two teams as both the Toronto Blueshirts and Toronto Tecumsehs entered the league, bolstering its total to six teams. The PCHA would remain at three teams and would continue to raid the NHA for players. Cyclone Taylor ended up jumping to the Vancouver Millionaires from Ottawa while goaltender Hugh Lehman, the top goalie in the NHA each of the past two seasons, joined him after leaving the Montreal Canadiens for the Millionaires. Led by their two newcomers and a rising star in Frank Nighbor, the Vancouver Millionaires proved to be the class of the PCHA, going 13-3-0 to easily claim the league crown. Taylor (20-4-24), Nighbor (7-15-22) and Carl Kendall (16-1-17) proved to be the most dominant line in hockey that season with Taylor leading the loop in scoring and winning his first Most Valuable Player Award. Lehman followed up his pair of top goalie awards earned in the NHA with another one in his first season in the coast loop. His 2.42 goals against average was nearly half of what New Westminster's Georges Vezina and Charlie Reid of Victoria managed. The National Hockey Association race was tight all season with defending champion Montreal Canadiens being challenged by the Quebec Athletics and Ottawa Senators. Montreal, perhaps nursing a championship hangover that saw the Habs lose five of their first nine games, dug a huge hole and despite losing just once more the rest of the season, the Canadiens had to settle for second place, two points back of Quebec (15-5-0) and two ahead of third place Ottawa. Newsy Lalonde of the Canadiens matched his 43 points accumulated a year ago to win his third consecutive scoring title and also was named the Most Valuable Player for the third year in a row. With Lehman gone to Vancouver, Charlie McCarthy took over in net for the Canadiens and the 22-year-old newcomer was named the top goalie in the NHA. McCarthy would have quite a sporting career as, in addition to his goaltending chores, he also played football for the Toronto Argonauts and was also for a time the Canadian Lightweight Boxing champion. ![]() 1913-14 The NHA also introduced the first playoff in professional hockey when it was decided the top two teams in the league would play a two-game total goal series to determine who would challenge the PCHA champ for the Stanley Cup. Both leagues had tight races for top spot. In the NHA it was a four team battle for the two playoff berths with only the two Toronto clubs out of the running early. The Quebec Bulldogs were the first to blink, as five losses in seven games in late January-early February ended their playoff hopes. The Montreal Wanderers were next to stumble as three consecutive losses to Ottawa, Quebec and the Montreal Canadiens to end their season left them on the outside looking it. In the end it was the Ottawa Senators led by the goaltending of Percy LeSueur and league scoring champ Gord Roberts that claimed the top spot, three points ahead of the Montreal Canadiens. Newsy Lalonde dipped to just 12 goals this season for the Habs but did have 28 assists to finish tied for second in league scoring. At the other end of the spectrum was the Toronto Ontarios, winners of just 2 games and owning a 5-33-2 record for their two years in the league, that had troubles both on the ice and with their finances. It seemed likely the club would fold. Ottawa had won three of its four meetings with Montreal during the regular season and the Senators were favoured to win the league's first playoff. At home, Ottawa took the opening game by a 1-0 score as LeSueur was amazing, turning aside all 44 Canadiens shots while Jack Marks, who scored just once in the regular season, doubled that total with the only goal of the opener. There was plenty of scoring in the second game but it all came from the hosts as the Montreal Canadiens, led by Odie Cleghorn's hat trick and four assists from Newsy Lalonde, blasted the Senators 7-0 to easily win the two-game total goal series and punch their ticket to the Stanley Cup Finals. At the urging of the Patrick brothers, the PCHA debuted the blue line in its arenas for the 1913-14 campaign. It marked the first time the rink was divided into three zones. The league ended up playing an unbalanced schedule as some games were cancelled but in the end the Vancouver Millionaires, despite playing the least number of games, finished with the most points to win their second consecutive league title. The Canadiens made the long trek west to Vancouver to face the Millionaires in what would be the first contest between professional teams for the Stanley Cup. It would also mark the first meeting between teams from the two leagues and chance once and for all to settle which loop was better. STANLEY CUP CHALLENGE GAME ONE: There were no tired legs from the cross-country train trek from Montreal as the Canadiens needed just 52 seconds for playoff hero Odie Cleghorn to open the scoring and by the eleven-minute mark it was 3-0 as Didier Pitre added two more goals for the visitors. Vancouver would settle down in the second period as PCHA goal scoring leader Frank Nighbor got the Millionaires on the scoreboard. Trailing 3-1 after forty minutes the hosts rallied to tie the game on goals from Michael Westlake and Nighbor, with his second of the night. The first meeting between the two loops would require overtime to settle and at the 4:58 mark Ran McDonald, who came over from Quebec during the off-season, scored the game winner unassisted on a breakaway to give the Canadiens a 4-3 victory and first blood in the best-of-five series.GAME TWO: Two nights later the Millionaires were hoping to even the series but it was Montreal that once again took the early lead. George McNamara beat Vancouver netminder Hugh Lehman for the only goal of the opening frame and just over five minutes into the second period Newsy Lalonde doubled the Habs lead with his first playoff goal. Alex Currie got one back for the PCHA champs to cut the deficit to 2-1 but before the second period came to an end Montreal lead 4-1 on goals off the sticks of Sibby Nichols and Ran McDonald, each set up masterfully by Didier Pitre. A scoreless final frame left the Canadiens within a victory of the Stanley Cup following a 4-1 triumph. GAME THREE: With the Stanley Cup in the building both teams came out very cautious, combining for just 20 shots through two periods of action and the game was deadlocked at one thanks to second period goals from Ray Symnott of Vancouver and Montreal's Guy Smith. The Habs must have flipped a switch prior to the third period as the Frenchmen came out Flying, outshooting the Millionaires 26-5 in the final twenty minutes and firing six pucks past a beleaguered Hugh Lehman. Newsy Lalonde scored two of them and Didier Pitre one, giving each 3 goals in the series, while Leth Graham, Sibby Nichols and Fred Doherty also found the back of the net. Frank Nighbor scored his third of the series but that was all the offense the Millionaires could muster over the final twenty minutes as Montreal completed the sweep to claim the Stanley Cup with a 7-2 victory. The individual awards in the NHA went to familiar faces as Newsy Lalonde, despite failing to win his fourth consecutive scoring title, did manage to claim the MVP award for the fourth time. The top goaltender was once more Lalonde's Montreal Canadiens teammate Charlie McCarthy, who won for the second year in a row. The Pacific Coast Hockey Association named Georges Vezina of New Westminster as the top goaltender for the second time in three seasons while Victoria defenseman Lester Patrick, who won an MVP in the NHA in its inaugural season, earned his first PCHA top player award. Dick Irvin, who was born in Hamilton, ON., but grew up in Manitoba before joining the Victoria club prior to last season, won the PCHA scoring title at the age of 21. ![]()
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Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles |
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#5 |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Ontario Canada
Posts: 9,735
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1914-15 & 1915-16
1914-15 Eddie Livingstone makes his debut in professional hockey after he purchases the struggling Toronto Ontarios and gives them another nickname change, switching their orange uniforms for green and calling them the Toronto Shamrocks. Beyond that the NHA remains unchanged but the Pacific Coast Hockey League now has an American based team after the New Westminster club moves to Portland and is named the Rosebuds.The two leagues continue their policy of honouring each other's contracts and not poaching players, but the sport faces another challenge that takes many players away from their clubs: World War I. Livingstone's first bit of controversy arrives when he informs the league prior to a mid-season game his Shamrocks do not have enough healthy players to travel to Montreal and play Sam Lichtenhein's Wanderers. The league deems it to be a forfeit, but Lichtenhein originally is reported to have agreed to rescheduling the contest before later changing his mind. It leads to a bitter war of words between the two that has Lichtenhein calling for Livingstone to be expelled from the league. This was just the beginning of a feud that would eventually lead to the demise of the NHA and the birth of the NHL. On the ice the Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators would again be the NHA playoff teams but in the reverse order as the Habs, once more led by Newsy Lalonde and his league best 46 points, finished first with a 14-3-3 record. Ottawa fought a fevered battle with the Quebec Bulldogs for second place, one that went right down to the final game of the season when the two clubs, tied in points, met in the Canadian capital. Art Throop scored with just 5 minutes remaining in the game to give the Senators a 3-2 victory and a trip to the playoffs. The Senators were led by a sensational teenager named George Hainsworth, who would be named the top goaltender in the NHA. Just as was the case a year ago, the Senators came up short against the Canadiens, losing both games and falling 9-6 in the total goal series. Three third period goals gave Montreal a come from behind 4-3 win in the opener. The second game was all Newsy Lalonde. The 26-year-old scored once in the opening game and then factored in on all five Montreal goals in game two, scoring one and setting up the other four. The Canadiens would be defending their Stanley Cup title won a year ago with a three-game sweep of Vancouver by facing the Portland Rosebuds this time around. The Rosebuds settled into their new home quite nicely after moving from New Westminster and were led by league MVP Cyclone Taylor. Taylor, who had joined the organization in a trade from Vancouver last year, led the PCHA in goals with 16 and points with 25. *** STANLEY CUP *** The Stanley Cup final was contested in Montreal this year and after the opener, an 8-2 Montreal victory, Habs fans were expecting another sweep. Odie Cleghorn had 4 points in the rout while Lalonde and Sibby Nichols each scored twice.Game two was a completely different story as Portland goaltender Georges Vezina, who struggled mightily in the opener, was outstanding on this night and made 36 saves in a 4-2 Portland victory. It would prove to be the only high point of the series for the Rosebuds as Montreal returned to dominance in game three with a 7-2 victory. Lalonde scored again, giving him 4 goals in the three games, while Didier Pitre and Art Ross each tallied twice for the winners. The Canadiens clinched the series with a 5-3 win in game four, one in which they led 4-1 after twenty minutes and coasted to a 5-3 victory. Near tragedy struck late in the second period when a puck was deflected into the face of Montreal star Newsy Lalonde. He dropped to the ice in a pool of blood amidst concerns he might lose his right eye. In the end the eye did survive but a badly broken orbital bone would mean a long summer of recovery from the scoring ace. It was a disappointing series for Portland star Cyclone Taylor, who scored 16 times in 18 PCHA games during the season but only managed one in the Cup battle and that was a meaningless marker in the closing minutes of the game four loss. ![]() 1915-16 - A WAR ABROAD AND AT HOME While an actual war was waging in Europe, there was quite a battle going on amongst the professional hockey teams. Eddie Livingstone was once more front and center as he purchased the Toronto Blueshirts and planned to own both Toronto entries in the NHA. The league objected and Livingstone eventually relented by folding the Shamrocks, but not until after he transferred the contracts of their two best players - Cy Denneny and Barney Stanley to the Blueshirts over the objection of several other club owners. A month later, Livingstone reignited the war with the PCHA when he signed Cyclone Taylor to a contract. Up to that point there had been an uneasy peace between the two leagues but the signing of Taylor changed the landscape and things turned sour quickly with PCHA teams raiding NHA rosters. The expansion Seattle Metropolitans, a fourth team added to the PCHA responded quickly in luring goaltender Hal Winkler from the Stanley Cup champion Montreal Canadiens and much to the ire of owner Sam Lichtenhein signed three players away from the Montreal Wanderers including star forward Tommy Smith. Gord Roberts, Ottawa's scoring star, also was lured west as he signed with Portland to help replace the loss of Cyclone Taylor. Only the Montreal Canadiens, who convinced goaltender Georges Vezina to join them from Vancouver as a replacement for Winkler, landed a top player from the west aside from Toronto's initial salvo to sign Taylor. The Montreal Canadiens once more finished with the best record in the NHA, as Newsy Lalonde won his sixth league MVP and fifth scoring title while ex-Vancouver netminder Georges Vezina was named the top goaltender. Livingstone's Toronto Blueshirts finished second and expected to face Montreal in a playoff but when it became apparent the Toronto club would finish second, the league owners voted to remove the playoff system and simply send the regular season champion west to play for the Stanley Cup. It was Livingstone's turned to be incensed and it seemed just a matter of time before he would be out of the league. His Blueshirts were actually a pretty good team with newcomers Barney Stanley, Cy Denneny and Cyclone Taylor leading the way but Denneny's younger brother Corb and goaltender Howie Lockhart also played key roles. Led by PCHA scoring leader Frank Nighbor and top goaltender Hugh Lehman the Vancouver Millionaires returned to the top of the western league and would host the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup challenge series for the second time in three years. *** STANLEY CUP *** Montreal lost the opening game of the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time, falling 2-1 to Vancouver in overtime. Phil Stevens had given the Habs the lead in the second period but Lester Patrick tied the game midway through the third and Carl Kendall scored the winner just past the 17 minute mark of the first overtime.The second game featured much more offense as the Millionaires, behind a Cal Kendall hat trick, led 4-3 after forty minutes. Montreal battled back with three third period goals including Newsy Lalonde's first of the series with just 1:02 remaining in regulation to give the Canadiens a 6-5 victory and even the series at one. The two clubs traded victories in the next two games as Vancouver took the third game 3-2 behind a goal and an assist from Alex Currie but the Canadiens forced a deciding fifth game with a 5-4 victory keyed by a Didier Pitre hat trick. Game five would see both goaltenders - Montreal's Georges Vezina and Hugh Lehman of Vancouver- keep the game scoreless until the closing moments of the second period when the Habs Eddie Oatmen beat Lehman. It would stay 1-0 until Odie Cleghorn secured the Canadiens third consecutive Stanley Cup with a late goal giving Montreal a 2-0 victory. Vezina made 19 saves for his first Stanley Cup shutout. ![]()
__________________
Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles |
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#6 |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Ontario Canada
Posts: 9,735
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1916-17 & 1917-18
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 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 Birth of the NHL 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. ![]()
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Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles |
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Join Date: Dec 2001
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1918-19 & 1919-20
1918-19 In just its second season the National Hockey League found itself reduced to three teams when, just days before the season opener, a fire destroyed the Montreal Wanderers arena. That left Montreal without a team for its English-speaking community as the Canadiens drew primarily Montreal's francophones. Interestingly, the Canadiens rink, Jubilee Arena, would also burn a year later but the club would find a temporary home until a new rink -the Mount Royal Arena- could be built. Wanderers players would be picked up by other clubs with their two biggest stars in Mickey Mackey and Sprague Cleghorn going to Toronto, raising hopes the Arenas might be a competitive club. Some ended up in the PCHA, which also had a franchise change. The Portland Rosebuds, despite winning three league titles in the past four years, were losing money and shut down, replaced by the return of the Victoria Aristocrats to the league after a two-year absence. Like the Wanderers, former Portland players also fanned out through the two leagues with reigning MVP Frank Foyston going to Ottawa, last year's scoring champ Bobby Rowe moving to Vancouver and goaltender Tom Murry signing on with Victoria. Toronto was indeed much improved as a bounce back season from goaltender Hugh Lehman, combined with offensive production from the big three of Cyclone Taylor, Joe Malone and newcomer Corb Denneny helped the Arenas battle the defending champion Ottawa Senators for top spot all season. In the end the Senators claimed first by just two points over the Arenas. Ottawa had plenty of offense as well with Harry Meeking leading the league in scoring, followed closely by Corb Denneny's brother Cy. George Hainsworth was named the top goaltender in the league after posting a league-low 3.65 goals against average. The Montreal Canadiens, despite 26 points from Newsy Lalonde, had a terrible season and finished last with a 6-12-0 record. The Victoria Aristocrats return to the PCHA was a successful one as they led the league with 24 points, while Vancouver and Seattle tied for second with 18. Offense was still at a premium as Victoria's Tom Murray posted the lowest goals against average a professional league had ever seen at 1.61. He was the clear choice for his third straight top goalie award while his teammate Frank Fredrickson led the league in scoring with 12 points and was named Most Valuable Player. Fredrickson had been an Aristocrat during Victoria's first stay in the PCHA, returning after the Montreal Wanderers, who he suited up for a year ago, suspended operations due to their arena fire. The PCHA added a playoff this season, matching the NHL's old format of a two-game total goal series. Victoria prevailed over Vancouver, which was awarded second place on a tiebreaker, easily winning both games by scores of 3-0 and 4-1. An influenza outbreak had been sweeping the nation and it ended up racing through the Vancouver dressing room, leaving the Millionaires extremely short-staffed for the series. The NHL also had major concerns with the outbreak. Dick Irvin of the Toronto Arenas was the first player to be sidelined with the Spanish Flu, being knocked out action late in the season. The playoffs were adjusted this season to be a best-of-seven affair, and the Ottawa Senators would win a wild opening game by a score of 8-7 before going on to win the series in six games with Cy Denneny leading the way with 7 goals and 11 points in the series. A number of Toronto players became ill during the series and missed several games. STANLEY CUP As the weather was warming up, the Spanish Flu intensified and there were calls by many to cancel the Stanley Cup series but owners from both Victoria and Ottawa elected to proceed. It would turn out to be a decision that had deadly consequences. Victoria goaltender Tom Murray would play the entire series but would be hospitalized immediately after the series and would die in an Ottawa hospital a few days later. Numerous other players on both teams were infected but fortunately all would make a full recovery.Ottawa won the opening game by a 4-0 score with Buck Boucher and Frank Foyston each scoring once and adding an assist. George Hainsworth would earn the shutout but was called on to make just 13 saves in the Ottawa net. Game Two would also go Ottawa's way as Cy Denneny scored twice in a 6-3 Senators win. The lead would be increased to 3 games to none after Buck Boucher had a 3-point night in leading Ottawa to a 4-1 victory in game three. Murray made 46 saves in game four, willing his Aristocrats to a 3-2 victory and allowing them to prolong the series. Frank Foyston had scored twice in the second period for Ottawa after Victoria had taken an early 2-0 lead, but Victoria's Frank Frerickson notched the game winner early in the third period. The Victoria win in game three was just prolonging the inevitable as the Senators won their second consecutive Stanley Cup with a 4-3 victory in the fifth game. Victoria was missing 3 regulars and Ottawa one due to the flu and Murray was beginning to show signs of the virus that would claim his life a few days later but refused to leave the Victoria net. NOTE- In real life the 1919 Stanley Cup final between the Montreal Canadiens and Seattle Metropolitans was abandoned before its completion due to the Spanish flu. Montreal defenseman Joe Hall would die days later due to the illness. FHM storylines listed a number of players who were sidelined with influenza during or around the time of the series including Murray. Since Hall was not in the series, I used a random number generator to determine which player would replace him as the casualty and it ended up being Murray, who had been named the top goalie in the PCHA each of the past three seasons. In real life Tommy Murray, born in Buffalo in 1893, would live to the ripe old age of 70 and played hockey until 1930 but primarily in a California semi-pro league as he played just 14 PCHA games after the 1918-19 season. Interestingly enough, I learned in researching him that he was feared dead from injuries suffered during the 1933 Long Beach earthquake near Los Angeles, but it turned out the report was incorrect and he was confused with a garage employee also named Tommy Murray, and the goaltender Tommy Murray escaped the earthquake without injury. ![]() ![]() 1919-20 The Quebec Bulldogs had dropped out of the NHA a couple of seasons back after their manager had retired due to health reasons and the remaining owner's inability to get enough financing to move to the NHL. A new owner stepped up but according to some reports his plan was to use the Bulldogs to help resurrect the NHA but that did not happen and two years later the Bulldogs had the money to make their NHL debut as they joined for the 1919-20 season to bring the league back to four teams.As part of the deal to return Quebec to the pro ranks, the league agreed to place all players that were on the Bulldogs Stanley Cup winning team in 1916-17, their final season in the NHA, back on their roster. This included Joe Malone who was returned to Quebec from the Toronto team, now known as the St. Patrick's, along with Duke Keats and Buck Boucher who had won back-to-back Stanley Cups with Ottawa. Despite the loss of key players, Ottawa and Toronto remained the top teams in the NHL. The Senators benefitted from stellar goaltending from George Hainsworth to go along with the offensive production of Frank Foyston and Cy Denneny and easily finished atop the league for the third straight season. After keeping pace with the Senators for much of the season, the St. Patrick's stumbled down the stretch but did manage to hold off Montreal by two points to claim second place. Mickey MacKay was the star of the show for Toronto, leading the league in goals with 21 and points with 49. The Newsy Lalonde led Canadiens made a hard charge for a playoff berth, winning five of the final six games but in the end fell just short. Quebec struggled both on the ice and at the box office, and were so strapped for cash they had to sell Joe Malone to Ottawa midway through the season. It seemed unlikely the club would be able to operate next season. After being a best-of-seven a year ago, the NHL playoff returned to a best-of-five affair with the first two games set to be contested in Toronto. The St. Patrick's rebounded quickly from their rough finish to the regular season and trounced Ottawa 6-2 in the opener behind a pair of goals from league scoring champ Mickey MacKay. It would be Toronto's only time to celebrate in the series as the Senators roared back with three straight victories to earn a spot in the Stanley Cup Final for the third consecutive season. Game Two was a 5-3 Ottawa victory as Frank Foyston scored twice and added an assist. Art Duncan scored twice and Joe Malone had three points as the Senators prevailed 8-5 on home ice in the third game and then closed out the series with a 5-2 victory in game four keyed by a three-point outing from Eddie Gerard. Out west, the Vancouver Millionaires led by PCHA MVP Frank Nighbor, who led the loop with 15 goals and tied with teammate Carl Kendall for the point lead, finished in first place by a full 12 points over both Seattle and Victoria. Vancouver also had the loop's top goaltender in Hap Holmes. Seattle would be awarded second place on a tiebreaker leaving defending champion Victoria on the outside looking in at playoff time as the loss of goaltender Murray was just too much to overcome. Vancouver was an overwhelming favourite to win the two-game total goal playoff series as the Millionaires had won 8 of the 11 meetings between the two clubs during the regular season but it was the Metropolitans who took the opening game, winning 3-1 thanks to a pair of goals from Jack Adams. The Millionaires won the rematch, but only by a single goal 4-3, meaning they would lose the total goal series by a 6-5 count. STANLEY CUP The Spanish Flu epidemic which had cost the life of Victoria goaltender Tommy Murray and greatly impacted the Cup series a year ago, was now -for the most part anyway- a thing of the past. Still there were lingering concerns and the two leagues agreed in December to reduce the championship series from a best-of-seven matchup to a two-game total goal series.It would be contested in Ottawa as the Senators looked to capture the Cup for a third straight year. It would be Seattle's first chance to play for the coveted trophy, one which had seen the eastern team prevail in each of the six previous seasons. Like they were in the PCHA playoffs Seattle was the underdog once more, but the Metropolitans seemed to revel in the role and opened the scoring when Jack Adams beat Ottawa netminder George Hainsworth late in the first period. The two clubs traded goals in the middle frame - Adams scored again for Seattle while Frank Foyston replied for Ottawa- so the Metropolitans held a 2-1 lead entering the final period. It took just two minutes for the Senators Reg Noble to tie the game but the momentum, instead of shifting to Ottawa, seemed to favour the visitors as Jack Adams replied quickly with his hat trick goal, one which opened the floodgates. The Metropolitans would score four more times in the final ten minutes of the game and had a commanding 7-2 lead in goals entering the second contest. Shocked at the turn of events they could do little about, the Senators again struggled in game two and lost it as well, falling by a 3-2 count as Jack Adams scored his fourth goal of the series. When the final buzzer sounded the Seattle Metropolitans had won 10-4 and became the first PCHL team to win the Stanley Cup. ![]() CYCLONE TAYLOR RETIRES At the conclusion of the season, Fred "Cyclone" Taylor announced his retirement. The 36-year-old from Listowel, ON., began his pro career with Ambrose O'Brien's Renfrew Creamery Kings and would end it in nearby Ottawa with the NHL Senators. He was much travelled both on the ice and off. On the ice he spent time at various points of his career playing all positions except for goalie and won two PCHA scoring championships while in a different year being considered the top defenseman in the coast league. He is one of a short list of players to play in all three leagues (NHA, PCHA and NHL) and likely should have earned the moniker "Suitcase" instead of Cyclone as he played for 8 different teams over his 11-year career.Taylor was a two-time MVP of the PCHA and while he did not win a Stanley Cup, he did help Portland reach the finals in the spring of 1915 and was a member of the NHL playoff champion Ottawa Senators in his final season. Nicknamed Cyclone because of his incredible speed, the real life Taylor was considered one of the first stars of pro hockey and the premier attraction at the birth of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. He led the Vancouver Millionaires to the Stanley Cup in 1915. It is said that his nickname was bestowed upon Taylor by the then-Governor General of Canada, Earl Grey, after he watched Taylor play. After his playing career Taylor worked in the Immigration Department and eventually rose to become the Commissioner of Immigration for British Columbia and the Yukon. He also ran unsuccessfully in Vancouver in two provincial elections. One of his sons won two Canadian University Hockey Championships and a grandson, Mark Taylor, would play 209 NHL games in the 1980's for Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington. ![]() HOCKEY MAKES OLYMPIC DEBUT 1920 marked the first and only time that the sport of ice hockey was part of the Summer Olympics. The winter Olympics would not make their debut until 4 years later so it would be the summer games that would usher in the sport's debut as an Olympic discipline. To be fair, it was not really a part of the summer Olympics either as while the tournament was played in Antwerp, Belgium as were the rest of the Olympic sports, hockey and figure skating were both contested in April of that year - four months ahead of the other sports.In real life Canada, represented by the Allen Cup winning Winnipeg Falcons, dominated the event to win gold, outscoring their opponents in the 3 playoff games by a combined score of 28-1. The United States, which had only lost 2-0 to Canada, took the silver while Czechoslovakia claimed the bronze. Things were much different in the replay as the United States, led by tournament scoring leader Fern Headley, would defeat Canada 4-2 in the gold medal game. Sweden blanked France 5-0 to claim the bronze. ![]()
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Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles |
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#8 |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Ontario Canada
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1920-21
1920-21 As expected, the struggling Quebec Bulldogs did not stick around for the 1920-21 season, as their one-year return to pro hockey ended quickly with news the club had been transferred to Hamilton and would be known as the Tigers. The arrival of the Hamilton club marked the start of a brief period of stability for the NHL as the current four team league (Hamilton, Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa) would stay intact for the next four years. The Pacific Hockey Association would remain unchanged from the previous season with the defending Stanley Cup champion Seattle Metropolitans once more joined by Vancouver and Victoria.The Ottawa Senators, perhaps with something to prove after being upset by Seattle in the Stanley Cup finals last year, were on fire to start the season. The Senators dropped their opening game to Hamilton by a 4-3 score but the proceeded to win their next ten in a row. Even a four-game losing skid to start February could not deprive the Senators of first place after their strong start and they finished at 15-9-0, good for a six-point bulge on both Toronto and Montreal. Ottawa's strength was once more in net as George Hainsworth and his defense combined to allow the fewest goals against in the league by a wide margin. There was plenty of offense too as Cy Denneny and 19-year-old Aurel Joliat finished one-two in goal scoring with Denneny setting a record for the young league by tallying 23 goals. Toronto and Montreal tied with 24 points, but the St. Patrick's were awarded second place after winning five of eight regular season meetings with the Canadiens. Mickey MacKay was once more the leader in Toronto with a 31 points season and veteran goaltender Hugh Lehman still looked solid despite turning 35 early in the season. Montreal had plenty of offense, as only Ottawa scored more than the Habs, but it was at the other end of the ice where the Canadiens had their difficulties. The Habs conceded the most goals against as Georges Vezina endured a tough season in the Canadiens net. Newsy Lalonde won another scoring championship as his 40 points topped the loop with young teammate Babe Dye finishing second in scoring. The Tigers did not find much more success in Hamilton than they had in Quebec and finished last, never really being a factor at all. The playoff series was a two-game total goal affair with Ottawa prevailing by a 10-7 count and earning the NHL's bid to the Stanley Cup final for the fourth consecutive season. The opener saw Ottawa nip Toronto 5-4 as Joliat scored a hat trick for the Senators while MacKay replied with three of his own for the St. Patrick's. Ottawa closed out the series with a 5-3 win with Joliat collecting another goal and an assist. The PCHA standings finished in the same order as a year ago with the Vancouver Millionaires, led by league scoring champ and MVP Frank Nighbor, claiming top spot, seven points ahead of second place Seattle with Victoria again bringing up the rear. After being upset a year ago in the playoff, Vancouver was not going to make the same mistake of taking the Metropolitans lightly. The Millionaires, keyed by a pair of Tommy Smith goals, blasted Seattle 5-1 in the opening game and wrapped up the two-game total goal series with a 3-1 win in game two. Carl Kendall scored twice in the opening period of that one to ensure there would be no comeback bid from Seattle. STANLEY CUP After being upset at home by Seattle a year ago, the Ottawa Senators will try once more to win their third Stanley Cup as the play in the finals for the fourth consecutive season. The Vancouver Millionaires made two appearances last decade but are still looking for their first Cup win after being defeated by the Montreal Canadiens both times.The series will once again be a two-game total goal affair so a strong showing for each team was essential in the opener. Ottawa delivered on that with a dominant 5-0 victory in which the Senators outshot the Millionaires 42-10. Veteran Joe Malone had his troubles during the regular season as injuries limited the 31-year-old to 19 games, but he did average nearly a point a game. He did better than that on this night with a goal and two assists to pace the Ottawa attack. Two days later the Senators, and Malone, were just as impressive as they completed the lobsided series with a 6-1 victory. Buck Boucher scored twice for Ottawa while Malone would collect another goal and an assist to tie for the playoff scoring lead at 5 points with teammate Bernie Morris. It would prove to be Malone's final game with the Senators as a week later the club traded him to Hamilton as part of six player deal. The club was no longer based in Quebec, but it reunited Malone with the franchise he was most associated with having spent seven and a half seasons with the organization when they were in the NHA and known as the Athletics and later Bulldogs. ![]() NOTABLE RETIREMENTS Three players that played key roles in the sport each announced their retirement at the end of the season: Didier Pitre along with two of the Patrick brothers Lester and Frank.Pitre spent his entire FHM career with the Montreal Canadiens, joining the club for its first NHA season in 1909 and serving as their first captain in the National Hockey League. He finished with 280 points, second in Montreal franchise history trailing only Newsy Lalonde. He was a member of three Stanley Cup winning Montreal teams. Nicknamed "Cannonball" Pitre was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1963. A native of Valleyfield, Quebec, Pitre was known for one of the hardest shots in the league. Between the NHL and NHA he played in 255 career games and scored 220 goals and 280 points. He retired at the end of the 1922-23 season and moved to Sault Ste. Marie, MI where he died at the age of 50 in 1934. His nephew Vic Desjardins would play 87 games for the Rangers and Black Hawks in the early 1930s and is a member of the US Hockey Hall of Fame. Lester and Frank Patrick began their FHM careers with the Renfrew Creamery Kings before playing a key role in the founding of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. Lester landed in Victoria while Frank began his career in Vancouver, but the duo would be reunited in 1914 when Lester moved to the Millionaires. Lester was named PCHA MVP in his final full season in Victoria and would play 218 professional games. Frank suited up for 182 games between the NHA and PCHA. Both would go on to coaching and executive roles following their playing careers with Lester best known for his long run in charge of the New York Rangers. Frank had coaching stints with Boston and Montreal. Lester's son's Lynn and Muzz both played in the NHL as did his grandson Craig Patrick had a long career as a player and executive while another grandson, Glenn, played briefly in the NH and WHA. ![]()
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Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles |
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#9 |
Bat Boy
Join Date: Mar 2025
Posts: 4
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That's great!
I have questions: Did you change something in the league editor to make the NHA play without rovers or did it happen automatically in the game? Same thing about Stanley Cup rosters in the NHA era: were the matchups between the top NHA and PCHA teams scheduled automatically? Why I ask: in my playing for the Canadiens, which I also started with the 1909-10 season, and now entering the 1917-18 season (the first NHL season) there are still rovers playing in both leagues, and still no Stanley Cup draws between clubs in the two leagues. Although there were reports in the news before the seasons about the rovers being canceled and the Stanley Cup games being set up. I can't figure out if this is some bug in my game or save, or if I need to change these things myself. That said, I haven't found an undo rovers button in the league editor. |
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#10 | |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Ontario Canada
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Quote:
I did notice that once the NHA disappeared it appears any of the Stanley Cup history from 1913-14 until 1916-17 also vanished as once you get to the NHL the Stanley Cup history only goes back as a far as 1917-18. I assume it is tricky for the developers to integrate the Stanley Cup with *multiple leagues and maybe there is a way to view those early Cup results but I have not found one. What I can do is confirm that in my sim the Stanley Cup was contested for beginning with the 1913-14 season. As for rover, I am not certain. I am simming very quickly right now to get to the late 1940s/early1950s when I plan to slow down a bit, so I did not check but I was going by the information listed in the July 1 emails as well as taking some of the real history and adding it in. Therefore I cannot say for certain whether the rover was actually eliminated as the email stated.
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Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles |
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#11 |
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Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Ontario Canada
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1921-22 & 1922-23
1921-22 The NHL would remain unchanged from the previous season but there were big happenings in the west. The Western Canada Hockey League was formed and became the second major professional league in Western Canada. They would play an interlocking schedule with the PCHA but for FHM purposes they are combined into a single league with two divisions. The three existing PCHA clubs will comprise one division while the other will be composed of four new teams in the Calgary Tigers, Edmonton Eskimos, Regina Capitals and Saskatoon Sheiks.The WCHA will also use an expanded playoff format with a cross-over semi-final where the top team in the PCHA will face the second-place team in the WCHL and vice versa. The two winners would play in the Western final to determine who plays for the Stanley Cup. All series will be two-game total goals. The NHL season saw the Montreal Canadiens jump out to a quick lead thanks to the trio of Babe Dye, Bill Cook and George Hay. Those three bumped Newsy Lalonde and Corb Denneny to the second line and had the Canadiens flying during the early portions of the season but a February injury to Hay slowed their pace. That allowed Ottawa, which had meandered through the month of December and early January at the .500 mark, a chance to overtake the Habs for top spot once they heated up. And Ottawa was boiling hot in the dead of winter, finishing their season with 13 consecutive victories to finish in first place for the fifth year in a row. Like Montreal, it was a changing of the guard in Ottawa. Cy Denneny, Corb's brother, was still very effective as was George Hainsworth in the Ottawa net but the stars of the team were a trio of 20-year-olds in Howie Morenz, Frank Boucher and Aurel Joliat. Joliat smashed the old record set by Cy Denneny for goals in a season by 9, scoring an amazing 32 times in just 24 games. The Toronto St. Patrick's and Hamilton Tigers never had a chance at a playoff berth although both did have some talent of their own. Veterans Howie Meeking and Jack Darragh were the leaders in the Steel City while in Toronto Mickey MacKay had a down year by his standards but was still the top Toronto player. In the NHL playoff series, once more a two-game total goal affair, the clubs battled to a 2-2 draw in the nation's capital in the opener. Young King Clancy and Howie Morenz scored for the Senators while Nels Stewart and Bill Cook replied for Montreal. The hometown Habs struck first in game two with Joe Simpson scoring in the opening minute and Punch Broadbent increasing the lead to 2-0 before Ottawa finally got on the scoreboard when Bernie Morris notched a power play goal in the closing seconds of the opening frame. The second period was all Montreal as Newsy Lalone, Nels Stewart, Babe Dye and Syl Mantha also scored within the first ten minutes of the middle frame. Ottawa would get one goal back in the third but that was a close as they would get and Montreal took the game 6-2 and the series by an 8-4 count sending the Canadiens back to the Stanley Cup finals for the fourth time but first as a member of the NHL. WESTERN CANADA HOCKEY LEAGUE Jack Adams scored 19 goals and tied Regina's Emory Sparrow for the scoring lead to help the Seattle Metropolitans finish with the best record in the PCHA. It was Sparrow's Capitals that owned the best record overall in the loop, with Regina going 18-5-1 to narrowly nip provincial rival Saskatoon for top spot in the WCHL.Regina would face defending PCHA champion Vancouver in the semi-finals and the Capitals secret weapon was a 21-year-old goaltender by the name of John Ross Roach. Roach had played a few games for the 227th Battalion in the NHA as a 16-year-old when he lied about his age to get into the Canadian military during the war. He was eventually discovered and removed from the army but did spend the last couple of years playing junior hockey before catching on with Regina. Roach was outstanding all season and set a league record for shutouts with 5, which he co-established with Red McCusker of Saskatoon this season. Roach would earn another shutout in the series opener as the Capitals blanked Vancouver 3-0. He was not quite as sharp in game two as the Millionaires won 4-3 but was good enough to help Regina advance on aggregate goals. The other series saw Saskatoon win 1-0 over Seattle in their series opener as McCusker would also pitch a shutout in the opener. Seattle would turn the tables in the second game, blanking the Sheiks 2-0 to narrowly win the series by a 2-1 count. Regina was no match for the experienced Metropolitans in the Western Final as Seattle took the opener 1-0 in a game that Roach made much closer than it should have been. The second game was a 3-2 Seattle win as Red Dutton assisted on all 3 Metropolitan goals. Seattle won the series 4-2 and would be looking to duplicate its showing of two years ago when the Metropolitans upset the NHL champ to win the Stanley Cup. STANLEY CUP The 1922 Stanley Cup final would be the first to feature two teams that had lifted the Cup in the past. Seattle won its lone title two years ago by beating Ottawa while Montreal had won each of the first three Stanley Cups after the NHA and PCHA partnered up to play a title series beginning in 1913-14.The best-of-five series would open in Montreal with the hosts quickly looking to make a statement that they were not impressed with the Metropolitans. Barney Stanley gave Montreal a quick lead just 1:06 into the series opener and less than two minutes later Joe Simpson made it 2-0. George Hay would score a short time later and before the series was nine minutes old the Canadiens led 3-0. Montreal would add another goal in the middle period when Babe Dye found the back of the net. Seattle did score twice in the third period to make it respectable, but the final score was 4-2 giving the Canadiens the series opener. It was a much different Seattle club two nights later as the Metropolitans were the ones on a mission to start the second game. Bill Holmes opened the scoring to give Seattle its first lead of the series at the 8-minute mark of game two and in the next three minutes Alf Skinner scored twice and Jim Riley once to put Seattle up 4-0. Skinner would complete the hat trick in the second period and the Metropolitans would even the series with a convincing 7-3 victory. The series then shifted to Seattle but the break to travel across the country did not slow the Metropolitans offense down as Skinner, Phil Stevens and Jack Adams gave Seattle a 3-0 lead after twenty minutes of game three. Babe Dye scored two early in the second frame to bring the Habs to within a goal, but Gordon McFarlane put Seattle up 4-2 after forty minutes. Jack Adams, with his second of the game, and Clem Loughlin gave the Metropolitans some breathing room as the third period hit the midway point. Montreal staged a furious comeback, getting goals from Corb Denneny, Joe Simpson and Bill Cook but the Habs could not get the equalizer and fell 6-5. Bill Cook was the story of game four as the Canadiens needed a win to stay alive. Cook scored twice in the first period and set up second period goals from Babe Dye and Nels Stewart to lead Montreal to a 6-4 victory and force a deciding fifth game. Newsy Lalonde seems to have slowed down substantially at the age of 33, scoring just 4 times this season after getting 17 goals the previous year. The Canadiens all-time leading scorer proved he had a little something left in the tank as Lalonde came up with his biggest game of the season. He scored twice and set up Punch Broadbent as Montreal took a 3-1 lead after two periods. When Jack Adams scored his second of the game to bring Seattle to within one, it was Lalonde who once again stepped up, collecting his fourth point of the game by setting up Nels Stewart. Adams would get his hat trick but Stewart and Dave Ritchie replied for the Canadiens who went on to win game five by a 6-3 score and win their fourth Stanley Cup. ![]() 1922-23 On the ice the Ottawa Senators had been extremely successful, but off the ice it was another story. The clubs had financial troubles and as a result was forced to sell a number of players. Defenseman King Clancy and veteran forward Cy Denneny were sold to the Toronto St. Patrick's. There had been talk that scoring champ Aurel Joliat would also need to be sold but the Senators avoided that move by getting Frank Foyston, who began his career on the west coast, to accept a transfer to the Vancouver Maroons.The Vancouver Maroons were not a new team in the Western League. Instead, it was simply a name change for the Vancouver Millionaires. Victoria also abandoned the moniker Aristocrats to become the Victoria Cougars. There were no new franchises or relocations for either league although some of the western clubs were facing financial peril. Ottawa seemed to be financially secure for at least the near future after the player sales but in the NHL there were worries about the future of the woeful Hamilton club, including talks of it being moved to an American city. An interesting note is that this season marked the first broadcast of an NHL game as on February 14, CFCA, the radio station of the Toronto Daily Star newspaper broadcast the third period of the St. Patrick's game with the visiting Montreal Canadiens. The Ottawa Senators clearly had enough talent to withstand the loss of the players that were sold off. Ottawa began the season with five consecutive victories and finished in what is becoming an all too familiar place - at the top of the NHL regular season standings. Youngsters Howie Morenz and Aurel Joliat along with 32-year-old Bernie Morris took care of the offense and George Hainsworth was once more the top goaltender in the NHL. Montreal finished second, holding off a much-improved Toronto St. Patrick's squad for the second playoff berth. The defending Stanley Cup champions could not quite match Ottawa's offensive depth, but Babe Dye and Bill Cook were a good one-two punch. Second year man Alex Connell looked sharp in the Habs cage. Toronto had a little more offense than Montreal led by veteran Duke Keats, who led the loop in scoring after coming over from Hamilton during the winter. The fourth place Tigers had Joe Malone but little else and once more finished well behind the other three teams. The first game of the playoffs was a tight battle for two periods with visiting Montreal clinging to a 4-3 lead, but Ottawa exploded for three unanswered goals in the final twenty minutes to claim a 6-4 victory. Bernie Morris scored three times and added an assist for the Senators with Howie Morenz chipping in with two goals of his own. Montreal led 2-1 after the first period of game two but a pair of second period goals from Harold Darragh and Morenz gave the Senators the lead in the game and breathing room in the series. The final score would be 5-3 giving Ottawa a series win by an 11-7 score. The Western loop saw a pair of dominant teams in the Calgary Tigers of the WCHL and the Victoria Cougars of the PCHA. However, both had their troubles in the opening round of the playoffs. The Tigers dominated the Saskatoon Crescents 5-1 in their opener but lost the series after being blasted 6-0 in the second game. Victoria had its troubles too as the PCHA leaders fell 2-1 to Edmonton in the series opener but managed to pull out a 2-0 win in game two after it went to overtime. The series was tied 2-2 in total goals after regulation necessitating the first overtime ever needed for a two-game total goal series. Hib Milks was the hero for the Cougars, notching the series winner 13 minutes into the extra period. The western final was a best-of-five this time around and the Cougars had little trouble, earning a sweep of Saskatoon to send Victoria to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since the spring of 1918. Harry Watson and Hib Milks each had three points in a 4-2 Victoria win in the series opener. Watson added two points and Bill Laird, who was named top goalie in the league, made 21 saves for the shutout in a 2-0 win for Victoria in the second game and the sweep was completed with a 4-1 triumph in game three. The Cougars completed the sweep despite the fact that Harry Oliver, who led the league in scoring and was named MVP, did not pick up a single point for Victoria in the series. STANLEY CUP This time around the Stanley Cup would be a best of three series with the Ottawa Senators on a quest to join the Montreal Canadiens as four-time winners of the cup. One of the Senators four Cup wins came in 1919, which was Victoria's only appearance in the Cup finals. It was also the spring of the deadly Spanish Flu.Both teams were healthy this time around, but the Cougars probably felt ill after the first five minutes of the series. It took 4:48 to be exact for Ottawa to take a 3-0 lead as Aurel Joliat scored twice sandwiched around a Buck Boucher goal. Boucher's brother Frank and Howie Morenz would also score before the contest was 13 minutes old. Ottawa took its foot off that gas at that point although Frank Boucher did get a second goal, and the Senators coasted to a 6-1 victory. The second game was much the same as the Western entry was clearly outclassed in the series. Hooley Smith and Hap Day put the Senators ahead 2-0 in the first eight minutes and Ottawa waltzed to a 6-3 victory and their fourth Stanley Cup title. The series was the coming out party for Frank Boucher as the 21-year-old, who had scored a respectable 25 points during the regular season, found another gear in the series, following up his 3-point effort in the opener with four more points in game two. After the series the Senators, still bleeding cash, announced that Howie Morenz and Aurel Joliat had both been sold to the Montreal Canadiens. ![]() NOTABLE RETIREMENTS A pair of players who had pretty distinguished careers in this replay have called it quits. They are long-time Ottawa Senators captain Tommy Dunderdale and goaltender Georges Vezina.Dunderdale is one of the few pro hockey players born in Australia. His parents settled in Ottawa when he was child and later moved to Winnipeg. Tommy is said to have not played his first organized game of ice hockey until he was 17 years old. He was noted as being an excellent stickhandler and a fast skater with a hard and dangerous shot. His real-life career was played exclusively in the west and he suited up for 231 PCHA games while scoring 194 goals. Our sim version of Dunderdale got his pro start with the short-lived Montreal Shamrocks of the National Hockey Association in 1909-10. He would then move on to Renfrew for a year and when that club folded, he joined the Ottawa Senators in 1911. Named captain in 1914, Dunderdale helped led the Senators to back-to-back Stanley Cup wins but midway through their bid for a third in a row he was traded to the Quebec Bulldogs and would wind down his career with the Hamilton Tigers after the Bulldogs franchise was sold to Hamilton. Dunderdale ended up 9th all-time in NHA goals with 73 and would add 34 more in the NHL. Only Bobby Rowe suited up for more than 146 NHA games that Dunderdale played, and he ended up seventh all-time in NHA points. Vezina, 35, sat out this past season after being released by the Montreal Canadiens when the Habs decided to give their goaltending job to Alex Connell. It was not the dominating career one would expect from Vezina but he did win a pair of Stanley Cups with Montreal (1916 and 1922) as well as help the 1914-15 Portland Rosebuds reach the Cup finals. Twice early in his career with the New Westminster Royals, Vezina was named the top goaltender in the PCHA. He appeared in all three major leagues, 202 games in all, or around 150 less than he did in real life. Presently Dunderdale sits third all-time behind only Cy Denneny and Albert Kerr in goals as an Ottawa Senator. The real life Vezina had a tragic end as after playing in 327 consecutive games for the Montreal Canadiens before leaving the team in 1925 with an illness. He would die of tuberculosis a few months later. Nicknamed the "Chicoutimi Cumumber" for his calm composure while in goal, Vezina is credited with both the first shutout and first assist by a goaltender in NHL history. The Canadiens donated the Vezina Trophy to the NHL in his memory prior to the 1926-27 season. ![]()
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Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles |
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#12 |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Ontario Canada
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1923-24 & 1924-25
1923-24 There were no franchise shifts for the 1923-24 season but there was a blockbuster trade over the summer. The move saw the Ottawa Senators ship veteran forward Cy Denneny and young defenseman Hap Day to the Toronto St. Patick's in exchange for a package of players headlined by Mickey Mackay. The 29-year-old MacKay was a former Senator who had averaged more than a point a game for Toronto last season. Denneny also returns to his former city having spent time in Toronto during its NHA days. He is 31 and looks to be on the downswing but is still considered a very talented player. Day is a 22-year-old highly regarded defenseman who had excelled for the past three seasons on the Ottawa blueline.The Senators may not have made out too badly in that deal, but they suffered a pair of major losses when the club sold both Howie Morenz and Aurel Joliat to the Montreal Canadiens in a move clearly aimed at balancing the books. Despite losing plenty of talent again this season, Ottawa once more managed to qualify for the playoffs as the Senators -led by trade pickup Mickey MacKay and veteran goaltender George Hainsworth- nosed out the Toronto St. Patrick's for second place. Only an Ottawa win over Hamilton on the final day of the regular season while Toronto was losing to first place Montreal allowed the Senators to keep their seven-year playoff streak intact. Since the NHL began in 1917-18, only Ottawa has played in the post-season every year. The first place Canadiens were loaded as the addition of Howie Morenz, who led the league in points, and Aurel Joliat to a star-studded offense that included Babe Dye and Bill Cook and could easily overcome an injury that cost Punch Broadbent much of the season. The Canadiens scored more goals than any other team in the league while goaltender Alec Connell surrendered the fewest against. Toronto, led by goaltender Clint Benedict along with King Clancy, Duke Keats and an impressive 20-year-old getting his first taste of full-time NHL action in Ace Bailey, came close but missed the playoffs for the third consecutive season. Hamilton once more finished soundly in the basement, a spot the organization has occupied for the past five years going back to its final season in Quebec. Howie Meeking remains the one bright spot on a franchise that seems to have no direction and has spoiled the final years of Joe Malone's outstanding career. The 34-year-old Malone, who has scored 168 goals between his days in the NHA and NHL, appears to have reached the end of the line after scoring just twice with a career low nine points this season. The two-game total goal playoff series was, for the third year in a row, a matchup between Montreal and Ottawa. Each team had won one of the previous two and both clubs were looking for bragging rights in the rubber match. This time around the Habs were too much for the Senators in the series as Montreal won both games by a combined score of 8-3. The opener was a 3-1 game in which as a testament to their depth nine different Canadiens earned a point. Aurel Joliat got the better of his former team in game two, scoring twice to lead the Habs to a 5-2 victory. Like a year ago, the Calgary Tigers were the top team in the west. Tigers netminder Hal Winkler posted a 1.60 goals against average and was named the top goalie in the WCHL. The Victoria Cougars finished with the best record in the PCHA with defenseman Eddie Shore claiming the league MVP award while Cougars winger Hib Milks led the league in scoring with 36 points. Carson Cooper, who set a WCHL record with 26 goals for Calgary last season was clearly not missed after being dealt to Seattle, but the 24-year-old did lead the loop in goals once more with 20 for the Metropolitans. Unlike a year ago when Calgary was upset in the semi-finals, the Tigers ensured that would not happen again after they thumped Regina 7-0 in the first game of the series and would follow that up with a 2-1 victory. Victoria looked like it would have just as easy a time with Vancouver after Bob Hall scored twice in a 5-1 win in the opener. The Maroons made it close with a 4-1 victory at home two nights later but could not get the fifth goal needed to send the series into overtime. The best of three final between Calgary and Victoria was tight with the Tigers winning the opener 3-1 at home thanks to Gordon McFarlane, who scored once for Calgary and set up each of the other two goals. Game two saw Victoria outshot the visiting Tigers 37-22 but could not solve Hal Winkler, who turned aside all of the shots for a 1-0 shutout victory and complete the sweep. STANLEY CUP The first Stanley Cup final to be played in the city of Calgary saw a star-studded Montreal Canadiens team invade the Alberta city. On paper, the Tigers looked to be no match for a Habs team in search of his record fifth Stanley Cup title but perhaps Montreal had not seen a goalie the caliber of Winkler.Calgary's 32-year-old veteran netminder was a former Canadien, having spent a season with Montreal back in its NHA days before heading west, and he had the Habs number in the opener. Montreal dominated the play, outshooting their hosts 41-22 but Winkler was nearly unbeatable. Barney Stanley opened the scoring on the power play in the second period, but it was the only goal the Canadiens would get. Calgary tied the contest late in the middle frame on a Gordon McFarlane tally, and with just 14 seconds remaining in regulation Abbie Newell beat Montreal's Alec Connell with the game winning goal in a 2-1 Calgary victory. With the Cup on the line Winkler was exposed in game two as Aurel Joliat scored three times and Howie Morenz had a goal and two helpers in a 5-2 Montreal victory to force a deciding third game. The Canadiens would win that one too, but it proved very difficult as Winkler made 51 saves on the night but lost 3-1. Joliat opened the scoring midway through the first period on the powerplay but Stan Jackson got the equalizer for the Tigers in the middle period. Syl Mantha would get what proved to be the Cup winner eleven minutes into the third period and Joliat rounded out the scoring with an empty netter for his 5th goal of the finals and the Habs had their fifth Stanley Cup. ![]() 1924 WINTER OLYMPICS The very first edition of the winter Olympics was held in Chamonix, France between January 25th and February 5th. The games were originally dubbed as the "International Winter Sports Week" and were organized by the French Olympic Committee in advance of the Summer Games in Paris that year. They were a big success and as a result were retroactively designated by the International Olympic Committee as the first Winter Games.It was not the first Olympics for hockey as it was played in Antwerp in the spring of 1920 as part of the Olympics that would take place later that summer. The United States upset Canada to win gold that first year. A total of eight teams competed in hockey with Canada joined in Group A by Sweden, Czechoslovakia and Switzerland while Group B would feature the United States, Great Britain, Belgium and Olympic host France. In real life the Canadian team would be represented by the 1923 Allan Cup champion Toronto Granites with a gentleman by the name of W.A. Hewitt selected to oversee the club. One of his children would be the legendary broadcaster Foster Hewitt. In the sim Canada would be represented by a cross-section of players that are either currently with non-playable minor league teams or junior clubs. Opening day results saw Canada, keyed by 3 assists from defenseman Harold McMunn, blast the Czechs 7-1. In other action Art Langley made 17 saves to lead the United States to a 3-0 win over Great Britain, Sweden edged Switzerland 4-3 while Belgium dumped France 5-2. Two days later Canada outshot Switzerland 58-7 and won by a 5-0 score with young Fred Lowrey, currently with the Ottawa Montagnards of a non-playable senior league but in real life would later get a few NHL games in with the Montreal Maroons and Pittsburgh Pirates, scoring twice. Czechoslovakia nipped Sweden 5-4, the United States shutout Belgium 6-0 while Great Britain and France skated to a 3-3 tie. In the final day of round robin play both Canada and the United States remained perfect. The Canadians shutout Sweden 4-0 while the United States downed France 4-1. The other two games saw Switzerland shade the Czechs 3-2 while Great Britain secured a spot in the final round with a 4-1 win over Belgium. Sweden would join Britain, Canada and the USA in the final round. It opened with Canada beating Sweden for the second day in a row, this time by a 3-1 score. Meanwhile Great Britain held the United States scoreless for two periods before Hago Harrington scored twice for the Americans late in the game to give the US a 2-0 victory. A Massachusetts native, Harrington would go on in real life to play 66 NHL games and became the first Massachusetts born player to score for the Boston Bruins when he did so in 1925. Two days later the Canadians blanked Great Britain 4-0 while the Americans downed Sweden 4-1 setting up a game between Canada and the US to decide the goal medal. Fred Doherty and Skene Ronan staked Canada to a 2-0 lead in the opening period and after a scoreless second period the Canadians would get a third goal when Ronan set up Hobie Kitchen. Everett McGowan would get one back for the Americans on a rebound of a Hugo Harington shot but that would be as close as they would get. Eddie McCalmon added an empty netter to round out the scoring and give Canada the gold medal with a 4-1 victory. Sweden would claim the bronze for the second straight Olympic games as led by a goal and two assists from Georg Johansson, the Swedes dumped Great Britain 5-2. ![]() LEHMAN RETIRES The best goaltender in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association and perhaps one of the best of all-time in this simulation has decided to call it quits. Hugh Lehman, who was named the best goaltender in the PCHA three times after being the leading goaltender in the National Hockey Association for each of its first two seasons, has retired at the age of 38.Lehman debut as a pro in 1909-10 with the Renfrew Creamery Kings before moving on to the Montreal Canadiens, helping the Habs to an NHL title in 1911-12. He would then jump to the Vancouver Millionaires of the PCHA and be named top goalie in that loop three times in five seasons while guiding Vancouver to two Stanley Cup appearances. He returned east at the dawn of the NHL and spent five seasons with the Toronto St. Patrick's (also known as Arenas) before leaving that team following the 1922-23 season when Toronto acquired Clint Benedict. He has not played in the NHL since then but waited until this past summer before officially announcing his retirement. The real-life Hugh Lehman was born in Pembroke, Ontario and after playing in several regional leagues in his home province he was signed by the New Westminster Royals of the newly founded Pacific Coast Hockey Association. Later he moved to Vancouver and helped the Millionaires win the Stanley Cup in 1915. He would stay with Vancouver until the western league collapsed and then he finished out his career with the Chicago Black Hawks in 1926-27. In 1926 Lehman, at age 41, became the oldest goaltender to win his first NHL game. That record was broken in 2020 when Toronto emergency backup David Ayres got a win for Carolina against the Leafs at the age of 42. Lehman was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1958. ![]() 1924-25: EXPANSION IN THE NHL, CONTRACTION IN THE WEST While the Hamilton franchise continued to struggle to remain solvent and Ottawa appeared to be steady after several years in which the club need to sell players to stay afloat, the National Hockey League began to grow as two new clubs were added to the loop. In 1923 Thomas Duggan secured an option from the league to explore the possibility of adding up to three American teams to the NHL. Duggan, a Montreal native, had some experience in sports already having been involved in the construction of the Mount Royal Arena, present home of the Montreal Canadiens and was a part owner of the Buffalo franchise in baseball's short-lived Federal League. He also owned several horse racing tracks. He eyed Boston and New York as two locations for potential NHL clubs and he partnered with Boston grocery magnate Charles F. Adams to mark the start of the Bruins franchise. He would sell the rights to the club to Adams and later be involved in the formation of the New York Americans. Under Adams, who selected brown and yellow for his team's colours to match that of his grocery chain, the Bruins became the first American NHL team. The Montreal Maroons gave their city a second NHL team for the first time since the Wanderers arena burned down in 1918, forcing that club to fold. A new ice arena, called the Montreal Forum, was constructed and ready for the 1924-25 season and the birth of the Maroons. The Canadiens originally protested the addition of a second team in Montreal but relented after the NHL agreed to pay the Habs $11,000 of the Maroons $15,000 expansion fee to join the league. Originally the Maroons had no nickname as they planned on using Wanderers as the Maroons first president, James Strachan, had owned the Wanderers in the 1900s. However, the Wanderers final owner, Sam Lichtenhein, demanded $5,000 for the rights to the name. Simply called the Montreal Professional Hockey club to start, the moniker Maroons was bestowed on the team by the media after the club unveiled its jersey- maroon coloured with a large capital "M" in white, which stood for Montreal, not Maroons. While the NHL was expanding the western loop was contracting. The Pacific Coast Hockey Association portion of the alliance folded, leaving the Western Canada Hockey League as a single division with six teams. The Vancouver Maroons and Victoria Cougars survived from the PCHA and joined the four holdovers in the Calgary Tigers, Edmonton Eskimos, Regina Capitals and Saskatoon Crescents in the league. While they may not have had the depth of talent to match the Montreal Canadiens, both the Boston Bruins and Montreal Maroons added some quality talent for their inaugural season. The Bruins biggest acquisitions were the additions of high scoring forwards Jack Adams and Carson Cooper from the now defunct Seattle team of the WCHL but then also appear to have solidified their goaltending by acquiring Tiny Thompson from Regina. Bun Cook, brother of the Canadiens Bill Cook and Billy Boucher, brother of Ottawa's Frank and Buck Boucher were also brought in from the west. The Maroons looked set in goal with the signing of Lorne Chabot from the western league and also brought in young rearguard Babe Siebert along with veteran forwards Reg Noble (from Toronto) and Mickey MacKay (from Ottawa). Both newcomers had high hopes of icing competitive teams but only one of them succeeded. That would be the Montreal Maroons who actually finished ahead of their defending champion cross-town Canadiens. Both Montreal teams finished with 16 wins, but the Maroons lost just 11 and tied 3, while the Canadiens lost 13 and tied just once. Most would say the Maroons got lucky as they had a -5 goal differential while the Habs were +24. Boston found life in the NHL just as rough as Hamilton has for the past half decade as the Bruins managed just 13 points out of their 30 games but it was still 5 more than the terrible Tigers mustered. At the top of the league, we had the Ottawa Senators and Toronto St. Patrick's. The Senators Frank Boucher led the league in scoring with 39 points and was named the winner of the Hart Memorial Trophy as league MVP while his linemate Harold Darragh tied with Montreal's Howie Morenz for second, two points back. Ottawa goaltender George Hainsworth once more led the netminders with a sparkling 1.91 goals against average. Toronto scoring was nearly as effective as that of the Senators with Ace Bailey, Duke Keats and defenseman King Clancy leading the way. With six teams in the league a semi-final was added to the playoffs. It would be a two-game total goal set between the second and third place teams with first place Ottawa, which had a bye in the opening round, facing the winner in a one-game, winner take all final. Former Toronto star Mickey MacKay came back to haunt his old team in the opener of the semi-final as the Maroons center scored twice and assisted on the third Montreal goal as the Maroons nipped Toronto 3-2. The big story was Lorne Chabot as the Maroons goalie held off the St. Patrick's despite his club being outshot 52-20. Game two was a 3-3 tie thanks to MacKay's third goal of the series with just over three minutes left in regulation. It gave the Maroons a 6-5 series victory. The Maroons proved no match for Ottawa in the one game final as the Senators built a 3-1 first period lead and easily won by a 6-3 count. Frank Boucher picked up 5 points in the game while his brother Buck had three of his own. The Western Canada Hockey League was down to a single division and just six teams and, just as last year, it was the Calgary Tigers and Victoria Cougars that were the class of the loop. Victoria, led by Eddie Shore's second consecutive MVP award and scoring leader Hib Milks, finished in first during the regular season, two points ahead of a Calgary club led by top goaltender Dolly Dolson. Saskatoon finished third to qualify for the playoffs, which like the NHL, admitted the top three teams. Calgary, which won the league playoff title a year ago, had little trouble with Saskatoon in the semi-finals, outscoring the Crescents 8-4 with a 5-3 win at home followed by a 3-1 road win. Next up was first place Victoria, which had won the title two years ago but fell in the finals to Calgary a year ago. Unlike the NHL, the WCHL stuck with a two-game total goal format for the final and Victoria won them both by identical 8-4 scores to advance to play for the Stanley Cup for the second time in three years and third time overall. STANLEY CUP A rematch of the 1923 Stanley Cup when Ottawa beat Victoria it would be the third meeting between the two cities and sixth overall appearance for the Senators, who are 4-1 and looking to the Montreal Canadiens with the most Stanley Cup titles at five. Victoria lost in both of its previous trips to the finals and each was to Ottawa.A best of five series, it began in the nation's capital with the Senators recording back to back shutout victories by George Hainsworth. Game One was 6-0 as Frank Boucher and Hooley Smith each had two goals and two assists while Hainsworth made 29 saves. Two night later Calgary outshot Ottawa 29-27 but could not solve Hainsworth while Ottawa beat Tigers goaltender Dolly Dotson seven times. Each of the Boucher brothers, Frank and Buck, had 4 points in the 7-0 rout with Harold Darragh adding three. Back home for game three the Tigers were a much different team in Calgary. It was Dolly Dotson's turn to shine and he did, making 24 saves as Calgary won 3-0 to stay alive in the series. Game four saw Ottawa take a 2-1 lead after twenty minutes on goals from Hooley Smith and Red Green sandwiched between one from the Tigers Stan Jackson. Calgary pulled even early in the third period when Duke McCurry scored on a shorthanded breakaway. Haisworth and Dotson would stand tall the rest of the period and the game headed into overtime. It was a short one as the first shot of the extra-frame, by Ottawa's Johnny Gottselig, found the back of the net and ended the series with a 3-2 Ottawa victory. ![]()
__________________
Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles |
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#13 |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Ontario Canada
Posts: 9,735
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1925-26 & 1926-27
1925-26 The National Hockey League adds to its foothold in the United States with the addition of the Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Americans. The league also lost a team as the Hamilton Tigers franchise folded with all of its players being purchased by the Americans.Pittsburgh's addition was contentious as the Ottawa Senators objected to increasing the league to seven teams but were outvoted. As for the destination, Pittsburgh was selected in no small part because of rumours former Toronto NHA owner Eddie Livingstone had again been threatening to start a new league and mentioned Pittsburgh as a likely location for a team. The NHL stopped Livingstone's plans for Pittsburgh by granting a franchise to be known as the Pirates, just like the city's baseball team. Veteran Odie Cleghorn, who had spent the past six years with Toronto after a decade skating for the Montreal Canadiens, left the St. Patrick's to be player-coach of the Pirates. The WCHL had two changes prior to the start of the season. First the league changed its name from the Western Canada Hockey League to simply the Western Hockey League and second the Regina club was moved to Portland bringing back the name Portland Rosebuds. Whatever you wish to call it, the Western League was struggling to survive and could not match the player contracts offered by NHL teams, which set a cap at $35,000 per team. It led to several players demanding to be shipped east with the most notable one being Victoria defenseman and two-time WCHL MVP Eddie Shore having his contract sold to the Boston Bruins after Shore demanded $7,000 to return to Victoria. Joining Shore on the trip from Victoria to Boston was 26-year-old winger Harry Oliver who notched 29 points in 28 games a year ago. Other notable moves included Saskatoon selling goaltender Roy Worters to the New York Americans and forward Billy Burch to the Toronto St. Patrick's. The NHL of 1925-26 had all seven teams in a single division but it was clear very quickly they were really separated into two groups with Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto at the top and the other four clubs well below. The Canadiens would be a nearly unstoppable unit with Nels Stewart and Bill Cook finishing 1-2 in league scoring and Alex Connell surrendered a league low 1.51 goals against per game. Stewart ended up with 61 points on the campaign, smashing Newsy Lalonde's mark of 56 set in the league's inaugural season and had stood as the standard. The schedule expanded to 36 games which clearly benefited Stewart and the Habs, who went 30-6-0 for an NHL record 60 points. Toronto and Ottawa were very evenly matched and battled it out all season for second place. Back-to-back wins over the Montreal Maroons for the St. Patrick's on the final weekend of the season while the Senators were losing to Pittsburgh and tying the New York Americans proved to be the difference as Toronto nosed out its provincial rival by two points for second place. Both would qualify for the playoffs as the NHL continued its practice of giving the first-place team a bye to the finals while second and third squared off in a two-game total goal series with the winner moving on to the league final. Ottawa's Harry Oliver became just the second player in NHL history to score 30 goals in a season, finishing two shy of Aurel Joliat's 1921-22 record of 32. Only one of the top fifteen point producers this season came from a team other than the big three. That would be Reg Noble of the Montreal Maroons, who finished 11th with 34 points. The Maroons, Boston and the New York Americans could not compete with the top three clubs but amongst themselves were very competitive and each seemed to be headed in the right direction. The same could not be said for the Pittsburgh Pirates, as the former Hamilton franchise was just as bad in its new hometown, finishing last with just 6 victories in 36 games. Despite the fact that Toronto and Ottawa were so close in the standings during the regular season, their playoff series was a rout after Toronto, keyed by two goals and two assists from Baldy Cotton, obliterated Ottawa 8-0 in the opener of the two-game total goal series. The second game, held in Ottawa, was a 2-2 tie so Toronto easily advanced to the finals. Game One of the finals saw the host Montreal Canadiens hold off Toronto 3-2 with Johnny Shepard factoring in on all three Habs goals. The Canadiens badly outshot the St. Patrick's but Toronto goaltender Joe Miller had a very strong game to keep Toronto's title hopes alive. In the second game, the hosts from Toronto led 2-1 after twenty minutes with goals by Cully Wilson and Duke Keats coming in response to Howie Morenz' game opening tally. That made the total goal series tied at four and Toronto blew it wide open in the second period as the St. Patrick's scored three times including a paid from Bill Boyd, both set up by Baldy Cotton. That put Toronto ahead 7-4 in the series with just twenty minutes separating the St. Patrick's from their first Stanley Cup appearance. Montreal was not going to go quietly as Howie Morenz scored his second of the game at the 4:30 mark to cut the Toronto lead in the series to 7-5. Morenz got another goal, collecting his hat trick with 47 seconds left and Montreal made a desperate effort to tie the game but could not put another puck past Miller in the Toronto net. For the third year in a row the Calgary Tigers emerged as the top team from the Western Hockey League, having no trouble at all in thumping second place Vancouver 16-4 in the final series. The Maroons had finished second following a tight race that had five teams in the mix for the semi-final berths right until the final couple weeks of the season. Vancouver's Frank Nighbor and Dutch Gainor of Calgary tied for the scoring lead while Calgary's Dolly Dolson had the lowest goals against average although the top goaltender award went to John Ross Roach of third place Portland. STANLEY CUP Toronto was making its first ever appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals while the Calgary Tigers were back for a third attempt after losing to the Montreal Canadiens two years ago and the Ottawa Senators last year. The first two games in the best-of-five series were contested in Toronto with the hosts prevailing in each of them. The opener was a 6-2 Toronto victory before a much tighter 3-2 win the next night. In game two, Toronto scored three times in the opening six minutes before Calgary settled down.The series shifted west with the St. Patrick's needing just one more victory. Toronto again struck early in game three as Danny Cox and Joe Primeau staked the visitors to a quick 2-0 lead, but Bill Carson got one back for the Tigers before the period came to a close. The two clubs were tied at four after forty minutes and it would be Calgary that broke the tie with the only goal of the third period, courtesy of Alf Skinner. The Tigers could not build on that as two nights later Toronto, led by a three-point night from Duke Keats, scored four times in the third period to rally for a 6-4 victory and the St. Patrick's first Stanley Cup. ![]() 1926-27 The Western Hockey League came to an end as the league folded. It was never really stable with the lack of a team in Winnipeg, the largest city in Western Canada at the time, being blamed as one possible cause. In truth, the biggest issue was rising costs as the league simply could not afford to hang on to top players as salaries in the NHL began to rise. With its demise that would make the National Hockey League the only major professional loop and the Stanley Cup would from now on exclusively go to the winner of the NHL playoffs.The NHL saw drastic change as it added three more American teams with the Detroit Cougars, New York Rangers and Chicago Black Hawks joining and raising the total to ten teams. The Detroit franchise bought the rights to players from the former Victoria WHL team, which inspired them selecting Cougars as their name. The Black Hawks had a similar arrangement to purchase players from Portland. The New York Rangers did not have a deal with a western club but did sign Vancouver defenseman Ching Johnson and former Calgary forward Bill Carson, who was WHL MVP. The Rangers biggest signing was a deal to purchase Frank Boucher, the Hart Trophy winner each of the past two years, from the perennially cash strapped Ottawa Senators. The Montreal Canadiens unveiled a new arena as the Montreal Forum, which would be shared with the Maroons, was officially opened. Detroit was waiting on a new rink as well. Called Olympia Stadium, it would not be ready for the season, so the Cougars played their initial season out of the Border City Arena in Windsor. Midway through the season the Toronto St. Patrick's were purchased by a syndicate headed by Conn Smythe. The cost for the team was $160,000 and a year later Smythe would change their name to the Toronto Maple Leafs. With the additional teams the NHL went to a two-division format for the first time. It also added a third playoff round as the opening round would see the second and third place teams play in each division with the winner meeting the first-place club for the same division. Each of those were a two-game total goal series with the finals being a best-of-three. On the ice the big three of the Canadiens, Senators and St. Patrick's once more dominated the league. The St. Patrick's led by Ace Bailey and Duke Keats up front, a strong defense anchored by King Clancy and steady goaltending from Joe Miller, who wrestled the starting job away from Clint Benedict, gave Toronto the best record in the league at 36-6-2. Miller became the first recipient of the Murray Trophy. In real-life the Vezina Trophy made it's debut but since Georges Vezina did not suffer a tragic end in this sim, I have decided to name the goaltender trophy after Tommy Murray, the PCHL goalie who did of the Spanish Flu in this sim. Toronto's 74 points were 11 more than the Montreal Canadiens, who finished second in the Canadian Division, could manage. With the schedule now expanded to 44 games, Habs star Howie Morenz set a new NHL points record with 71 while teammates Aurel Joliat and Bill Cook also finished among the league scoring leaders and Alex Connell was his usual steady self in the Habs net. Ottawa was third, 4 points behind Montreal as Senators forward Babe Dye led the league with 31 goals, one shy of Aurel Joliat's five-year old record. The Montreal Maroons were a distance fourth with the New York Americans bringing up the rear although both clubs would have qualified for the playoffs had they been in the American Division. Boston led the way in the American Division, earning 48 points on a 23-19-2 record. Tiny Thompson gave the Bruins solid netminding and with the likes of Eddie Shore and young Dit Clapper in front of him, Boston's strength was its defense. The strength of the second place New York Rangers was its offense led by Frank Boucher and former WHL player of the year Bill Carson. The final playoff berth in the American Division went to the Chicago Blackhawks, who held off the Detroit Cougars for third place. The Pittsburgh Pirates once again finished with the worst record in the league. PLAYOFFS Both opening round playoff series were very tight as the second and third place clubs from each division met. On the Canadian side Montreal and Ottawa skated to a 2-2 tie in the opener of their total goal series. The Senators blew a glorious chance on the road as they led 2-0 after forty minutes but the Habs pulled even on goals by Albert Leduc and Howie Morenz. The rematch in Ottawa went down to the wire but the Canadiens pulled out a 3-2 victory to take the series when Nels Stewart set up Earl Campbell with the game winner in the final minute of regulation.Meanwhile the New York Rangers and Chicago Black Hawks had skated to a 0-0 tie at Madison Square Garden in their series opener. New York outshot Chicago 47-13 but could solve the Black Hawks John Ross Roach. Roach was also the difference two nights later at the Chicago Coliseum as he made 44 saves in a 2-1 Black Hawks victory. Chicago opened the scoring in the first period on a Moose Goheen goal and went up 2-0 when Pete Bellefeuille found the back of the net midway through the third. It took nearly two full games and 90 shots before New York scored as Bill Carson brought the Rangers to within a goal with just 32 seconds left in the game. New York could not get the equalizer, and the third place Hawks had pulled off an upset. Boston had a little more success against Roach as the first place Bruins won the opener 3-2 with Dit Clapper assisting on all three Bruins goals while Louis Hudson scored both of the Chicago markers. In the second game the visiting Bruins outshot Chicago 51-23 and the game ended in a 1-1 draw, give Boston the series by a single goal. Toronto seemed to be in complete control on the Canadian side of the semi-finals as the St. Patrick's blanked Montreal 4-0 on home ice in the opener. Joe Miller made 40 saves and Duke Keats scored twice to pace the Toronto victory. Game Two was a complete reversal as the Habs dominated and won the series by a single goal thanks to a 5-0 victory. Alec Connell earned the shutout while Bill Cook scored twice for the winners. The finals would be Boston against Montreal in a best-of-five series. The opener was a rout as Howie Morenz had five points and Harry Oliver scored twice in a 6-0 Habs victory. Two days later Connell recorded his third consecutive shutout in a 3-0 Montreal win. Both Oliver and Aurel Joliat each had two points in the victory. The series shifted to the Matthews Arena in Boston for games three and (if necessary) four. The Bruins made it necessary as Tiny Thompson had a 33-save shutout and the Bruins finally solved Connell. Bun Cook, brother of the Habs Bill, opened the scoring in the first period and Carson Cooper added an insurance goal late in the game to make the final 2-0 Boston. The Canadiens would rebound and clinch their record sixth Stanley Cup with a 2-1 victory in the fourth game. Tiny Thompson was brilliant in the Boston net, the Habs outshot the Bruins 51-20, but Harry Oliver and Nels Stewart put Montreal up 2-0. Bun Cook would cut the lead in half with 5:36 remaining in the game but that was as close as Boston could get and the Canadiens paraded the cup around Matthews Arena after closing out the series. ![]()
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Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles |
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#14 |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Ontario Canada
Posts: 9,735
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1927-28 & 1928-29
1927-28 More signs that the Ottawa Senators were in deep financial trouble. The club had asked the league for a bigger share of road game income. It was something the NHL pondered but ultimately turned down the request. That forced the Senators into another wave of selling of players as winger Babe Dye was sold to Toronto, center Hooley Smith to the Montreal Maroons and goaltender George Hainsworth to Detroit. In addition to Ottawa's long running battle to remain solvent, the Pittsburgh Pirates found life no better in the American steel town than they did in the Canadian one in Hamilton. Like Ottawa, the Pirates seemed just one misstep away from folding and their troubles were compounded because, unlike the Senators, Pittsburgh did not have a deep collection of talented players that it could draw from to sell for money to keep the club afloat.Aside from Conn Smythe renaming his new Toronto franchise to the Maple Leafs and construction completed on Olympia Stadium so the Detroit Cougars could play in the Motor City instead of a second season in Windsor, little changed as the league embarked on its second season with 10 teams. Little changed during the regular season from the previous year either. While the New York Americans were much improved it was once more the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto and Ottawa that dominated the league. The order was slightly different from last year with the Habs first, followed by the Senators and Leafs but the three still claimed the Canadian Division playoff spots. Scoring was down on the league as a whole but the Habs Howie Morenz still managed to score 25 goals in 44 games and led the loop in points with 54. Hooley Smith, who was sold by Ottawa to the Montreal Maroons over the summer, finished second in scoring followed by a pair of Senators in Marty Barry and Cooney Weiland. To illustrate the premium on goals this season, one needs to look no further than the top goaltenders, where six of the ten teams had netminders with a goals against average less than 2.00. Speaking of goaltenders, the most controversial trade of the season involved one as Boston shipped its starting goalie Tiny Thompson to the Canadiens in exchange for forward Aurel Joliat. Montreal goaltender Alec Connell had suffered a back injury a few days before but ended up missing just one game, so the Habs move to add Thompson seemed very redundant. The trade became more perplexing after the season ended as the Canadiens elected not to sign Connell despite the fact he had won the Murray Trophy this season. While four of the five teams in the Canadian Division finished with a positive record and even the last place Montreal Maroons managed to earn 43 points in 44 games the New York Rangers were the only team in the American Division to top the .500 mark. Frank Boucher continued to pace the New York offense while Charlie Gardiner was thought by many to be a better choice than Connell for the Murray Trophy this year. Detroit and Boston tied for second place to round out the American Division playoff field. PLAYOFFS There may have been concerns in Boston about Bill Beveridge taking over in net after the trade of Thompson but the 18-year-old proved he was up to the task in the playoffs. Boston outscored Detroit 8-2 in the two-game series and Aurel Joliat was a big part of the Bruins' offense. The ex-Canadien scored twice and added an assist in a 4-1 win in the opener while Jimmy Herberts scored a pair of goals in another 4-1 victory to close out the series.That put the Bruins up against the first place New York Rangers and they came up short in the series opener, being blanked 3-0 as Charlie Gardiner made 21 saves for his second career playoff shutout. Game two the story was once more Beveridge and Joliat. The young goalie stopped all 31 New York shots while Joliat scored twice and added an assist as the Bruins tallied four goals in the second period and claimed the series win with a 4-0 shutout. In the Canadian Division playoffs, Toronto and Ottawa skated to a 1-1 tie in the nation's capital in the series opener before the Maple Leafs wrapped up the series with a 3-1 victory at the Mutual Street Arena in Toronto two nights later. For the second year in a row the Leafs would need to get by the Canadiens in order to play for the Stanley Cup but once more Toronto fell short. Bill Cook and Nels Stewart each had a goal and an assist as Montreal took the opener 4-1 at Forum and two nights later the clubs skated to a 1-1 draw setting up a Stanley Cup rematch of the Montreal Canadiens and the Boston Bruins. The best-of-five series opened at the Montreal Forum and the Canadiens struck quickly riding first period goals from Reg Mackey, Howie Morenz and Earl Campbell to a 3-0 victory with Alec Connell making 25 saves for the shutout. Game two was another shutout for Connell as he stopped 35 shots this time around and Montreal won 5-0 with Stewart scoring once and adding a pair of assists. Boston did finally score in game three as they shifted to Boston's Matthews Arena, but the Habs completed the sweep with a 6-3 victory led by a three-point night from Bill Cook. It was the second straight Cup win for the Canadiens, their fourth since the start of the NHL and seventh all-time. ![]() 1928 OLYMPIC GAMES The 1928 Winter Olympics were contested in St. Moritz, Switzerland with Canada looking to defend the gold medal it won four years ago. In real-life, it was the University of Toronto Graduates, winners of the 1927 Allan Cup when they were coached by Conn Smythe, that represented Canada. FHM will, of course, use a random collection of minor league and junior age players.Canada was granted a bye into the championship round leaving ten teams spread over three divisions in the Group phase. Group A consisted of Great Britain, France, Belgium and Hungary. Group B was Sweden, Czechoslovakia and Poland while the teams in Group C were Switzerland, Austria and Germany. One noticeable absence was that of the United States, which had won gold in our sim in 1920 and the silver four years later. In real the AAU hockey committee approached several college teams about sending a squad to St. Moritz but all refused because of classes or a lack of finance. Interestingly I learned that one school - Minnesota's Augsburg College- accepted the invitation. They eventually were denied permission by the AAU after it was discovered three members of the team had previously played for eastern colleges under different names as the national body said they were not representative of USA hockey. The Group Stage of the tournament saw Belgium prevail in Group A, Sweden take top spot in B and Switzerland go undefeated to win Group C. Those three teams would join Canada in the Medal Round. Canada blasted Belgium 8-0 in its opening game as Vic Ripley, who would go on to play 278 NHL games in real life, scored twice as the Canadians outshot their opponents 79-5. Switzerland edged Sweden, bronze medalists in both 1920 and 1924, 4-3 in the other day one game in the Medal Round. Canada had little trouble with the Swiss a day later, blanking them 5-0 with Frank Morris scoring twice while Sweden shutout Belgium 4-0. Canada would complete the sweep of the finals two days later with another shutout victory, this one by a 5-0 score over Sweden. Switzerland shaded Belgium 3-2 to give the Swiss the Silver medal while Sweden claimed bronze for the third consecutive Olympic Games. The leading scorer in the sim was a tie between Belgium's Jean Meeus and defenseman Erik Lindgren of Sweden. I could find very little on Meeus besides the fact he did actually play for Belgium in the 1928 Olympics. Lindgren apparently had a long career with Djurgarden in the Swedish league and played for Sweden in the 1931 World Hockey Championships but did not play in the '28 Olympics. The top Canadian scorers were Frank Morris and Vic Ripley. Ripley would go on to play for several NHL teams while Morris appears to never have played pro hockey in North America but was a playing coach in Switzerland and worked for a long spell for the Hudson Bay Company. In our sim Morris played three seasons with Saskatoon in the WCHL and most recently was with the Windsor Hornets of the non-playable Canadian Professional Hockey League. He is 24 so we may still hear from Morris going forward. In the sim, Ripley is jus 21 and in his final year at the non-playable US College level after two seasons with a junior team. The top goaltender was Canada's Joe Ironstone, who in real life played in 1 NHL game for the New York Americans in 1925-26 and one for the Leads in 1927-28. In our sim the 29-year-old Sudbury native was signed to play in the non-playable French league as a 16-year-old and has been there ever since. He was also the Canadian goalie for the 1924 Olympics and has a record 6 Olympic shutouts so far. I don't expect a North American team to ever sign him so Ironstone may get a chance for at least one more Olympic gold medal. ![]() 1928-29 The National Hockey League began its 12th season with the same 10 team structure and 44 game slate that it had finished its 11th campaign with but there was a change to the playoff format. Instead of the opening round being within your division the league decided the two second place teams would face each other while the two third place teams would square off in the other quarterfinal series. Both would be a two-game total goal series but then the winners from that series would play a best-of-five series. The other semi-final would see the two division winners, after getting a bye in the quarterfinals, play each other in a best-of-five. The Cup final would be a best-of-three series.The league was also determined to increase scoring, so a number of changes were implemented including the rule to permit forward passing from the neutral zone across the blueline into the attacking zone, as long as no offensive player proceeded the puck. At this point forward passing inside the attacking zone was still prohibited but the league did experiment with allowing that in a late season game between the Rangers and Pittsburgh. Regular season overtime was changed to a 10-minute, non-sudden death format, to be played in its entirety. The Boston Bruins moved into their new arena this season. Originally called Boston Madison Square Garden, the name was shortened to just the Boston Garden a little later. The Garden was designed by boxing promoter Tex Rickard, who also built the third iteration of New York's Madison Square Garden. The Chicago Black Hawks had hoped to move into their new building but construction on the Chicago Stadium was not completed in time and the club was forced from January until the end of the season to play its home games either in Detroit at the Olympia or at the Peace Bridge Arena in Fort Erie, Ont. The Canadian Division proved to be a battle between the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs. It came down to the final week of the season with the Habs holding on to repeat as division champions by nosing Toronto out by a single point. Tiny Thompson was outstanding in the Montreal net and shattered the old NHL shutout record of 11 with 18 of them this season. Up front, the trio of Nels Stewart, Howie Morenz and Bill Cook allowed the Canadiens to lead the league in goals scored. Toronto was led by King Clancy's outstanding season on the blueline. The New York Americans earned the final playoff berth, finishing ahead of both the Montreal Maroons and the Ottawa Senators, who missed postseason action for the first time since their final season in the NHA back in 1916-17. The big news in the American Division was a blockbuster trade in December between Boston and the New York Rangers. The move saw the Bruins send tough defenseman Eddie Shore and veteran forward Frank Finnigan to the Big Apple in exchange for goaltender Charlie Gardiner and center Dutch Gainor. It seemed a heavy price to pay for a Bruins team that seemed to be playing quite well in front of young Bill Beveridge. Gardiner ended up with a losing record in Beantown and the Bruins had to settle for second place. The Rangers, meanwhile, fared just fine with 29-year-old rookie Herb Rheaume taking over the goaltending chores while both Eddie Shore and Frank Finnigan found new life in New York. Shore had just 1 point to show for 12 games with Boston but scored 21 in his 30 games with the Rangers while Finnigan had a similar transformation, picking up 17 points with the Rangers after earning just 5 as a Bruin. Add in Frank Boucher's 40-point season and strong play from young center Andy Blair and it was easy to understand why the Rangers led their division. Boston still had Dit Clapper to anchor its defense, and the Bruins were impressed with Gainor after he came over from New York but there were worries about Aurel Joliat as the 27-year-old dipped from 36 points a year ago to just 26 this time around. The Bruins did finish second, holding off the Chicago Black Hawks by two points who claimed the final playoff berth, edging out the Detroit Cougars. The Pittsburgh Pirates, as usual, brought up the rear. PLAYOFFS The new format meant that Toronto and Boston would meet for the first time in the playoffs while the other quarterfinal series saw the New York Americans square off with the Chicago Black Hawks. The Bruins hosted the Leafs in the opener of their two-game total goal series, but it was Toronto that jumped out to the lead with a 3-1 victory despite strong goaltending from Charlie Gardiner on the Bruins net. Gardiner was outstanding two nights later in blanking Toronto but the Boston offense could only score one goal, so their 1-0 victory was not enough to win the series. Chicago and the Americans tied 1-1 in their first game, which was played at Detroit's Olympia Stadium because Chicago's new arena was still not completed. The rematch at Madison Square Garden was all Chicago as John Ross Roach had an amazing 51 save shutout as the Black Hawks won 4-0 thanks to a pair of goals from Butch Keeling. The two semi-final series would be a best of five with the first-place teams Montreal and the New York Rangers squaring off in one series while Toronto and Chicago met in the other one. Toronto swept its series but all three games were decided by a single goal: 2-1 thanks to an early third period goal from Joe Primeau, 1-0 with Joe Miller getting the shutout and Ace Bailey scoring the Leafs goal with 20 seconds left in regulation and finally 2-1 in a game the Leafs outshot the Hawks 62-20. The Rangers won the opener of their series with Montreal as Eddie Shore got the game winner midway through the third period in a 2-1 New York victory on home ice at Madison Square Garden. Montreal trailed 2-1 in the second game until midway through the third period when a pair of quick goals from Bill Cook and Nels Stewart lifted the Habs to a 3-2 victory. The third game needed overtime to decide a winner and it was Montreal's Earl Campbell who was the hero, scoring just over seven minutes into the extra period to give the Habs a 3-2 victory on home ice. The Canadiens wrapped up the series two nights later with a 2-1 victory behind goals from Bun Cook and Johnny Shepard. Bun, the younger brother of Montreal captain Bill Cook, was a long-time Bruin who was acquired by the Canadiens in an early season deal. Montreal would be looking for its third straight Cup but instead of facing Boston, which was the case each of the previous two seasons, the Canadiens would meet the Toronto Maple Leafs. Unlike recent years, this series would be just a two-game total goal affair. Montreal led by a 37-save performance from Tiny Thompson, won the opener at The Forum by a 3-1 score. Harold Starr scored for the Canadiens in the first period with Earl Campbell doubling the lead in the middle frame. Babe Dye got Toronto on the board midway through the third frame before the Leafs pulled netminder Joe Miller in the final minute for an extra attacker, but the move backfired as Bun Cook deposited a puck into the empty net to give the Habs a 3-1 victory heading to Toronto for game two. The Leafs had all kinds of trouble solving Thompson in the second game, and never did as despite outshooting Montreal 30-25, Toronto lost 1-0 as Gerry Lowrey's first period powerplay goal stood up and gave Montreal a sweep in the short series. It marked the third straight Cup for the Habs, fifth since the formation of the NHL and ninth overall. ![]() NOTABLE RETIREMENT Frank Nighbor, who was the all-time leader in goals, assists and points in the combined PCHA/WCHL has announced his retirement at the age of 36. A three-time Most Valuable Player of PCHA, Nighbor was a member of the Vancouver franchise for its entire 15 year run before moving on to the Detroit Cougars after the Western League folded. He helped Vancouver reach the Stanley Cup finals three times, but his club came up short in each of them.The real-life Nighbor, a Hockey Hall of Fame inductee in 1947, was known as the Pembroke Peach. He played for Ottawa of the NHA, Vancouver in the PCHA and finally Toronto in the NHL. His real-life stay was much shorter than in the sim as he left Vancouver for the Ottawa Senators in 1915 and would play 14 NHL seasons in addition to two years in the PCHA and four in the NHA. ![]()
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Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles |
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#15 |
All Star Reserve
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 762
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I love everything about this replay. I have one question though--how did you get past the WCHL playoff issue in 1921-22? I've tried to edit the WCHL playoffs, but it keeps crashing on me.
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#16 |
All Star Reserve
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 762
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