'History Has Been Ma.......Deleted! And Now Rewritten......

[neilhoskins77]

Someone with far more responsibility than their pay grade merited has fallen asleep on the night shift! While they were snoozing, someone snuck into National Hockey League Headquarters, and pressed CTRL, ALT & DELETE. The whole history of the League has been deleted in one heinous act! The smart money is on it being a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, but no one is sure one of them would manage to think of such a genius plan. It could be a Rangers fan of course, they wouldn't have far to go, and they have motive for sure, and they may be hoping they could get back some of the money they've spent on garbage over the decades. Police say they have arrested a man from Cleveland..........they had no evidence against him, but like I say, he's from Cleveland.......

Anyway, let's cut to it shall we? This save was planned for FHM 6. Then FHM 7 came along, and well, 7 is a way better number than 6, so I held on for a little while. Obviously this save uses Historical Mode, right back from the very start of the NHL over a hundred years ago. This is fantastic news for those of the Canadian persuasion, who may have forgotten exactly what the Stanley Cup looks like. Don't worry Americans, I'll be sure to shout out when your guys show up to the party.

Drafts are wild, salary caps are low......no wait. That's Texas Hold' Em. Hockey will never catch on that far South.......
Drafts are active from the start, posts will cover the review of the season in chronological order, so Ottawa fans need only read each post up to around the December time, and then like the team you guys can just switch right off.....

I may do pics if I can make it look good enough with the relevant info that I want to get across, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to the first season.

No need to be shy guys and gals, if you want to see something included regarding particular teams or players or a regular feature of the season reviews, then just shout up.........

[neilhoskins77]

Doh. Double threaded. Could a Mod delete the other one please. Apologies

[neilhoskins77]

1917-18

In The News.....
*The United States declares war on Germany, with the first troops arriving in France.
*An influenza pandemic begins, and would claim 20 million lives over the next three years (we're sure this isn't today's news, right?)

Hockey News.....
The National Hockey League has been formed. The NHL will compete for players, prestiege and attention with the PCHA (Pacific Coast Hockey Association), and is a replacement for the now defunct NHA (National Hockey Association). The Champions of both Leagues will meet in a Series to play for the prestigious Stanley Cup, the largest trophy in all of sports.

This inaugural NHL season will see just four clubs compete, all of them Canadian. There are two representatives from Montréal in the form of the Canadiens and the Wanderers. The other half of the League comes from the Ottawa Senators and the Toronto Arenas. The quartet will play a 24 game regular season, with two points for a win, nothing for an overtime loss, and a point apiece if the game is still a tie after the extra session during the regular season. There is no Salary Cap or Floor, and the minimum salary is $1,000 with the Trade Deadline set for January 31st. Teams must dress at least 14 players, with 17 active on their roster and 25 contracted as a maximum. The Waiver Counter is set at a day. The Playoffs start three weeks after the Trade Deadline.

Out West, the PCHA operates with identical rules with just one exception. Their cross border three team League will play an 18 game regular season, and see's American clubs outnumber their northern neighbours. The Vancouver Millionaires will be ganged up on by current Champions of the League that has run since 1911, the Seattle Metropolitans, who are joined by the Portland Rosebuds

The Draft.....
No Draft to report on this season, but it is active and will start next year, where I believe both Leagues will operate a system that allows each franchise four picks. You have to be at least eighteen years of age to be drafted in either League, but the PCHA franchises are limited to selecting Western born players only.

Free Agency & Trade Activity.....
It's a very tentative build up to the new Regular Season, with few moves made. Ottawa took Toronto's final pick for next summers Draft in exchange for a low quality D'man that they looked set to release anyway. It was a tactic that caught the eye of Seattle, and they took both the 3rd and 4th Round selections of Portland in exchange for a pair of forwards. It may be a move that propels Portland into contender status, as winger Gordon Roberts struck 43 goals in 26 games last season while playing for Vancouver. But Seattle didn't stop there, sending a depth D'man up to Vancouver in return for their 4th Rounder. With a threadbare roster remaining, Seattle may have gone too far with their dealings.

NHL Preview.....
Montréal Canadiens go into the season as the firm favourites to be crowned Champions. With the best netminder in Georges Vezina, and a pair of free scoring forwards in Joe Malone and Newsy Lalonde, the experts believe the others will struggle to keep pace with them. Ottawa and Toronto are more than capable of winning games and turning in a good run of results, and the main challenge will come from them it is believed. But no one really has a good word to say about the Wanderers, who it's feared could well be the whipping boys of the NHL's first season.

The Regular Season.....
Things didn't quite go as expected though. Ottawa's hopes appeared to have been snuffed out early on when they lost their best player Frank Nighbor for a month of the seven week long Regular Season when he dislocated his shoulder in a domestic accident. But his team mates and some new signings from Free Agency brought in by the Front Office saw the Sens remain competitive until Nighbor returned. And he rewarded his team for their efforts with ten points in his first four games in his return.

Did the experts underestimate the talents of the Toronto and Ottawa sides, or did they overestimate those of the Montréal Canadiens. Maybe it was a mixture of both, as by the time we reached the Trade Deadline at the end of January, it was the two non-Montréal clubs that were leading the way, with Habs netminder Georges Vezina being constantly outperformed by his rival in Toronto, the Arenas netminder Hap Holmes who they brought east from PCHA Champions last season Seattle, was leading every category for netminders at this point. In fact, the only thing the experts had got right was how outmatched the Wanderers would be, with Montréal's second club winning only three of their opening sixteen fixtures, despite forward George Carey leading the NHL in Powerplay goals at that point.

With Toronto out of reach with three games remaining, and the Wanderers long since cut adrift and out of the race at the bottom, the outcome of the Regular Season would depend on the final three games. Montréal did what was expected of them against the Wanderers, but got no favours from Toronto, who dropped the game in Ottawa. The two protagonists would face each other in Montréal in the penultimate round of games, and despite Ottawa taking the lead three times, the Habs levelled each time, leaving it late for the last equaliser from Newsy Lalonde with less then two minutes to play in the third period after they'd been behind since midway through the second stanza. That goal kicked the stuffing out of the visitors, and Joe Malone potted the OT winner 11:56 into the extra session, his 21st goal of the season, and the goal that would mean Montréal would need only a point in Toronto on the final day. They wouldn't get it, losing 5-3, while back in their home city, they would receive no favours from their Wanderers rivals, who went down to Ottawa by the same score. The teams were level on points and goal difference, but Montréal had scored more goals, and they would take the Runner's-Up spot.

[neilhoskins77]

Lets head West and catch up on what's been happening in the PCHA. I know, you don't care. Neither do I, in a few seasons they're cruddy little League will be dust, and we can all pretend they never existed, at least until the WHA thinks they're some kind of black and white WCW coming for the WWE and invades the Hockey World for a few years of sub par glory.

As predicted, Seattle's moves to pull in some Draft Picks left them with a roster that was just a little too threadbare. The damage to their season was all done early on, as the defending Champions of the Patterson Cup realised their error and brought in Free Agents, and even traded a Fourth Rounder back across to Vancouver to pick up some depth. But they won only one of their opening four, and would later have a streak where they would lose five on the spin too. They picked up form later in the season, but it was too late, recording a 6-12 record and their season was over.

So you now know that Vancouver and Portland will have a Playoff contest, but while the Rosebuds of the American franchise from Portland go in very much as the form side, it's the Vancouver Millionaires who will enter the post-season Playoffs showdown as the Regular Season Champs. They showed the better ability to be consistent, posting an 11-7 record that Portland would almost certainly have surpassed given another couple of rounds of games, a seven game winning streak to end the schedule left them just a single game behind the Canadian side.

[neilhoskins77]

The Playoffs.....
But not as we know it! No, not even close to the two month or so hockeyfest that we enjoy in the modern day. The NHL Playoffs of 1917/18 are competed over two games. Yep, just two. The top two teams, Regular Season Champions if you like Toronto Arenas, and last day Runner's-Up that are the Montréal Canadiens will not even engage in a best of three or five series. Nope, they will host a game each just a few days apart, and the winner will be the aggregate score victor, a format more suited to football (call it soccer and I'll get angry, and you won't like me when I'm angry!).

In a late February shoot out, the opening game would be held at the Mutual Street Arena in Toronto, where the home side were simply out gunned by a clinical Habs side that found the net six times in a game that featured just one minor penalty for Unsportsmanlike Conduct late in the third period.

[neilhoskins77]

That left Montréal as the nailed on favourites when they returned home two days later to host Game Two. In a remarkable turn around from Game One, it was Toronto's turn to take the Habs apart at the Westmount Arena. Just like the Quebec province side had done on their travels, the Arenas side quietened down the home crowd with first period goals, and then pushed their advantage in the second period. But Montréal battled back in the third, scoring twice in the opening three minutes of the final period. That left Toronto needing three goal to send us into Overtime, or four to win. They managed only two, and the inaugural Stanley Cup would belong to the Montréal Canadiens, but not quite in the manner that the red hot pre-season favourites would have expected.

[neilhoskins77]

.....hang on. My phone is ringing. 'So they haven't won the Stanley Cup yet? Ahhh, ok, I see. Well, actually no I don't. They're not in the NHL, why are they playing for the Stanley Cup? Hello......' Well cheers for nothing.

So the Canadiens have won the Stanley Cup, but in name only. The REAL contest for the Cup will see them take on the Patterson Cup Winners from that pesky lot out West in the PCHA. Man, I'm going to need a lie down after this! So we'd better head out West ourselves and see what happens in the Playoff match-up between the Vancouver Millionaires and the Portland Rosebuds.

Unlike their Eastern rivals, the two games between the Western sides were much closer. At the Denman Arena in Vancouver, it was the travelling Portland team that would take Game One. A quiet first period exploded into action early in the middle period, with a series of goals and penalties. Portland came out of that on top, but Vancouver knotted it up again very early in the third. However, with just fifteen seconds of Game One remaining, Alf Barbour of Portland netted a game winner, and Portland would head home with an advantage to take into the rematch.

[neilhoskins77]

Game Two would take place at the much smaller Portland Ice Arena in the US State of Oregon and just 300 miles over the border between the North American nations. There, it was Vancouver who came out with all guns blazing, scoring twice in the first period to overturn the deficit from Game One, and lead the tie overall. With no scoring in the middle stanza, and several Powerplay chances missed, we moved into the final period, where Bobby Rowe scored for Portland with just under seven minutes to play, and this one would need Overtime to sort out who would lift the Patterson Cup. That honour would go to Vancouver, who got a winner with 6:21 played in OT through winger Barney Stanley with his first goal of the Playoffs.

[neilhoskins77]

The Awards.....
So now we know who will contest The Stanley Cup. But the NHL are not waiting around to see who will lift that before they announce their Awards for the 1917/18 season. And why should they? As far as they're concerned the prizes that matter have already been handed out, and they won't be sending any out West to PCHA players, so they went right ahead and gave out the goodies, and they also picked their First and Second All-Star Teams while they were at it.

[neilhoskins77]

The Stanley Cup Finals.....
The season showpiece then to round out the inaugural season of the new NHL. It would be interesting to know if the likes of Toronto and Ottawa would be throwing their support behind the Canadiens as they prepare for their Series with the Vancouver Millionaires, or would they insist they were better equipped to deal with the task.

If they had come down on the side of the latter, then Game One would make them think again, as an ill disciplined Vancouver were blown away at the Westmount Arena by the Habs. All five opening period minor penalties were called against the Western side, and Montréal capitalised on three of them to add to Tommy Smith's even strength opener. And the Canadiens would add three more 5 on 5 goals in the middle period, with Vancouver replying just once. The Millionaires did take the third period by two goals to nothing, but Game One absolutely belonged to the NHL club, and with a 7-3 win under their belts, they would be confident I'm sure ahead of playing Game Two in the same venue on the Friday night, with Vancouver scheduled to host Game Three.

[neilhoskins77]

Friday night in early April back at a sold out Westmount Arena, and this time it was the Habs that ran into penalty trouble, though the bulk of it game in the form a ten minute misconduct to Billy Coutu after he took offence at being assessed a tripping minor. The teams swapped markers, before Ran McDonald netted his first of the Finals to give Vancouver the lead at the end of one. The tide turned in the second period though, Louis Berlinquette and Goldie Prodger both scored for Montréal to give them a lead going into a crucial third period. A period that saw the Habs come out flying, Didier Pitre and the so far pretty quiet Joe Malone both scored early on to make the lead 5-2, before Vancouver rallied around the mid point of the period, first through Leo Cook, and then Sinc Moynes. But their efforts would be in vain, as Jack Laviolette settled the matter with just under five minutes of regulation remaining, leaving his team headed West knowing they needed just one more win, while Vancouver would need to win both Games Three & Four at home to earn a chance to return to Montréal for a decisive Game Five!

[neilhoskins77]

We have moved cross country for a Sunday night date at the Denman Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia. A full house arrives more in hope than expectation, except a few exiled French pats who are very much hoping to see the Habs complete the job here tonight. It was that minority that would be the happier, as Newsy Lalonde and Goldie Pronger both netted in the opening period for the NHL franchise. Barney Stanley was the Vancouver hero in OT in the Patterson Cup Finals, and he found the net for the first time in this Series early in the middle period to get Vancouver back in the game. It was only a brief glimpse of hope though, as the Habs rattled in three more goals in a 12 minute spell to take a 5-1 lead into the final period. Give Vancouver some credit, they have never thrown in the towel in any game of the Series, and they continued to kick the can down the street here, scoring twice early in the Third to half the deficit. They managed another too with just 70 seconds left on the clock, a second on the night for Lloyd Cook. But they had already seen Joe Malone score again moments before that, and with consecutive 6-4 wins, it's a sweep for the visitors, and the inaugural NHL season see's it's own Champions from the Montréal Canadiens go on to lift their first Stanley Cup!

So the 1917/18 season is in the books, and the pre-season favourite Montréal Canadiens overcame their Regular Season issues to scrape into the Playoffs and then go on to become the first ever NHL Champions, and the Stanley Cup winners for the season. This campaign is over, but with Drafts and Free Agency coming up, there's sure to be plenty going on before we drop the puck on the 1918/19 season of hockey.