1923-24 With Morenz Comes A Second Cup

After a span of several seasons in which the Canadiens roster saw hardly any changes, a youth movement of sorts, begun in 1922, had a dramatic effect on the team's fortunes for the 1923-24 campaign. The addition of younger and highly skilled talent, mixed in with the core of savvy veterans that remained, proved to be just the recipe to get the Canadiens over the hump.

In recent seasons, the Canadiens hockey club appeared to be as strong as those teams who went on to claim the Stanley Cup prize. For a variety of reasons, the team always fell slightly short of their goal. Often it was the case of the team either starting out strong and ending meekly, or vice versa. In the end, the Canadiens it seemed, were forever a win or a goal short of greater achievements.

THE FRENCH MYTH CONTINUES

Since the club's inception in the 1909-10 season, team ownership - be it Ambrose O' Brien, George Kendall Kennedy, or more recently, the Leo Dandurand group - held steadfastly to the notion that the Montreal Canadiens hockey club be comprised mainly of french speaking players from the local area. It has always been the team credo of sorts, and it worked well to form an allegiance between the team and it's fans. This was especially apparent, and successful, during the years in which the Montreal Wanderers were the Canadiens fiercest rivals.

Slowly over time, the grip on french speaking players was lessened, and players from the Ottawa region, the whole of Ontario, and as far away as the western provinces, began infiltrating the team's ranks. It was never seen as a diluting of an ideal, but merely an intelligent means of survival for the club.




















Through the era's of the three successive owners, several mainstays remained on the roster. Newsy Lalonde had spent a dozen seasons in a Canadiens uniform. Didier Piter lasted an additional season. Goalie Georges Vezina, still in peak form, was about to begin his thirteenth season with the Canadiens. Others, such as defensemen Jack Laviolette and Louis Berlinguette, also enjoyed long tenures with the club. The purposes of solidifying a francophone fan base had long been met. With no english geared rival team within the city limits, it began to make solid sense that the Canadiens simply align the best possible players, regardless of origin.

Perhaps certain changes signified a breach with past methods of good business for the club, but from this point on, the Canadiens were prepared to seek talent from wherever it came, while keeping close watch on local prospects. It was an intelligent and forward move, that would quickly enable the Canadiens to enjoy their most prosperous seasons yet.

Manager Dandurand, knowing full well that the Canadiens mythical frenchman were selling tickets at home and on the road, was not about to let anyone in on the fact that newcomers Joliat and Morenz were both of Swiss descent. Nevertheless, a Flying Frenchmen identity had already forged into the minds of fans and rivals alike, and little would deviate hockey fans perception of the club as such.

OUT WITH THE OLD

In parting ways with Lalonde prior to the beginning of the 1922-23 season, and with Pitre and Berlinguette gone at season's end, a shift towards a younger team was signified with the arrival of Aurel Joliat and Billy Boucher in the previous campaign.

For the 1923-24 season, the Canadiens would add a defenseman named Sylvio Mantha from the Montreal Nationale, and a sleek centerman from Stratford, Ontario named Howie Morenz, who would both impact the club tremendously and share long tenures as Canadiens.


















Both were 21 years of age, and added to the 22 year old Joliat and the 24 year old Boucher, the Canadiens were a great deal more youthful than in preceding seasons. Billy's brother, Bobby, also joined the team. At 19 years old, he was almost half the age of the Canadiens eldest citizen, goalie Georges Vezina, who would turn 37 in the course of the season.

Save for 27 year old spare Billy Campbell, the remaining players on the Canadiens were all 30 and over, and included Billy Coutu at 31, Billy Bell and Odie Cleghorn at 32, brother Sprague and Joe Malone, both 33.

MORENZ ALMOST SLIPPED LOOSE

It took all of Canadiens manager Leo Dandurand's powers of persuassion to get Morenz into a Montreal uniform. The player known as the "Mitchell Meteor" and later, the "Stratford Streak" was highly coveted by several professional organizations, among them Toronto, Saskatoon, Hamilton and Victoria.

Ernest Sauvé, who was affiliated with Hart and the Canadiens through several sources, had officiated a game involving Morenz's Stratford CNR team and the Point St. Charles machine shop squad at the Mount Royal Arena one Saturday in April of 1923. After Morenz put in a 9 goal performance in one game, Sauvé was on the phone to Dandurand, and he dispatched to Hart to Stratford to speak with Morenz's family and he came away with his signature on a contract.

After weeks passed, Morenz and his family had a change of heart in regards to his willingness to turn pro, and he sent a telegram to the Canadiens explaining his wish to remain in Stratford where a secure living awaited him. It seems the player was being influenced by the local senior team that he played for, and by his personal entourage, and he stated in his note that he had doubts about having what was needed to be a pro player. He had signed a $1,600 contract, and he was asking Dandurand to please tear it up.

Dandurand replied in the negative, and Morenz then countered with a a second hand written letter that stated:

"Dear Sir, I am enclosing a cheque and contract to play hockey with your club. Owing to several reasons, of which family and work are the most to consider, I find it impossible to leave Stratford. I am sorry if I caused you expense and inconvenience, and trust you will accept the returned contract in a sportsmanlike way. Yours truly, Howarth Morenz."

The Morenz note was dated August 10, but not postmarked until the 23rd, which told the savvy Dandurand that there was hesitation and uncertainty in the player's actions. Dandurand was no fool, and he knew a scheme when he saw one coming. He promptly phoned the player at home, and told him that there would be a railway ticket at the Stratford station for him to come to Montreal the next day to discuss matters.

The two met the following day and Morenz was steadfast about not joining the Canadiens or any other pro team for that matter. He allowed that he was getting good money on the side to play senior hockey in Stratford, and combined with his work in a car shop, it was a larger sum that his pro deal. When Dandurand countered that a contract was a contract, and business was business, the debt ridden Morenz broke down. With tears streaming down his cheeks, he confessed that he felt he was not good enough to play pro, and that Dandurand would be sorry he forced him into it, and depriving his family of his livelyhood in the process. Dandurand almost fell for it.

Morenz showed up for the 1923 training camp and immediately made a strong impression. The team veterans made it especially rough on the new greenhorn, and players such as Vezina and Sprague Cleghorn came away convinced Morenz would be a star in the league.

In his third game of the season, on December 27, as Ottawa inaugurated their new the Auditorium, Morenz scored his first of a career 270 goals on December 27, 1923.

MANTHA, THE NEWEST MAINSTAY

Sylvio Mantha was a product of the local Montreal hockey scene, and the Canadiens were aquainted with his play when he was brought into camp as a forward. He would soon be converted into a defenseman and would succeed Cleghorn as the Canadiens best rearguard for years to come.

Born and raised in the St. Henri end of Montreal, Mantha his reputation as a right winger with the Notre Dame de Grace juniors in 1918-19. In successive campaigns, Mantha appeared on clubs from Verdun to Montreal in the local junior leagues. Guided and groomed by such local hockey notaries as Arthur Therrien, Mantha became the "can't miss kid" by the time he signed on with the Canadiens in December of this season. As Sprague Cleghorn and Billy Coutu's time in Montreal winded down, Mantha was ready to assume the position of the Canadiens all purpose defenseman.

MALONE SEES THE END

Joe Malone, one of the most illustrious of early NHL'ers, began his 15th pro season, which would turn out to be his fourth and final one as a Montreal Canadien.

The hockey legend who held the single season goal scoring mark with 44 in the 1917-18 season with Montreal was at a crossroads. Appearing in 20 games for Montreal one year prior, he managed but one goal, and was slowed by a throat infection for the majority of the season.

Malone returned in 1923-24, set to prove himself, but ended up with a front row seat in witnessing the birth of a legendary career.

"I took a look at a new kid in our training camp at Grimsby, Ontario and knew right then I was ready for the easy chair. He was Howie Morenz. In practice he moved past me so fast I thought I was standing still. I knew it was time to quit. Besides I was bothered by a throat ailment. I didn't want to grow old on the Canadiens bench. I had a good job as a tool maker. So I said goodbye. I didn't stay long enough in 1923-24 to get a goal. Morenz had taken over."*

Malone would dress for 10 games with Montreal, and after a game on January 23, he called it quits. The Canadiens would later have a "Joe Malone Night" to honour his career and achievements. He was presented with a gold watch, which was quite the expensive gift in the day. Canadiens team president Alphonse David stated that Malone deserved a gift suitable for a world champion.

COLD IN HOT WEATHER, HOT IN COLD WEATHER

The Canadiens had several false starts to their season when unusually warm temperatures forced the cancellation of games at the Mount Royal Arena, as artificial ice was not made at the Canadiens home. They would also run into similar problems at the end of the season.


















Perhaps because of scheduling conflicts and added youth to the team, Montreal started the season flatfooted, winning only four of its first 13 games. Owners Cattarinich and Létourneau decided to shake up the troops by offering a $1000 bonus to all players should the team qualify for the post season. Being that the team was in last place and needed to finish in the top two to accomplish this feat, it would take a great string of victories in the season's final 11 contests.

To the surprise of many, the Canadiens went on to win 9 of those final 11 games, finishing a solid second, six points behind the Ottawa Senators and six ahead of the Toronto St. Patricks. They were in the playoffs, and a good grand richer for their efforts.

CLEGHORN GOES BALLISTIC - THE SEQUEL

Sprague Cleghorn continued to be his viscious self, and the NHL brought forth a cummulative list of his deeds in mid season, in order to consider a suspension for the Canadiens battling blueliner. After citing a spearing incident against Ottawa's Cy Denneny, the league rejected all charges against him. A few games later, Cleghorn rammed the Senators Lionel Hitchman into the boards from behind, and was forced to sit out a game for his deed.

The slow changing of the guard on defense over the course of the last three seasons, and the youth injection upfront were evident in the team's final statistics for the season. Despite finishing only two games above .500 with an 13-11 record, goalie Georges Vezina, solid as ever, allowed the least goals against, with 48 in 24 games. This was crucial to their success, as the team also managed a league low 59 goals for, with Bobby Boucher, Joliat, and Morenz contributing 16, 15, and 13 respectively. The eight remaining Canadiens accounted for the other 15 goals scored.

Vezina, who had yet to miss a game in 15 seasons, owned the league's best goals against average for the fifth time in his career, and the team's committment to defense would continue to pay further dividends.

SENS GET DUMPED, OH WELL

The Senators finished with the NHL's best record at 16-8, despite a bizarre incident near the season's end. Montreal fans hung around Mount Royal for hours before hearing the news as to why Ottawa were so late for the contest. On their way to the game with the Canadiens, the Senators train was snowbound near Hawkesbury, Ontario, and they were stuck all night causing the one day postponement. Ottawa's Cy Denneny, a native of Cornwall, decided to scrounge around for some food, and somehow fell down a well. Fortunately, he escaped injury. The next night, Vezina and the Canadiens shut out the Senators 3–0.

In the playoffs, the second place Canadiens would upset the Senators in a two game total goals series to become the first winner of the new Prince Of Wales Trophy. The trophy took the place of the O'Brien Trophy, which was retired but later brought back and awarded to Canadian Division teams starting in 1927-28. This season saw the introduction of another new trophy into the NHL, the Hart Trophy, donated by Cecil Hart's father, Dr. David Hart, was to be awarded to the player judged most valuable to his team.

After the Canadiens took care of the Senators with a 1-0 win in Montreal and a 4-2 win in Ottawa, they went on to challenge the winners of the PCHA and the WCHL for the Stanley Cup. This would be the last season in which three leagues would compete for the Cup as the PCHA folded prior to the start of ther next season.

DANDURAND BACKS OFF

Canadiens owner Dandurand initially wanted the Calgary Tigers and Vancouver Maroons to face off against each other and then have the Canadiens play the winner for the Cup, but Frank Patrick, the president of the PCHA, refused to go along with that idea. At first, Dandurand claimed that Calgary and Vancouver were inferior to his team, and he felt that they should face off against one another to determine a winner. Instead, Patrick proposed a compromise in which the host team's (Montreal) customary contribution towards the two other clubs travel expenses would be cut in half.

When Dandurand realized that an additional series in Montreal translated into additional income whether or not Montreal won the Cup, he relented.

In order to generate the additional money, Calgary and Vancouver decided to play a three game series before heading to Montreal, with the loser having to face the Canadiens in the first round. Games were played in Vancouver, Calgary, and Winnipeg, with the Tigers coming back from a Game 1 loss to win the next two contests. Despite this additional series between the Tigers and the Maroons, Montreal still had to defeat both western teams in order to win the Cup.

The first two games against the Maroons were played at the Mount Royal Arena on March 18 and 20, and the Canadiens won both by scores of 3-2 and 2-1.

BOUCHER DOUBLE

Billy Boucher was the hero of the Vancouver series as he scored the game winning goals both games. In Game 2, Vancouver scored first on a goal by Billy's brother, Frank, but Billy responded with two goals of his own to give the Canadiens a 2-1 win and clinch the series.

After sweeping Vancouver, Montreal's next opponent were the Calgary Tigers and the Canadiens swept them as well in a best of three series. Howie Morenz was the star, scoring a hat trick in the first game on March 22, then another goal in the next game, which was transferred to Ottawa on march 25 because of the slushy ice at the Mount Royal. Morenz was levelled by Cully Wilson of Calgary and suffered a chipped collarbone, but it did little to slow Montreal down.

The Canadiens swept all three teams they faced during the playoffs en route to their first Stanley Cup since their 1916 Cup win as a member of the NHA. After the playoffs, a new ring was added to the Cup with the player's names engraved along with the following: "Canadiens of Montreal / World's Champions / Defeated / Ottawa Vancouver Calgary / Two Straight Games Each".

CANADIENS CASH IN

An article in La Presse at the time stated that the four playoff games brought in a total sum of $23,119.77 to the Canadiens organization. Each players share of the winnings was a handsome and much appreciated $603.92. Added into the $1000 promise per player that team owners paid up on the last game of the regular season, a good half of the Canadiens players practically doubled their annual salaries for the season.

The Canadiens were honoured after the win with a gala evening held in their presence at the University of Montreal. Once the night was over and much spirits were consumed, they were off to Dandurand's residence for a private victory party. The Dandurands home was at the top of Mount Royal, and along the way of the rocky road, a vehicle containing the Cleghorn brothers and Sylvio Mantha suffered a tire puncture.

SPRAGUE LOSES IT IN A DIFFERENT WAY
Team captain Sprague had been holding the Stanley Cup, and he deposited it at the roadside to fix the flat. Once they were back at the Dandurand residence hours later, the team owner's wife suggested that the punch she had made would best be served from the bowl. That was when the players realized they had left it on the roadside hours earlier.

Hurrying back to the scene of the flat tire, there was the Cup, still sitting atop the snowbank where it had been left hours earlier by the players.

After the Canadiens second Cup win, the engraving of names on Lord Stanley's gift to Canada became a solid and unbroken tradition. Lord Stanley encouraged each team to add a ring to the Cup to commemorate its victory. The 1907 Montreal Wanderers were the first to actually engrave the players names on the Cup, doing so on the flat surface inside the bowl. The Vancouver Millionaires followed in 1914-15.









Since 1924, the engravings have been an annual event, but there have been many uncorrected name misspellings and some illegitimate names on the Cup. One such occurance with the 1924 Canadiens happened when the name of spare forward Charles Fortier. The Rockland, Ontario born player who was a spare for the team, never appeared in game action for Montreal. Better known as an employee of Bell Canada for over 40 years, Fortier has without a doubt received the easiest NHL immortalization of all time.

The city of Montreal were caught up in a frenzy of delight over the Canadiens triumph, and threw the team a big bash following their win.


















*Malone knew it was time to retire when he literally saw the future of hockey in Montreal. In an article by Vern Degeer in the March 18, 1961 issue of The Hockey News. Thanks to Joe Pelletier at Hockey's Greatest Legend's for the quote.

*From Joe Pelletier's Habs Legends

1922-23 The Newsy Era Ends, A New One Begins

Two shocking blockbuster trades, with opposite results, highlighted the Canadiens 1922-23 season.

On November 3, Canadiens owner Jos Cattarinich announced to much consternation and fan outcry, that the Canadiens had traded star Newsy Lalonde's contract to the Saskatoon Crescents of the Western Canadian Hockey League for $3,000 and the right to a promising player named Aurel Joliat.

In Joliat, the Canadiens were gambling on a smallish, unproven, and often injured player. Despite the forwarning, word had it that Joliat could be every bit as fiesty as Lalonde. The fact that Joliat was but 21 years old surely helped tilt the deal in Montreal's favor.

An original Montreal Canadiens player dating back to the start of the 1909-10 season, Lalonde was said to have signed a $5,000 per season deal with the Crescents.

Lalonde's contract was guaranteed renewable dependant upon the Saskatoon team's standing after each of the first two seasons.

Lalonde, a Cornwall, Ontario native and pro hockey's first 200 goal scorer, had fallen out of favor with Canadiens management and a split seemed almost inevitable. His salary would double his previous year's earnings with Montreal.

A Saskatchewan daily said this about the Lalonde acquisition at the time:







"One of the greatest drawing cards in professional hockey today, the Flying Frenchman, as he is best known, should be able to turn out a winning team for the Crescents this winter, provided he has any kind of material, and there is small doubt but that he will. For years "Newsy" has been one of the leading goal getters in the N.H.L., and in obtaining his services the local management has turned a real trick, for, in spite of his age, the old boy has plenty of hockey spirit and brains left in him yet."

Other NHL teams were upset that they were not given a chance to acquire Lalonde, a drawing card for the league if there ever was one. The NHL had just instituted a policy where players could not be traded to the WCHL without bypassing NHL suitors, but apparently the Canadiens / Crescents transaction was finalized just prior to such an amendment.

SO, JUST WHO IS THIS AUREL JOLIAT?

For all intents, Joliat was all but a virtual unknown in Montreal, and at 5' 6", and 135 lbs, was a skeptical proposition as a hockey player in a rough and tumble era.

Joliat could consider himself fortunate to be playing any sports at all. In his teens years, he was working as a roofer one time, and plunged 25 feet, landing on the ground, back first. While he narrowly escaped serious injury, he would play his NHL career with two displaced vertebrae. While playing, he would wear a truss to keep his back from further injury.

"The Mighty Atom" as he became known, also suffered a serious leg injury while playing football with the Ottawa Rough Riders. Joliat had been the club's kicker, until the broken leg forced him to concentrate mainly on hockey. Playing with terrible stomach ulcers for the majority of his career, Joliat was one tough little bugger.

However, the smallish player with the injury prone reputation, began dispelling concerns in his very first game with the Canadiens, a 7-2 loss to Toronto in which Joliat was his team's lone goal scorer.

NEWSY MADE HIS BED

The seeds for Newsy Lalonde's exit were sewn during a very troubling 1921-22 campaign, his most miserable as a pro player. Over the years, there was a lot of water passed under the bridge between the playing coach and team management, and things were especially worse that season, when he first sat out in a contract dispute, before being fined for indifferent play by owner Leo Dandurand.

A separate occurance two seasons prior that had not been forgotten was a game in which Lalonde seemed to deliberately score on a flabbergasted George Vezina. Claiming he felt the play had been blown dead, Newsy fired a puck passed his own goalie before all hell broke loose. As team mates admonished the gesture, Lalonde tore after the game's official to no avail. Certain opinions felt than Lalonde may have been trying to prove a point, especially when he returned to ice as though a hell hound were at his heels. Newsy's goathorns were removed when he netted the eventual game winner in overtime.


























Lalonde's relationship with management and team mates had always been an arduous and laborious one. Newsy enjoyed his celebrity status as the Canadiens premier player since it's inception and was never afraid to speak his mind out. The original Flying Frenchman enjoyed the income from two concurrent professional sports, hockey and lacrosse, and was never in tough for cash during the tightest of times of the Depression era. This however, never prevented him from fighting over a hard earned dollar, espescially when he was well informed as to how the owners pocket were being lined by his efforts and talent.

The Canadiens often tolerated Newsy's behavior and antics, simply because he battled as hard on the ice as he had off it. When the twilight of his career seemed at dawn, the Canadiens did not hesitate to cash in on it, and dispatch him from the league.
Lalonde would be rejuvenated with the Crescents in 1922-23, scoring 30 goals in 29 games. It would mark his sixth professional scoring title across six different pro leagues. The following season ( see photo ) Newsy would be joined on the Crescents by current Canadiens defender Louis Berlinguette and goaltender for montreal, George Hainsworth.






















After four seasons in Saskatoon, he would return to the NHL's New York Americans as their coach in 1926, making his final NHL appearance. He would return to the Canadiens one last time as a coach in the 1930's.

MALONE RETURNS, LEAVES SCORING PUNCH BEHIND

The second most controversial move of the season was the Hamilton Tigers trading away of star forward Joe Malone to the Canadiens in exchange for Bert Corbeau and Edmond Bouchard. Malone had scored 28 and 24 goals in his two seasons in Hamilton, but the controversy quickly quieted as Malone would only go on to score 1 goal in 20 games with the Habs in 1922-23, while Bouchard, with Hamilton, led the league with 12 assists.

After having been suspended by Hamilton for refusing to report to training camp on December 6, the Canadiens reacquired Malone, but at the age of 33 his skills had now vanished as he struggled with illnesses and injury.

If the Malone deal was disappointing, the acquisition of Joliat was anything but. The rookie chipped in with 12 goals and 9 assists in 24 games, and the best seemed like it was yet to come.

One important player gone from 1922 was defenseman Corbeau. The veteran of eight seasons in Montreal wished to be closer to his family, and asked Dandurand for a trade to Hamilton. He was included in Malone acquisition from the Tigers, and was traded a season later to the St. Patricks where he would wind down his NHL career.

Starting the season, the team held its training camp in Grimsby, at the west end of Lake Ontario. Players and team management enjoyed the experience, as did the locals, who not only gave the Canadiens a municipal welcome, but invited the team back for more such occasions.

DIDIER'S LAST HURRAH

It would be the final camp for the longest standing original Montreal Canadien, Didier Pitre, who was the first ever player signed by the club. Now 39 years old and wearing down fast, the right winger / defenseman was at the end of an illustrious career that would see him score 220 goals in a Montreal uniform, second only to Newsy Lalonde's 266.

Born on September 1, 1883, Pitre also has the distinction of being the second oldest forward to suit up for the Canadiens, after Jean Beliveau, who was born one calandar day earlier, 47 years after Pitre in 1931. The distiction of the eldest of Habs to ever suit up in teams colours, would go to a goaltender the club would reacquire in the years to come.


























The burly Pitre had held his own battles over the seasons, a few with management, more than a few with Newsy, and a scattered issues with the media of the day.

As the Canadiens first ever signed player, he entered the NHA in controversy, with signed contracts from two rivals leagues in hand. He often warred with Lalonde for status on the club, in regards to contracts. In many seasons in which he outscored the fiesty Newsy, he never seemed to gain the upper hand financially.

Pitre, often was of an easy going nature, despite the flare ups. He was once criticized by his coach for apologetically helping an opponant up after he had knocked him to the ice.

His most troubling season came when the Canadiens had traded him to Vancouver in lieu of Lalonde snubbing the PCHL contract he had signed. During that time, an article emminating from Ottawa, had portrayed the big Canadiens winger's lifestyle as being less than exempliary. As Pitre filed suit against the paper, the Canadiens attempted to clean their hands of both troubles at once.

A popular player with the local fans, Pitre would add a mere goal and an assist in 23 games, in his final campaign with the club

With Lalonde gone, the Canadiens management offered the team captaincy to goalie Georges Vezina, who declined the honour because he felt his position was ill suited for the duty. The "C" then ended up on the sweater of Sprague Cleghorn.

SHAKY CANADIENS PULL IT TOGETHER

The Canadiens employed only 10 skaters and a goalie in 1922-23, with Joliat and Malone being the lone new faces. The slack left by Lalonde's departure was picked up by Joliat and Billy Boucher, but the Canadiens were an inconsistant team for the majority of their 24 games.

After nine games, Montreal had but three wins and a pair of ties for their earning. They would win six of their next eight games, beating every club twice in that span, before dropping a pair to Hamilton and Ottawa.

With five games remaining, the Canadiens needed to win all five to have a shot at the O' Brien Cup, a first place standing, and the Stanley Cup. It started well with a 5-3 win at the Mount Royal against the Tigers, but the Canadiens let the St. Patricks snuggle up to them in the standing with a 4-3 loss to Toronto.

The standings were incredible tight, and all of Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto were still aspirants to top spot. The Canadiens went on to defeat each of the three remaining foes, but didn't get any help from Hamilton as they lost a pair to Ottawa.

Final wins for the Canadiens against Toronto and Ottawa helped clinch second place, and happily, a playoff berth. They finishing one point back of the Senators, and one point up on the St. Pats. The Tigers remained the league doormats for a third consecutive season.

In the final tally, the Canadiens managed one more win than it had the season before, but the playoffs held promise as Montreal ended on a three game winning note, while the Senators lost their final two games as they held onto first place.


CLEGHORN GOES BALLISTIC ON OTTAWA

While the era of NHL hockey's earliest years is infamous for its rough and often violent action, Cleghorn stands above every evil doer as the most notorious perpetrator of dirty deeds. It was by no accident that he led the league in penalty minutes for nine of his first ten seasons.

In the first game of this season's playoffs, the always vigilant Cleghorn still had bones to pick with the Senators, and he literally went ballistic at the site of their barber shop pole sweaters.

First, Cleghron unleashed his wrath upon Ottawa's Lionel Hitchman, butt ending him in the face with his lumber. After being penalized, he went on even further, and attempted to carve his initials into Cy Denneny's facial features. As Denneny backed off, team mate Billy Coutu joined in the brawl, and clunked the Senator a two hander over the head. As Ottawa players were hauled off on stretchers, Cleghorn himself would be hauled off to an Ottawa police station after the incident and charged with aggravated assault and fined $50.

Montreal manager and coach Leo Dandurand, who despised such acts and felt that violence had no part in the game, was given little choice but to suspend both Cleghorn and Coutu for their actions. Each paid a $200 fine. Dandurand felt so strongly about his personal stand, that neither player suited up for the second game of the playoff series.

Ottawa won the bloodied contest by a 2-0 score, and Cleghorn's absense in game two, may or may not have cost the Canadiens a trip to the Stanley Cup finals. Needing a two goal win, the more disciplined Canadiens team could only manage the slightest of 2-1 victories.

The Senators would win the two game total goals series 3-2, but the round will long be remembered by the Cleghorn maiming of Ottawa players.


SENATORS REIGN SUPREME ONCE MORE

This would the second season in which the Stanley Cup playoffs would involve competition from three different leagues. The previous saw all three second place teams win their respective leagues, and now it would be the turn for all first place clubs.

The Pacific Coast Hockey Association abandoned its seven man hockey in favour of the six man rule used in the NHL and the Western Canada Hockey League. This allowed the PCHA and the WCHL to play interleague games while the separate leagues kept their own standings. The newly renamed Vancouver Maroons won the PCHA championship and the Edmonton Eksimos won the WCHL championship.

The Senators first faced the Maroons, and won the best of five, three games to two. They went on to sweep the Eskimos 2-0 in a best of three. In one game against Vancouver, the Senators King Clancy played all five positions, in cluding goal in one game. Unbeknowst to league president Frank Calder, the Stanley Cup then spent the entire season in the Clancy household before it was returned.





















STARS ON THE HORIZON

As Ottawa claimed its third Stanley Cup win in four seasons, the Canadiens again could feel that they were not far off the mark - and truly they would not be wrong.
Additions in recent seasons, Joliat in this year, Billy Boucher, and the Cleghorn brothers, changed the face of the Canadiens quite rapidly. It is an old saying that team's were often one player away from the Cup, and in this instance, nothing could prove to be more true.

As the prospects for a solid career from Joliat looked good, a compatriot of sorts, who would more than compliment his talents, was on the horizon. Few knew at the time, that soon to be in a the Canadiens midst, would be a player who would become the game's most blazing talent over the two decades.






.

1919-20 Newsy And Joe Malone Battle It Out

Canadiens fans were excited and relieved to hear the announcement that a new hockey arena was being built at the corners of Mount Royal and Saint Urbain, and would be ready in the coming season. With the fire that destroyed the Jubilee occuring in April, a month after the previous season had ended, meant that the Canadiens would begin their 1919-20 season on the road until the new Mount Royal Arena was completed.

Montreal's first home games of the season were played in Ottawa and twice the scheduled home opener against the Quebec Bulldogs had to be postponed due to having no water to form the artificial ice surface.

The Canadiens finally made their home debut on January 10 in the brand new Mount Royal. The team, as popular as ever, turned away a thousand spectators due to lack of seating. Newsy Lalonde celebrated the occasion with a six goal game in a 14-7 drubbing of the Toronto St. Patricks.



















Very few changes were made to the Canadiens lineup in 1919-20. Lalonde was back for a tenth campaign in a Canadiens sweater, and Georges Vezina and Didier Pitre were returning for their ninth seasons. Also returning were Bert Corbeau, Louis Berlinguette, Odie Cleghorn, Amos Arbour and Billy Coutu.

Missing from the season prior were spare Fred Doherty, sniper Joe Malone, forwards Jack McDonald and Billy Bell, and defenseman Joe Hall, who passed away following a short battle with infuenza from the Seattle final six months back.

Malone and McDonald were transferred back to Quebec by Montreal when Bulldogs franchise returned to NHL on November 25, 1919. Bell remained property of the Canadiens but saw no game action in this season. He would return in 1920-21.

The Canadiens new faces for the season included two older familiar ones - Donald Smith and Howard McNamara.

Smith was signed as a free agent by Montreal on December 11 after having served three years Smith in the military. He was no longer the high scoring forward he had been in his early days in Montreal, and suited up mainly as a spare, netting one lone goal in 10 games. The Canadiens had sold his rights to the cross town rival Wanderers during the 1914-15 season.

Montreal also recouped McNamara after war service, signing the 240 lb defenceman on December 7. He had played the the 1916-17 season as a member of the high scoring 228th Battalion team, counting for 11 goals in 12 games. This season would be McNamara's last, as he appeared in 10 contests, scoring one goal.

The Canadiens attempted to return another former player in Goldie Prodgers, who had scored the Stanley Cup winning goal for the team in 1916. Unfortunately, Prodgers wanted no part of Montreal at this time and after aquiring his rights from the Bulldogs, where he had also refused to report, he was sent to the St. Patricks for Harry Cameron on January 14, 1920.

Cameron, a man credited with perfecting the game's first curved shot with a straight blade, gave the Canadiens 12 goals in his 16 games with the team. He was later dealt back to Toronto on November 27 in return of Prodgers and Joe Matte in what was at the time a large three team, 10 player shuffle.

Montreal's one new face in this season was a spare named Jack Coughlin, who appeared in three games before being part of the aforementioned package deal with Toronto.

The Canadiens as a team, once again fared better in the first half of the split schedule before tailing off in the final twelve games of the expanded 24 game season. Unfortunately, Montreal won neither half as the Ottawa Senators took both, losing only five games all season.

The underlying story of the 1919-20 campaign was a heated scoring race battle between Lalonde and the Bulldogs Malone, who fought for the lead until the final game of the season. Newsy, who was in his fifth running year as the Canadiens coach, was in fact called out more than once by manager Kennedy for playing too individualistic a style for the betterment of the team.

Lalonde ended the schedule with 37 goals and 9 assists in 23 games - far and away his best season in professional hockey. Still, despite the career year, Lalonde missed one game and fell behind Malone in the final count by two goals and an assist.

Both players were at their performing peak, with Malone at 29 years of age, and Lalonde two years his senior.

If NHA statistics are taken into consideration, the two had split scoring titles for four seasons running. Lalonde had won in 1915-16 and 1918-19 while Malone took honours in 1916-17 and the following season with a record setting mark of 44 goals while a member of the Canadiens.


By many accounts, Lalonde was a man often motivated by monetary principles that were often tied to his on ice performance. As competitive as they came in the day, Lalonde was always ready for a challenge. With Malone on the sidelines due to job committments in 1918-19, Lalonde was all too ready to best him once more in 1919-20. Although he fell slightly short, Newsy would again gain the upper hand one season later.

In early NHL history, no two players battled it out as hard as Lalonde and Malone for who was better.

They are the game's two best goals per game scorers to this day, considering, or not counting their NHA years. Malone scored 143 goals in 126 NHL contests. Lalonde scored 124 goals in 99 NHL games. Malone averaged 1.14 goals per game in the NHL while Lalonde averaged 1.25 goals per games. In total, Lalonde played 15 years of professional hockey through various leagues, and averaged 1.36 goals per game, while Malone racked up 16 pro seasons where he averaged 1.35 goals per game.

Each player finished with 3 NHA/NHL titles to their resume. A debate over who was better would be eternal.

In the 1919-20 season, both Lalonde and Malone seemed primed to outdo each other. After Lalonde scored 6 to astablish a personal mark in the Canadiens home opener, Malone outdid him with a 7 goal effort three weeks later against the same St. Pats. Malone also netted 6 against Ottawa later in the season.

There may be a very early hockey lesson in all this goal scoring, who was the better individual, debate.





The Canadiens were the NHL's highest scoring team in this season, with 129 goals scored to their credit. Ottawa, who were the winners of both 12 game halves scored 121, but allowed only 64 against, including a mere 23 in the first half. Montreal allowed 113.

Other than Lalonde's 37 markers, several Montreal shooters had good years, as Arbour scored 21 goals, Odie Cleghorn netted 20, and Didier Pitre, still solid in his older years, accounted for 14.

On March 3, the Canadiens humiliated the Bulldogs by a 16-3 score, setting an all time record for goals by one team in one game. Four Montreal players had hat tricks - another NHL record. Lalonde, Pitre and Cleghorn, all forwards, had three goal games, while defenseman Cameron hit the mesh with four, thus becoming the only rearguard in NHL history to do so twice in a career.

All the offensive prowess for the Canadiens would prove for nough, since the Ottawa Senators won both halves of the split regular season. There would be no need for an NHL playoff, and the Senators were given the O' Brien Trophy, assured a spot in the Stanley Cup Championship series.

Representing the PCHA again this year were the Seattle Metropolitans, who battled in a very tight league where two wins separated its three teams.

A problem arose as Seattle's green, red, and white uniforms looked almost alike to Ottawa's striped white uniforms. Ottawa agreed to play the series in white sweaters. As the previous year saw the championship played out west, it moved to Ottawa this season, but with unseasonably warm weather, the final two games were played in Toronto's Arena Gardens.

The NHL story in it's third season was a tale of growth versus setback. In Ottawa, as with Montreal the year before were crowned Stanley Cup champions, both cities were consumed with hockey interest.

The League seemed to have solved its issues revolving Toronto team ownership when a group was found to buy the dormant Toronto franchise one day before the regular season was slated to begin. The Toronto Arenas were dead, and the new team was nicknamed the St. Patricks. The group paid $5,000 to the NHL for what was essentially an expansion franchise.

Quebec, on the other hand, did not enjoy as glorious a return to the NHL. With a dismal record of 2-10 in both halves of the season, the Bulldogs fan support waned despite Joe Malone scoring exploits. With the Bulldogs surrendering an average of 7.18 goals against per game, a record that still stands today, Quebec finished dead last. Despite a pair of Stanley Cups to their credit, NHL hockey in Quebec was on its final crutches.

The best news for the NHL was that World War I was finally over. Players came home and fans were now coming in larger numbers to see games. On February 21,1920, a record crowd of 8,500 fans came to see Ottawa play Toronto at the Mutual Street Arena.

Hockey fans were now freed from the constraints of wartime rationing to indulge in loves and leisures again. Hockey and the NHL would now solidify and grow accordingly.





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