1918-19 The Cup That Almost Was

The NHL began its second season with the three franchises who survived the hard times of the 1917-18 campaign: The Montreal Canadiens, the Ottawa Senators and the Toronto Arenas.

The new season would become another turbulent trial for the Canadiens and the NHL, and this one would end like quite no other. Three separate tragedies would befall the Canadiens in this season, and the first bad omen came just a month after the end of 1918 playoffs.













Defenseman Jack Laviolette, an automobile racer in the offseason, lost his right foot in a car accident on May 1. Though he was not racing at the time, Laviolette lost control of the vehicle he was driving and hit a steel post, jamming his foot between the brake pedal and a section of steel frame. Several times during the season the Canadiens held fundraisers for their former star, and they kept him in their employ for a short time thereafter.



















Montreal returned a large core of its team from the previous year as only Evariste Payer did not make it back. The new additions were Odie Cleghorn and Fred Doherty. Amos Arbour returned after a brief time in the service during which he suited up with the 228th Battalion. Arbour had played a key role in the Canadiens 1916 Stanley Cup. Doherty had been a part time player with the Wanderers and Bulldogs and returned from the war to play but a single game in this season with Montreal.


























Cleghorn, a former goal per game forward with the Wanderers for six seasons, was the big addition to the Canadiens. The younger brother of the Senators Sprague Cleghorn, Odie would spent seven seasons in a Canadiens uniform and was joined in Montreal by his sibling in 1921. He would match Newsy Lalonde goal for goal in this campaign and finish second behind him in points.

Lalonde regained his status as the team's top player when leading goal scorer Joe Malone announced to the Canadiens organization that he'd found employment in Quebec City and would become available only on weekend home dates for the team. Lalonde liked to have the onus placed upon him, as well as the icetime that came with it, and Malone's decision opened room for him to reassume his status while continuing on as the team's coach as well. A happy Newsy usually meant a more productive player for the Canadiens. Malone informed Montreal that he would suit up for all playoff games, but was later unable to fullfill that committment. He would be missed when he would have been counted on most come that time.


























The season was again split into two ten games halves and the all too familiar scenario played out once more for the Canadiens. They would post a 7-3 record, assuring them of a playoff round against the second half's winner should they not take that title as well. The Ottawa Senators, as per their norm, came on strong at season's end and clinched the second half early as the Canadiens ended with a 3-5 record.

The final two games of the season were trimmed from the schedule when the Toronto franchise faltered. The Arenas, who had won the Stanley Cup the previous season, were in dire straights on many fronts. With the team playing badly, attendance sagging, and players breaking training, team owner Hubert Vearncombe alerted the league that he was ceasing activities for the time being. The NHL president Frank Calder asked the team to play its eighteenth game to even the schedule out.

With the NHL down to two teams - not coincidently its two halves winners - a best of seven series was set to decide the league champion for 1919. The Canadiens, without Malone, would defeat the Senators four games to one. Ottawa, deprived of leading scorer Frank Nighbor for a family bereavement, were no match for Montreal.



























Newsy Lalonde was a one man wrecking crew on a mission. He tallied 11 times in the five games against Ottawa, and the Canadiens confidently headed west to face the Seattle Metropolitans in a rematch from two seasons prior.




















A long trip and a stayover in Victoria would prove to have disastrous consequences for the Canadiens Stanley Cup hopes.

The Canadiens got off on the wrong foot in game one, suffering a humiliating 7-0 defeat to the PCHA champions. Three days later, on March 22, Lalonde took care of things in a record setting way by scoring all four of his teams goals in a 4-2 win that knotted the series.


























The Metropolitans bounced back on the 24th, pounding Montreal again by a 7-2 score. The contest of March 26 was a hard fought battle that produced no winner. A scoreless tie, undecided after a full additional period of overtime, was a showcase for goaltenders Harry Holmes and Georges Vezina - perhaps the two best goalies of this era.

Game 5 also produced overtime on March 30, with Jack McDonald of the Canadiens notching the winner at 15:57 of the extra period. The series stood deadlocked at 2-2-1, and it would remain that way.

The Spanish influenza virus that was ravaging the world tragically had hit the west coast. Several of the Victoria Cougars players had fallen seriously ill when the Canadiens had stopped over in that city prior to moving on to Seattle, and it has long been assumed that that is where the Montreal players came in contact with the deadly virus.


























Canadiens manager George Kendall Kennedy was aware of the virus, and had taken out insurance on his players before setting off for the west. When many of the team's elements fell ill, the series was cancelled.


























On April 1, the scheduled date of the sixth game, a definite and final announcement as to the fate of the series was made by the Seattle arena management at 2:30 p.m. that there will be no more games played. At noon that day, workmen started tearing up the arena ice floor, preparatory to converting the building into a roller skating rink.



























The fact that the ice was being taken up settled all arguments as to whether or not the series would be continued if the visitors were able later to put enough men on the ice.

A newspaper writeup at the time had this to say:










Lalonde, Berlinguette, Couture and Kennedy are reported only slightly ill. Last night the remaining four men came down, leaving only Pitre, Cleghorn and Vezina, who are not afflicted. It is believed here the Canadiens contracted the disease in Victoria, where the players of that team are just recovering from influenza, seven of them having been in bed at one time.

Not in the history of the Stanley Cup series has the worlds hockey championship been so beset with hard luck as has this one. Of the 19 players engaged in it, hardly one of them has gone through without some bad luck. The Seattle team has been badly battered, Rowe, Foyston, Wilson, Murray and Walker all having had injuries. Corbeau, the great Canadien defenseman, was hurt in the very first game and has not been able to do more than substitute since.









The great overtime games of the series have taxed the vitality of the players to such an extent that they are in poor shape indeed to fight off such a disease as influenza. However, the Canadiens are being given the very best of care, nurses and physicians being in attendance at all times on them and every other attention is being shown the stricken players.

The Canadiens Odie Cleghorn was the only player who was not afflicted. Joe Hall, known as the baddest and oldest player of the time died in Seattle's Columbus sanatorium on April 5, four days after authorities had called off the series.






















The Montreal players headed home after the sixth game was cancelled with the exception of Couture, Berlinguette and longtime Hall rival Lalonde, who travelled to Brandon, Manitoba to act as pallbearers for their fallen comrade.

Some might find it odd that Lalonde would be along for his hated rival's last moments, but the two had long settled their differences, had become good friends, and were even roomates during road games.

Manager Kennedy also fell gravely ill, and passed away two years later from the effects of the virus.























Once back in Montreal, the Canadiens players were just regaining their health when the Jubilee Arena burned to the ground.

It would be a difficult season to forget.



























The tragedies suffered were only part of the tale. The Canadiens had been build into a solid squad and had appeared in three of the last four Stanley Cup finals. With some better fortune, they may have won a second Cup. The Canadiens were by far the most popular hockey team in Montreal, and things could only get better.

On the league front, several changes brought in at the start of the season had enhanced the quality of the spectacle. Two blue lines were added to the ice, painted twenty feet each from center, creating three playing zones. Forward passing and kicking the puck were permitted in the middle neutral zone. Penalties now had to be served in full. For minor fouls, substitutes were not allowed until the penalized player had served three minutes. For major fouls, no substitutes were allowed for five minutes. For match fouls, no substitutes were allowed for the remainder of the game. Both new wrinkles added up to a very freewheeling game.

With the war reaching an end and the Quebec Bulldogs ready to make a return, things were looking up for the NHL. The issue of a solid Toronto franchise would soon be settled as well.















Some notes on the photos in this post: You will have noticed that several of the shots of Canadiens players feature the same background. There has long been confusion over which year the pictures were taken - 1917 or 1919? The source of the confusion lies in that these pictures were taken in Seattle, where the Canadiens competed for the Stanley in both those seasons. There are also photos of the Seattle Metropolitans players taken in this same area, which leads one to believe they may have been taken outside an arena door prior to a match. The photos are most definitely from 1919, as Canadiens Joe Hall, Odie Cleghorn, and Jack McDonald were not with the club in 1917. Oddly, a long circulated poster of the 1917 Metropolitans Stanley Cup team features the shots taken in 1919.

Several of the 1919 photos are incorrectly attributed as being the wrong player. The photo of Billy Coutu is often erroneously listed as Louis Berlinguette. They can be told apart by Coutu's thinner hair, and Berliguette's particular from, when compared to other photos. In these pictures, Berlinguette is leaning on his stick. Photos of Joe Hall and Newsy Lalonde are often mixed up as well - likely because their hair is parted in the same manner. Hall is the player with the outstretched stick.

In all these photos, it is not hard to tell that the Canadiens were wearing white hockey pants!

The photo of Billy Bell may have been taken anytime between 1919 and 1923, when the Canadiens ceased wearing the white pants.

The photos of the children in Canadiens sweaters was taken about this time - somewhere between 1918 and 1922. It is featured in this post primarily because it is from the era, but there is also an additional reason for its inclusion. According to the book "Kings Of The Ice" from which the photo was taken, the short player posing directly to the right of the kid holding the "Joliette" sign is Jack Adams. "Jolly" Jack, a man who would later develope an unbridled hatred of the Canadiens while running the Detroit Red Wings, is the only man to have his name on the Stanley Cup as player, general manager, and coach. It is highly doubtful that the photo is actually Adams, as he was a member of the 1918 Toronto Arena Cup champions.

There is no featured photo of Joe Malone, as he did not accompany the Canadiens out west this season. Most known photos of Malone in a Canadiens sweater are from the early 1920's, when his start had greatly faded.

The cartoon of the man behind the wheel of an automobile from the time is actually Jack Laviolette.

Years after his retirement from hockey, Odie Cleghorn would be found dead in his bed just hours before his brother Sprague's funeral on July 13, 1956. Odie and Sprague were very close, "like twins" according to Canadiens coach Leo Dandurand. It's often been said that the stress of the loss of Sprague may have been the main factor contributing to his heart failure.

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1914-15 A Hard Fall To Last Place

The Canadiens sixth season is marred by contract squabbles and the ongoing tug of war over players with the Pacific Coast Hockey Association.

The one year delay in Newsy Lalonde's promise to the Vancouver Millionaires to head west and play for them in the 1914-15 season gave him just enough time for him to change his mind.

Just before the beginning of the season, the teams are informed of Lalonde's decision in November, and the Canadiens suggest that Vancouver keep Didier Pitre for another season. Of course, Pitre won't have any of this, as he feels the pull of Montreal hockey fans who desperately want him back. Vancouver is left with no other choice but to trade Pitre back to the Canadiens for a sum of money, which suits the Canadiens just fine.

Lalonde's contract is another problem as Newsy holds out for more money, wanting a better renumeration than Pitre, George Vezina, Jack Laviolette and Don Smith. Manager George Kennedy refuses to barter, and suspends Lalonde, fining him $100, and a subsequent $100 for each week of the season that he misses. Jimmy Gardner remains on as team captain.

In February, the Canadiens trade Smith to the Wanderers for cash shortly after Lalonde returns, having worked out a deal secretly with Kennedy. Newsy is not back for long, as the team suspends him once again, this time for lacklustre play. In all, Lalonde plays but seven games for the Canadiens in 1915, scoring four goals and three assists.

The personel squabbles make for a difficult start to the season for Montreal, and they drop their first four contests and never recover. Despite high hopes with 9 returning players in addition to Pitre, it would be a miserable season for the Canadiens. They would finish with a 6-14 record and they would surrender almost an additional goal per game. Vezina, who was named the league's best goaltender in three of his first four seasons, finishes third in goals against.

Five new players joined the Canadiens ranks in 1914-15 and they included Albert Corbeau, Jack Fournier, Nick Bawlf, Ed Lowrey and Marcel Béliveau. Corbeau, a right shooting defenseman, who signed with the team on December 23, would spend 8 seasons in total with the Canadiens.

The off ice commotion left many scars on the team throughout the season. Gardner, as coach and captain, asked for a pay raise in light of his cummulative duties following the season. His stand was rebuffed, and he retires to officiating.

George Vezina's temper emerged in a few matches. On one occasion against Quebec, he is penalized and tossed from the game for hitting Lalonde's rival Joe Hall - even though it is Vezina who goes flying and takes the goal net with him. With the Bulldogs behind 3-2, Laviolette replaces him in goal, and Quebec ties the game. As was then permitted, Vezina returns in extra play, only to surrender the fifth Quebec goal in a game that went on record as the longest overtime to that point. Fifty minutes and 28 seconds of additional play for needed to settle the contest.

The Canadiens finally won in their ninth game, a 7-2 win over the Wanderers on January 23. The game was marked by a 5 goal performance by Didier Pitre, who was one of the few Canadiens having a good season. Pitre would finish second in the NHA in goals this season with 30, and along the way becomes the first Canadiens player in history to net 100 career goals. On January 30, Pitre would notch a pair against Percy Lesueur of the Toronto Ontarios to achieve the feat in only 74 games.

Strangely enough, the Canadiens dressed six english speaking players in 1915, in contravention of the two player ruling. Other than Gardner and Pitre, Harry Scott, Bert Hunt, Nick Bawlf and Ed Lowrey were english speaking. The Canadiens tried to sign and dress a seventh, the legendary Art Ross, but the league governors stepped up to stop it.

Ross, who incidently had no connection to the Canadiens whatsoever beyond this boardroom battle, had his case argued for heavily by Montreal manager Kennedy. A rugged defenseman in his day, who never shied away from conflicts with authority, Ross had been banned from the NHA in this season for attempting to launch his own league. He had been organizing it quietly on the sidelines, and had signed on close to a dozen players when he was sniffed out by the league. Had Ross named the players he had signed, his suspension would have been lifted, but he refused to do so and it took Kennedy's effort to get him reinstated. Once that was accomplished however, he was not allowed to join the Canadiens. Upon his January 7 reinstatement, Ross signed with the Ottawa Senators.

Art Ross would go on to play and coach with the Wanderers, Hamilton, and later in Boston. He became a highly respected league governor, despite punch ups with NHL presisent Red Dutton and Detroit owner James Norris. It is curious in hindsight to note that although today's NHL leading scorer trophy is named after him, Ross only ever scored one goal in the National Hockey League. The reason for that oddity is that when Ross donated the trophy in his name in the late 1930's, it was to be given to the player judged as the league's most spectacular. Being that it was difficult to agree on how to judge such, the trophy went unawarded until 1948, whereupon it was given to the league's leading point scorer.















There was a little more controversy after the season had ended when it was revealed by players on the Bulldogs and Canadiens that they had been approached by gamblers offering wine bottles to them to help fix games. The ringers were not punished in light of a brief investigation that found no scores had been tampered with.

Towards the end of the year, the directors of the Westmount Arena announced that starting in 1915-16, there would be artificial ice at the arena. Other changes incurring in the NHA during 1915 included the Ontarios changing their name to the Shamrocks. The former Tecumsehs, now on their third name change, would not survive the year.


New rulings in the game included pucks played after rebounding from goalkeepers no longer being ruled offside, players standing a minimum of five feet away in distance from players facing off, and match fouls were now penalized by 10 minutes off and $15 fine. Charging a player into the boards is added as a major foul.

Even without Newsy Lalonde, the Vancouver Millionaires became a powerhouse. In the first year of PCHA champs meeting the NHA winners, Vancouver won the Stanley Cup over the Ottawa Senators three games to none.
























Some photo notes: What you see directly above is an "Official Score Card" from a Wednesday, January 13th, 1915 game at the Quebec Arena between the Bulldogs and the visiting Montreal Canadiens. The flimsy and tattered paper piece has multiple creases and was plasticized at some point to prevent further deterioration and allow for handling. And what a treat to handle! The Canadiens’ lineup featured Hall-of-Famers Georges Vezina, Newsy Lalonde, Didier Pitre and Jack Laviolette, the latter relieving Vezina in goal during overtime play when Vezina was assessed a penalty for clipping Joe Hall! Joining Hall for Quebec was goalie Paddy Moran, while Joe Malone is listed in the lineup but did not play because of an ankle injury. Newspaper accounts relate that Quebec City had never witnessed a more hotly contested or sensational game than this one which ended after 50 minutes of overtime when Jack McDonald’s second goal of the game gave Quebec a 4-3 victory. Don Smith, twice, and Pitre had scored for Montreal, with Harry Mummery and Rusty Crawford getting Quebec’s other goals. Remarkable pre-NHL relic measures 10-3/4" by 8-1/4" and is museum worthy.

The photo of skates are those belonging to the Georges Vezina in this era.

Another photo note: The picture of Newsy Lalonde in the "CA" logo is a composite, photoshopped by someone with a creative side. Considering that Lalonde spent more time away from the Canadiens team than he spent time playing in 1914-15, there are precious few photos of him in a "CA" from this era. The head of Newsy is from an entirely different photo, and the "CA" logo was either drawn onto this sweater erroneously. The backdrop is actually a Seattle photo shoot from 1919.




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1913-14 Rising Canadiens Miss Cannonball

Starting the fifth NHA season, league trustees continued to refine the rules governing the game. Changes included referees now dropping the puck for faceoffs instead of placing it on the ice, placing a dark line between the goal posts along the ice, and the recording of assists.

Goalkeeper sticks would now be limited in width to 3 1/2 inches, and goalkeepers lying down to stop a puck would receive a minor penalty and $2 fine. All minor penalties were set at $2 fine and major fouls would cost more per incident, starting a $3 and 5 minutes off, to $5 and 10 minutes off, to $10 and a match penalty. Deliberate injury was a $15 fine and banishment until the injured player returned to play.

The league achieved a certain amount of stability, with all six teams from the previous season returning. The only minor change was a name switch - the Tecumsehs would now be known as the Toronto Ontarios.

Bigger changes overall would come at the term of the 1913-14 season, for both the NHA and PCHL. Prior to the start of the next NHA season, league officials worked out an agreement on territorial rights for players with the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. As players were using the two leagues as leverage for salary increases, the owners were being hit in the pocketbook and the agreement was seen as a move towards stability for all franchises. Much to the detriment of the players, they would be suspended by both leagues if they failed to report in the eventuality of a trade from one league to another.

In a September of 1914 meeting in Montreal, it was decided that Port Arthur, Ontario, now known as Thunder Bay, would be the dividing line separating each league's territory. There was one stipulation made that each league could recruit 3 players from the other's protected area.

The leagues also conferred on a decision that marked the end of the Stanley Cup as a challenge cup. The trustees for both leagues negotiated an agreement to have the champions of the NHA and the PCHA meet each year to determine a champion, beginning in with the 1914 -15 season.

The final would be a best of five affair. The ruling was brought upon by controvery following the 1914 final between the Toronto Blueshirts and the Victoria Aristocrats after it was discovered that the PCHA champions had never formally applied to challenge for the cup.

The new season saw the unveiling of the first Canadiens sweater to resemble to modern day look presently sported. The mostly red sweater had a larger blue bar across the torso, on which the "CA" logo was positioned. The blue bar was outlined in white and the logo had gone from a stylized old english lettering to a more refined oval shape. There were no colour bars on the arms as of yet, and the bottom of the sweater was ourline with a simple small white bar.

Just as many hockey fans would later be curious about the origin of the letter "H" in the logo, many fans looking back on the team's look in 1913 have wondered about the origin of the letter "A" in this seasons version. The "A" had actually been a part of the logo design since the team had become owned by Le Club Athlétique Canadien since the 1910-11 season, and it remained so until the purchase of the team by Le Club de Hockey Canadiens in a matter of years. Still, legions of fans believe the "H" stands for Habs, a term that was not used in reference to them until the mid 1920's, close to 10 seasons after the "H" had been incorporated into the logo.





















The 1913-14 season would be an interesting one for the Montreal Canadiens, and this time around adversity would not be their downfall.

Many players on the 1912-13 rosters were to return, but Canadiens management sought to shake up the team's compostion and did the unthinkable by trading Newsy Lalonde to the Vancouver Millionaires.

Of course, Newsy wouldn't have any of that, and he refused to report to the PCHA team.
The deal was Lalonde to the Millionaires for former Wanderers star Jimmy Gardner and five hundred dollars. Gardner was all too willing to return to his home turf, and upon Lalonde's refusal, the Canadiens offered Donald Smith instead.

Vancouver was not interested.

Finally, after Newsy wrote a letter to the Patrick brothers, owners of the Vancouver franchise, promising to head out west the following season, a deal was worked out that satisfied all parties for the time being. The Millionaires would aquire Didier Pitre for one season, returning him to Montreal in 1914-15, conditional upon Lalonde's promised arrival the following season.

Lalonde and Pitre were both content that they would not have to put up with each other for the season.

The always combustible Lalonde would celebrate that moral victory with a continuation of his personal war on hated rival Joe Hall of the Quebec Bulldogs.











In the second game of the season on December 30, as Quebec inaugurated a new arena, Lalonde sought vengeance for last season's battles and wacked Hall in the head, opening an eight stitch cut. He was tossed from the game and fined. Two weeks later on January 14, Hall got even, charging Lalonde violently from behind. Newsy crashed head first into the boards, requiring ten stiches. With Hall up ten stiches to eight, this war was far from over.

The Canadiens lineup for the season returned 10 players from the previous year. Other than Lalonde, Montreal brought back mainstays Vezina, Laviolette, Smith, Dubeau, Berlinguette and Dallaire, with Eugene Payan, Alphonese Jetté and Clayton Fréchette suiting up again as spares. Only Pitre and spares Fred Povey and Hyacinthe Guevremont would not return.

New to the team were Harry Scott, Emile Marchildon and Lorenzo Bretrand, who had subbed with the Canadiens during the 1910-11 season.

The biggest addition would be that of Gardner, who was named the team's captain and coach. Gardiner had previously coached the Wanderers for two seasons.

The Canadiens began their season on the road December 27th, losing to a strong Toronto Blueshirts squad by a 3-0 shutout. Three nights later they were in Quebec, and they defeated the Stanley Cup champions 4-3, in a game highlighted by the ongoing Lalonde and Hall feud and inherant shenanigans.

January was very good to Montreal as they would rack up six wins. After edging the renamed Ontarios 4-3 in Montreal on the third of the month, they travelled to Ottawa four nights later and were shut out the Senators by a commanding 6-0 score.


















Montreal bounced back and unloaded their artiliary on the Wanderers January 10th, pounding them 8-2 in front of a hometown crowd. Lalonde scored six goals in the single handed dismantling. Four days later, a rematch with the Bulldogs ended in the same 4-3 score in Montreal, that included Round 4 of the Lalonde and Hall tilt.

The Canadiens kept their winning ways up when they ventured to Toronto and drubbed the Ontarios with a 9-3 shellacking on the 17th.

Four nights later, a resilient Senators squad bounced the Canadiens 4-3. Undeterred, Montreal steamrolled the Wanderers before their fans on the 24th, walloping them 9-3. On the 28th they won again, this time revenging the opening night loss to the Blueshirts by a 4-3 margin. They returned home on the final day of the month, losing the contest 6-4 to a weak Ontarios team.

On February 4, it was back up to Quebec city, where a 6-1 clubbing by the Bulldogs grounded the team. The Canadiens then asserted their claim for the NHA elite with a 9-3 manhandling of the Blueshirts on the 7th in Montreal. A return date with the Wanderers on February 11 offered another high scoring rout, this time by a 6-2 score.

On home ice on the 14th, against an improving Senators club, the Canadiens needed six minutes and fourty seconds of overtime to solve Ottawa goalie Clint Benedict for a 1-0 win. The win was a costly one for the Canadiens, who lost Newsy Lalonde for the remainder of the season after he was slashed in the ankle by the Senators Eddie Gerard. In his fall, Lalonde fell heavily to the ice, fracturing his clavicle, Gardner was also gone for the year from a knee injury sustained in this rough contest. In all five Canadiens left the game on stretchers.

The hurting Canadiens were at home against the Bulldogs four nights later, and with many spares in starting roles, edged Quebec by a 2-1 score.

The Canadiens were on the verge of a team record fifth straight win when they headed to Toronto on the 21st, trying to make it three wins in a row against the Blueshirts. A 3-2 setback dropped them from grabbing the season series with the Blueshirts and they moved onto Ottawa four days later for another one goal loss to the Senators, a 6-5 overtime game that required an additional 30 minutes to settle.

February 28 saw the Canadiens sweep the season series against the Wanderers for the first time, with a 6-5 win on home ice. Along the course of the 20 game season, the Canadiens had often complained of the treatment reserved for them by english officials. Oddly, it was a francophone referee would got under the ire of Canadiens owner George Kennedy in a game on February 28. Heading down to ice level, the Canadiens owner grabbed official Leo Dandurand by the throat, and insulted him publicly as per the letter sent to the NHA president by the official. The league took no action following the complaint.

With the Blueshirts loss to the Quebec on the same night, Toronto and the Canadiens were tied for first place with the Bulldogs four points behind. A Montreal win combined with a Blueshirts loss to the Wanderers on the season's final night of March 4 would give the Canadiens the NHL title.

It was not to be, as both teams lost their chance to gain the upper hand. The Blueshirts dropped their Wanderers matchup by a 7-5 score while the Canadiens found a way to lose to the last place Ontarios by a 5-3 mark.

The final regular season standings looked like this:

Toronto Blueshirts 20 13 7 26 93 65
Montreal Canadiens 20 13 7 26 85 65
Quebec Bulldogs 20 12 8 24 111 73
Ottawa Senators 20 11 9 22 65 71
Montreal Wanderers 20 7 13 14 102 125
Toronto Ontarios 20 4 16 8 61 118

A two game total goals showdown would be needed to declare a league champion. The Canadiens got off to a strong start, shutting out the Blueshirts 2-0 in the first game before hometown fans on March 7. Three nights later, the Blueshirts tightened up their league leading defense and shut the Canadiens down to take the game 6-0 and the total goals series 6-2. Without Lalonde and Gardner in the lineup, the Canadiens were no match for the Blueshirts - a disappointing ending to what the was far and away the Canadiens best season.

In the final season of the challenge Cup era, the Blueshirts defeated the Victoria Aristocrats in three straight games to give the city of Toronto its first Stanley Cup championship.

1911-12 Newsy Goes West

In 1911, hockey was the fastest growing sport in Canada, and its popularity had spread from coast to coast like wild fire. With demand for top quality hockey reaching a zenith in more regions than just the East, money was there to be made in spades for savvy entrepreneurs with dreams of a bigger and better hockey world.

As it always has been, to make money, one often has to put it forth first, and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association began a bidding war with the NHA for the services of its better players.

The PCHA was founded by the Patrick brothers, Frank and Lester, who had left the Renfrew hockey club after the 1910-11 season. After selling off their interests in a very profitable lumber company, they set their sights on making their mark in the business of hockey in the Vancouver area, where an appetite for the sport was widely evident.

It is impossible to account for all of what the Patricks did for the game of hockey in one paragraph. In short order, they created a new league that would compete against the NHA, built arenas with artificial ice, structured a league's rules and teams, managed, coached, operated, and played for the franchises they were financing. Along the way, they reinvented the game of hockey as it is known today - 22 rule changes brought in by the brothers are still in existance - and changed the face of the game forever.

The pioneer Patrick's zest affected the NHA immediatly. They lured 11 star players from the NHA to the PCHA and gave them more lucrative deals. The players they took in comprised almost half of the new leagues three teams.

The Patricks went after some of the best, and the Canadiens lost its star Newsy Lalonde and forward Georges Poulin. The Wanderers for their part went without Jimmy Gardner and Ottawa lost Cyclone Taylor.

The NHA was being watered down, and the Renfrew franchise did not survive. It would proceed as a four team league for 1911-12 with the Creamery Kings players being spread across the remaining clubs.

While Lalonde would go on to win the PCHA scoring race with 27 goals in 15 games, his absence hit the Canadiens hard, and despite the continued excellence of goalie George Vezina, they headed back down to a last place finish - just a pair of wins away from the first place, and Stanley Cup winning Quebec Bulldogs. With the schedule upped to 18 games from 16 the season before, the Habs goal total would drop from 66 to 59. Didier Pitre would account for almost half that sum himself.

Transition was again the name of the game for the Canadiens, as manager Jack Laviolette reappointed himself coach in Lalonde's leave. After coach Adolphe Lecours' demands for more money left him twisting in the wind, one of the team's co-owners, Napoleon Dorval, assumed duties behind the bench.

Six Canadiens players from 1910-11 remained after the departures of Lalonde and Poulin. Returning for duty with the Habs were Vezina, Pitre, and Laviolette, who composed the core of the team, as well as Eugène Payan, Évariste Payer, and Hector Dallaire. Replacing Art Bernier, Lorenzo Bertrand and James Power were Ernie Dubeau, Frank Glass, Edgar Leduc, Alphonse Jetté, Louis Berlinguette, and Pierre Vezina.

When it came to facing the Canadiens, Didier Pitre was now the man to stop. Since being converted from a defenseman to playing the rover position, his devastating shot began to terrorize opposition goaltenders. Percy Lesueur of the Senators, fearfull of the rising shots, asked permission of the NHA to begin wearing a mask to protect himself. Wanderers goalie Riley Hern, a four time Cup champion in the early 1900's, quit from fear of being dinged by one of Pitre's blasts. It was a common sight at games, when Pitre wound up, to see fans jumping behind seats to protect themselves.

It was at this time that the Montreal Canadiens were beginning to be referred to as "the Flying Frenchmen" in the other cities in which they played. Laviolette had a certain knack for finding and signing players, such as Lalonde and Pitre, that could termed electrifying for their time. Through word of mouth, an inherant curiosity developed from the mystique of the language and seeing them perform their fast paced style of hockey.

Perhaps it was because the Canadiens played a wide open style of hockey, that word would spread in other cities that "the Flying Frenchmen" were in town. History has traced the term back to a journalist in Ottawa after a Habs win in January of 1911, but others credit an American scribe for coining the term at a later date. One thing is for sure, the Ottawa writers were quite impressed by the team that was literally "flying on the ice" that night, and the term has stuck with the team throughout the decades.






















Upon its formation in December of 1909, the Canadiens were created with the Wanderers rivalry in mind. In doing so, the NHA understood that in order to make the rivalry reach a boil, a french versus english approach would suit their needs best. They designated that the Canadiens would hold exclusive rights to all french speaking players in order to achieve the identity needed to meet this criteria.

Ambrose O' Brien, who knew a dollar when he saw one, was a firm believer that the method would lead to success and the other three team's owners went along with it when the league was formed in December of 1909. As the NHA changed with each passing season, so did perceptions, and with O'Brien now out of the NHA hockey ownership picture by 1911-12, a certain jealousy arose in Quebec City and Ottawa over the designation that kept players such as Lalonde, Pitre, Laviolette and Vezina in a Canadiens uniform.

It wasn't that these players had made the Canadiens more successful on the ice - it hadn't yet - what upset owners, and brought out their envy, were the gate receipts that the Canadiens drew. It could be argued that the other franchises also had their star attractions, and that each of the three franchises - the Wanderers, the Senators, and the Bulldogs - won successive Stanley Cups with their respective approaches. If anyone was being shortchanged by the ruling, it was more likely Montreal, who could not align players from a larger english speaking pool. The french clientele in Quebec and Ottawa, remained a little miffed.

Not without coincidence, it was the Canadiens who first broke and challenged the agreement by signing former Wanderers captain Frank "Pud" Glass, a veteran of four Stanley Cup battles. The Ottawa Senators were furious, and lodged a complaint with the NHA. In a meeting several days later, Glass was ordered to remain a Canadien, and the Senators representative, one Charles Sparks, was beside himself in disbelief. He could not understand why a team that fought so strongly to maintain its hold on aligning french speaking players could now argue for signing an english player.

An amendment to the ruling was later brought forth, with the Canadiens being allowed 2 english speaking players and the remaining three teams allowed 2 french speaking players each. Glass had little effect on the Canadiens fortunes for 1911-12, scoring but 7 goals in 16 games before retiring from the professional hockey scene.

Prior to the start of the season, the league met and continued to make refinements to the game. Their first order of business was to transfer its two dormant franchises to Toronto ownership. Ambrose O' Brien's Renfrew team would become the Toronto Blueshirts and the dormant Canadiens entry that was O' Brien's as well in 1910, was to become the Toronto Tecumsehs. Due to the fact that these transactions were made late in the year, the two new teams would not begin to operate until the 1912-13 season.

The league also made adjustments to the rules and the way that the game was played. The rule changes implemented in 1911 introduced a format of play that foreshadowed what is modern day hockey.

The first change was the elimination of the rover position. Hockey had up until then, been a 7 player team sport. Along with the goalie, the center and two wing positions we know today, there was a rover who played above or behind the center, a point player who positioned himself near to the goaltender, and a coverpoint player who ventured out further up ice. As the game evolved, the point and coverpoint positions had now become known as defenseman and were more likely to play alonside one another than in the prior setup.

The removal of the rover was brought on by two motivations. The first was said to be a willingness to open up the game, and the second was purely financial - there would be one less salary to pay!

A team's six starting players still played the majority of the game but were now allowed substitutions at any stoppage in play. The season before, 1910-11, the NHA switched to a three 20 minute period format from 2 half hours frames and allowed substitutions at the 20 minute mark. Subs had only been permitted at the halfway point prior to that. There was no limit to how often the subs could be employed and it was stipulated that if a player left a game due to injury, he could not return.


In 1911-12, the NHA brough about the distinction between minor and major fouls. These penalties in the most primitive form sought two ideals - the ejection of players and the accumulation of dollars.

Major fouls included throwing a stick to prevent a goal, cross-checking, charging, deliberate tripping and hooking, and foul language. In each case, the player would be banished for the match and fined $5. If a player's fines reached $25, special discipline was warranted by the league president. In the event of a tossed player, teams could substitute.

Minor fouls identified as kicking an opponent, throwing, holding or batting a puck with the hand, use of the stick above the shoulder for anything other than shooting the puck, and being offside - which was termed "loafing".

For each minor fouls, a player drew one "caution" and when he reached a total of three fouls he was removed from the game.

Other details included the home team being given the choice of choosing which end they would play in and games would now go into overtime if tied after 60 minutes.

Of the Canadiens newcomers in 1911-12, left winger Berlinguette would have the longest tenure with the team. Berlinguette was a member of the 1909-10 Haileybury Comets before joining Galt of the OPHL for one season. In 1911-12, Belinguette started the season with Moncton of the MPHL, scoring 7 goals in 9 games. He was signed by the Canadiens on January 30, 1912 and appeared in 4 of the team's final 10 contests. He returned to the Moncton squad for a Stanley Cup challenge against the Bulldogs on March 12 and 13. Berlinguette, often mispelled as "Berlinquette", would participate in 6 NHA and 6 NHL seasons with the team.

Born in Papineau, Quebec in 1887, Berlinguette was at his best in the early 1920's when he registered 11 and 13 goal performances playing alongside Odie Cleghorn. He retired from professional hockey in 1927 and passed away in 1959 at the age of 72.

Pierre Vezina would become a footnote in Canadiens history. The brother of goalie Georges, the pair became the first siblings to suit up for the Habs, albeit for just one game. He was brought in as a substitute player for the season, and for personal reasons in regards to his brother. While he practiced with the Canadiens all season and remained on their roster, it was once said that he was taken on mainly to prevent his goalie brother from being lured to the PCHA. Pierre Vezina remained property of the Chicoutimi hockey club while associated with Montreal, who never officially signed him to a contract. He made his one game NHA appearance on Febuary 9, 1912.

Ernie Dubeau signed with the Canadiens on November 27, 1911 and would remain with the team through 4 season until he was traded to Toronto for Skene Ronan on January 17, 1916. He would score 16 goals in 76 career games with the Canadiens.

Edgar Leduc had two brief 3 game stints with the Canadiens, first appearing on loan from the National of the Montreal City hockey league in 1910. Borrowed by the Habs on March 3 of that year, Leduc scored 3 goals in as many games for the last place Canadiens. He returned to the National for one season before resigning with Montreal on December 21. 1911. His three apperances in 1911-122 produced no goals and he was not brought back the following season.

Alphonse Jetté was signed by the Canadiens on February 12 of this season, and appeared in the team's final 3 games. Used sparingly as a sub on wing and defense, Jetté would total but 19 games, a goal and an assist, in his four year association with the Canadiens.

Perhaps the most visionary of the changes the NHA addressed was the addition of number armbands on each player in order for them to be more readily identifiable by fans. The Canadiens employed 10 numbers during the 1911-12 season for the 12 players who suited up:

Georges Vezina (1), Ernie Dubeau (2), Jack Laviolette (3), Frank Glass (4), Didier Pitre (5), Edgar Leduc and Alphone Jetté (6), Eugène Payan (7), Louis Berlinguette and Pierre Vezina (8), Hector Dallaire (9), and Évariste Payer (10).

For the third successive season, the Canadiens on ice fashions were again altered. Gone were the red sweaters adorned with a "CA" stylized on a green maple leaf, and replacing them were a mostly white concoction, with diagonal bars of red and blue streaming from the right top shoulder down to the left hip. The double colour bars also ran the width of the sweater's base and sleeves. The scripted "CA" was then placed over the heart. Unfortunately for historians, there is nary a photo of these renderings to be found today. Hockey cards of the era, simply ran most of the previous season's photographs.

The 1912 Montreal Canadiens started the season off with high hopes despite the loss of Lalonde and Poulin to the PCHA. Things did not start out well however, and they were handed a 5-0 shutout courtesy of the Wanderers at the Westmount Arena, January 3, on opening night. The Canadiens bounced back quickly, defeated the Bulldogs in Quebec three days later.

Back in Montreal on January 10, they avenged the loss to the Wanderers, disposing them by a 6-1 score. Next up were a home and home pair against the Senators, with Ottawa winning the first 4-3, before the Habs travelled to edge the Senators 5-4. Montreal won their next contest on January 20, beating the Wanderers by a 6-3 score. It would be the last time until the end of the hockey calandar that the Canadiens would post two successive wins.

The Canadiens then began to follow a lose/win pattern over the next four games from January 24 to February 3. It started with 6-2 loss in Quebec before rebounding to beat the Bulldogs 5-3, three nights later. The Wanderers took the Habs 2-1 in a close one to close out a busy January, but then the Canadiens thumped Ottawa 9-3.

The Canadiens would not win another game for 25 days and took on the look of the hapless team from it's initial season.

The Senators brought the Habs back down to size with a 4-2 win on February 7 in Ottawa. Two nights later, in Quebec, Montreal lost 5-2. Their first successive losses on the season only brought more.

In Montreal on February 14, the Bulldogs edged Montreal 2-1. The team was at a low when it hit Ottawa four days later and was scalped 6-1.

Things soon hit rock bottom in a 9-1 defeat by the Wanderers in their home on February 21.

The Habs were in a tough spot, needing three wins to finish out the schedule combined with losses to Quebec, Ottawa, and the Wanderers in order to have a chance to tie for first place. Unfortunately, these teams could not lose to each other without someone winning.

Before games on February 25, the Bulldogs and Wanderers were tied with 16 points each. Ottawa was close with 14 and the Canadiens just behind with 12. The Habs and Bulldogs had 3 games remaining and Ottawa and the Wanderers had 4 due to the rescheduling of a January 24 game, a 10-6 Ottawa win that was in dispute. Chances were slim, and all the Canadiens could hope for at best was a four way tie - four teams all with 9-9 records.

On February 25, Quebec beat the Wanderers 2-1 while the Canadiens fought hard and lost 3-2 in overtime to Ottawa. For all intents, their season was over.

They finished out the schedule by beating the first place Bulldogs 6-3 in Montreal on the 28th and edging the Wanderers 2-1 on March 2.

With an 8-10 record, the Canadiens finished fourth, two wins behind the eventual Stanley Cup winning Bulldogs, who had a 10-8 mark. Ottawa and the Wanderers were 9-9. With such parity among the four clubs, it was easy to see where a gamebreaker the likes of Newsy Lalonde would have made a great difference.

Returning Lalonde would be the Canadiens first order of business for the 1912-13 campaign.