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Disgruntled NHA Owners Establish The NHL

NHA, PCHA Emerge As Hockey's Big Two

The precise origin of hockey has remained a mystery to historians. Wide-ranging theories have pinpointed Montreal, Halifax, and Kingston as the most likely sites of "first games" in North America, but nothing has been proven. Likewise, the very first hockey leagues - primitive in nature and loosely formed - are just as difficult to isolate.

What is certain is this: As the game emerged from its shell, amateur groups organized in Quebec City, Kingston, Montreal, and Halifax starting in the late 1870s. Within a decade, hockey's popularity had grown so rapidly that amateur leagues sprouted on both sides of the 49th parallel.

Organized hockey took a giant stride forward in 1893. That year, Lord Stanley of Preston - Canada's governor general - offered a silver cup to be presented to the premier team in Canada. At first, only amateur teams battled for the coveted trophy because professional hockey was pretty much nonexistent.

Flu Bug Kills Hall, Cancels Stanley Cup When the NHL launched its second season, bittersweet feelings were sweeping North America. Both Americans and Canadians jubilantly hailed the end of World War I with the Armistice in November 1918; but simultaneously, they grew increasingly apprehensive about an influenza epidemic that already had engulfed Europe and now was spreading from Halifax to Victoria. Little did anyone realize that one of its victims would be the 1919 Stanley Cup playoffs and one of hockey's best players. The Spanish flu was not a main concern when the playoffs began. Seattle had won the Pacific Coast Hockey Association title, eliminating Vancouver in a two-game, total-goals series 7-5. NHL champion Montreal took the transcontinental train to Seattle, where the Stanley Cup Finals would take place at the home of the Metropolitans. Playing before a partisan home crowd, the Metropolitans demolished Montreal 7-0 in the opening game. But the Canadiens rebounded in Game 2 with a 4-2 win. Seattle then beat Montreal goalie Georges Vezina seven times again in Game 3, winning 7-2. Remarkably, Game 4 ended in a 0-0 tie after 20 minutes of overtime. NHL historian Charles L. Coleman described the contest as "the greatest match ever played on the Pacific Coast." Among other highlights, the game featured the unusually robust play of Canadiens hit man Joe Hall and Seattle enforcer Cully Wilson. By this time, the series had captured the imagination of all of Canada and the Northwest U.S. Game 5 provided even more thrills, as the Habs rebounded from a three-goal deficit to even the count 3-3, thanks to two goals by Newsy Lalonde and another by Jack McDonald. Everyone in the rink was aware of the worldwide flu epidemic and the fact that there were some objections to such large public gatherings. No less ominous was the behavior of some players who appeared more exhausted than usual. When the game went into overtime, Canadiens forwards Lalonde and Didier Pitre switched to defense and performed admirably in front of goalie Vezina. Finally, at 15:57 of the first sudden-death period, Odie Cleghorn beat Seattle goalie Hap Holmes for the winning goal. With the series tied at 2-2-1, the Stanley Cup was up for grabs. But a decision was not forthcoming. Well before the fifth game had ended, Canadiens star Joe Hall was rushed to the hospital, suffering from the dreaded influenza. In addition, Billy Couture, Jack McDonald, Newsy Lalonde, and Louis Berlinquette also were bedridden, along with Montreal manager George Kennedy. The latter suggested that the series be continued with Victoria players substituting for the ailing Canadiens, but the Metropolitans refused the offer. Other suggestions for a resumption of the series were refused. On April 5, 1919, less than a week after he had dragged his pain-racked body off the ice, Hall died in a Seattle hospital. The 1919 Stanley Cup Finals were canceled - the only time such a development has ever occurred. Green Nearly Dies After Fight With Maki If ever there was a case of a hockey player living by the sword - and almost dying by the sword - it occurred during the 1969 preseason. The victim was Ted Green, a Boston Bruins defenseman who, during the 1960s, was among the most fearsome players in the NHL. Green was on the Beantown defense when the Bruins played an exhibition game at Ottawa on September 21, 1969. Normally, such contests were relatively mild, but late in the first period St. Louis Blues forward Wayne Maki charged Green behind the Boston net. "I then reached out with my glove hand and shoved Maki in the face," Green remembered. Maki fell to the ice but managed to spear Green in the abdomen. Green counter-attacked with a stick swipe that caught Maki below the shoulder. "My last thought was, `I guess that'll straighten him out,"' said Green, "and I turned to skate away." But Maki struck back, clipping Green in the head with his stick. This time, the Bruin hit the ice. He was lying on his side, his head turning violently. "I didn't know what had happened, where I had been hit, what I had been hit with, how badly I was hurt," he said. In fact, Green's life was in danger. He had suffered a compound skull fracture, and a 2 1/2-hour operation was necessary. "There was even a rumor that he died," said teammate Ed Westfall. At one point, Westfall entered the recovery room at the hospital, where Green was on a stretcher-type bed, moaning. He was the only patient in a big room, and the two nurses kept yelling at Green and jostling him. "I took his hand," Westfall remembered, and said, `Greenie, it's 18.' Instead of calling me Ed, the guys called me by my uniform number. Teddy didn't move, and I said, `It's 18. Can you hear me? If you can, squeeze my hand.' He squeezed my hand, and I felt like a new father who just got the news that the mother and infant are doing fine." Green didn't die, but he did emerge with temporary paralysis. Meanwhile, the Crown charged both players with assault with attempt to injure. Eventually, in separate trials, each was acquitted. NHL President Clarence Campbell suspended both without pay-Green for 13 games and Maki for 30 days. In Green's case, the suspension was technical because he didn't play at all that year, although he did return to the Bruins in 1970-71. Without their defensive leader, the Bruins managed an outstanding season, going 40-17-19 and topping the league in goals. Led by the irrepressible Bobby Orr - he won the Art Ross, Hart, and Norris Trophies - the Bruins swept Chicago in four straight East finals games and then did the same to St. Louis in the Finals. Appropriately, Orr scored the overtime winner in Game 4, giving his Bruins their first Stanley Cup since 1941. As much as the Bostonians missed Green, they demonstrated that their core of Orr, Phil Esposito, and goalies Gerry Cheevers and Ed Johnston had the makings of a dynasty.

However, in 1904, a dentist in Houghton, Michigan, got the bright idea that play-for-pay hockey would interest the public more than the simon-pure variety. Dr. Jack Gibson obtained financial backing and organized North America's first full-blown professional organization - the International Hockey League. It was an odd mix that included the Michigan towns of Houghton, Sault Ste. Marie, Portage Lake, and Laurium, as well as Pittsburgh and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

Although the International League was short-lived, it proved to be a beacon that other hockey groups soon followed. As more and more pros ("ringers") seeped into the amateur ranks, the foremost amateur leagues read the handwriting and changed their positions. In 1908, the powerful Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association went the professional route, and soon it became clear to Stanley Cup trustees that the mug soon would be awarded to the best pro teams and not the amateurs.

The most important of the new leagues was born in 1909. The National Hockey Association was organized with teams in Montreal, Renfrew, Cobalt, and Haileybury. Yet another pro league, the Canadian Hockey Association, was organized that same year. It granted franchises to teams in Ottawa, Quebec, and Montreal.

No less important was the westward move of the Patrick brothers, Frank and Lester, who organized the Pacific Coast Hockey Association in 1911. Its original clubs included New Westminster, Vancouver, and Victoria. The PCHA immediately signed marquee players like Newsy Lalonde, Hugh Lehman, and Harry Hyland.

Prior to World War I, the NHA and PCHA leaders agreed to organize a playoff between their top teams, the winner of which would take the Stanley Cup. In 1917, Seattle of the PCHA became the first American team to win Lord Stanley's bowl, indicating that pro hockey would become a significant money-maker on both sides of the border. The only question to be answered was, "Which league would rule the sport?"

Disgruntled NHA Owners Establish The NHL

As World War I exploded toward a climax on European battlefields, a more dignified war was taking place on ice rinks and in hockey boardrooms. The goal was to establish dominance over the professional game. Lester and Frank Patrick had done so in the West with their Pacific Coast Hockey Association, but a free-for-all of sorts was developing in the East, home of Canada's two largest cities, Toronto and Montreal.

Clashes over control of the National Hockey Association grew increasingly fierce, mostly because of one individual, Edward J. Livingstone. Regarded as the George Steinbrenner of his day, Livingstone managed to antagonize every one of his fellow owners. By 1917, they decided that they had had enough. But how to get rid of Livingstone? That was the question. Livingstone had been a franchise-holder in Toronto and, therefore, was a legitimate NHA member. The solution of his foes was subtraction by addition. Livingstone was eliminated as an owner simply by the creation of a new league.

The coup d'etat was executed in November 1917 during a meeting at the Windsor Hotel in Montreal. All of the top proteams - Ottawa Senators, Quebec Bulldogs, Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, and Toronto Arenas - were represented. Livingstone, though, was kept from the meeting.

When the participants finally emerged from the smoke-filled room, they had created a brand-new entity, the National Hockey League, with only Quebec taking a temporary sabbatical. Thus, the new NHL embraced Ottawa, Montreal (Wanderers, Canadiens), and Toronto. NHA secretary Frank Calder was named president of the new circuit and it was off and running.

Many of the world's best players graced the new league's rosters. The Wanderers had the immortal Bert Lindsay (father of Hall of Famer Ted) in goal and such aces as Sprague and Odie Cleghorn. The Canadiens were led by Joe Malone and Joe Hall, with Newsy Lalonde the player/manager. Toronto's best included Reg Noble, Corbett Denneny, and Harry Meeking, while Ottawa boasted Cy Denneny, Jack Darragh, and Eddie Gerard.

Unfortunately, the Wanderers never made it through the season, as fire leveled the Montreal Arena on January 2, 1918. Wanderers owner Sam Lichtenhein attempted to borrow players from other squads, but when they refused to help, he withdrew his club from the NHL.

With a three-team league, the NHL barely survived its maiden season. Nevertheless, it did reach the finish line and the Toronto Arenas became the first NHL club to qualify for Stanley Cup play, hosting a series with Vancouver of the PCHA. Five games later, the NHL had its first Cup winner. Toronto defeated Vancouver three games to two, thanks to the outstanding play of Corbett Denneny, one of the new league's first stars. The triumph notwithstanding, the NHL still was treading on thin fiscal ice. It now was a question of how long the baby circuit could survive with only three teams. The next season, 1918-19, would hold the answer.

NHL Doubles In Size; Six Teams Join The Party

The NHLs decision to balloon from six to twelve teams in 1967-68 made a few ice moguls nervous. Some doubted that cities such as St. Louis and Oakland could sustain franchises over the long haul, while others questioned the method chosen by the established teams for stocking the new clubs.

The approved plan called for each existing team to protect one goalie and 11 other players for the draft. When a team lost a player, it could fill its protected list with another player. This meant that if a team lost its 13th best player, it could put its 14th best on the protected list. If it lost its 15th best, then the 16th best could be protected.

The system didn't seem to favor the league's new clubs. However, NHL President Clarence Campbell felt that an extended backup plan - which called for all teams to be able to protect two goalies and only 14 others for the 1968 and 1969 drafts - would help in the equalization. "The new teams won't have trouble picking out which 14 to protect," he said, "but the older teams... they're going to have problems. I visualize definite improvement in the new teams by 1968-69 because of the backup plan," Campbell added. "By 1970, they should have a glorious field day, and I hope they do."

Despite having legends Doug Harvey (#2) and Glenn Hall (goalie) in the lineup, the Blues were unable to stop Montreal's momentum in the 1969 playoffs--even though the Blues had advanced to the Finals with four-game sweeps of Philadelphia and Los Angeles. The Blues had physical players, such as defenseman Bob Plager (#5), and plenty of scoring talent in Red Berenson (wearing helmet), but the Habs dominated them in the Finals.

On June 6, 1967, the expansion draft was held in Montreal, and the new teams finally saw what they were getting for their $2 million initiation fees. When the cigar smoke had cleared, many observers felt the new clubs had been taken. After all, they had just paid $100,000 each for bodies that ordinarily, under the regular draft price, cost only $30,000. Of course, for $2 million one not only received 20 players but also got the chance to rake in attendance, radio, and TV revenues.

Even the players had differing opinions. Forward Billy Hicke, drafted by the California Seals (soon to be renamed the Oakland Seals), said of the new owners: "They didn't get a fair shake. Of the 20 players each team drafted, only six or seven are of NHL caliber."

Later, toward the end of the season, Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ed Van Impe reacted positively to the new division. "Expansion was a good thing for hockey. It's hard to imagine that, until this year, there were only 120 spots open for major-league hockey players. Now it's 240. Expansion hasn't hurt. These guys are proving they belonged."

By the conclusion of the season expansion did indeed seem like a success. The new teams, with the exception of Oakland, were all contenders for the four playoff spots. While Philadelphia finished first with 73 points, Pittsburgh was fifth with 67 points. The six new teams went a somewhat respectable 40-86-18 against the established clubs.

The West Division playoffs were so closely played that all three series went to seven games. When the St. Louis Blues bowed to mighty Montreal in four one goal Finals games - two of them in overtime - the creators of expansion could sit back and admire their artistic triumph.

Stan Fischler et al. Hockey Chronicle: Year-by-Year History of the National Hockey League. Publications International, Ltd., Lincolnwood, Illinois. 2003.

Total NHL: The Official Reference of the National Hockey League Total NHL offers comprehensive coverage of the National Hockey League from its inception in 1917 to the current 2003 season. Year-by-year coverage is partitioned into its logical eras as follows: Foundations: 1917 to 1943 Six team Era: 1943 to 1967 Expansion Time: 1967 to 1979 The Modern Game: 1979 to today Coverage of each era features commentary on milestone achievements as well as final standings, top scorers, top goalies, playoff game scores, trophy winners, All-Stars, and much, much more. The draft is covered extensively with a comprehensive alphabetical index. All 7,000 plus drafted layers from 1964 onward are brought together into tables, sorted by team, draft year, and draft pick. Each draft choice listing contains player statistics that allow the reader to compare team's draft choices and their accomplishments (or lack thereof). There are plenty of player and goalie registers, including over 5,700 data panels, and more than 300 black and white photos are integrated throughout.

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