March 17, 1906: Hockey's "Greatest Game Ever Played"

The 1906 Wanderers. Lester Patrick is in the center

of the top row of players.

March 17, 1906: A hockey game is played. It gets called the sport's "greatest game ever played." Maybe, by the standards of the time, it was. But it would be surpassed, many times over. Still, some game had to be the first "game of the century" in the sport.

And what's really weird by modern standards is, the team that got clobbered in it was declared the champions.

The Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association was wrapping up its 1st season, and there was a tie for 1st place, between the Montreal Wanderers and the Ottawa Hockey Club, both of whom finished 9-1. Although the Ottawa HC never deviated from that official name, by the time of their 1st Stanley Cup win in 1903, they were known as "The Silver Seven." By 1908, they were nicknamed the Senators, and it is by this name that they would become best known.

(Yes, "Silver Seven." At the time, there were 7 players on the ice, including a "rover," who switched between offense and defense. The National Hockey Association, the 1st pro league, founded in 1910, didn't use it, and most leagues stopped by the 1920s.)

The 9 most-used members of the Silver Seven were goaltender Billy Hague; defensemen Harvey Pulford (also their Captain) and Arthur Moore; rovers Frank McGee and Harry "Rat" Westwick; centers Tommy and Harry Smith; and wingers Alf Smith (also their head coach) and Billy Gilmour. Alf and Tommy Smith, Pulford, McGee, Westwick, Gilmour would be elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. They had already won the Stanley Cup in 1903, 1904 and 1905.

The Wanderers, known as "the Little Men of Iron," are probably better-remembered today, if only because their Captain, rover Lester Patrick, would go on to coach and manage the New York Rangers. Their memory is also stronger due to a player they would acquire the following year, defenseman Art Ross, who would go on to coach and manage the Boston Bruins. Each man would eventually have an NHL Division and an NHL trophy named for him. And yet, for all they achieved as what the Hockey Hall of Fame calls "Builders," they were elected as "Players." This would also be true for Jack Adams, later the coach and general manager of the Detroit Red Wings.

Joining Patrick (and eventually Ross, and another 1907 Wanderer, William "Hod" Stuart) in the Hall of Fame, were forwards Frank "Pud" Glass, Ernie "Moose" Johnson and Ernie Russell. Oddly, Cecil Blachford, both their Captain and their head coach, has not been elected. Nor have their defensemen, Billy Strachan and Rod Kennedy; or their goaltender, Henri "Doc" Menard.

They finished in a tie for the title. Each team had handed the other their only loss. So the Stanley Cup would be decided by a tiebreaker series: Two games, one at each team's home rink, totals goals to decide it. Game 1 was a wipeout, as the Wanderers won, 9-1 at the Montreal Arena. Russell scored 4 goals, Glass 3, Johnson 2.

Game 2 was played at Dey's Arena in Ottawa, in front of 5,400 fans, believed to be a record for a hockey game at that point. Among the attendees was Albert Grey, the 4th Earl Grey, Governor-General of Canada (representative of the country's head of state, King Edward VII of Britain), and the man who would go on to donate the championship trophy for Canadian football, the Grey Cup. (His grandfather, Charles, the 2nd Earl, is the namesake of Earl Grey tea. Lord Stanley of Preston, who had donated the Stanley Cup in 1893, had also been Governor-General.)

All the Wanderers had to do to win the Stanley Cup was avoid losing this game by 8 or more goals. But that proved difficult, as the Silver Seven took advantage of the home ice and the home crowd. They also took advantage of a rule that allowed them to "bring in a ringer," Percy LeSueur, the goalie from the Smiths Falls Senators of Smiths Falls, Ontario, about 50 miles southwest of Ottawa. LeSueur would go on to the Hall of Fame.

Still, Johnson scored 12 minutes in, to give the Wanderers a 9-goal lead. But then, the Silver Seven exploded. Before the 1st half ended (they played 2 halves then, not 3 periods), McGee scored twice and Harry Smith once. In the 2nd half, Harry scored, Westwick scored, and Harry scored 3 more goals. The last of these came with 10 minutes to play, tying the series at 10-10 on aggregate, and bringing a 5-minute standing ovation.

But history would not remember the Wanderers for the greatest choke in hockey history. Patrick pulled their fat out of the fire, scoring with 90 seconds left, and then once more just before time expired. The Silver Seven had won the game, 9-3; but had lost the series, 12-10.

The next day's edition of the Toronto Globe called Game 2 the "greatest game of hockey ever played on Canadian ice, or any other." The Sporting News would later call it the "Greatest Hockey Game in History."

At some point during the game, Earl Grey's top hat had been knocked off. A fan found it, and, after the game, gave it to the Wanderers' Moose Johnson.

The Wanderers would lose the Cup to the Kenora Thistles in 1907, then regain it later that year, and win it again in 1908 and 1910. They would join the NHA in 1910 and the NHL in 1917, but the Montreal Arena burned down during their 1st season, and they went out of business.

The Silver Seven/Senators rebuilt, and won the Cup in 1909 and 1911. They would also be founding members of the NHA and the NHL, winning the Cup in 1920, 1921, 1923 and 1927. But the Great Depression did them in, and they moved in 1934, becoming the St. Louis Eagles, playing 1 season, and folding.

*

March 17, 1906 was a Saturday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. Professional basketball barely existed. In English soccer, Woolwich Arsenal, eventually to become the North London team I would support, beat East Midlands team Derby County, 1-0 at the Manor Ground in Plumstead, South-East London.