It was their 9th win, and their 4th in the last 8 seasons. They were a dominant team in their sport, the way the New York Yankees were in the process of becoming in baseball. Indeed, the Senators were the 1st NHL dynasty.
A 1927-28 Ottawa Senators sweater,
complete with shield denoting them as defending World Champions.
They really were "sweaters" rather than "jerseys" in those days.
Moths put an end to that tradition.
No one knew it at the time, but it was a last stand. The Senators made the Playoffs again in 1928, losing the Quarterfinals to the Montreal Maroons; missing them in 1929; and losing the Quarterfinals to the New York Rangers in 1930.
Then the Great Depression took hold. The Senators didn't make the Playoffs in 1931, then suspended operations for the 1931-32 season, played 1933-34, played their last game on March 17, 1934, and moved to become the St. Louis Eagles in 1934-35, and then folded.
The Memorial Cup, the championship of Canadian junior hockey, was won by Ottawa-area teams in 1958, 1971, 1972, 1980, 1981 and 1984. (And again in 1999 after the new Senators arrived.) But it would be October 8, 1992 before another Ottawa team would take the ice in an NHL regular-season game -- 58 years, 6 months and 22 days. Although the uniforms look very different, they have the same color scheme: Red, white and black.
It would be 1996 before the new Ottawa Senators made the Playoffs, 2003 before they reached the Conference Finals, and 2007 before they reached the Stanley Cup Finals.
UPDATE: What are now known as the "Original Senators" or the "Old Senators" did not last long enough to establish a team Hall of Fame. These figures have been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame:
* 1903 Stanley Cup: Goaltender John "Bouse" Hutton, defenseman Harvey Pulford, rover Harry "Rat" Westwick, center Frank McGee, right wing Billy Gilmour.
* 1904 Stanley Cup: Hutton, Pulford, Westwick, McGee, Gilmour, right wing Alf Smith.
* 1905 Stanley Cup: Pulford, Westwick, McGee, Gilmour, Alf Smith.
* 1906 Stanley Cup: Pulford, Westwick, MeGee, Alf Smith, goaltender Percy LeSueur, center Tommy Smith.
* 1907-08 season only: Rover Fred "Cyclone" Taylor, left wing Tommy Phillips.
* 1909 Stanley Cup: LeSueur, center Bruce Stuart.
* 1911 Stanley Cup: LeSueur, left wing Jack Darragh, center Marty Walsh. Oddly, Pete Green, head coach of their 1911, '20, '21 and '23 Cup winners, has never been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
* 1920 Stanley Cup: Darragh, goaltender Clint Benedict, defenseman Sprague Cleghorn, left wings Cy Denneny and Eddie Gerard, right wing Harold "Punch" Broadbent, centers Georges "Buck" Boucher and Frank Nighbor, and general manager Tommy Gorman.
* 1921 Stanley Cup: Darragh, Benedict, Cleghorn, Denneny, Gerard, Broadbent, Boucher, Nighbor, Gorman.
* 1923 Stanley Cup: Darragh, Benedict, Denneny, Gerard, Broadbent, Boucher, Nighbor, Gorman, defenseman Frank "King" Clancy.
* 1927 Stanley Cup: Denneny, Boucher, Nighbor, Clancy, goaltender Alex Connell, and center Jack Adams, who had previously starred for other teams, and went on to coach the Detroit Red Wings. Head coach Dave Gill has never been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
* All Cups: Team owner Frank Ahearn. Ted Dey, builder and owner of the Senators' various arenas, and a part owner from 1917 to 1934, has never been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
In addition, these Hall-of-Famers played for the Senators in non-Cup seasons: Defensemen William "Hod" Stuart, Art Ross, Samuel Russell "Rusty" Crawford, Harry Cameron; left wings Gordon Roberts Syd Howe; centers Frank Boucher (Buck's brother), Ralph "Cooney" Weiland and Carl Voss; right wing Reginald "Hooley" Smith. Ross had starred with the Montreal Wanderers, and would later be the longtime coach of the Boston Bruins. Although he later played for the Detroit Red Wings, Syd was no relation to later Wings legend Gordie Howe.
*
April 13, 1927 was a Wednesday. There were 4 baseball games played at this early point in the season:
* The New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 10-4 at Yankee Stadium. Babe Ruth went 2-for-4 with a walk. Lou Gehrig went went 2-for-4 with 3 RBIs. For the A's, Ty Cobb went 2-for-4, Eddie Collins went 0-for-5, and Al Simmons went 4-for-4 with a home run and 3 RBIs.
* The Brooklyn Dodgers lost to the Boston Braves, 4-2 at Braves Field in Boston.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-2 at League Park in Cleveland.
* And the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Jesse Haines pitched a 2-hit shutout.
No comments:
Post a Comment