December 19, 1917: The NHL's 1st Games

Dave Ritchie

December 19, 1917: The 1st games in the National Hockey League are played. There are no other games: It's the off-season for Major League Baseball, and the NFL and the NBA haven't been founded yet.

The NHL had been founded on November 26. And, on this Wednesday night, it debuted. Calling it "National" was a stretch, since there were only 5 member teams, all in Eastern Canada, and one of those, the Quebec Bulldogs, had trouble fielding a team. Western Canada, and America's Pacific Northwest with the Seattle Metropolitans and the Portland Rosebuds, had the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. (It would take until the founding of the Boston Bruins in 1924 for an American-based team to join the NHL.)

The game of hockey was very different then. Forward passing was not allowed. There were no zones. Lineup changes could only be made with time-outs, so "changing on the fly" wasn't allowed. Minor penalties were 3 minutes instead of 2. And goaltenders had to serve their own penalties, forcing teams to let a less-protected player guard the goal.

At Dey's Arena, in Canada's national capital of Ottawa, the Montreal Canadiens beat the Ottawa Senators 7-4. Attendance was cited in the newspapers as about 6,000, even though the arena supposedly seated just 4,500.

"Phantom" Joe Malone scored 5 of the Canadiens' goals, on his way to scoring 44 in the League's 20-game season, a pace that even Wayne Gretzky never managed. (When the Quebec team finally got onto the ice for the 1919-20 season, Malone would join them, and set an NHL record that still stands with 7 goals in a game.)

In addition to Malone, the Canadiens -- who were founded in 1909, and had won the title in the now-defunct National Hockey Association in 1916 and 1917, and won the Stanley Cup in 1916 -- had goaltender Georges Vezina, and attacking players Edouard "Newsy" Lalonde, Didier "Cannonball" Pitre and Jack Laviolette.

The Senators, who had won the Cup in 1903, 1904, 1905, 1909 and 1911, had goalie Clint Benedict and attackers Eddie Gerard, Cy Denneny and Jack Darragh. Each of these men would later be elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Gerard was also their head coach, and just 27 years old. He would remain the youngest head coach in NHL history until 1979, surpassed by Gary Green of the Washington Capitals at 26.

Eddie Gerard

At the Westmount Arena, just outside the city limits of Montreal, the Montreal Wanderers outlasted the Toronto Arenas 10-9. Just 1 minute into the game, defenseman Dave Ritchie scored the NHL's 1st goal, and future Hall-of-Famer Harry Hyland scored 5. Reg Noble, also on the way into the Hall, scored 4 for Toronto.

The Wanderers had Art Ross playing out the string, and once had Lester Patrick as well. These men would later have their names on trophies, and in Patrick's case, a Division. Ross would later run the Bruins, and Patrick the New York Rangers. But in 1906, 1907, 1908 and 1910, they would lead the Wanderers, known as "the Little Men of Iron," to the Stanley Cup.

But after this opener, the Wanderers would never win another game. They lost their next 3 games. And then, on January 2, 1918, the Westmount Arena burned down. This left both Montreal teams homeless. The Canadiens moved into the smaller Jubilee Rink, in the city's East End. The Wanderers folded.

The Senators would win the Cup in 1920, 1921, 1923 and 1927, but the Great Depression would doom them in 1934. A new franchise with their name would begin play in 1992. The Quebec Bulldogs didn't last long, either, moving in 1920 to become the Hamilton Tigers, and folding in 1925.

In 1924, the Montreal Forum opened, pretty much across the street from where the Westmount Arena was (but within the city limits). The Canadiens have won 24 Stanley Cups, more than any other team -- but they haven't won it since 1993.

The Arenas still exist, too, changing their name to the Toronto St. Patricks in 1919 and the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1927. They would win the 1st NHL title, and the 1918 Stanley Cup, the 1st of 13 they would win -- but they haven't won it since 1967, or even appeared in the Finals since then.

Dave Ritchie, scorer of the 1st NHL goal, would go on to play for all 5 of the League's charter teams, including the Canadiens, as you can see by the photo at the top of this post. He played professional hockey from 1914 to 1926, and lived until 1973, age 81.

December 19, 1917 was a Wednesday.

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.)

Dey's Arena

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.

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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.

January 16, 1905: The Strangest Stanley Cup Finals

January 16, 1905: The strangest Stanley Cup Finals come to an end, with the biggest blowout in hockey history. Whether the most famous story about the series is true remains in dispute.

The Dawson City Nuggets were an amateur hockey team -- pretty much every hockey team was amateur at the point -- based in Dawson City, in Canada's Yukon Territory. In the country's 2021 Census, its population was 1,577. That's considerably lower than it was at the beginning, in 1896, due to the Klondike Gold Rush.

Due to the weather conditions, sports other than ice hockey were pretty much impossible. And the Nuggets were good. Good enough, they thought, to challenge for the Stanley Cup. This was the era when the Cup was still a challenge trophy: You challenged the holder to a game, or a series, agreed upon the format before playing, and, if you won, you received the Cup.

This was also a time when, instead of 6 men on a side, hockey usually had 7, with the addition of a "rover," who alternated between offense and defense. When the NHL was founded, it did away with the position. By 1923, all professional leagues had. And defensemen were called "point" and "counter-point."

Anyway, because of the 7-man setup, the holders of the Stanley Cup, the Ottawa Hockey Club, were known as "The Silver Seven": Goalkeeper Dave Finnie, point Arthur "Bones" Allen, counter-point Arthur Moore, rover Harry "Rat" Westwick, left wing Fred White, center Frank McGee, and right wing Alf Smith. Harvey Pulford was a reserve defenseman, and had previously been a bigger star for the team. They had already won the Cup in 1903 and 1904.

But the Nuggets thought they could beat them, with goalie Albert Forrest, point Jim Johnstone, counter-point Lorne Hanna, rover Randy McLennan, left wing Norman Watt, center Hector Smith, and right wing George Kennedy.

In October 1904, the Silver Seven accepted the challenge. It was set for Dey's Arena in Ottawa, Ontario, the national capital and the OHC's home, starting on January 13, 1905 -- a Friday the 13th. All the Nuggets had to do was show up. It's only 6,000 kilometers. Well, 5,969. Or, 3,709 miles. Actually, due to the roads available at the time, it was more like 6,400 kilometers, or just under 4,000 miles. But it was possible, right?

Dey's Arena

Yes, it was possible. First, they had to get to Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon Territory. They started on December 18, 1904. Why so early? Because, at the time, the only way to get from Dawson City to Whitehorse was by dog sled. No, I'm not joking: That's what happened. The team spent the nights in police sheds along the road.

When they got to Whitehorse, the weather turned bad, causing the trains not to run for 3 days. That caused them to miss their steamer ship from Skagway, Alaska to Vancouver, British Columbia. (You're reading that right: They had to cross the border into the U.S., and then again, back into Canada.) The next steamer could not dock for 3 days, due to the ice buildup.

The club found the sea journey treacherous, causing seasickness amongst the team. When the steamer reached Vancouver, the area was too fogged in to dock, and the steamer headed south, and docked in Seattle -- so they had to go through Customs again. From there, they caught a train to Vancouver -- so they had to go through Customs again. Through all this, they spent Christmas away from their families.

They finally left Vancouver on January 6, 1905, arriving in Ottawa on January 11, 24 days after leaving Dawson City, just 2 days before puck-drop. The Nuggets received a huge welcome at the train station, were given a welcoming dinner, and the Ottawa Amateur Athletic Club offered them free use of their rooms for the duration of their stay. But the Silver Seven refused to postpone the series, to give them a little bit of rest.

The 1st game started decently for Dawson, as they trailed only 3–1 at the half. But things turned ugly afterwards. Norman Watt of Dawson tripped Ottawa's Art Moore, who retaliated with a stick to the mouth of Watt. Watt promptly knocked Moore out, hitting him on the head with his stick. The game ended 9–2 for Ottawa, with Alf Smith scoring 4 goals. The game left a poor taste in the Yukoners, who claimed that several goals were offside.

Frank McGee, then Ottawa's biggest star, scored 1 goal in the game. Afterward, Watt was quoted as saying, "McGee doesn't look like too much." As Michael Jordan would say, "And McGee took that personally." He scored 4 goals in the 1st half, and 10 in the 2nd half. Ottawa clinched the series, winning the 2nd game 23–2.

Frank McGee

This game proved that the "challenge cup" idea really wasn't a good one. The Nuggets did not belong on the same rink as the Silver Seven. It was, and remains, the most lopsided in Stanley Cup Playoff history. McGee's 14-goal game, which included 8 consecutive goals scored in less than 9 minutes, is still the record for the most goals scored by a single player in a Stanley Cup game, or any other major senior hockey game.

After the second game, The Globe reported:

The visiting team was outclassed to-night quite as decisively as the score indicates. In fact had it not been for the fact of Forrest's presence in the Dawson goal the score against them might have been a great deal larger. Ottawa simply skated away from them at the whistle, and continued to pile up the goals with a merciless monotonous regularity which was farcical in the extreme.

Ottawa celebrated its victory by hosting Dawson at a banquet at the Ottawa AAA clubhouse. Legend has it that the Ottawa players took the Cup and attempted to drop-kick it over the Rideau Canal. The stunt was unsuccessful, with the Cup landing on the frozen ice, and was retrieved the next day. Hockey historians disagree on whether the attempt was actually made. Given the size of the Cup at the time, it would seem that a good solid kick would have seriously damaged it.

The Stanley Cup, as it appeared

from its 1893 inception until 1912

The news got worse for McLennan and Watt, who were employed by the Yukon Territory gold commissioner's office when not playing hockey. The day after the 2nd game, the Territory announced that the pair would be laid off from work, effective immediately, albeit with pay until June 30, 1905.

After playing Ottawa, the Nuggets team played a series of exhibition games in the east before returning to the Yukon. The team did not last much longer. The Silver Seven lost the Cup to the Montreal Wanderers in 1906, but would win it again in 1909 (by which point, they were known as the Ottawa Senators), 1911, 1920, 1921, 1923 and 1927. They went out of business in 1934, and were replaced by a new Ottawa Senators in 1992.

By the time they won again in 1909, Frank McGee was no longer playing for them, having retired at the age of 23. He was killed in action for the Canadian Army in World War I, in France in 1916.

The Dey brothers, directors of the Ottawa Hockey Club, built 3 different arenas with their name on it, on the same plot of land. The 2nd, the site of this series, lasted from 1902 until a fire in 1920.

In 1997, a team from Dawson competed against Senators alumni in a re-enactment of the 1905 match, this time at the Senators' arena, then named the Corel Center (now named the Canadian Tire Centre), complete with organ music, spotlights, and other such hullabaloo.

The Dawson team symbolically recreated the trip to Ottawa, though train service no longer ran between Whitehorse and the Pacific Coast. Dawson managed a slight improvement in score: 18–0, with 25 shots-on-goal. The event was held for charity with 45 percent, the Senators' take of receipts, was contributed to the Heart Institute, while the Dawson team donated 25 ounces of gold, or the cash equivalent, to the Yukon Special Olympics, another 45 percent of the receipts. The rest was designated to Yukon Minor Hockey.

Shortly before the re-enactment, Michael Onesi, a Whitehorse newspaper columnist, wryly commented that had the Dawson team triumphed in 1905, they would have had the longest dynasty in Stanley Cup history. Challenges normally took place in the cupholder's town, and visiting teams could not effectively play, after the brutal journey by overland coach to Dawson, their bodies blacker than a hockey puck from all the bruises of a dog sled ride.

In 1945, Frank McGee and Harvey Pulford would be 2 of the 1st 9 players elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

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January 16, 1905 was a Monday. Baseball and football were out of season. And basketball barely existed. So there were no other scores on this historic day.