Ice Hockey Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Source 33 34217
1917–18 Toronto Hockey Club
Division NHL
1917–18 record 13–9–0
Home record 10–1–0
Road record 3–8–0
Goals for 108
Goals against 109
Team information
General manager Charles Querrie
Coach Dick Carroll
Arena Arena Gardens
Team leaders
Goals Reg Noble (30)
Assists Reg Noble
Harry Cameron (10)
Points Reg Noble (40)
Penalty minutes Ken Randall (55)
Wins Hap Holmes (10)
Goals against average Arthur Brooks (4.00)

The 1917–18 Toronto Hockey Club season was the 1st season of the Toronto franchise in the newly organized National Hockey League (NHL). While intended as a 'temporary' franchise, and operated by the arena management where they played, the team came together to win the Stanley Cup, the first in Toronto NHL franchise history and second after the Toronto Blueshirts victory in 1914.

Regular Season[]

The Torontos, Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, and Ottawa Senators were the original four teams of the league. The Wanderers would not finish the season, as the Montreal Arena burned down on January 2, 1918, and the club would fold after just six games.[1]

The Torontos would finish the first half of the season with a 8-6-0 record, finishing second to the Montreal Canadiens, however, Toronto put up a league best 5-3-0 record in the second half of the season, earning a spot in the O'Brien Cup finals against the Canadiens. Overall, the Torontos finished 13-9-0, tied with the Montreal Canadiens with the best record in the NHL.[2]

During a game on January 28, 1918, Alf Skinner of the Torontos and Joe Hall of the Montreal Canadiens were involved in a stick swinging duel. Both players received match penalties, $15 fines, and were arrested by the Toronto Police for disorderly conduct, in which they received suspended sentences.[3]

Reg Noble led the Torontos with 28 goals, which placed him third in the league, while Corbett Denneny had 20 goals, and Harry Cameron scored 17 goals. Alf Skinner, Ken Randall, and Harry Meeking would each get into double digits with goals, scoring 13, 12, and 10 respectively. Randall led the club with 55 penalty minutes, while Rusty Crawford earned 51 penalty minutes in only 9 games after being acquired from Ottawa.[4]

In goal, Hap Holmes played the majority of games, earning a club high 10 victories, while backup Arthur Brooks posted a team best 4.00 GAA.[5]

Final Standings[]

First Half
GP W L T Pts GF GA
Montreal Canadiens 14 10 4 0 20 81 47
Toronto Hockey Club 14 8 6 0 16 71 75
Ottawa Senators 14 5 9 0 10 67 79
Montreal Wanderers 6 1 5 0 2 17 35
Second Half
GP W L T Pts GF GA
Toronto Hockey Club 8 5 3 0 10 37 34
Ottawa Senators 8 4 4 0 8 35 35
Montreal Canadiens 8 3 5 0 6 34 37

[6] Note: GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against
Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold.
The Wanderers defaulted scheduled games against the Canadiens (Jan. 2, 1918) and Toronto (Jan. 5, 1918), when their arena burned down.
These appear as losses in the standings, but the games were not played.[7]

Game Log[]

First Half[]

# Date Visitor Score Home Record Pts
1 December 19 Toronto 9–10 Montreal Wanderers 0–1–0 0
2 December 22 Ottawa Senators 4–11 Toronto 1–1–0 2
3 December 26 Montreal Canadiens 5–7 Toronto 2–1–0 4
4 December 29 Toronto 2–9 Montreal Canadiens 2–2–0 4
5 January 2 Toronto 6–5 Ottawa Senators 3–2–0 6
6 January 5 Montreal Wanderers 0–0 Toronto 4–2–0 8
7 January 9 Montreal Canadiens 4–6 Toronto 5–2–0 10
8 January 14 Toronto 6–9 Ottawa Senators 5–3–0 10
9 January 16 Ottawa Senators 4–5 Toronto 6–3–0 12
10 January 19 Toronto 1–5 Montreal Canadiens 6–4–0 12
11 January 26 Toronto 3–6 Ottawa Senators 6–5–0 12
12 January 28 Montreal Canadiens 1–5 Toronto 7–5–0 14
13 February 2 Toronto 2–11 Montreal Canadiens 7–6–0 14
14 February 4 Ottawa Senators 2–8 Toronto 8–6–0 16
  • Montreal Wanderers forfeit game on January 5.

Second Half[]

# Date Visitor Score Home Record Pts
1 February 9 Toronto 7–3 Montreal Canadiens 1–0–0 2
2 February 11 Ottawa Senators 1–3 Toronto 2–0–0 4
3 February 13 Toronto 6–1 Ottawa Senators 3–0–0 6
4 February 18 Montreal Canadiens 9–0 Toronto 3–1–0 6
5 February 20 Toronto 4–5 Montreal Canadiens 3–2–0 6
6 February 23 Ottawa Senators 3–9 Toronto 4–2–0 8
7 March 2 Montreal Canadiens 3–5 Toronto 5–2–0 10
8 March 6 Toronto 3–9 Ottawa Senators 5–3–0 10

Playoffs[]

The Torontos would face the Canadiens for the O'Brien Cup, and the winner would represent the NHL in the Stanley Cup finals in a two game total goal series. In the opening game at Mutual Street Arena, Toronto would have no problems defeating Montreal, winning the game by a 7-3 score. The series moved over to Jubilee Arena in Montreal for the second game, and while the Canadiens won the game 4-3, the Torontos outscored Montreal 10-7 in the series, and advanced to the Stanley Cup finals.

Toronto 10, Montreal Canadiens 7
# Date Visitor Score Home Record
1 March 11 Montreal Canadiens 3–7 Toronto 1–0
2 March 13 Toronto 3–4 Montreal Canadiens 1-1

Stanley Cup Final[]

Toronto would face the Vancouver Millionaires of the PCHA to determine the winner of the 1918 Stanley Cup Finals in a best of 5 series, with all games being played at Mutual Street Arena. Toronto took the series opener by a 5-3 score, however, the Millionaires evened the series up with a 6-4 win in the second game. The teams would again split the next two games, setting up a fifth and final game. The Torontos would hold off the Millionaires for a 2-1 victory, as Corbett Denneny scored the winning goal of the series.[8]
Toronto 3, Vancouver Millionaires 2
# Date Visitor Score Home Record
1 March 20 Vancouver Millionaires 3–5 Toronto 1–0
2 March 23 Toronto 4–6 Vancouver Millionaires 1-1
3 March 26 Vancouver Millionaires 3–6 Toronto 2–1
4 March 28 Toronto 1–8 Vancouver Millionaires 2–2
5 March 30 Vancouver Millionaires 1–2 Toronto 3–2
  • Games 1, 3, and 5 played with NHL rules, Games 2 and 4 played with PCHA rules.

Player Stats[]

Scoring Leaders[]

Player GP G A Pts PIM
Reg Noble 20 30 10 40 35
Corb Denneny 21 20 9 29 14
Harry Cameron 21 17 10 27 28
Harry Meeking 21 10 9 19 28
Alf Skinner 20 13 5 18 28
Ken Randall 21 12 2 14 96
Harry Mummery 18 3 3 6 41
Rusty Crawford 8 1 2 3 51
Jack Coughlin 5 2 0 2 3
Jack Adams 8 0 0 0 31
Art Brooks 4 0 0 0 0
Sammy Hebert 2 0 0 0 0
Hap Holmes 16 0 0 0 0
Jack Marks 5 0 0 0 0

Goaltending[]

Player GP TOI W L T GA SO GAA
Arthur Brooks 4 220 2 1 0 23 0 4.00
Hap Holmes 16 965 10 7 0 76 0 4.73
Sammy Hebert 1 70 0 1 0 10 0 8.57

Awards and Records[]

Transactions[]

Torontos 1918 Stanley Cup Champions[]

Roster

  Centers
  Defensemen
  Goaltenders


  Non-players

‡ Played rover position in the Stanley Cup Finals
† Released before playoffs

Stanley Cup Engraving

Even though they officially did not win the Cup during this season, the Vancouver club had the words "Vancouver/Defeated Seattle/1917–18/Score 1–0" engraved on the Cup after winning the PCHA championship over the Metropolitans, who won the previous year's Cup finals. This was similar to the practice prior to 1915 when the trophy was officially passed on to the winner of the league championship of the previous Cup champion's league.

However, the Toronto club never did engrave their name on the Cup to memorialize their series victory over Vancouver. At the time, the NHL club was in a dispute with the owner of the NHA Toronto franchise holder over the Stanley Cup revenues. In 1948, the NHL engraved "1918 Toronto Arenas" on the Cup.


See Also[]

References[]

  1. Holzman, Morey; Joseph Nieforth (2002). "Lichtenhein Loses the War", Deceptions and Doublecross: How the NHL Conquered Hockey. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 169–70. ISBN 1-55002-413-2. “The league did not accept the Wanderers' resignation immediately, electing to wait and see whether the team showed up for its scheduled match in Toronto on Saturday January 5. ... The deadline did expire, and the once-powerful team that had been known as the Little Men of Iron was thrown onto the scrap heap of hockey history. The Wanderers' scheduled games of January 2 and 5 were officially recorded in the standings as victories for their respective opponents, the Canadiens and Torontos.” 
  2. Final NHL Standings 1917-18
  3. Borden D. Mills. Kenora Thistles: 1907 Stanley Cup Champions: Joe Hall. Archived from the original on 2009-10-20.
  4. 1917-18 National Hockey League [NHL] standings at hockeydb.com
  5. Toronto Arenas goaltending history : Harry "Hap" Holmes
  6. Standings: NHL Public Relations Department (2008). in Dave McCarthy: THE NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE Official Guide & Record Book/2009. National Hockey League, 145. ISBN 978-1-894801-14-0. 
  7. Holzman, Morey (2002). "Lichtenhein Loses the War", Deceptions and Doublecross: How the NHL Conquered Hockey. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 169–70. ISBN 1-55002-413-2. “The league did not accept the Wanderers' resignation immediately, electing to wait and see whether the team showed up for its scheduled match in Toronto on Saturday January 5. ... The deadline did expire, and the once-powerful team that had been known as the Little Men of Iron was thrown onto the scrap heap of hockey history. The Wanderers' scheduled games of January 2 and 5 were officially recorded in the standings as victories for their respective opponents, the Canadiens and Torontos.” 
  8. Legends of Hockey - Silverware - 1917-18 Stanley Cup Winner - Toronto Arenas

Sources[]


This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 1917–18 Toronto Hockey Club season. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA).


Advertisement