1938-39 NHL season

The 1938-39 NHL season was the 22nd season of the National Hockey League. Seven teams each played 48 games. The Boston Bruins were the Stanley Cup winners as they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs four games to one in the final series.

Regular season

Just prior to the start of the 1937-38 season, the league held a meeting to decide the fate of the Maroons. They requested a shift to St. Louis, but this was rejected after considerable discussion. And so, the Montreal Maroons dropped out of the league. They sold most of their players to the Canadiens, and it was evident that the Maroons were through for good. With only seven teams left, the NHL decided to go back to the one division format.

Also prior to the start of the season, the Boston Bruins sold their star goaltender, Tiny Thompson, who had just won a record 4th Vezina Trophy, to the Detroit Red Wings The fans thought Art Ross was crazy,but soon they were applauding rookie Frank Brimsek, would go on to back-stop the Bruins to a first overall finish and a Stanley Cup victory. He wiped out Thompson's shutout sequence record with three consecutive shutouts. He nearly equalled his new record with three more. He ended the season with 10 shutouts, and earned the nickname "Mr.Zero". He also became the first goaltender to win both the Vezina Trophy and Calder Trophy in the same season.

A sad event took place December 7, as Joseph Cattarinich died of a heart attack following an eye operation. Cattarinich was the original goaltender of the Montreal Canadiens when they were formed in 1909. He was 57.

The Montreal Canadiens eroded to the point where Jules Dugal replaced Cecil Hart as manager and coach. Dugal wasn't much better and the Canadiens finished 6th. One bright note was that Toe Blake won the scoring title, however, despite the poor showing of the team.

Chicago, after its Stanley Cup win the previous season, began floundering at mid-season and owner Frederic McLaughlin was displeased. Accordingly, he fired coach Bill Stewart and hired left wing Paul Thompson in his place. But the Black Hawks continued to lose and finished last.

The New York Americans, up in third place at mid-season, proceeded to fall into a big slump in the second half and though they finished 4th, they were below .500 and had the worst defence in the league. Part of the problem was the retirements of Ching Johnson and Hap Day on defence. Al Murray was also out of action for quite a time. Still, goaltender Earl Robertson found himself on the second all-star team.

The NHL instituted the icing rule on March 13, 1939.

Final standings

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes
Note: Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold

National Hockey League	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA	PIM
Boston Bruins	48	36	10	2	74	156	76	251
New York Rangers	48	26	16	6	58	149	105	393
Toronto Maple Leafs	48	19	20	9	47	114	107	370
New York Americans	48	17	21	10	44	119	157	276
Detroit Red Wings	48	18	24	6	42	107	128	240
Montreal Canadiens	48	15	24	9	39	115	146	294
Chicago Black Hawks	48	12	28	8	32	91	132	367

Scoring leaders

Note: GP = Games played, G = Goals, A = Assists, PTS = Points, PIM = Penalties in minutes

Player	Team	GP	G	A	PTS	PIM
Toe Blake	Montreal Canadiens	48	24	23	47	10
Sweeney Schriner	New York Americans	48	13	31	44	20
Bill Cowley	Boston Bruins	34	8	34	42	2
Clint Smith	New York Rangers	48	21	20	41	2
Marty Barry	Detroit Red Wings	48	13	28	41	4

Stanley Cup playoffs

see 1939 Stanley Cup Finals

Playoff bracket

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Finals
						1	Boston Bruins	4
						2	New York Rangers	3
											1	Boston Bruins	4
											3	Toronto Maple Leafs	1
	3	Toronto Maple Leafs	2
	4	New York Americans	0
						3	Toronto Maple Leafs	2
						5	Detroit Red Wings	1
	5	Detroit Red Wings	2
	6	Montreal Canadiens	1

NHL awards

O'Brien Trophy:	Toronto Maple Leafs
Prince of Wales Trophy:	Boston Bruins
Calder Memorial Trophy:	Frank Brimsek, Boston Bruins
Hart Memorial Trophy:	Toe Blake, Montreal Canadiens
Lady Byng Memorial Trophy:	Clint Smith, New York Rangers
Vezina Trophy:	Frank Brimsek, Boston Bruins

All-Star teams

First Team	Position	Second Team
Frank Brimsek, Boston Bruins	G	Earl Robertson, New York Americans
Eddie Shore, Boston Bruins	D	Earl Seibert, Chicago Black Hawks
Dit Clapper, Boston Bruins	D	Art Coulter, New York Rangers
Syl Apps, Toronto Maple Leafs	C	Neil Colville, New York Rangers
Gordie Drillon, Toronto Maple Leafs	RW	Bobby Bauer, Boston Bruins
Toe Blake, Montreal Canadiens	LW	Johnny Gottselig, Chicago Black Hawks
Art Ross, Boston Bruins	Coach	Red Dutton, New York Americans

Debuts

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1938-39 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):

• Roy Conacher, Boston Bruins
• Frank Brimsek, Boston Bruins
• Ab DeMarco, Chicago Black Hawks
• Don Grosso, Detroit Red Wings
• Sid Abel, Detroit Red Wings
• Jack Stewart, Detroit Red Wings

Last games

The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1938-39 (listed with their last team):

• Russ Blinco, Chicago Black Hawks
• Paul Thompson, Chicago Black Hawks
• Baldy Northcott, Chicago Black Hawks
• Alex Levinsky, Chicago Black Hawks
• Bob Gracie, Chicago Black Hawks
• Larry Aurie, Detroit Red Wings
• Herbie Lewis, Detroit Red Wings
• Dave Trottier, Detroit Red Wings
• Babe Siebert, Montreal Canadiens
• Jimmy Ward, Montreal Canadiens

See also

• List of Stanley Cup champions

References

• Hockey Database
• NHL.com