1917-18 NHL season
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The 1917–18 NHL season was the first season of the National Hockey League (NHL). Play was held in two halves, December 19 to February 4, and February 6 to March 6. Canadiens won the first half, and Toronto the second half. The Montreal Wanderers withdrew early in January 1918 after their rink, the Montreal Arena, burned down. Toronto won the NHL playoff and then won the Stanley Cup by defeating the PCHA's Vancouver Millionaires three games to two in a best-of-five series

League business

See main article, History of the National Hockey League

On November 9, 1917, it was reported that the Toronto NHA franchise was sold to Charles Querrie of the Toronto Arena corporation. At this point, NHA president Robertson and secretary Calder denied that the NHA would change, dissolve or adopt other subterfuge.¹ This sale never completed.

The November 10, 1917 annual meeting of the NHA was presided over by Mr. Calder. The NHA votes to suspend operations, without announcing their intentions publicly. At the meeting, Livingstone's representative offers to allow the Arena Gardens to manage the Torontos and lease the players.²

On November 17, 1917, it was announced that Quebec had dropped out, but that NHA league play would continue.

On November 26, 1917, representatives of the NHA clubs met at the Windsor Hotel in Montreal. The decision to start a new league is finalized and announced. The decision was made to start a new league, the NHL:

• constitution and rules the same as the NHA
• Frank Calder elected president and secretary
• M. J. Quinn of Quebec was named honorary president
• franchises were granted to Ottawa, Canadiens, Wanderers,
• Quebec players to be disbursed among the other teams

A Toronto franchise was to be operated 'temporarily' by the Arena Gardens while the Toronto ownership situation was resolved. The franchise uses the players of the Blueshirts, including those who had been transferred to other NHA teams for the second half of the 1916–17 NHA season. While Livingstone agreed to a lease of the team, the NHL owners do not intend to share any revenues from the players. Livingstone would sue for the team's revenues in 1918. George Kennedy, owner of the Canadiens, would later say:

"The Toronto players belong as a body to the National Hockey League, for they were only loaned to the Toronto Arena Company, though Livingstone tried to make the Arena Company believe that he controlled those players"³

The team played without a nickname for the season.

According to Holzman⁴, the NHL itself was intended to operate temporarily until the Toronto NHA franchise was resolved. The NHA had a pending lawsuit against the 228th Battalion, and could or would not fold until after that was heard.

Major rule changes

The O'Brien Cup was transferred to the new NHL from the suspended National Hockey Association, and became the league's championship trophy. It was awarded to the winner of the NHL playoffs and that winner then went on to play for the Stanley Cup in a series against rival leagues.

On January 9, 1918, the league decided to allow goaltenders to drop to the ice surface in order to make saves. This was the first implemented and amended rule change in the National Hockey League. It was done in response to Ottawa's Clint Benedict constantly falling to make saves.⁵

Regular season

The new league faced stiff competition for players from a number of other leagues including the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. Also, filling rosters was a challenge because the talent pool was decimated by World War I.

The Wanderers were in trouble from the start of the season. They won their home opener but drew only 700 fans. The Wanderer then lost the next three games and owner Lichtenhein threatened to withdraw from the league unless he could get some players. Although they could have acquired Joe Malone in the draft they turned to the PCHA and signed goaltender Hap Holmes. They also obtained permission to sign such players as Frank Foyston, Jack Walker and others if they could do so. The Wanderers loaned Holmes to the Seattle Metropolitans of the PCHA but he eventually found his way back to the NHL when Seattle loaned him to Toronto.

A league meeting was planned to deal with the situation, however on January 2, 1918, the matter was resolved when the Montreal Arena burned down, leaving the Canadiens and Wanderers homeless. The Canadiens moved into the 3,250 seat Jubilee Rink. The Hamilton arena offered to provide a home for the Wanderers, but Lichtenhein disbanded the team on January 4, after the other clubs refused to give him any players. The remaining three teams would complete the season.

The last active player from the inaugural season was Reg Noble, who retired following the 1933 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Highlights

The first game of the season featured Toronto versus the Wanderers. Montreal's Dave Ritchie scored the first goal in NHL history and Harry Hyland had four goals in the Wanderers 10–9 victory, which would be their only one in the NHL. The opening game was played in front of only 700 fans.

On January 28, when Canadiens visited Toronto, players Alf Skinner and Joe Hall got into a stick-swinging duel. Both players received match penalties, $15 fines and were arrested by the Toronto Police for disorderly conduct, for which they received suspended sentences.

Final standings

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

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.

"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." — Holzman.⁶

Results

First half

† Montreal Arena burned down and Wanderers withdraw. Two Wanderers games count as wins for Canadiens and Toronto.

Second half

Scoring leaders

GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points, PIM = Penalties In Minutes

Leading Goaltenders

Playoffs

All dates in 1918

NHL Championship

Montreal had won the first half of the NHL split season and Toronto had won the second half. The two teams then played a two game total goals series for the NHL championship and the O'Brien Cup. Toronto won the series and advanced to the Stanley Cup finals.

Toronto vs. Montreal Canadiens

Toronto wins total goals series 10–7 for the O'Brien Cup

Finals

Main article: 1918 Stanley Cup Finals

Vancouver Millionaires vs. Toronto

Toronto wins best-of-five series 3 games to 2 for the Stanley Cup

NHL playoff scoring leaders

GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points

Debuts

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1917–18 (listed with their first team, not including players who previously played in the NHA):

• Jack Adams, Toronto

Last games

The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1917–18 (listed with their last team):

• Jack Laviolette, Montreal Canadiens
• Art Ross, Montreal Wanderers
• Harry Hyland, Ottawa Senators

See also

• List of Stanley Cup champions
• List of pre-NHL seasons
• 1917 in sports
• 1918 in sports

References

• NHL Official Website
• Hockey Database
• Holzman, Morey, and Joseph Nieforth. Deceptions and Doublecross: How the NHL Conquered Hockey (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2002), pp. 169–70.
• Coleman, Charles (1966). The Trail of the Stanley Cup, vol. 1, 1893–1926 inc. 

1. ^ Coleman(1966), p. 328
2. ^ Holzman(2002), p. 151
3. ^ from "Trying Hard to Wreck Pro Hockey", Montreal Star: pg. 6, October 1, 1918  as quoted in Holzman, page 371.
4. ^ Holzman(2002), p. 193
5. ^ Coleman(1966) p. 333
6. ^ Holzman(2002), pp. 169–70.