Montreal Maroons
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Montreal_Maroons".

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Montreal Maroons
Montreal Maroons
Founded 1924
History Montreal Maroons
1924–1938 (franchise canceled 1947)
Home Arena Montreal Forum
City Montreal, Quebec
Colors White and Maroon
Stanley Cups 1926 and 1935
Conference Championships 1926, 1928, 1935

The Montreal Maroons were a professional men's ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL). They played in the NHL from 1924 to 1938, winning the Stanley Cup in 1926 and 1935. They were the last non-Original Six team to win the Stanley Cup until the Philadelphia Flyers in 1974 and the last NHL franchise to fold that had previously won a Stanley Cup championship.

Contents

History

Montreal Maroons dark logo
Montreal Maroons dark logo

The Maroons joined the league in 1924 along with the Boston Bruins, the first American team. The expansion fees for both teams were $15,000, with $11,000 of the Maroons fee going to their cross town rivals, the Canadiens. At that time, the Maroons were one of two Montreal teams in the league. While the Montreal Canadiens drew primarily francophone fans, the Maroons largely drew fans from the anglophone neighbourhoods of Montreal. The team was designed to appeal to the anglophone fans of the defunct Montreal Wanderers who folded just six games into the NHL's inaugural season.[1]

The Maroons participated in the longest NHL playoff game of all time, losing 1–0 to the Detroit Red Wings in 176:30 of play (16:30 of the sixth overtime period) on March 24–25, 1936.

Financial strains from the Great Depression led the NHL to realize that Montreal, despite its size, could not support two NHL teams. While both the Canadiens and Maroons had trouble drawing fans, there were far more francophone supporters for the Canadiens than there were anglophone supporters for the Maroons.[2] As a result, the Maroons finished with the worst attendance in the league for three seasons in a row. This, along with the fact that both teams were owned by the Canadian Arena Company by 1935 (Ernest Savard and Maurice Forget, who owned the Canadiens, were part of the Canadian Arena Company and so were the owners of the Maroons, James Strachan and Donat Raymond.) made it obvious only one team could represent Montreal. The financial strains of the Maroons caused them to sell off star winger Hooley Smith and others. [2]

Centreman Nels "Old Poison" Stewart
Centreman Nels "Old Poison" Stewart

Despite the Maroons' financial troubles, they continued to play competitive hockey well into the 1930s. [3] In fact, the Maroons team that won the Stanley Cup in 1935 were the last team to do so without a loss in the playoffs for 17 years. However, the team's bleak financial situation finally caught up with them in 1937–38, as they finished 12–30–6, the club's worst season since winning only nine games in 1924–25. The league allowed the Maroons to suspend operations for the 1938-39 season. [3] The Maroons' owners tried to sell to interests in St. Louis, Missouri. Earlier in the decade, St. Louis proved that it could support NHL hockey when the Ottawa Senators moved there to become the Eagles. However, while the Eagles had drawn very well, they only survived one season due to the high costs of traveling to Boston, Montreal and Toronto. The league was not about to give St. Louis another chance given the economic situation of the time. [2]

Len Peto, a director with the [[[Montreal]] Canadiens, took control of the dormant Maroons and succeeded in getting the franchise transferred to Philadelphia. However, despite being larger than all but two NHL cities (New York and Chicago), Philadelphia didn't have an arena that could accommodate an NHL team. The largest arena in the city, the Palestra, didn't have an ice plant and would have seated only 9,000 people in any case. The second largest, Philadelphia Arena, seated only 6,000 people for hockey. The league gave Peto until the end of the 1946–47 season to rectify this. Unfortunately, Peto couldn't find a suitable venue, and the Maroons were gone for good in 1947.[3]

The last active Maroons player was Herb Cain, who remained in the NHL until 1946.

Season-by-season record

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes

Season GP W L T Pts GF GA PIM Finish Playoffs
1924–25 40 9 19 2 20 45 65 264 5th, NHL Out of playoffs
1925–26 40 20 11 5 45 91 73 554 2nd, NHL Won Semifinals (Pittsburgh)
Won Finals (Ottawa)
Won Stanley Cup (Victoria)
1926–27 40 20 20 4 44 71 68 716 3rd, Canadian Lost Quarterfinals (Montreal)
1927–28 40 24 14 6 54 96 77 549 2nd, Canadian Won Quarterfinals (Ottawa)
Won Semifinals (Montreal)
Lost Finals (NY Rangers)
1928–29 44 15 20 9 39 67 65 638 5th, Canadian Out of playoffs
1929–30 44 23 16 5 51 141 114 651 1st, Canadian Lost Semifinals (Boston)
1930–31 44 20 18 6 46 105 106 568 3rd, Canadian Lost Quarterfinals (NY Rangers)
1931–32 48 19 22 7 45 142 139 593 3rd, Canadian Won Quarterfinals (Detroit)
Lost Semifinals (Toronto)
1932–33 48 22 20 6 50 135 119 442 2nd, Canadian Lost Quarterfinals (Detroit)
1933–34 48 19 18 11 49 117 122 414 3rd, Canadian Won Quarterfinals (NY Rangers)
Lost Semifinals (Chicago)
1934–35 48 24 19 5 53 123 92 380 2nd, Canadian Won Quarterfinals (Chicago)
Won Semifinals (NY Rangers)
Won Stanley Cup (Toronto)
1935–36 48 22 16 10 54 114 106 504 1st, Canadian Lost Semifinals (Detroit)
1936–37 48 22 17 9 53 126 110 379 2nd, Canadian Lost Quarterfinals (Boston)
1937–38 48 12 30 6 30 101 149 470 4th, Canadian Out of playoffs
Totals 622 271 260 91 633 1474 1405 7122

Team Captains

Hockey Hall of Famers

Awards

Arenas

  • Montreal Forum — built specifically for the Maroons, the Forum, in an ironic twist, would become the most famous arena in hockey largely because of the Canadiens, who shared the arena with the Maroons from 1926 to 1938.

See also

External links

References

  1. ^ Coleman, Charles L. (1964). The Trail of the Stanley Cup, Vol I. Kendall/Hunt. 
  2. ^ a b c McFarlane, Brian (1969). 50 Years of Hockey. Greywood Publishing Ltd. 
  3. ^ a b c Coleman, Charles L. (1969). The Trail of the Stanley Cup, Vol II. Progressive Publications. 

External links
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