The 1918–19 NHL season was the second season of the National Hockey League (NHL). While at first it was uncertain that the NHL would operate, and the possibility that National Hockey Association (NHA) would be resumed, the unfinished business of Eddie Livingstone's Toronto and Ottawa's NHA franchise, led to the NHL owners suspending the NHA again. Livingstone would attempt to overthrow the NHA management, and failing that, attempt to operate a rival league. The pre-season was filled with legal actions, deceptions and public verbal attacks. Ultimately, the NHL operated with three teams, in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. However, the season ended early with Toronto suspending operations, leaving Montreal and Ottawa to play off for the championship. Montreal would win the playoff and travel to Seattle for the Stanley Cup Final. However, the championship series was not completed due to influenza infecting the whole Montreal team and causing the eventual death of Montreal's Joe Hall.
League business
The pre-season saw plenty of action off the ice. Toronto NHA owner Eddie Livingstone had found a partner in Percy Quinn, manager of the Toronto Arena Gardens, to take on the NHA/NHL owners. The two together tried to lease the ice time at the Toronto Arena Gardens, Ottawa Arena and Montreal Jubilee Rink from under the noses of the NHL owners, launched several lawsuits, attempted to launch a competing league and attempted to relaunch the NHA, but ultimately were unsuccessful. The NHA, while not operating, met three times.
Purchase of Quebec Bulldogs
The first action of Livingstone and Quinn was Quinn's attempt to purchase the Quebec Bulldogs, putting down a $600 down payment. At the time, Quinn's purchase was welcomed by the other NHA owners, thinking that they would gain an operating franchise. Quinn's action gave Quinn and Livingstone three votes at NHA meetings. Livingstone still had the voting shares of the Ontarios and Torontos NHA franchises.
Second suspension of NHA
On September 27, 1918, in Montreal, the NHA directors met again. Ottawa, Montreal Wanderers and Canadiens voted to again suspend operations of the league. This meant that the NHL would operate for a second season. Percy Quinn's purchase of the Quebec Bulldogs was approved but his franchise could not play. The action of the NHA directors led to Livingstone filing a lawsuit on October 1, 1918, charging that there was a conspiracy among the NHA owners, paid for by the Arena Company to suspend the NHA operations and asking the court to nullify the suspension.
On October 2, Quinn would meet with Ted Dey, owner of the Ottawa Arena and enter into an agreement to lease the Ottawa Arena. Dey accepted a check from Quinn, but did not cash it. He had plans of his own, involving the takeover of the Ottawa Senators, making it look to the Senators' management that they had no arena to play in. Rather than let the team fold, Martin Rosenthal entered into an agreement to sell the Senators to Dey.
Lawsuit against Arena Company
Since Toronto had won the Cup in 1917–18, a monkey wrench had been thrown into the other owners' scheme to get rid of Livingstone. His team was estimated now to be worth $20,000, and Livingstone demanded that. The Arena Company offered $7,000, but Livingstone instead sued the Arena and Charlie Querrie for $20,000. In the days following the filing of the lawsuit against Arena, Hubert Vearncombe, treasurer of the Toronto Arena Company, formed the separate Toronto Arena HC. Quinn now planned to relocate the Quebec club to Toronto as the "Shamrocks". At the NHL meeting on November 9, 1918, the Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal teams signed an agreement to bind themselves to the NHL for a period of five years. This was at the instigation of the Ottawa club, which would not return to the NHL otherwise, and had the pending option with Percy Quinn to operate in the Canadian league.
The directors of the Arena Company of Montreal, owner of the Montreal and Toronto arenas, met and decided to shut out the CHA, against the wishes of Quinn, effectively ending the attempt to start up the CHA for the 1918–19 season. Despite the suspension, and the public threat, Quinn agreed to meet with Calder but reached no agreement. Calder publicly offered an olive branch to Quinn to join the NHL.
Dismissal of lawsuit against 228th
While this was going on, the NHA's suit to recover $3,500 from the Toronto 228th hockey team's insurer, the Ocean Accident and Guarantee Limited, was heard and dismissed. The NHA had sued the 228th for dropping out of the NHA in 1917. In his judgment, Judge Falconbridge noted that an insurance bond posted by the 228th could never have been enforceable, and that they had been ordered overseas under no fault of their own and that there was no clear legal status of the team, having played under the franchise of the non-operating Ontario Hockey Club.
Loss of lawsuit against Ottawa
A judgment went against Livingstone on November 20, 1918. Livingstone had claimed that Ottawa had interfered in the proper running of the NHA when the NHA had suspended the Toronto club in February 1917. The judge ruled that the NHA operated within its constitution, as no rules on how to operate less than six teams had been written.
Attempt to lease Montreal Jubilee Rink
In a related development, Livingstone entered into an agreement with the managers of the Jubilee Rink to lease it for pro hockey. The manager and lessee of the Jubilee Rink, Albert Allard signed the lease against the wishes of the owner of the Jubilee Rink, the Jubilee Rink Company. When the rink owners came to fire Allard and end his lease, the rink was closed by security, locking out the owners. Legal action came to a head on December 16 when Lucien Riopel won a court judgment expelling Allard.
Attempt to relaunch NHA
In December 1918, Livingstone and Quinn organized a league meeting of the old NHA, attempting to force the NHA to restart, based on Quinn and Livingstone's three votes and an attempt to disallow the vote of the Canadiens. Despite Calder labelling the meeting as "illegal", Ottawa, the Canadiens and Wanderers attended. However, the attempt proved futile as heated arguments broke out between Livingstone's side and the other owners. After the meeting, Livingstone and Quinn claimed that they now controlled the NHA. They claimed that the players were now the property of the NHA, stating that all players who had played in the previous season, "east of Port Arthur" had to report to the NHA. Calder now ordered all teams to pay the $200 legal fees owing. Separately, the Montreal and Ottawa NHA owners met and paid the fees owing to the league and Calder fined the Torontos, Ontarios and Quebec a further $200. Calder now publicly promised to file a court order to "wind up" the NHA organization. When the NHL decided to continue with play, Livingstone and Quinn threatened injunctions to stop the NHL from operating. However, the threats were not followed through on and the NHL season began on schedule.
Major rule changes
The penalty system was refined at the instigation of the Ottawa players:
- For minor fouls (holding a stick or lying on the ice to block a shot), a player would sit off for three minutes, allowing a substitute.
- For major fouls (including throwing a stick to prevent a score, tripping, holding, cross-checking, boarding) players would sit off for five minutes, with no substitute for three minutes. The Hockey Hall of Fame lists Montreal as the winner for 1918–19.
Player statistics
Scoring leaders
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! style="width: 12em;" | Player
! style="width: 13em;" | Team
! style="width: 4em;" |
! style="width: 4em;" |
! style="width: 4em;" |
! style="width: 4em;" |
! style="width: 4em;" |
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"| || style="text-align:left;"| Montreal Canadiens || 17 || 22 || 10 || 32 || 40
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"| || style="text-align:left;"| Montreal Canadiens || 17 || 22 || 6 || 28 || 22
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"| || style="text-align:left;"| Ottawa Senators || 18 || 19 || 9 || 28 || 27
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"| || style="text-align:left;"| Ottawa Senators || 18 || 18 || 4 || 22 || 28
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"| || style="text-align:left;"| Montreal Canadiens || 17 || 14 || 5 || 19 || 12
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"| || style="text-align:left;"| Toronto Arenas || 17 || 12 || 4 || 16 || 26
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"| || style="text-align:left;"| Toronto Arenas || 17 || 10 || 5 || 15 || 35
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"| || style="text-align:left;"| Ottawa Senators<br>Toronto Arenas || 14 || 11 || 3 || 14 || 35
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"| || style="text-align:left;"| Ottawa Senators || 14 || 11 || 3 || 14 || 33
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"| || style="text-align:left;"| Toronto Arenas || 14 || 8 || 6 || 14 || 27
|}
Leading goaltenders
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! style="width:12em" class="unsortable" | Name
! style="width:12em" class="unsortable" | Team
! style="width:2em" |
! style="width:4em" |
! style="width:2em" |
! style="width:2em" |
! style="width:2em" |
! style="width:2em" |
! style="width:2em" |
! style="width:3em" | Goals against average|
|- align=center
| align=left class="nonsortable" | Clint Benedict
| align=left class="nonsortable" | Ottawa Senators || 18 || 1152 || 12 || 6 || 0 || 53 || 2 || 2.76
|- align=center
| align=left class="nonsortable" | Georges Vezina
| align=left class="nonsortable" | Montreal Canadiens || 18 || 1117|| 10 || 8 || 0 || 78 || 1 || 4.19
|- align=center
| align=left | Hap Holmes
| align=left | Toronto Arenas || 2 || 120 || 0 || 2 || 0 || 9 || 0 || 4.50
|- align=center
| align=left | Bert Lindsay
| align=left | Toronto Arenas || 16 || 998 || 5 || 11 || 0 || 83 || 0 || 4.99
|}Source: NHL
NHL playoff scoring leader
GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! width="150" | Player
! width="150" | Team
! width="40" | GP
! width="40" | G
! width="40" | A
! width="40" | Pts
|- align=right
| align=left | Newsy Lalonde
| align=left | Montreal Canadiens || 10 || 17 || 1 || 18
|}
Coaches
- Montreal Canadiens: Newsy Lalonde
- Ottawa Senators: Harry Hyland and Alf Smith
- Toronto St. Patricks: Frank Heffernan and Harvey Sproule
Debuts
The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1918–19 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):
- Amos Arbour, Montreal Canadiens
The last remaining active player to kick off their NHL career this season was Punch Broadbent, who retired after the 1928–29 season.
Last games
The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1918–19 (listed with their last team):
- Joe Hall, Montreal Canadiens
Free agency
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date !! Players !! Team
|-
| December 2, 1918 || Rusty Crawford || Ottawa Senators
|-
| December 9, 1918 || Odie Cleghorn || Montreal Canadiens
|-
| December 13, 1918 || Fred Doherty || Montreal Canadiens
|-
| December 15, 1918 || Paul Jacobs || Toronto Arenas
|-
| December 28, 1918 || Bert Lindsay || Toronto Arenas
|-
| January 17, 1919 || Dave Ritchie || Toronto Arenas
|-
| January 21, 1919 || Punch Broadbent || Ottawa Senators
|-
| January 23, 1919 || Amos Arbour || Montreal Canadiens
|-
| February 17, 1919 || Skene Ronan || Ottawa Senators
|-
|}
Transactions
{| class="wikitable" style="border:1px solid #999999; width:580px;"
|- bgcolor="eeeeee"
| November 28, 1918
| valign="top"| To Ottawa Senators<hr>Tommy Smith
| valign="top"| To Montreal Canadiens<hr>cash
|-
| December 9, 1918
| valign="top"| To Ottawa Senators<hr>Skene Ronan
| valign="top"| To Montreal Canadiens<hr>Harry Hyland
|- bgcolor="eeeeee"
| December 14, 1918
| valign="top"| To Toronto Arenas<hr>Rusty Crawford
| valign="top"| To Ottawa Senators<hr>future considerations
|-
|}
See also
- List of Stanley Cup champions
- List of pre-NHL seasons
- 1918 in sports
- 1919 in sports
References
;Notes
External links
- Hockey Database – NHL 1918–19 season