[neilhoskins77]

1917-18

In The News.....
*The United States declares war on Germany, with the first troops arriving in France.
*An influenza pandemic begins, and would claim 20 million lives over the next three years (we're sure this isn't today's news, right?)

Hockey News.....
The National Hockey League has been formed. The NHL will compete for players, prestiege and attention with the PCHA (Pacific Coast Hockey Association), and is a replacement for the now defunct NHA (National Hockey Association). The Champions of both Leagues will meet in a Series to play for the prestigious Stanley Cup, the largest trophy in all of sports.

This inaugural NHL season will see just four clubs compete, all of them Canadian. There are two representatives from Montréal in the form of the Canadiens and the Wanderers. The other half of the League comes from the Ottawa Senators and the Toronto Arenas. The quartet will play a 24 game regular season, with two points for a win, nothing for an overtime loss, and a point apiece if the game is still a tie after the extra session during the regular season. There is no Salary Cap or Floor, and the minimum salary is $1,000 with the Trade Deadline set for January 31st. Teams must dress at least 14 players, with 17 active on their roster and 25 contracted as a maximum. The Waiver Counter is set at a day. The Playoffs start three weeks after the Trade Deadline.

Out West, the PCHA operates with identical rules with just one exception. Their cross border three team League will play an 18 game regular season, and see's American clubs outnumber their northern neighbours. The Vancouver Millionaires will be ganged up on by current Champions of the League that has run since 1911, the Seattle Metropolitans, who are joined by the Portland Rosebuds

The Draft.....
No Draft to report on this season, but it is active and will start next year, where I believe both Leagues will operate a system that allows each franchise four picks. You have to be at least eighteen years of age to be drafted in either League, but the PCHA franchises are limited to selecting Western born players only.

Free Agency & Trade Activity.....
It's a very tentative build up to the new Regular Season, with few moves made. Ottawa took Toronto's final pick for next summers Draft in exchange for a low quality D'man that they looked set to release anyway. It was a tactic that caught the eye of Seattle, and they took both the 3rd and 4th Round selections of Portland in exchange for a pair of forwards. It may be a move that propels Portland into contender status, as winger Gordon Roberts struck 43 goals in 26 games last season while playing for Vancouver. But Seattle didn't stop there, sending a depth D'man up to Vancouver in return for their 4th Rounder. With a threadbare roster remaining, Seattle may have gone too far with their dealings.

NHL Preview.....
Montréal Canadiens go into the season as the firm favourites to be crowned Champions. With the best netminder in Georges Vezina, and a pair of free scoring forwards in Joe Malone and Newsy Lalonde, the experts believe the others will struggle to keep pace with them. Ottawa and Toronto are more than capable of winning games and turning in a good run of results, and the main challenge will come from them it is believed. But no one really has a good word to say about the Wanderers, who it's feared could well be the whipping boys of the NHL's first season.

The Regular Season.....
Things didn't quite go as expected though. Ottawa's hopes appeared to have been snuffed out early on when they lost their best player Frank Nighbor for a month of the seven week long Regular Season when he dislocated his shoulder in a domestic accident. But his team mates and some new signings from Free Agency brought in by the Front Office saw the Sens remain competitive until Nighbor returned. And he rewarded his team for their efforts with ten points in his first four games in his return.

Did the experts underestimate the talents of the Toronto and Ottawa sides, or did they overestimate those of the Montréal Canadiens. Maybe it was a mixture of both, as by the time we reached the Trade Deadline at the end of January, it was the two non-Montréal clubs that were leading the way, with Habs netminder Georges Vezina being constantly outperformed by his rival in Toronto, the Arenas netminder Hap Holmes who they brought east from PCHA Champions last season Seattle, was leading every category for netminders at this point. In fact, the only thing the experts had got right was how outmatched the Wanderers would be, with Montréal's second club winning only three of their opening sixteen fixtures, despite forward George Carey leading the NHL in Powerplay goals at that point.

With Toronto out of reach with three games remaining, and the Wanderers long since cut adrift and out of the race at the bottom, the outcome of the Regular Season would depend on the final three games. Montréal did what was expected of them against the Wanderers, but got no favours from Toronto, who dropped the game in Ottawa. The two protagonists would face each other in Montréal in the penultimate round of games, and despite Ottawa taking the lead three times, the Habs levelled each time, leaving it late for the last equaliser from Newsy Lalonde with less then two minutes to play in the third period after they'd been behind since midway through the second stanza. That goal kicked the stuffing out of the visitors, and Joe Malone potted the OT winner 11:56 into the extra session, his 21st goal of the season, and the goal that would mean Montréal would need only a point in Toronto on the final day. They wouldn't get it, losing 5-3, while back in their home city, they would receive no favours from their Wanderers rivals, who went down to Ottawa by the same score. The teams were level on points and goal difference, but Montréal had scored more goals, and they would take the Runner's-Up spot.