1914-15
Eddie Livingstone makes his debut in professional hockey after he purchases the struggling Toronto Ontarios and gives them another nickname change, switching their orange uniforms for green and calling them the Toronto Shamrocks. Beyond that the NHA remains unchanged but the Pacific Coast Hockey League now has an American based team after the New Westminster club moves to Portland and is named the Rosebuds.
The two leagues continue their policy of honouring each other's contracts and not poaching players, but the sport faces another challenge that takes many players away from their clubs: World War I. Livingstone's first bit of controversy arrives when he informs the league prior to a mid-season game his Shamrocks do not have enough healthy players to travel to Montreal and play Sam Lichtenhein's Wanderers. The league deems it to be a forfeit, but Lichtenhein originally is reported to have agreed to rescheduling the contest before later changing his mind. It leads to a bitter war of words between the two that has Lichtenhein calling for Livingstone to be expelled from the league. This was just the beginning of a feud that would eventually lead to the demise of the NHA and the birth of the NHL.
On the ice the Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators would again be the NHA playoff teams but in the reverse order as the Habs, once more led by Newsy Lalonde and his league best 46 points, finished first with a 14-3-3 record. Ottawa fought a fevered battle with the Quebec Bulldogs for second place, one that went right down to the final game of the season when the two clubs, tied in points, met in the Canadian capital. Art Throop scored with just 5 minutes remaining in the game to give the Senators a 3-2 victory and a trip to the playoffs. The Senators were led by a sensational teenager named George Hainsworth, who would be named the top goaltender in the NHA.
Just as was the case a year ago, the Senators came up short against the Canadiens, losing both games and falling 9-6 in the total goal series. Three third period goals gave Montreal a come from behind 4-3 win in the opener. The second game was all Newsy Lalonde. The 26-year-old scored once in the opening game and then factored in on all five Montreal goals in game two, scoring one and setting up the other four.
The Canadiens would be defending their Stanley Cup title won a year ago with a three-game sweep of Vancouver by facing the Portland Rosebuds this time around. The Rosebuds settled into their new home quite nicely after moving from New Westminster and were led by league MVP Cyclone Taylor. Taylor, who had joined the organization in a trade from Vancouver last year, led the PCHA in goals with 16 and points with 25.
*** STANLEY CUP ***
The Stanley Cup final was contested in Montreal this year and after the opener, an 8-2 Montreal victory, Habs fans were expecting another sweep. Odie Cleghorn had 4 points in the rout while Lalonde and Sibby Nichols each scored twice.
Game two was a completely different story as Portland goaltender Georges Vezina, who struggled mightily in the opener, was outstanding on this night and made 36 saves in a 4-2 Portland victory. It would prove to be the only high point of the series for the Rosebuds as Montreal returned to dominance in game three with a 7-2 victory. Lalonde scored again, giving him 4 goals in the three games, while Didier Pitre and Art Ross each tallied twice for the winners.
The Canadiens clinched the series with a 5-3 win in game four, one in which they led 4-1 after twenty minutes and coasted to a 5-3 victory. Near tragedy struck late in the second period when a puck was deflected into the face of Montreal star Newsy Lalonde. He dropped to the ice in a pool of blood amidst concerns he might lose his right eye. In the end the eye did survive but a badly broken orbital bone would mean a long summer of recovery from the scoring ace. It was a disappointing series for Portland star Cyclone Taylor, who scored 16 times in 18 PCHA games during the season but only managed one in the Cup battle and that was a meaningless marker in the closing minutes of the game four loss.
1915-16 - A WAR ABROAD AND AT HOME
While an actual war was waging in Europe, there was quite a battle going on amongst the professional hockey teams. Eddie Livingstone was once more front and center as he purchased the Toronto Blueshirts and planned to own both Toronto entries in the NHA. The league objected and Livingstone eventually relented by folding the Shamrocks, but not until after he transferred the contracts of their two best players - Cy Denneny and Barney Stanley to the Blueshirts over the objection of several other club owners.
A month later, Livingstone reignited the war with the PCHA when he signed Cyclone Taylor to a contract. Up to that point there had been an uneasy peace between the two leagues but the signing of Taylor changed the landscape and things turned sour quickly with PCHA teams raiding NHA rosters. The expansion Seattle Metropolitans, a fourth team added to the PCHA responded quickly in luring goaltender Hal Winkler from the Stanley Cup champion Montreal Canadiens and much to the ire of owner Sam Lichtenhein signed three players away from the Montreal Wanderers including star forward Tommy Smith. Gord Roberts, Ottawa's scoring star, also was lured west as he signed with Portland to help replace the loss of Cyclone Taylor. Only the Montreal Canadiens, who convinced goaltender Georges Vezina to join them from Vancouver as a replacement for Winkler, landed a top player from the west aside from Toronto's initial salvo to sign Taylor.
The Montreal Canadiens once more finished with the best record in the NHA, as Newsy Lalonde won his sixth league MVP and fifth scoring title while ex-Vancouver netminder Georges Vezina was named the top goaltender. Livingstone's Toronto Blueshirts finished second and expected to face Montreal in a playoff but when it became apparent the Toronto club would finish second, the league owners voted to remove the playoff system and simply send the regular season champion west to play for the Stanley Cup.
It was Livingstone's turned to be incensed and it seemed just a matter of time before he would be out of the league. His Blueshirts were actually a pretty good team with newcomers Barney Stanley, Cy Denneny and Cyclone Taylor leading the way but Denneny's younger brother Corb and goaltender Howie Lockhart also played key roles.
Led by PCHA scoring leader Frank Nighbor and top goaltender Hugh Lehman the Vancouver Millionaires returned to the top of the western league and would host the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup challenge series for the second time in three years.
*** STANLEY CUP ***
Montreal lost the opening game of the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time, falling 2-1 to Vancouver in overtime. Phil Stevens had given the Habs the lead in the second period but Lester Patrick tied the game midway through the third and Carl Kendall scored the winner just past the 17 minute mark of the first overtime.
The second game featured much more offense as the Millionaires, behind a Cal Kendall hat trick, led 4-3 after forty minutes. Montreal battled back with three third period goals including Newsy Lalonde's first of the series with just 1:02 remaining in regulation to give the Canadiens a 6-5 victory and even the series at one.
The two clubs traded victories in the next two games as Vancouver took the third game 3-2 behind a goal and an assist from Alex Currie but the Canadiens forced a deciding fifth game with a 5-4 victory keyed by a Didier Pitre hat trick.
Game five would see both goaltenders - Montreal's Georges Vezina and Hugh Lehman of Vancouver- keep the game scoreless until the closing moments of the second period when the Habs Eddie Oatmen beat Lehman. It would stay 1-0 until Odie Cleghorn secured the Canadiens third consecutive Stanley Cup with a late goal giving Montreal a 2-0 victory. Vezina made 19 saves for his first Stanley Cup shutout.