1918 Stanley Cup Finals

The 1918 Stanley Cup Final was contested by the National Hockey League (NHL) champion Toronto and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) champion Vancouver Millionaires. In a series held entirely in Toronto, the Toronto team won the series by three games to two in the best-of-five game series to win the Stanley Cup. It was the first series contested by the new NHL and subsequently the first Stanley Cup win by the Toronto NHL franchise team.

Paths to the Final

Prior to the 1917–18 season, the National Hockey Association (NHA) had suspended operations as the result of a power play to oust Toronto Blueshirts owner Eddie Livingstone. The remaining clubs then met in November 1918 to form the NHL, using the exact constitution and playing rules of the NHA. The NHL took the NHA's place in competing for the Cup in a playoff with the PCHA.

The Toronto NHL players were assigned from the Toronto NHA franchise, and played for a 'temporary' Toronto NHL franchise, operated by the Toronto Arena owners. This is why it is often called the 'Arenas' although no Arena hockey club existed until after the 1917–18 season. The team at the time used no nickname; and it was often referred to at the time as the "Blueshirts', the nickname of the NHA franchise, as it was announced by the NHA that the franchise had been sold, although this had not been agreed to by Eddie Livingstone, who wanted to resume his franchise, or be compensated under his terms.^[1]

Despite this black cloud over it, Toronto won the second half of the split regular season while the Montreal Canadiens won the first half. Toronto then won the NHL title by defeating the Canadiens in a two-game total-goals series, 10–7.

Meanwhile, Vancouver finished the 1917–18 PCHA regular season in second place with a 9–9 record behind the 11–7 Seattle Metropolitans. However, Vancouver beat Seattle in that league's two-game total-goals finals, 3–1, with a 1–0 game two victory.

The series

As with the three previous NHA-PCHA Cup Final series, the series alternated between the NHL champion and the PCHA champion each year, while the differing rules for the leagues alternated each game. This meant that all of the games for the 1918 championship series were played at Toronto's Arena Gardens.

Two of the major differences between the two leagues' rules proved to be a major factor in the series. The PCHA allowed forward passing (adopted in the 1913–14 season) and played with seven players per side; the NHL did not adopt forward passing until the following season, and only played with six players. In every game, the winner was the one playing under its league's rules. The Torontos won Games 1 and 3 with victories of 5–3 and 6–3, and the Millionaires recorded 6–4 and 8–1 wins in Games 2 and 4. Because game five was played under NHL rules, it helped Toronto's Corbett Denneny to score the series winning goal in a 2–1 victory. The Torontos outscored the Millionaires by a combined total of 13–7 in the three games played under NHL rules. Conversely, Vancouver recorded a 14–5 margin in the games under PCHA rules.

Toronto goaltender Hap Holmes recorded a 4.20 goals-against average during the series, while Alf Skinner led Toronto with eight goals. Cyclone Taylor scored nine goals for Vancouver.

Player stats

Torontos – 1918 Stanley Cup champions

1917–18 season Toronto Arenas. Top row, from left: Rusty Crawford, Harry Meeking, Ken Randall, Corbett Denneny, Harry Cameron. Middle row, from left: Dick Carroll, Jack Adams, Charles Querrie, Alf Skinner, Frank Carroll. Bottom row, from left: Harry Mummery, Harry "Hap" Holmes, Reg Noble.

Roster

Stanley Cup engraving

Although the Vancouver team was not the winner of the series, the Vancouver club had the words "Vancouver/Defeated Seattle/1917–18/Score 1–0" engraved on the Cup after winning the PCHA championship over the Metropolitans, who won the previous year's Cup finals. This was consistent with the practice at that time of the trophy being officially passed on to the winner of the league championship of the previous Cup champion's league.

The Toronto club never did engrave their name on the Cup to memorialize their series victory over Vancouver. At the time, the NHL club was in a dispute with the owner of the NHA Toronto franchise holder over the Stanley Cup revenues. In 1948, the NHL engraved "1918 Toronto Arenas" on the Cup.

Dick Carroll was not only the first NHL coach to win the Stanley Cup in his first NHL season, Carroll was also a rookie coach.

See also

• 1917–18 NHL season
• 1917–18 PCHA season

References

• "1917–18 Stanley Cup Winner: Toronto Arenas". Hockey Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2010-10-16. 
• "hockeyleaguehistory.com – Pacific Coast Hockey Association". Archived from the original on 3 July 2006. Retrieved 2006-07-03. 
• Podnieks, Andrew; Hockey Hall of Fame (2004). Lord Stanley's Cup. Triumph Books. pp. 12, 50. ISBN 1-55168-261-3. 
• Dan Diamond (ed.), ed. (1992). The Official National Hockey League Stanley Cup Centennial Book. Firefly Books. pp. 49–50. ISBN 1-895565-15-4. 

Stanley Cup Finals Stanley Cup awarded on a challenge basis between 1893–1914; sole NHL championship since 1927 1890s–1900s 1890 · 1891 · 1892 · 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910s–1920s 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930s–1940s 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950s–1960s 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970s–1980s 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990s–2000s 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010s–2020s 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 · 2015 · 2016 · 2017 · 2018 · 2019 · 2020 · 2021 · 2022 · 2023 · 2024 · 2025 · 2026 · 2027 · 2028 · 2029 See also Stanley Cup Stanley Cup ring Champions Challenge games Conference Finals Championship seasons Engravings Traditions and anecdotes Conn Smythe Trophy Broadcasters Television ratings Overtime winners Game seven Book:Stanley Cup Finals Category:Stanley Cup Championship Finals Portal:Ice hockey