- 1951–52 NHL season
The 1951–52 NHL season was the 35th season of the
National Hockey League . Six teams each played 70 games. TheDetroit Red Wings won theStanley Cup by sweeping theMontreal Canadiens four games to none.League business
A long standing feud between Boston president
Weston Adams and general managerArt Ross ended onOctober 12 ,1951 , when Adams sold his stock in Boston Garden toWalter Brown .Chicago, who had made the mammoth nine player deal the previous season, now decided to make the largest cash deal for players to this time by paying $75,000 for
Jim McFadden ,George Gee ,Jimmy Peters , Clare Martin,Clare Raglan andMax McNab .Regular season
Conn Smythe offered $10,000 for anyone who found
Bill Barilko , missing sinceAugust 26 . Barilko and Dr. Henry Hudson had left Rupert House onJames Bay in the doctor's light plane forTimmins, Ontario , after a weekend fishing trip and had not been found.For the fourth straight season, the Detroit Red Wings finished first overall in the National Hockey League.
Highlights
Montreal opened the season before a crowd of 15,100 fans as the Canadiens beat Chicago 4–2.
Rocket Richard had a goal andBernie Geoffrion had two. On the same night,Terry Sawchuk had his first shutout of the season as Detroit beat Boston 1–0.Princess (later Queen) Elizabeth and Prince Phillip were in attendance at the Montreal Forum, and
Floyd Curry came alive with the hat trick and Richard scored two goals as Montreal beat theNew York Rangers 6–1.Fact|date=December 2007Inspired by the return of Black Jack Stewart to the lineup, Chicago had a rare trouncing of the Red Wings right at the Olympia, 6–2. During the game, Chicago's Gus Bodnar twisted his shoulder and Harry Lumley hurt a knee. Trainer
Moe Roberts , who played his first game in the NHL for Boston in 1925–26, played the rest of the way in goal for Chicago and played quite well at age 46. Roberts would stand as the oldest person to ever play an NHL game untilGordie Howe returned to the NHL at age 51 in1979 .Chicago wasn't drawing well and so they decided to experiment with afternoon games. It worked, as the largest crowd of the season, 13,600 fans, showed up for a
January 20 game in which Chicago lost to Toronto 3–1.Elmer Lach night was held
March 8 at the Forum in Montreal as the Canadiens tied Chicago 4–4. 14,452 fans were on hand to see Lach presented with a car, rowboat, TV set, deepfreeze chest, bedroom and dining room suites, a refrigerator and many other articles.On the last night of the season,
March 23 ,1952 , with nothing at stake at Madison Square Garden, 3,254 fans saw Chicago'sBill Mosienko score the fastesthat trick in NHL history, 3 goals in 21 seconds.Lorne Anderson was the goaltender who gave up the goals to Chicago.Gus Bodnar also set a record with the fastest three assists in NHL history as he assisted on all three goals Mosienko scored. Chicago beat the New York Rangers 7–6.Final standings
"Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes"
All-Star teams
Debuts
The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1951–52 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):
*Leo Labine , Boston Bruins
*Real Chevrefils , Boston Bruins
*Kenny Wharram , Chicago Black Hawks
*Don Marshall , Montreal Canadiens
*Dickie Moore, Montreal Canadiens
*Wally Hergesheimer , New York Rangers
*Eric Nesterenko , Toronto Maple Leafs
*Leo Boivin , Toronto Maple LeafsLast games
The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1951–52 (listed with their last team):
*Bobby Bauer , Boston Bruins
*Roy Conacher , Chicago Black Hawks
*Jack Stewart, Chicago Black Hawks
*Bep Guidolin , Chicago Black Hawks
*Turk Broda , Toronto Maple Leafs
*Bill Juzda , Toronto Maple Leafsee also
*
List of Stanley Cup champions
*5th National Hockey League All-Star Game
*National Hockey League All-Star Game
*Ice hockey at the 1952 Winter Olympics
*1951 in sports
*1952 in sports References
* [http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/nhl1927.html Hockey Database]
* [http://nhl.com/ NHL.com]
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