1930–31 NHL season

The 1930–31 NHL season was the fourteenth season of the National Hockey League. Ten teams played 44 games each. The Montreal Canadiens beat the Chicago Black Hawks three games to two in a best-of-five Stanley Cup final for their second consecutive Cup win.

League business

Art Ross bitterly complained about the Stanley Cup final setup. His team had been vanquished in two consecutive games by the Montreal Canadiens in 1929–30. As a result, the Board of Governors decided to make the final a best of five series.

Regular season

The Great Depression was starting to take its toll on the NHL. In attempts to solve financial problems, the Pittsburgh Pirates moved to Philadelphia and became the Philadelphia Quakers, but there was nothing about the team to win games or fans. It was intended that the team stay in Philadelphia only until a new arena was built in Pittsburgh. The arena was never built, and the team folded after only one season in the new city. The Ottawa Senators were in a similar financial boat but instead of relocating, they sold a star asset and future Hall of Famer, King Clancy, to the Toronto Maple Leafs for $35,000 and two players.

Howie Morenz led the league in scoring.

Dick Irvin started his career in coaching with Chicago and they finished second in the American Division. He resigned at season's end after having taken the Black Hawks to the finals.

This season also saw the Detroit Cougars re-name themselves the Detroit Falcons.

Final standings

"GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, PIM = Penalties In Minutes"
"Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold"

tanley Cup playoffs

On 26 March, during the second game of the best-of-five series between the Bruins and Canadiens, coach-GM Art Ross of Boston pulled his goalie for an extra attacker while down 1–0 with 40 seconds left in the final period. This marked the first time in NHL history that a goalie was pulled for an extra attacker. In the final series, the Chicago Black Hawks took an early two games to one lead in the newly expanded best-of-five Stanley Cup finals but the Montreal Canadiens came back and won the series three games to two for their second consecutive Stanley Cup win.

Playoff bracket

3RoundBracket-Byes
RD1-seed5=C2
RD1-team5=Toronto Maple Leafs
RD1-score5=3G
RD1-seed6=A2
RD1-team6=Chicago Black Hawks
RD1-score6=4G
RD1-seed7=C3
RD1-team7=Montreal Maroons
RD1-score7=1G
RD1-seed8=A3
RD1-team8=New York Rangers
RD1-score8=8G
RD2-seed1=C1
RD2-team1=Montreal Canadiens
RD2-score1=3
RD2-seed2=A1
RD2-team2=Boston Bruins
RD2-score2=2
RD2-seed3=A2
RD2-team3=Chicago Black Hawks
RD2-score3=3G
RD2-seed4=A3
RD2-team4=New York Rangers
RD2-score4=0G
RD3-seed1=C1
RD3-team1=Montreal Canadiens
RD3-score1=3
RD3-seed2=A2
RD3-team2=Chicago Black Hawks
RD3-score2=2

Finals

Montreal Canadiens vs. Chicago Blackhawks

Debuts

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1930–31 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):
*Art Chapman, Boston Bruins
*Doc Romnes, Chicago Black Hawks
*John Sorrell, Detroit Falcons
*Johnny Gagnon, Montreal Canadiens
*Paul Haynes, Montreal Maroons
*Dave Kerr, Montreal Maroons
*Alex Levinsky, Toronto Maple Leafs
*Bob Gracie, Toronto Maple Leafs

Last games

The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1930–31 (listed with their last team):
*Frank Fredrickson, Detroit Falcons
*Bert McCaffrey, Montreal Canadiens
*Joe Simpson, New York Americans
*Babe Dye, Toronto Maple Leafs

ee also

*List of Stanley Cup champions
*1930 in sports
*1931 in sports

References

* [http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/nhl1927.html Hockey Database]
* [http://nhl.com/ NHL.com]