1940–41 NHL season

The 1940–41 NHL season was the 24th season of the National Hockey League (NHL). Seven teams each played 48 games. The Boston Bruins were the Stanley Cup winners as they swept the Detroit Red Wings four games to none in the final series.

Regular season

The Montreal Canadiens had hit the bottom in 1939–40, and were in financial trouble. Frank Patrick decided to become an investor and governor for the team, and Tommy Gorman was hired as general manager. He hired recently released Toronto coach Dick Irvin to run the team. One of the first things Gorman and Irvin did was scout for players, and the Canadiens came up with Johnny Quilty, Joe Benoit, Elmer Lach and defenceman Ken Reardon. Bert Gardiner would be used in goal, replacing Claude Bourque and Wilf Cude. Murph Chamberlain was bought from Toronto to bolster the offence.

Quilty and Benoit came through, as did Toe Blake, but the Habs had a long way to go, finishing sixth. Quilty won the Calder Trophy as the league's top rookie. In fact, before the season started, Coach Irvin handed a sealed envelope to a reporter of his guess who would win the Calder Trophy, and when the season ended, the reporter opened the envelope: Johnny Quilty was the choice Irvin made.

The Boston Bruins set a record 23 straight unbeaten games en route to a strong first place finish at the end of the schedule. The Rangers, stunningly, finished fourth after the previous year's Stanley Cup win and Dave Kerr wasn't up to his usual form in goal.

Final standings

"Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes"
"Note: Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold"

All-Star teams

Debuts

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1940–41 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):
*Max Bentley, Chicago Black Hawks
*John Mariucci, Chicago Black Hawks
*Joe Carveth, Detroit Red Wings
*Elmer Lach, Montreal Canadiens
*Ken Reardon, Montreal Canadiens
*John Quilty, Montreal Canadiens
*Chuck Rayner, New York Americans
*Bill Juzda, New York Rangers

Last games

The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1940–41 (listed with their last team):
*Paul Haynes, Montreal Canadiens
*Georges Mantha, Montreal Canadiens
*Hooley Smith, New York Americans
*Charlie Conacher, New York Americans
*Dave Kerr, New York Rangers

ee also

*List of Stanley Cup champions
*1940 in sports
*1941 in sports

References

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