1926-27 NHL SEASON

The '1926-27 NHL season' was the tenth season of the National Hockey League. Ten teams played 44 games each. The success of the Boston Bruins and the Pittsburgh Pirates led the NHL to further expand to the United States. On May 4, 1926, the Western Hockey League, unable to match the higher salaries being offered by the NHL, folded, with many of its assets sold to the NHL. In particular, the NHL Board of Governors had purchased the contracts of every player in the WHL for $258,000. The entire rosters of two WHL teams, the Portland Rosebuds and Victoria Cougars, were bought, respectively, by the expansion Chicago Black Hawks and Detroit Cougars. The league also added the New York Rangers to the fold. This left the NHL in sole possession of hockey's greatest players, as well as sole control of hockey's greatest trophy, the Stanley Cup, which was won by the Ottawa Senators.
A new trophy in memory of Georges Vezina, the Vezina Trophy, was donated this year by
Leo Dandurand, Louis Letourneau and Joseph Cattarinich for the first time to the goaltender who had the best goals against average in the league.

Contents
League Business
Rules Changes
Regular season
Final standings
Scoring leaders
Leading Goaltenders
Stanley Cup Playoffs
Playoff bracket
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Stanley Cup Final
Playoff scoring leaders
NHL awards
Debuts
Last games
See also
References

League Business


At the September 25, 1926 NHL meeting, Chicago Black Hawks and Detroit Cougars were added to the league. Chicago would buy out the players of the WHL's Portland Rosebuds, and Detroit bought the players of the Victoria Cougars. Frederic McLaughlin was the new governor for Chicago, and Charles A. Hughes for Detroit.
Toronto bought the players of the Saskatoon franchise; and Montreal claimed George Hainsworth. The rest of the WHL players would be distributed by a committee of Frank Calder, Leo Dandurand and James Strachan.
A special meeting was held on October 26 at which the NHL was split into the Canadian and American divisions (although the New York Americans were placed in the Canadian Division), along with an altered playoff format: the top team from each division would meet the winner of a total-goals series between the second and third place teams from their divisions. The winners of those total-goals series would meet in a best-of-five Stanley Cup Finals.
Rules Changes

The blue lines moved to sixty feet from the goal line from twenty feet from the centre red line to
increase the size of the neutral zone.

Regular season


The Montreal Canadiens, last place finishers in 1925-26, solved their goaltending woes by signing George Hainsworth, whom Georges Vezina had designated to be his successor. They further strengthened their team by signing Herb Gardiner for defence. The Canadiens finished second in the Canadian Division to powerful Ottawa, who was the league's best team.
Dave Gill, secretary-treasurer (general manager), decided to take over as coach of the
Ottawa Senators. He would be assisted by Frank Shaughnessy, a former coach of the old
NHA Senators, to assist him with the strategy used in games. Ottawa finished first atop
the Canadian Division as a result.
During the season, the Toronto St. Patricks were bought by Conn Smythe and renamed the Toronto Maple Leafs. However, the team was under contract to use the name St.Patricks
for the 1926-27 season, and the league ruled that the team had to fulfill its contract.
They became the Maple Leafs the following season.
Final standings

''Note: 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''
Canadian Division GP W L T Pts GF GA PIM
'Ottawa Senators' 44 30 10 4 64 86 69 607
'Montreal Canadiens' 44 28 14 2 58 99 67 395
'Montreal Maroons' 44 20 20 4 44 71 68 716
New York Americans 44 17 25 2 36 82 91 349
Toronto St. Patricks 44 15 24 5 35 79 94 546

American Division GP W L T Pts GF GA PIM
'New York Rangers' 44 25 13 6 56 95 72 385
'Boston Bruins' 44 21 20 3 45 97 89 521
'Chicago Black Hawks' 44 19 22 3 41 115 116 448
Pittsburgh Pirates 44 15 26 3 33 79 108 230
Detroit Cougars 44 12 28 4 28 76 105 409

Scoring leaders

''Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points''
Player Team GP G A Pts
Bill Cook New York Rangers 44 33 4 37
Dick Irvin Chicago Black Hawks 43 18 18 36
Howie Morenz Montreal Canadiens 44 25 7 32
Frank Fredrickson Detroit Cougars / Boston Bruins 44 18 13 31
Babe Dye Chicago Black Hawks 41 25 5 30
Ace Bailey Toronto St. Patricks 42 15 13 28
Frank Boucher New York Rangers 44 13 15 28
Billy Burch New York Americans 43 19 8 27
Harry Oliver Boston Bruins 42 18 6 24
Duke Keats Boston / Detroit Cougars 42 16 8 24

Leading Goaltenders

''Note: GP = Games played; MIN = Minutes played; GA = Goals against; SO = Shut outs; AVG = Goals against average''
Player Team GP MINS GA SO AVG
Clint Benedict Montreal Maroons 43 2748 65 13 1.42
Lorne Chabot New York Rangers 36 2307 56 10 1.46
George Hainsworth Montreal Canadiens 44 2732 67 14 1.47
Alex Connell Ottawa Senators 44 2782 69 13 1.49
Hal Winkler New York Rangers / Boston Bruins 31 1959 56 6 1.72
Jake Forbes New York Americans 44 2715 91 8 2.01
John Ross Roach Toronto St. Patricks 44 2764 94 4 2.04
Hap Holmes Detroit Cougars 41 2685 100 6 2.23
Roy Worters Pittsburgh Pirates 44 2711 108 4 2.39
Hugh Lehman Chicago Black Hawks 44 2797 116 5 2.49

Stanley Cup Playoffs


With the collapse of the Western Hockey League, the Stanley Cup became the new NHL champion trophy. The NHL teams now battled out amongst themselves for the coveted Cup. The new division alignment and the new playoff format also meant that an American team was guaranteed to be the first American NHL team to make the Cup Finals.
Playoff bracket

''All dates in 1927''
Quarterfinals

'Montreal Canadiens vs. Montreal Maroons'
Date Away Score Home Score Notes
March 29Montreal Canadiens1Montreal Maroons1
March 31Montreal Maroons0'Montreal Canadiens''1' (OT)

''Montreal Canadiens win total-goals series 2-1''
'Boston Bruins vs. Chicago Black Hawks'
Date Away Score Home Score Notes
March 29'Boston Bruins''6'Chicago Black Hawks1''Played in New York''
March 31Chicago Black Hawks4Boston Bruins4

''Boston wins total-goals series 10 goals to 5''
Semifinals

'Ottawa Senators vs. Montreal Canadiens'
Date Away Score Home Score Notes
April 2'Ottawa Senators''4'Montreal Canadiens0
April 4Montreal Canadiens1Ottawa Senators1

''Ottawa wins total-goals series 5-1''
'New York Rangers vs. Boston Bruins'
Date Away Score Home Score Notes
April 2New York Rangers0Boston Bruins0
April 4'Boston Bruins''3'New York Rangers1

''Boston wins total-goals series 3-1''
Stanley Cup Final

Main articles: 1927 Stanley Cup Finals

'Boston Bruins vs. Ottawa Senators'
Date Away Score Home Score Notes
April 7Ottawa Senators0Boston Bruins0(OT)
April 9'Ottawa Senators''3'Boston Bruins1
April 11Boston Bruins1Ottawa Senators1 (OT)
April 13Boston Bruins1'Ottawa Senators''3'

''Ottawa wins best-of-five series 2-0-2''
Playoff scoring leaders

''Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points''
Player Team GP G A Pts
Harry Oliver Boston Bruins 8 4 2 6
Percy Galbraith Boston Bruins 8 3 3 6

NHL awards


1926-27 NHL awards
Prince of Wales Trophy: Ottawa Senators
Hart Memorial Trophy: Herb Gardiner, Montreal Canadiens
Lady Byng Trophy: Billy Burch, New York Americans
Vezina Trophy: George Hainsworth, Montreal Canadiens

Debuts


The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1926-27 (listed with their first team, asterisk(
★ ) marks debut in playoffs):

Percy Galbraith, Boston Bruins

Eddie Shore, Boston Bruins

Harry Oliver, Boston Bruins

Duke Keats, Boston Bruins

George Hay, Chicago Black Hawks

Mickey MacKay, Chicago Black Hawks

Dick Irvin, Chicago Black Hawks

Frank Foyston, Detroit Cougars

Jack Walker, Detroit Cougars

Frank Fredrickson, Detroit Cougars

George Hainsworth, Montreal Canadiens

Art Gagne, Montreal Canadiens

Herb Gardiner, Montreal Canadiens

Hap Emms, Montreal Maroons

Red Dutton, Montreal Maroons

Norman Himes, New York Americans

Paul Thompson, New York Rangers

Bill Cook, New York Rangers

Bun Cook, New York Rangers

Murray Murdoch, New York Rangers

Lorne Chabot, New York Rangers

Clarence Abel, New York Rangers

Ching Johnson, New York Rangers

Ace Bailey, Toronto St. Patricks

Butch Keeling, Toronto St. Patricks

Carl Voss, Toronto St. Patricks

Last games


The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1926-27 (listed with their last team):

Shorty Green, New York Americans

Newsy Lalonde, New York Americans

Jack Adams, Ottawa Senators

Bert Corbeau, Toronto St. Patricks

See also



List of Stanley Cup champions

Prairie Hockey League

List of pre-NHL seasons

1926 in sports

1927 in sports

References



Hockey Database

NHL.com

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