1935-36 NHL season

The 1935-36 NHL season was the 19th season of the National Hockey League. Eight teams each played 48 games. The Detroit Red Wings were the Stanley Cup winners as they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs three games to one in the final series.

League Business
The previous season, 1934-35, had seen the Ottawa Senators (1917–34) franchise attempt to become profitable by moving to St. Louis and play as the St. Louis Eagles. Prior to the '35-36 season, the franchise owners would ask the league to suspend operations for a year, and the league would decline the request. On October 15, 1935, the NHL bought back the franchise and players contracts for $40,000 and suspended operations. Chicago would not participate in the dispersal draft.

During the season, the New York Americans were reported in financial trouble and were up for sale. Leo Dandurand, who had sold his interest in the Montreal Canadiens, was interested as was Joseph Cattarinich. Cattarinich said he would buy the team if the price was right. Later it was announced there would be no deal.

Training Camps

 * Boston Bruins: Saint John, New Brunswick
 * Chicago Black Hawks: Champaign, Illinois
 * Detroit Red Wings: Detroit
 * Montreal Canadiens: Quebec City
 * Montreal Maroons: Winnipeg
 * New York Americans: Oshawa, Ontario
 * New York Rangers: Winnipeg
 * Toronto Maple Leafs: Kitchener, Ontario

Exhibitions
The Rangers played three games against a local all-star team in Calgary.

The Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens played a five game series in the Maritme Provinces of Canada.

Regular Season
Howie Morenz played badly for Chicago and incurred the wrath of Chicago owner Frederic McLaughlin. He was subsequently traded to the New York Rangers.

This was the year of the Detroit Red Wings as they finished first in the American Division. The Montreal Maroons finished first in the Canadian Division, but fans were starting to stay away from games they played, which worried team president, manager and coach Tommy Gorman. At one point, Lionel Conacher had to run the team when Gorman experienced health and nervous problems. At .500 at mid-season, they traded Toe Blake for Lorne Chabot, owned by the Montreal Canadiens after being suspended by Chicago and refusing demotion to the minors, and the team began to win with Chabot in the net.

Scoring Leaders
Note: GP = Games played, G = Goals, A = Assists, PTS = Points, PIM = Penalties in minutes

Stanley Cup Playoffs
This was the last NHL playoffs to feature a "two-game total-goals" series.


 * see 1936 Stanley Cup Finals

Toronto Maple Leafs 8, Boston Bruins 6
For the third time in the last four years, the Bruins and Leafs met in the playoffs. The Leafs would win this series 8-6 on goals in the last year the NHL would have total goals series.

Game 1 saw Tiny Thompson post a shutout and goals by Jim O'Neil, Eddie Shore and Lorne Duguid lead the Bruins to a 3-0 win. However, Thompson aggravated a hip injury he'd been dealing with all season.

Game 2 saw a confident Bruins team have their hopes dashed by six goal second period by the Leafs. The Bruins jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on a goal by Bill Cowley. The second period degenerated into a wild affair in which 40 minutes in penalties were called and Shore given a game misconduct. The Leafs capitalized with three power play goals. Without Shore and powered by a hat trick by Charlie Conacher and two goals by Buzz Boll, the Leafs managed a 8-3 win and won the series on by total goals, 8-6. The Leafs would lose in the 1936 Stanley Cup Finals to the Detroit Red Wings.

Detroit Red Wings 3, Montreal Maroons 0
On March 24, 1936, the first game of the Maroons-Red Wings series set a record for the longest game in Stanley Cup playoff history, as well as the longest ice hockey game ever played. The game began at 8:30 p.m. at the Forum in Montreal, and ended at 2:25 a.m.

After the 60 minutes in regulation, the Red Wings and the Maroons had both failed to score. With a completely blank scoreboard, the game went into overtime. It was not a spectacular game by any means. It was more a doggedly-fought defensive tussle, in which caution reigned supreme. Relentless back-checking prevailed throughout, stout work by the rival defencemen played a prominent part every step of the way, and backing it all up were the invincible displays of the goaltenders. The game had not even had that many penalties, with only eight in regulation and one to come in all of the overtime.

The overtime periods dragged on with the players becoming increasingly more exhausted. Despite the difficulties, one player managed to finally break the all-null tie. At 16:30 of the sixth overtime, Detroit rookie Modere Mud Bruneteau shot on the Maroons’ net, and the puck bobbled up over Lorne Chabot's foot to break the scoreless deadlock. The right winger had been called up from the Detroit Olympics for that season and then remained with the Red Wings until 1946. Detroit's goalie Normie Smith had been considered the team's weakest link, but he blocked 90 shots to earn the NHL's longest shutout. In total, the game lasted 176 minutes and 30 seconds.

Debuts
The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1935-36 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):
 * Ray Getliffe, Boston Bruins
 * Woody Dumart, Boston Bruins
 * Mike Karakas, Chicago Black Hawks
 * Mud Bruneteau, Detroit Red Wings
 * Alex Shibicky, New York Rangers
 * Babe Pratt, New York Rangers
 * Neil Colville, New York Rangers
 * Phil Watson, New York Rangers
 * Reg Hamilton, Toronto Maple Leafs

Last Games
The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1935-36 (listed with their last team):
 * Joe Primeau, Toronto Maple Leafs