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 the best-of-five 1931 Stanley Cup Finals for their second consecutive Cup win.

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.

Off-season
GM James Strachan took the Montreal Maroons through the most significant overhaul in the franchise's history, replacing half the team.

Red Dutton, a reliable defenseman with four seasons service with the Maroons, was sold to the New York Americans along with three other players. Dutton was replaced with Lionel Conacher.

With the retirement of goalie Clint Benedict, the Maroons signed Dave Kerr while Flat Walsh became the starter. Kerr was one of multiple players signed from the Montreal AAA team that won the 1930 Allan Cup. These included Des Roche and his brother Earl Roche, John Gallagher, Paul Haynes, Al Huggins and Glenn Brydson.

Regular Season
Opening night for the Montreal Maroons on November 11, 1930 saw five of the seven signed from the Montreal AAA team in the line-up in addition to Jack McVicar. Goalie Dave Kerr and Glenn Brydson didn't play as the Maroons lost 2-0 to the Ottawa Senators. The losing and scoreless streak continued for the next two games but the final straw was a 7-1 humiliation at the hands of the cross-town Montreal Canadiens on November 20, 1930. Down 6-1 after two periods, goalie Dave Kerr made his NHL debut and allowed one goal.

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 their star asset and future Hall of Famer, King Clancy, to the Toronto Maple Leafs for $35,000 and two players. It hurt the team, and attendance declined all the more. However, after a very poor turnout to watch the Philadelphia Quakers, over 10,000 fans came to see the Montreal Canadiens beat Ottawa. Obviously the fans in Ottawa were being selective of who they came to see. This season also saw the Detroit Cougars re-name themselves the Detroit Falcons.

Henry "Buddy" Maracle became the first Canadian aboriginal player in the NHL when he was recalled from the Springfield Indians and suited up for the New York Rangers for the February 12, 1931 game versus the Detroit Falcons. On February 22, 1931, Maracle recorded his first points, a goal and an assist, as the Rangers defeated the Philadelphia Quakers 6-1. Maracle played the rest of the regular season, finishing with 1 goal and 3 assists, and had no points in 4 post season matches.

Howie Morenz led the league in scoring and kept the turnstiles clicking at NHL rinks, despite the Depression.

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.

Scoring Leaders
GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points, PIM = Penalties In Minutes

Leading Goaltenders
Note: GP = Games played; Mins = Minutes played; GA = Goals against; SO = Shutouts; GAA = Goals against average

Stanley Cup Playoffs
In the Finals, 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.

New York Rangers 8 Goals, Montreal Maroons 1 Goal
Hampered by the loss of star forward Hooley Smith at the end of the regular season, the Montreal Maroons were thoroughly outplayed by the New York Rangers. Rangers Bill Cook and Paul Thompson each scored three goals in the two game, total goals series.

Montreal Canadiens 3, Boston Bruins 2
The league's two best teams met in the second round of the playoffs, both teams having received byes in the first round. The series was extremely close with three of the five games being decided in overtime.

Game 1 in Boston saw the Bruins behind 4-1 entering the third period. A three goal comeback sent the game into overtime where Cooney Weiland scored his second goal of the game to win it for the Bruins.

Game 2 in Boston was a close checking affair with the only goal scored by Georges Mantha in the first period. Early in the third period, Habs goalie George Hainsworth was cut on the forehead with a skate, stopping the game for 8 minutes while he was tended to in the locker room. With 4 minutes left in the game, George Owen was given a major penalty for an infraction against Howie Morenz. This resulted in a shower of debris being thrown on the ice, stopping the game for 15 minutes while it was cleaned up. With a minute to go, for the first time in NHL history, coach Art Ross pulled goalie Tiny Thompson in a failed attempt to tie the game.

Game 3 saw the series shift to Montreal for the remainder of the games played. Down 3-1 entering the third period, the Bruins again mounted a third period comeback to tie it up on goals by Cooney Weiland and Marty Barry. However, Georges Mantha scored the winner in overtime.

Game 4 saw the Bruins build a three goal lead entering the third period including Weiland's fourth goal of the series. A goal by the Canadiens' Nick Wasnie wasn't enough as the Bruins tied the series.

Game 5 followed the pattern of game 1 and 3 in which the Bruins fell behind entering the third period. Two goals from series scoring leader Weiland tied the game up but Wildor Larochelle scored at 19:00 of the first OT and the Habs took the series 3-2. Cooney Weiland led all playoff scorers with 9 points.

Finals
Montreal Canadiens vs. Chicago Black Hawks Montreal wins best-of-five series 3-2.

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