1920-21 NHL season

The 1920-21 NHL season was the fourth season of the National Hockey League (NHL). Four teams each played 24 games in a split season. The NHL's Ottawa Senators won the Stanley Cup by defeating the Vancouver Millionaires of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association three games to two in a best-of-five series. This would be the last split season before the NHL changed its regular season and playoff formats.

League Business

Eddie Livingstone was again talking of creating a rival league and mentioned Hamilton as a city in his league. To head this off, league president Frank Calder got the owners of the league to admit a Hamilton franchise. As Abso-Pure had built an arena, all owners agreed that it would be wise to have a franchise in Hamilton. Because Quebec had done so badly the previous season, Calder said that Quebec's players would be given to Hamilton. Although Mike Quinn was non-commital at first, he finally sold the team to Hamilton and it became the Hamilton Tigers.

Regular Season

Joe Malone sports the Tigers 1920-21 jersey.

The Tigers had some trouble signing Joe Malone from the Quebec days, but he finally did sign.

The Tigers stung the Canadiens 5-0 in its first game with Babe Dye starring. The Toronto St. Patricks lost Corbett Denneny to injuries and recalled Dye from Hamilton, giving them Mickey Roach in his place.

Corbett Denneny scored six goals in a game January 26th as the Toronto St. Patricks walloped the Hamilton Tigers 10-3.

Cy Denneny wasn't about to let his brother steal the thunder and he scored six goals himself in a March 7th game as the Ottawa Senators hammered the Hamilton Tigers 12-5. For the first time, a brother combination had scored six goals in a game in the same season.

The Ottawa Senators won the first half of the split season while the Toronto St. Patricks won the second half.

Final Standings

First Half

	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA
Ottawa Senators	10	8	2	0	16	49	23
Toronto St. Patricks	10	5	5	0	10	39	47
Montreal Canadiens	10	4	6	0	8	37	51
Hamilton Tigers	10	3	7	0	6	34	38

Second Half

	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA
Toronto St. Patricks	14	10	4	0	20	66	53
Montreal Canadiens	14	9	5	0	18	75	48
Ottawa Senators	14	6	8	0	12	48	52
Hamilton Tigers	14	3	11	0	6	58	94

Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF= Goals For, GA = Goals Against, Pts = Points
Note: Teams that qualified for playoffs highlighted in bold.

Scoring Leaders

Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points

Player	Team	GP	G	A	Pts
Newsy Lalonde	Montreal Canadiens	24	33	10	43
Cecil "Babe" Dye	Hamilton Tigers / Toronto St. Pats	24	35	5	40
Cy Denneny	Ottawa Senators	24	34	5	39
Joe Malone	Hamilton Tigers	20	28	9	37
Frank Nighbor	Ottawa Senators	24	19	10	29
Reg Noble	Toronto St. Patricks	24	19	8	27
Harry Cameron	Toronto St. Patricks	24	18	9	27
George "Goldie" Prodgers	Hamilton Tigers	24	18	9	27
Corbett Denneny	Toronto St. Patricks	20	19	7	26
Jack Darragh	Ottawa Senators	24	11	15	26

Stanley Cup Playoffs

All dates 1921

NHL Championship

After the regular season, Toronto and Ottawa played in a total goals series to see who would win the O'Brien Trophy and go on to compete for the Stanley Cup. Ottawa easily won by shutting out the St. Pats in both games. Ottawa's George Boucher became the first defenseman in NHL playoff history to score a Hat trick, doing so in the 5-0 win in Game 1. It took 49 years until the feat was repeated, by Bobby Orr in the 1971 Quarter-finals. Ottawa then went onto play the Vancouver Millionaires of the PCHA.

Ottawa Senators vs. Toronto St. Patricks

Date	Team	Score	Team	Score	Notes
March 10	Ottawa Senators	5	Toronto St. Patricks	0
March 14	Ottawa Senators	2	Toronto St. Patricks	0

Ottawa wins total goals series 7 goals to 0

Finals

Ottawa Senators vs. Vancouver Millionaires

Date	Away	Score	Home	Score	Notes
March 21	Ottawa Senators	1	Vancouver Millionaires	2
March 24	Vancouver Millionaires	3	Ottawa Senators	4
March 28	Vancouver Millionaires	2	Ottawa Senators	3
March 31	Ottawa Senators	2	Vancouver Millionaires	3
April 4	Vancouver Millionaires	1	Ottawa Senators	2

Ottawa wins best-of-five series 3 games to 2 for the Stanley Cup

NHL Playoff Scoring Leader

Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points

Player	Team	GP	G	A	Pts
Cy Denneny	Ottawa Senators	7	4	2	6

NHL Awards

• O'Brien Trophy: Ottawa Senators

Debuts

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1920-21 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):

Last Games

The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1920-21 (listed with their last team):

Gallery

Mickey Roach sports the Tigers 1920-21 jersey.

Thomas McCarthy sports the Tigers 1920-21 jersey.

References

• Hockey Database
• NHL.com