1928–29 New York Americans season

1928–29 New York Americans
Division	2nd Canadian
1928–29 record	19–13–12
Goals for	53
Goals against	53
Team information
General manager	Tommy Gorman
Coach	Tommy Gorman
Captain	Billy Burch
Arena	Madison Square Garden
Team leaders
Goals	Billy Burch (11)
Assists	Billy Burch (5)
Points	Billy Burch (16)
Penalty minutes	Lionel Conacher (132)
Wins	Roy Worters (16)
Goals against average	Flat Walsh (0.23)

The 1928–29 New York Americans season was the team's 4th season. After finishing out of the playoffs in their first three seasons, the Americans finished 2nd in the Canadian Division to make the playoffs for the first time. They lost in the Quarter-finals to the New York Rangers in a total goal series by 1-0 with the winning goal being scored in double overtime.

Off-season

GM Tommy Gorman acquired several players in the off-season including Johnny Sheppard, Punch Broadbent and Babe Dye but most significantly, goalie Roy Worters from the Pittsburgh Pirates. Worters refused to report to the Pirates and was suspended by the team. He was traded for Joe Miller, however, NHL President Frank Calder initially wouldn't lift Worters team suspension for the start of the regular season.

Regular Season

With Roy Worters suspended, the Americans obtained the loan of Flat Walsh for the first three games of the season. Walsh did very well and went undefeated. Jake Forbes manned the nets for the fourth game against the Montreal Canadiens and won 4-3. Walsh played the next game and also won, 1-0 against the Ottawa Senators. The last substitute netminder was forward Normie Himes who had played 19 minutes of a game the season before without letting in a goal. Himes couldn't repeat his feat and lost 3-0 to the Toronto Maple Leafs on December 1, 1928.

Worters finally played on December 2, 1928 but lost to the Detroit Cougars 2-1. He then lost his next game, 4-1 to the Montreal Maroons and had Gorman doubting the goaltending change. But Gorman stuck with Worters and he produced dividends, reeling off five consecutive wins with three shutouts. This was just the start of a phenomenal season for Worters who led the Americans to second in their Division, despite the team having scored the fewest goals. Worters finished with a 1.15 goal against average, 13 shutouts and was the first goalie to win the Hart Memorial Trophy.

Final Standings

Canadian Division

	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts
Montreal Canadiens	44	22	7	15	71	43	59
New York Americans	44	19	13	12	53	53	50
Toronto Maple Leafs	44	21	18	5	85	69	47
Ottawa Senators	44	14	17	13	54	67	41
Montreal Maroons	44	15	20	9	67	65	39

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

Game Log

Regular Season Results
No.	R	Date	Score	Opponent	Record
1	T	November 15, 1928	0–0 OT	@ Ottawa Senators (1928–29)	0–0–1
2	T	November 18, 1928	1–1 OT	New York Rangers (1928–29)	0–0–2
3	W	November 22, 1928	3–0	Toronto Maple Leafs (1928–29)	1–0–2
4	W	November 24, 1928	4–3	@ Montreal Canadiens (1928–29)	2–0–2
5	W	November 27, 1928	1–0	Ottawa Senators (1928–29)	3–0–2
6	L	December 1, 1928	0–3	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1928–29)	3–1–2
7	L	December 2, 1928	1–2	@ Detroit Cougars (1928–29)	3–2–2
8	L	December 6, 1928	1–4	@ Montreal Maroons (1928–29)	3–3–2
9	W	December 9, 1928	2–1	Boston Bruins (1928–29)	4–3–2
10	W	December 11, 1928	3–0	@ Boston Bruins (1928–29)	5–3–2
11	W	December 13, 1928	2–1	Montreal Maroons (1928–29)	6–3–2
12	W	December 16, 1928	1–0	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1928–29)	7–3–2
13	W	December 18, 1928	2–0	Pittsburgh Pirates (1928–29)	8–3–2
14	L	December 20, 1928	0–1	@ Pittsburgh Pirates (1928–29)	8–4–2
15	L	December 23, 1928	0–2	Detroit Cougars (1928–29)	8–5–2
16	W	December 25, 1928	1–0	@ New York Rangers (1928–29)	9–5–2
17	L	December 27, 1928	0–2	Chicago Black Hawks (1928–29)	9–6–2
18	T	December 29, 1928	2–2 OT	@ Ottawa Senators (1928–29)	9–6–3
19	T	January 1, 1929	1–1 OT	Montreal Canadiens (1928–29)	9–6–4
20	T	January 6, 1929	0–0 OT	New York Rangers (1928–29)	9–6–5
21	W	January 10, 1929	2–0	Toronto Maple Leafs (1928–29)	10–6–5
22	W	January 12, 1929	1–0 OT	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1928–29)	11–6–5
23	T	January 15, 1929	1–1 OT	Ottawa Senators (1928–29)	11–6–6
24	T	January 17, 1929	0–0 OT	@ Montreal Maroons (1928–29)	11–6–7
25	L	January 20, 1929	0–2	Pittsburgh Pirates (1928–29)	11–7–7
26	W	January 24, 1929	2–0	Montreal Maroons (1928–29)	12–7–7
27	W	January 27, 1929	2–1	@ Detroit Cougars (1928–29)	13–7–7
28	L	January 29, 1929	0–1	Montreal Canadiens (1928–29)	13–8–7
29	L	January 31, 1929	1–2	@ New York Rangers (1928–29)	13–9–7
30	L	February 3, 1929	1–3	Toronto Maple Leafs (1928–29)	13–10–7
31	W	February 5, 1929	1–0	@ Boston Bruins (1928–29)	14–10–7
32	W	February 7, 1929	1–0	Chicago Black Hawks (1928–29)	15–10–7
33	W	February 10, 1929	1–0	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1928–29)	16–10–7
34	T	February 14, 1929	1–1 OT	Detroit Cougars (1928–29)	16–10–8
35	T	February 16, 1929	1–1 OT	@ Montreal Canadiens (1928–29)	16–10–9
36	L	February 19, 1929	0–1	Montreal Maroons (1928–29)	16–11–9
37	W	February 21, 1929	4–2	@ Pittsburgh Pirates (1928–29)	17–11–9
38	T	February 24, 1929	2–2 OT	Boston Bruins (1928–29)	17–11–10
39	T	February 28, 1929	0–0 OT	Montreal Canadiens (1928–29)	17–11–11
40	T	March 5, 1929	1–1 OT	@ Ottawa Senators (1928–29)	17–11–12
41	W	March 9, 1929	3–2	@ Montreal Maroons (1928–29)	18–11–12
42	W	March 12, 1929	2–1	Ottawa Senators (1928–29)	19–11–12
43	L	March 14, 1929	0–5	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1928–29)	19–12–12
44	L	March 16, 1929	1–4	@ Montreal Canadiens (1928–29)	19–13–12

Player Stats

Regular Season

Scoring

#	Player	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
5	Billy Burch	44	11	5	16	45
1, 6	Normie Himes	44	10	0	10	25
9	Johnny Sheppard	43	5	4	9	38
10	Harry Connor	43	6	2	8	83
11	Charley McVeigh	44	6	2	8	16
3	Lionel Conacher	44	5	2	7	132
12	Leo Reise	44	4	1	5	32
4	Joe Simpson	43	3	2	5	29
8	Punch Broadbent	44	1	4	5	59
2	Wilfred White	13	2	1	3	8
7	Babe Dye	42	1	0	1	17
2	Edmond Bouchard	6	0	0	0	2
2	Jesse Spring	23	0	0	0	0
1	Jake Forbes	1	0	0	0	0
1	Flat Walsh	4	0	0	0	0
1	Roy Worters	38	0	0	0	0

Goaltending

Player	MIN	GP	W	L	T	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SO
Roy Worters	2390	38	16	12	10	46	1.15			13
Flat Walsh	260	4	2	0	2	1	0.23			3
Jake Forbes	60	1	1	0	0	3	3.00			0
Normie Himes	60	1	0	1	0	3	3.00			0
Team:	2770	44	19	13	12	53	1.15			16

Playoffs

Scoring

Player	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
Punch Broadbent	2	0	0	0	2
Billy Burch	2	0	0	0	0
Lionel Conacher	2	0	0	0	10
Harry Connor	2	0	0	0	2
Babe Dye	2	0	0	0	0
Normie Himes	2	0	0	0	0
Charley McVeigh	2	0	0	0	2
Leo Reise	2	0	0	0	0
Johnny Sheppard	2	0	0	0	0
Joe Simpson	2	0	0	0	0
Wilfred White	2	0	0	0	2
Roy Worters	2	0	0	0	0

Goaltending

Player	MIN	GP	W	L	T	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SO
Roy Worters	150	2	0	1	1	1	0.40			1
Team:	150	2	0	1	1	1	0.40			1

Awards and Records

• Hart Memorial Trophy: Roy Worters

Transactions

• Purchase Johnny Sheppard from the Detroit Cougars on October 14, 1928.
• Purchase Punch Broadbent from the Ottawa Senators on October 15, 1928.
• Trade Charley McVeigh to the Chicago Black Hawks for Alex McKinnon on October 15, 1928.
• Purchase Babe Dye from Chicago on October 17, 1928.
• Trade Joe Miller to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Roy Worters on November 1, 1928.
• Trade Jesse Spring and loan of Edmond Bouchard to Pittsburgh for loan of Wilfred White on February 15, 1929.

Trivia

• No Americans recorded a hat trick this season.

Post-season Exhibition

The Americans went to Portland and Seattle to play two games each against the teams from the Pacific Coast League. They then moved to Vancouver for a series against the Montreal Canadiens and the Vancouver Lions.

• April 1 New York 2 Portland 1
• April 4 New York 4 Portland 3
• April 5 New York 6 Seattle 4
• April 8 Seattle 4 New York 1

Vancouver series

• April 6 Vancouver 2 Montreal 0
• April 8 Montreal 4 Vancouver 1
• April 10 Vancouver 3 Montreal 2
• April 12 New York 1 Vancouver 0
• April 15 New York 5 Montreal 3

See Also

• 1928–29 NHL season