1934-35 NHL season

The 1934-35 NHL season was the 18th season of the National Hockey League. Nine teams each played 48 games. The Montreal Maroons were the Stanley Cup winners as they swept the Toronto Maple Leafs in three games in the final series.

League Business

With financial difficulties continuing for the Senators, the franchise was transferred to St. Louis changing the nickname to St. Louis Eagles. The team was not profitable in St. Louis, either, partly due to the extended travel of being located in the Canadian Division. The Eagles would sell players Syd Howe and Ralph "Scotty" Bowman to Detroit for $50,000 to make ends meet.

Montreal Canadiens owners Leo Dandurand and Joseph Cattarinich would sell the team to Ernest Savard and Maurice Forget of the Canadian Arena Company.

Penalty shots were introduced this season. Armand Mondou of the Montreal Canadiens took the first one on November 10, 1934 against George Hainsworth of the Toronto Maple Leafs, resulting in a save by Hainsworth.

Training Camps

• Boston Bruins: Quebec City, Quebec
• Chicago Black Hawks: Champaign, Illinois
• Detroit Red Wings: Detroit, Michigan
• Montreal Canadiens: Saint John, New Brunswick
• Montreal Maroons: Winnipeg, Manitoba
• New York Americans: Oshawa, Ontario
• New York Rangers: Winnipeg, Manitoba
• St. Louis Eagles: Ottawa, Ontario
• Toronto Maple Leafs: Galt, Ontario

Regular Season

Ernie Kenny stops Des Roche from scoring on Lorne Chabot in the Eagles first game, November 8, 1934.

The St. Louis Eagles opened the NHL season at home, in the segregated seating of the St. Louis Arena, against the Chicago Black Hawks on November 8, 1934. Howie Morenz made his debut for Chicago during the game and assisted on the game's first goal, by Johnny Gottselig. Earl Roche scored the Eagles first goal, assisted by Ralph "Scotty" Bowman but the Black Hawks triumphed 3-1.

Charlie Conacher decided to play coy this year and Conn Smythe had trouble signing him. With Harvey Jackson out, it looked as though only Joe Primeau would be the only member of the Kid line in action for Toronto. However, he did finally sign. Conacher responded with his best season, scoring 36 goals and leading the league in scoring.

A bombshell trade was made with Howie Morenz, Lorne Chabot, and Marty Burke going to Chicago for Leroy Goldsworthy, Roger Jenkins, and Lionel Conacher. The Canadiens then traded Lionel Conacher and Herb Cain to the Maroons for Nels Crutchfield. The trades did not help and the Canadiens lost some fans.

Meanwhile, Tommy Gorman bought a share of the Montreal Maroons from James Strachan and when he picked up Alex Connell, he had another winner. Although Morenz wasn't his old self, he did help Chicago, who finished second in the American Division, just falling short of Boston by only one point.

During the third period of the December 11, 1934 match between the Maroons and the Boston Bruins, Nels Stewart and Lloyd Klein were given match penalties for a stick-swinging fight. Boston's Stewart received a 1 game suspension while Klein got 3 games.

The playoffs continued to elude the New York Americans, but they added two important additions, left wing Dave "Sweeney" Schriner and right wing Lorne Carr. Teamed with centre Art Chapman, the Americans were on the way up.

Numerous Montreal Canadiens players wore high numbers for the first time in NHL history. Joe Lamb was the first to wear #99 and Roger Jenkins wore #88.

Final Standings

Canadian Division

	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts
Toronto Maple Leafs	48	30	14	4	157	111	64
Montreal Maroons	48	24	19	5	123	92	53
Montreal Canadiens	48	19	23	6	110	145	44
New York Americans	48	12	27	9	100	142	33
St. Louis Eagles	48	11	31	6	86	144	28

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.

American Division

	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
Boston Bruins	48	26	16	6	129	112	58
Chicago Black Hawks	48	26	17	5	118	88	57
New York Rangers	48	22	20	6	137	139	50
Detroit Red Wings	48	19	22	7	127	114	45

Scoring Leaders

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

Player	Team	GP	G	A	PTS	PIM
Charlie Conacher	Toronto Maple Leafs	47	36	21	57	24
Syd Howe	St. Louis Eagles/Detroit Red Wings	50	22	25	47	34
Larry Aurie	Detroit Red Wings	48	17	29	46	24
Frank Boucher	New York Rangers	48	13	32	45	2
Busher Jackson	Toronto Maple Leafs	42	22	22	44	27

Leading Goaltenders

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

Player	Team	GP	W	L	T	Mins	GA	SO	GAA
Lorne Chabot	Chicago Black Hawks	48	26	17	5	2940	88	8	1.80
Alec Connell	Montreal Maroons	48	24	19	5	2970	92	9	1.86
Normie Smith	Detroit Red Wings	25	12	11	2	1550	52	2	2.01
George Hainsworth	Toronto Maple Leafs	48	30	14	4	2957	111	8	2.25
Tiny Thompson	Boston Bruins	48	26	16	6	2970	112	8	2.26
Dave Kerr	New York Rangers	37	19	12	6	2290	94	4	2.46

Stanley Cup Playoffs

Playoff Bracket

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Finals

C1

Toronto Maple Leafs

3

A1

Boston Bruins

1

C1

Toronto Maple Leafs

0

C2

Montreal Maroons

3

C2

Montreal Maroons

1G

A2

Chicago Black Hawks

0G

C2

Montreal Maroons

5G

A3

New York Rangers

4G

C3

Montreal Canadiens

5G

A3

New York Rangers

6G

The most pulsating series was that of Chicago Black Hawks and the Montreal Maroons. Chicago coach Clem Loughlin said that the team who won the series very likely would win the Stanley Cup. Neither team scored after two regulation games. In the overtime, Dave Trottier was cut and retired for stitches. He'd hardly arrived in the dressing room when Baldy Northcott scored the goal that won the series for the Maroons.

New York Rangers 6 Goals, Montreal Canadiens 5 Goals

Nels Crutchfield stick-swinging at Bill Cook, Game 1 of the 1935 Quarter-finals, March 24, 1935.

In the first round the New York Rangers met the Montreal Canadiens, who had placed third in the Canadian Division. The Rangers won the two-games total-goals series 6-5 (2-1, 4-4).

Game 1 of the Quarter-finals at Madison Square Garden on March 24, 1935, is remembered for its high level of physicality. In one sequence, an injured Earl Seibert of the Rangers was carried off the ice. Later, the Canadiens' Nels Crutchfield swung his stick into the head of Rangers captain Bill Cook. As a result, Cook collapsed to the ice and a bench-clearing brawl ensued which police had to end. Crutchfield was given a match penalty with no substitution. The Canadiens played for thirteen minutes one man short and two minutes with two men short. Bill Cook returned wearing a helmet over his bandages to score the second Rangers goal.

In Game 2, the Canadiens were down 4–1 in the game and tied it with three straight goals in the third. The Canadiens could not get another goal to tie the series.

#	Date	Visitor	Score	Home	Record
1	March 24	Montreal Canadiens	1-2	New York Rangers	1-2
2	March 26	New York Rangers	4-4	Montreal Canadiens	6-5

Toronto Maple Leafs 3, Boston Bruins 1

In a repeat of two years before, the league's two best teams met in the second round of the playoffs, both teams having received byes in the first round. Although two games went into overtime, the Leafs had an easier time beating the Bruins than in the 1933 playoffs and held them to just two goals in the series.

Game 1 was a close checking affair with the only goal scored by Dit Clapper at 13:26 of the second OT period giving the Bruins their only win of the series and Tiny Thompson the shutout.

Game 2 was scoreless until goals from Charlie Conacher and Busher Jackson in the third period carried the Leafs to a 2-0 victory and tied the series 1-1.

Game 3 saw the Leafs score goals in each period on goals by Bill Thoms, Nick Metz and Busher Jackson to lead the Leafs to a 3-0 win. George Hainsworth posted his second shutout of the series.

Game 4 saw the Bruins lead for the first time in the series on a first period goal by Jack Beattie. With a little over two minutes left in the game, the Leafs Baldy Cotton scored with the Bruins Babe Siebert in the box, but the goal was disallowed as Cotton was in the crease. Arguments ensued and a bench-clearing brawl broke out with Siebert leaving the penalty box to join in. When order was restored, the Leafs had a 4 on 3 Power play and at 18:11, "Pep" Kelly tied it up. Kelly then took a late penalty and overtime started with the teams playing 3 men aside. In overtime, once Kelly's penalty was served, he jumped out of the box, retrieved the puck behind the Bruins next, wheeled out front and scored at 1:36 to win the series for the Leafs. The Leafs would lose the Stanley Cup Finals to the Montreal Maroons.

#	Date	Visitor	Score	Home	Record
1	March 23	Toronto Maple Leafs	0-1 (2OT)	Boston Bruins	0-1
2	March 26	Toronto	2-0	Boston Bruins	1-1
3	March 28	Boston Bruins	0-3	Toronto	1-2
4	March 30	Boston Bruins	1-2 (OT)	Toronto	1-3

Finals

This was the first all-Canadian Final since the Maroons defeated the Victoria Cougars in the 1926 Stanley Cup Finals. Maroons goaltender Alex Connell allowed just four goals in the three games. Dave Trottier was the overtime hero in Game 1 while Baldy Northcott scored the Cup winning goal and led all playoff scorers with 5 points.

Maroons manager-coach Tommy Gorman became the only coach to win successive Stanley Cup titles with two different teams after winning with the Chicago Black Hawks in the 1934 Final.

see 1935 Stanley Cup Finals

NHL Awards

1934-35 NHL Awards
O'Brien Trophy:	Toronto Maple Leafs
Prince of Wales Trophy:	Boston Bruins
Calder Memorial Trophy:	Sweeney Schriner, New York Americans
Hart Memorial Trophy:	Eddie Shore, Boston Bruins
Lady Byng Memorial Trophy:	Frank Boucher, New York Rangers
Vezina Trophy:	Lorne Chabot, Chicago Black Hawks

All-Star Teams

First Team	Position	Second Team
Lorne Chabot, Chicago Black Hawks	G	Tiny Thompson, Boston Bruins
Eddie Shore, Boston Bruins	D	Cy Wentworth, Montreal Maroons
Earl Seibert, New York Rangers	D	Art Coulter, Chicago Black Hawks
Frank Boucher, New York Rangers	C	Cooney Weiland, Detroit Red Wings
Charlie Conacher, Toronto Maple Leafs	RW	Dit Clapper, Boston Bruins
Busher Jackson, Toronto Maple Leafs	LW	Aurel Joliat, Montreal Canadiens
Lester Patrick, New York Rangers	Coach	Dick Irvin, Toronto Maple Leafs

Debuts

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1934-35 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):

• Tommy Anderson, Detroit Red Wings
• Bucko McDonald, Detroit Red Wings
• Sweeney Schriner, New York Americans
• Lynn Patrick, New York Rangers
• Toe Blake, Montreal Maroons
• Bill Cowley, St. Louis Eagles
• Art Jackson, Toronto Maple Leafs
• Bob Davidson, Toronto Maple Leafs
• Nick Metz, Toronto Maple Leafs

Last Games

The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1934-35 (listed with their last team):

• John Ross Roach, Detroit Red Wings
• Albert Leduc, Montreal Canadiens
• Norman Gainor, Montreal Maroons
• Alex Smith, New York Americans
• Charley McVeigh, New York Americans
• Normie Himes, New York Americans

Gallery

Bruins Eddie Shore (#2), Bert McInenly, goalie Tiny Thompson hold off the Rangers, December 30, 1934.

Bun Cook scores on Alec Connell, January 8, 1935.

Rangers Bert Connelly trips over Americans Al Murray on January 27, 1935.

Ad for HNIC broadcasts

See Also

• List of Stanley Cup champions

References

• Hockey Database
• NHL.com