1937-38 NHL season

The 1937-38 NHL season was the 21st season of the National Hockey League. Eight teams each played 48 games. The Chicago Black Hawks were the Stanley Cup winners as they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs three games to one in the final series.

Regular Season

Bill Dwyer could not come up with the capital required to retain his team and the NHL took full control of the New York Americans.

Dit Clapper scores, Howie Morenz Memorial Game, November 2, 1937.

The Howie Morenz Memorial Game, the NHL's second all-star game, was played November 2, 1937 and raised over $11,447, which, added to other contributions, established a fund of over $20,000 for the Morenz family. Prior to the start of the game, Howie Morenz's uniform and playing kit was auctioned and Joseph Cattarinich put down the winning bid of $500. The uniform was presented to Howie Morenz Jr. The NHL All-stars defeated a combined team of Canadiens and Maroons players 6-5.

Charlie Conacher was named captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and he had a big weekend at the expense of Chicago November 13 with a hat trick in a 7-3 win. He then scored 2 goals in a 3-3 tie. However, The Big Bomber ran into misfortune once more on November 18th in Montreal against the Canadiens when he dislocated his shoulder. The cycle of injuries had a cumulative effect on Conacher's nervous and physical condition and his doctor told him to retire from hockey. He did retire for the rest of the season, but would play again the next season, but was forever gone from the Leafs.

The New York Rangers lost their star center Neil Colville for a few games as the result of some horseplay that must have infuriated Lester Patrick. Defenceman Joe Cooper was pursuing a fad of slicing off neckties from teammates using a penknife. Colville threw up his hand only to receive a gash that required 11 stitches to close.

The New York Americans, with Ching Johnson and Hap Day to relieve Joe Jerwa and Al Murray on defence, were doing much better than usual. Earl Robertson, their new goaltender, was leading the Canadian Division in goaltending and ended up doing so at season's end. The Amerks also had Sweeney Schriner and Nels Stewart contributing in a nice way to the offence.

The Montreal Maroons, coached at first by King Clancy, settled into last place and president and general manager Tommy Gorman decided he'd take over as coach. He did even worse and the fans stayed away. Although the team did badly, one highlight was an 11-7 win over their rivals, the Canadiens, and Baldy Northcott had a hat trick in the game. There seemed to be nothing Gorman could do to revitalize the team and at one stretch the team lost 8 straight games. On March 17th, 1938, the Maroons played their last game against their rivals, the Canadiens. Russ Blinco became the first player to wear glasses during an NHL game.

Detroit was the shockingly bad team of the American Division. After winning the Stanley Cup in 1937, they were reclining in the cellar of the Division. They had one bright moment when Carl Liscombe set a record for the fastest hat trick to this time (since broken by Bill Mosienko). Liscombe scored three goals in 1 minute and 52 seconds in a 5-1 win over Chicago.

On March 17th, 1938, Nels Stewart scored his 300th National Hockey League goal in a 5-3 loss to the Rangers.

Final Standings

Canadian Division

	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts
Toronto Maple Leafs	48	24	15	9	151	127	57
New York Americans	48	19	18	11	110	111	49
Montreal Canadiens	48	18	17	13	123	128	49
Montreal Maroons	48	12	30	6	101	149	30

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	30	11	7	142	89	67
New York Rangers	48	27	15	6	149	96	60
Chicago Black Hawks	48	14	25	9	97	139	37
Detroit Red Wings	48	12	25	11	99	133	35

Scoring Leaders

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

PLAYER	TEAM	GP	G	A	PTS	PIM
Gord Drillon	Toronto Maple Leafs	48	26	26	52	4
Syl Apps	Toronto Maple Leafs	47	21	29	50	9
Paul Thompson	Chicago Black Hawks	48	22	22	44	14
Georges Mantha	Montreal Canadiens	47	23	19	42	12
Cecil Dillon	New York Rangers	48	21	18	39	6
Bill Cowley	Boston Bruins	48	17	22	39	8

Leading Goaltenders

Note: GP = Games played; Mins – Minutes played; GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; SO = Shutouts

Player	Team	GP	Mins	GA	W	L	T	SO	GAA
Tiny Thompson	Boston Bruins	48	2970	89	30	11	7	7	1.80
Dave Kerr	New York Rangers	48	2960	96	27	15	6	8	1.96
Earl Robertson	New York Americans	48	3000	111	19	18	11	6	2.22
Wilf Cude	Montreal Canadiens	48	2990	126	18	17	12	3	2.53
Turk Broda	Toronto Maple Leafs	48	2980	127	24	15	9	6	2.56
Normie Smith	Detroit Red Wings	47	2930	130	11	25	11	3	2.66
Mike Karakas	Chicago Black Hawks	48	2980	139	14	25	9	1	2.80
Bill Beveridge	Montreal Maroons	48	2980	149	12	30	6	2	3.00

Stanley Cup Playoffs

The Cinderella story of the century was the Chicago Black Hawks, who would barely made the playoffs, but proceeded to defeat the Canadiens, the Americans and the Maple Leafs to win the Cup with the record lowest regular-season winning percentage in the NHL.

Playoff Bracket

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Finals

C1

Toronto Maple Leafs

3

A1

Boston Bruins

0

C1

Toronto Maple Leafs

1

A3

Chicago Black Hawks

3

C2

New York Americans

2

A2

New York Rangers

1

C2

New York Americans

1

A3

Chicago Black Hawks

2

C3

Montreal Canadiens

1

A3

Chicago Black Hawks

2

Quarter-Finals

The New York Americans stunned the New York Rangers as Lorne Carr scored the winner in overtime in the third and deciding game.

The Canadiens beat the Hawks in game one of the quarterfinal, as Toe Blake had the hat trick. But Mike Karakas shut out the Canadiens in the second game and even though Georges Mantha appeared to win the game with a lucky goal in game three, Earl Seibert kept the Hawks from losing with a goal late in the game, and then the Hawks won the series in overtime.

Semi-Finals

In an upset, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat Boston in the Series A Semi-Finals.

In the Series B Semi-Finals, it was Chicago and the New York Americans, who beat Chicago in game one 3-1. Game two was a great goaltenders battle between Mike Karakas and Earl Robertson. It appeared that the Americans were headed to their first Stanley Cup final when Nels Stewart scored with seconds left in the game, but referee Clarence Campbell disallowed the goal, saying Eddie Wiseman was in the goal crease. Cully Dahlstrom scored the goal that saved the Black Hawks. In New York, the deciding game saw Alex Levinsky of Chicago score the go-ahead goal, but the red light didn't go on. Investigation revealed that fans were holding the goal judge's hand so he could not signal the goal. Although the Amerks came close, they were unable to tie the score and the Black Hawks were in the finals.

Finals

see 1938 Stanley Cup Finals

NHL Awards

O'Brien Trophy:	Toronto Maple Leafs
Prince of Wales Trophy:	Boston Bruins
Calder Memorial Trophy:	Cully Dahlstrom, Chicago Black Hawks
Hart Memorial Trophy:	Eddie Shore, Boston Bruins
Lady Byng Memorial Trophy:	Gordie Drillon, Toronto Maple Leafs
Vezina Trophy:	Tiny Thompson, Boston Bruins

All-Star Teams

1937-38 First Team NHL All-Stars.

First Team	Position	Second Team
Tiny Thompson, Boston Bruins	G	Dave Kerr, New York Rangers
Eddie Shore, Boston Bruins	D	Art Coulter, New York Rangers
Babe Siebert, Montreal Canadiens	D	Earl Seibert, Chicago Black Hawks
Bill Cowley, Boston Bruins	C	Syl Apps, Toronto Maple Leafs
Cecil Dillon, New York Rangers Gordie Drillon, Toronto Maple Leafs (tie)	RW
Paul Thompson, Chicago Black Hawks	LW	Toe Blake, Montreal Canadiens
Lester Patrick, New York Rangers	Coach	Art Ross, Boston Bruins

Debuts

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1937-38 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):

• Red Hamill, Boston Bruins
• Mel Hill, Boston Bruins
• Jack Crawford, Boston Bruins
• Cully Dahlstrom, Chicago Black Hawks
• Carl Liscombe, Detroit Red Wings
• Dutch Hiller, New York Rangers
• Murph Chamberlain, Toronto Maple Leafs

Last Games

The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1937-38 (listed with their last team):

• Carl Voss, Chicago Black Hawks
• Joe Lamb, Detroit Red Wings
• Pit Lepine, Montreal Canadiens
• Aurel Joliat, Montreal Canadiens
• Marty Burke, Montreal Canadiens
• Tom Cook, Montreal Maroons
• Al Shields, Montreal Maroons
• Hap Day, New York Americans
• Hap Emms, New York Americans
• Ching Johnson, New York Americans
• Butch Keeling, New York Rangers

1938 Detroit Red Wings–Montreal Canadiens European tour

Normie Himes makes a save during the third game in Paris, France, April 29, 1938.

In April and May 1938, the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens played a nine-game exhibition series in England and France. It was the first time in the history of the NHL that its teams played games in Europe. The Canadiens won the series with a record of 5–3–1.

Trivia

• As of 2020, this was the last season that a Toronto Maple Leafs player led the league in scoring.

Gallery

Eddie Shore, Dit Clapper and Tiny Thompson at the Howie Morenz Memorial Game, November 2, 1937.

Action from the Howie Morenz Memorial Game which was emblazoned on the sweaters.

Goalie Earl Robertson defends against #15 Joffre Desilets, Canadiens vs NY Americans, December 11, 1937.

Earl Robertson clears the puck while Ching Johnson guards the net against the Bruins, December 12, 1937.

Rangers Dave Kerr stops John Gallagher. #9 Lynn Patrick, #3 Ott Heller, #11 Sweeney Schriner, #2 Art Coulter on December 16, 1937.

Thompson defends the net while #7 Weiland, #9 Goldsworthy assist against the Canadiens, February 24, 1938.

Mike Karakas makes a save, Quarter-finals Game 1, Canadiens vs Black Hawks, March 22, 1938.

A scrum from the deciding game of the 1938 Semi-finals won by the Black Hawks over the Americans 3-2, April 3, 1938. #6 is Nels Stewart.

Video

A minute worth of footage from the February 20, 1938 game won 3-2 by the Bruins over the New York Rangers. Fascinating footage including the Kraut Line in action, Milt Schmidt getting into a scrap, Eddie Shore with an open ice hit and a goal by Dit Clapper, assisted by Gord Pettinger on the Rangers Dave Kerr which would tie the game 2-2 at the 5:02 mark of the 3rd period.

Boston Bruins win the National Ice Hockey League by 3-2 against New York Ranger i...HD Stock Footage

Action from Game 1 of the 1938 Quarter-finals Rangers-Americans game on March 22, 1938. Two different views of a goal by Jack Beattie which tied the game in the second period are shown. The Americans won 2-1 in double overtime on a goal by John Sorrell.

The New York Americans win an ice hockey match against the New York Rangers by 2-...HD Stock Footage

See Also

• List of Stanley Cup champions
• National Hockey League All-Star Game

References

• Hockey Database
• NHL.com

From NHL Wiki, a Wikia wiki.