1940–41 Chicago Black Hawks season

1940–41 Chicago Black Hawks
Division	5th NHL
1940–41 record	16–25–7
Home record	11–10–3
Road record	5–15–4
Goals for	112
Goals against	139
Team information
General manager	Frederic McLaughlin
Coach	Paul Thompson
Captain	Earl Siebert
Arena	Chicago Stadium
Team leaders
Goals	George Allen (14)
Assists	Doug Bentley (20)
Points	Bill Thoms (32)
Penalty minutes	Joe Cooper (66)
Wins	Sam LoPresti (9)
Goals against average	Paul Goodman (2.50)

The 1940–41 Chicago Black Hawks season was the team's 15th season in the NHL. The Black Hawks finished in 5th place and lost in the Semi-finals to the Detroit Red Wings 2 games to 0.

Regular Season

Bill Mosienko and Max Bentley wear the "number" second jerseys against the Rangers, February 10, 1946.

For the first time in their history, Chicago added a second jersey for use when playing teams wearing dark jerseys. The second jersey was white, with black numbers on both the front and back, much like the Boston Bruins added in the 1935-36 season. Red shoulder yolks, thin stripes on the arms and a small Indian head on the left arm completed the jersey. With some slights changes, the Black Hawks would use these second jerseys until 1950-51 when their white jerseys adopted the logo on the front.

Black Hawks sleeve logo.

Max Bentley joined his brother Doug on the team and with Bill Thoms formed the "Pony Line" one of the NHL's most dominate lines of the 1940's.

The Black Hawks had a rough regular season in 1940–41, slipping to a 16–25–7 record, good for 39 points and 5th place in the NHL, and a 2nd straight playoff berth. The Hawks would score 112 goals, the 2nd fewest in the 7 team league, and they would allow 139 goals, which was the 3rd most.

Brothers Colville, Patrick, Bentley and Carse before a game on December 1, 1940.

Bill Thoms led the club in scoring with 32 points, while George Allen would get a team high 14 goals, and Doug Bentley would lead the club with 20 assists. Team captain Earl Siebert anchored the blueline, earning 20 points and a Second Team All-Star berth. Fellow defenceman Joe Cooper had a club high 66 penalty minutes.

In goal, Paul Goodman started the season, however, after a 7–10–4 start and a 2.50 GAA, he was replaced by Sam LoPresti. LoPresti would go on to record a 9–15–3 record and a GAA of 3.02.

NHL history was made on December 1, 1940 in a game between the New York Rangers and Chicago Black Hawks as four sets of brothers played. Mac and Neil Colville, Lynn and Muzz Patrick, Max and Doug Bentley, Bill and Bob Carse all played as Chicago won 4-1. Max Bentley scored his first NHL goal and Doug Bentley picked up an assist, while Bill Carse also scored.

Final Standings

National Hockey League

	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA
Boston Bruins	48	27	8	13	67	168	102
Toronto Maple Leafs	48	28	14	6	62	145	99
Detroit Red Wings	48	21	16	11	53	112	102
New York Rangers	48	21	19	8	50	143	125
Chicago Black Hawks	48	16	25	7	39	112	139
Montreal Canadiens	48	16	26	6	38	121	147
New York Americans	48	8	29	11	27	99	186

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

Game Log

#	Date	Visitor	Score	Home	Record	Pts
1	November 7	New York Americans	1–0	Chicago Black Hawks	0–1–0	0
2	November 10	Chicago Black Hawks	3–1	Montreal Canadiens	1–1–0	2
3	November 12	Chicago Black Hawks	6–5	Boston Bruins	2–1–0	4
4	November 14	Chicago Black Hawks	2–2	New York Americans	2–1–1	5
5	November 17	Montreal Canadiens	4–4	Chicago Black Hawks	2–1–2	6
6	November 21	Boston Bruins	2–0	Chicago Black Hawks	2–2–2	6
7	November 23	Chicago Black Hawks	1–0	Toronto Maple Leafs	3–2–2	8
8	November 24	Toronto Maple Leafs	4–2	Chicago Black Hawks	3–3–2	8
9	November 29	Chicago Black Hawks	1–3	Detroit Red Wings	3–4–2	8
10	December 1	New York Rangers	1–4	Chicago Black Hawks	4–4–2	10
11	December 5	Detroit Red Wings	5–1	Chicago Black Hawks	4–5–2	10
12	December 8	Boston Bruins	2–3	Chicago Black Hawks	5–5–2	12
13	December 12	Chicago Black Hawks	2–2	New York Americans	5–5–3	13
14	December 14	Chicago Black Hawks	1–2	Toronto Maple Leafs	5–6–3	13
15	December 15	Toronto Maple Leafs	4–1	Chicago Black Hawks	5–7–3	13
16	December 19	Montreal Canadiens	0–2	Chicago Black Hawks	6–7–3	15
17	December 22	New York Rangers	1–3	Chicago Black Hawks	7–7–3	17
18	December 25	Chicago Black Hawks	3–3	New York Rangers	7–7–4	18
19	December 26	Chicago Black Hawks	5–7	Montreal Canadiens	7–8–4	18
20	December 29	Chicago Black Hawks	1–2	Detroit Red Wings	7–9–4	18
21	January 1	Detroit Red Wings	4–1	Chicago Black Hawks	7–10–4	18
22	January 5	Chicago Black Hawks	2–2	Boston Bruins	7–10–5	19
23	January 7	Chicago Black Hawks	3–2	New York Rangers	8–10–5	21
24	January 9	Montreal Canadiens	1–3	Chicago Black Hawks	9–10–5	23
25	January 12	Detroit Red Wings	1–2	Chicago Black Hawks	10–10–5	25
26	January 16	Chicago Black Hawks	1–5	Montreal Canadiens	10–11–5	25
27	January 19	Boston Bruins	4–4	Chicago Black Hawks	10–11–6	26
28	January 23	New York Americans	1–3	Chicago Black Hawks	11–11–6	28
29	January 26	New York Rangers	1–4	Chicago Black Hawks	12–11–6	30
30	January 28	Chicago Black Hawks	2–3	Boston Bruins	12–12–6	30
31	January 30	Chicago Black Hawks	4–5	New York Americans	12–13–6	30
32	February 1	Chicago Black Hawks	1–3	Toronto Maple Leafs	12–14–6	30
33	February 2	Toronto Maple Leafs	1–4	Chicago Black Hawks	13–14–6	32
34	February 6	Chicago Black Hawks	2–6	New York Rangers	13–15–6	32
35	February 9	New York Rangers	2–1	Chicago Black Hawks	13–16–6	32
36	February 13	Montreal Canadiens	6–5	Chicago Black Hawks	13–17–6	32
37	February 14	Chicago Black Hawks	1–2	Detroit Red Wings	13–18–6	32
38	February 16	New York Americans	4–5	Chicago Black Hawks	14–18–6	34
39	February 20	Chicago Black Hawks	4–2	New York Americans	15–18–6	36
40	February 22	Chicago Black Hawks	3–7	Montreal Canadiens	15–19–6	36
41	February 23	Chicago Black Hawks	1–4	New York Rangers	15–20–6	36
42	February 27	Detroit Red Wings	0–1	Chicago Black Hawks	16–20–6	38
43	March 2	Boston Bruins	4–3	Chicago Black Hawks	16–21–6	38
44	March 4	Chicago Black Hawks	2–3	Boston Bruins	16–22–6	38
45	March 9	New York Americans	2–2	Chicago Black Hawks	16–22–7	39
46	March 13	Chicago Black Hawks	2–3	Detroit Red Wings	16–23–7	39
47	March 15	Chicago Black Hawks	1–7	Toronto Maple Leafs	16–24–7	39
48	March 16	Toronto Maple Leafs	3–0	Chicago Black Hawks	16–25–7	39

Playoffs

Chicago would play the 6th place team, the Montreal Canadiens in a best of 3 series in the 1st round of the playoffs, and in a close fought series, with all 3 games being decided by a goal, the Black Hawks would defeat the Canadiens and earn a Semi-finals matchup against the Detroit Red Wings. The Red Wings, who finished 14 points ahead of Chicago, would sweep the Black Hawks in 2 games with Gus Giesebrecht scoring the series winning goal in overtime in Game 2.

Chicago Black Hawks 2, Montreal Canadiens 1

#	Date	Visitor	Score	Home	Record
1	March 20	Montreal Canadiens	1–2	Chicago Black Hawks	1–0
2	March 22	Chicago Black Hawks	3–4 (OT)	Montreal Canadiens	1–1
3	March 25	Montreal Canadiens	2–3	Chicago Black Hawks	2–1

Detroit Red Wings 2, Chicago Black Hawks 0

#	Date	Visitor	Score	Home	Record
1	March 27	Chicago Black Hawks	1–3	Detroit Red Wings	0–1
2	March 30	Detroit Red Wings	2–1 (OT)	Chicago Black Hawks	0–2

Player Stats

Scoring Leaders

#	Player	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
12	Bill Thoms	47	13	19	32	8
6	George Allen	44	14	17	31	22
14	Doug Bentley	46	8	20	28	12
15	Cully Dahlstrom	40	11	14	25	6
19	John Chad	44	7	18	25	16
10	Phil Hergesheimer	47	8	16	24	9
9	Bill Carse	30	5	15	20	12
17	Earl Seibert	44	3	17	20	52
16	Bob Carse	42	9	9	18	9
5	Mush March	43	8	9	17	16
18	Max Bentley	36	7	10	17	6
8	Joe Cooper	40	5	5	10	66
3	Pep Kelly	21	5	3	8	7

Goaltending

Player	GP	TOI	W	L	T	GA	SO	GAA
Paul Goodman	21	1320	7	10	4	55	2	2.50
Sam LoPresti	27	1670	9	15	3	84	1	3.02

Playoff Stats

Scoring Leaders

Player	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
Cully Dahlstrom	5	3	3	6	2
Mush March	4	2	3	5	0
George Allen	5	2	2	4	10
Max Bentley	4	1	3	4	2
Doug Bentley	5	1	1	2	4

Goaltending

Player	GP	TOI	W	L	GA	SO	GAA
Sam LoPresti	5	343	2	3	12	0	2.10

Awards and Records

• Earl Seibert, Defense, NHL Second Team All-Star

Gallery

Joe Cooper ties up Flash Hollett, November 12, 1940.

Goalies Sam LoPresti and Dave Kerr watch several fights, January 1941.

Dave Kerr foils #14 Doug Bentley, February 9, 1941.

Hawks #11 Jack Portland, goalie Paul Goodman and #8 Joe Cooper defend against the Bruins in the 1940-41 season.

See Also

• 1940–41 NHL season

References

• SHRP Sports
• The Internet Hockey Database
• National Hockey League Guide & Record Book 2007