1943-44 NHL season

The 1943-44 NHL season was the 27th season of the National Hockey League. Six teams played 50 games each.

Regular Season

In memory of Frank Calder, the former NHL President who died in 1943, the league's Board of Governors donated the Calder Memorial Trophy to be awarded to the NHL's top rookie.

Bill Cowley's 1.97 points per game in 1943-44 was a record for nearly 40 years.

Bill Cowley had a huge lead in the scoring race and was scoring at a 2 points a game clip heading into Christmas. The press began to talk of a 100 point season until his shoulder was separated on a hit by Jack McLean of the Toronto Maple Leafs on January 8, 1944. He missed 11 games, returned briefly, then missed 3 more to a knee injury. He picked up his torrid scoring pace for the remainder of the season but limited to 36 (of 50) games, he finished 7th in league scoring with 71 points. His 1.97 points per game was an NHL record until broken by Wayne Gretzky in 1980-81.

The Art Ross Trophy was taken by teammate Herb Cain whose 82 points was, at the time, a league record. Art Jackson also finished in the top 10 of league scoring with 69 points. The loss of Frank Brimsek to war service saw the Bruins acquire Bert Gardiner to tend the net. Gardiner would struggle mightily and have the worst goal against average of any starting goalie in Bruins history, 5.17. He retired from pro hockey after the season ended. Gardiner did record an assist on February 29, 1944 versus the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Herb Cain won the scoring title in 1943-44 with a record 82 points.

The Montreal Canadiens had turned the corner and now Tommy Gorman and Dick Irvin had a team to make the fans happy. Bill Durnan solved the goaltending woes, but not before Gorman had all kinds of problems signing him. Durnan knew his worth, and wanted a handsome sum. Just before the first game, Gorman agreed to his contract demands. He was worth every penny, as he ran away with the Vezina Trophy and the Canadiens lost only five games all year, finishing first by a wide margin. The new and more familiar "Punch Line" of Elmer Lach, Toe Blake, and Maurice Richard dominated the offence and Richard had 32 goals. He replaced Joe Benoit, who did his duty to his country by joining the armed forces. Richard, in fact, was dubbed by teammate Ray Getliffe the nickname that would be his legend "The Rocket".

When Paul Bibeault came back from the Army, he found his job lost to the best goaltender in the NHL, Bill Durnan. Montreal agreed to loan him to Toronto, where he played very well, leading the Leafs to third place and leading the NHL with five shutouts. Gus Bodnar, a crack centre, was the top rookie, and for the first time, a team produced Calder Trophy winners in consecutive years. In fact, Bodnar scored the fastest goal by a rookie in his very first game. It took him only 15 seconds to score on Ken McAuley, Ranger goaltender, in a 5-2 win over the war-weakened Rangers.

The Rangers had plunged to last place the previous year and Lester Patrick was so discouraged that he wanted to suspend operations for the year. This year the Rangers lost Clint Smith, Lynn Patrick, Phil Watson and Alf Pike. The most unbelievably inept team iced for the Rangers this year. Things were so desperate that coach Frank Boucher had to come out of retirement to play some. But the Rangers set a modern day record of 6.20 goals against, giving up 310 goals in 50 games. One night when Lester Patrick went behind the bench to coach the team with Frank Boucher attending his brother's funeral, the Rangers were demolished 15-0 by Detroit as the Red Wings set a modern day record of most goals by a team in a single game. It was a horrifying experience for Patrick. Only a week later Syd Howe set a modern day record of 6 goals in a game in a 12-2 conquest of the hapless Rangers. The Rangers won only 6 games all year and finished a distant last, 23 points behind fifth-place Boston.

Chicago started with sub-par goaltending, but then president and general manager Bill Tobin decided to bring back Mike Karakas, who had been demoted to the minors in 1939-40 for his lackluster play. Karakas was just what the Black Hawks needed, as he played well and recorded three shutouts and got the team into the playoffs.

Rule Changes

For the start of this season, the NHL added the centre red line, which meant players could no longer make two-line passes out of their own end. This was done to try to add more offence to the game as scoring was down and fans were turning away. Oddly enough, 62 years later, the red line was removed for the exact same reasons it was added. Both times critics said, "You are going to kill the game."

Final Standings

National Hockey League

	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA	PIM
Montreal Canadiens	50	38	5	7	83	234	109	557
Detroit Red Wings	50	26	18	6	58	214	177	374
Toronto Maple Leafs	50	23	23	4	50	214	174	303
Chicago Black Hawks	50	22	23	5	49	178	187	240
Boston Bruins	50	19	26	5	43	223	268	207
New York Rangers	50	6	39	5	17	162	310	253

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.

Scoring Leaders

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

Player	Team	GP	G	A	PTS	PIM
Herb Cain	Boston Bruins	48	36	46	82	4
Doug Bentley	Chicago Black Hawks	50	38	39	77	22
Lorne Carr	Toronto Maple Leafs	50	36	38	74	9
Carl Liscombe	Detroit Red Wings	50	36	37	73	17
Elmer Lach	Montreal Canadiens	48	24	48	72	23
Clint Smith	Chicago Black Hawks	50	23	49	72	4
Bill Cowley	Boston Bruins	36	30	41	71	12

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	GAA	W	L	T	SO
Bill Durnan	Montreal Canadiens	50	3000	109	2.18	32	5	7	2
Paul Bibeault	Toronto Maple Leafs	29	1740	87	3.00	13	14	2	5
Mike Karakas	Chicago Black Hawks	26	1560	79	3.04	12	9	5	3
Connie Dion	Detroit Red Wings	26	1560	80	3.08	17	7	2	1
Jimmy Franks	Detroit Red Wings	17	1020	69	4.06	6	8	3	1
Benny Grant	Toronto Maple Leafs	20	1200	83	4.15	9	9	2	0
Hec Highton	Chicago Black Hawks	24	1440	108	4.50	10	14	0	0
Bert Gardiner	Boston Bruins	46	2460	212	5.17	17	19	5	1
Ken McAuley	New York Rangers	50	2980	310	6.24	6	39	5	0

Stanley Cup Playoffs

Playoff Bracket

	Semifinals					Finals
	1	Montreal Canadiens	4
	3	Toronto Maple Leafs	1
						1	Montreal Canadiens	4
						4	Chicago Black Hawks	0
	2	Detroit Red Wings	1
	4	Chicago Black Hawks	4

Semifinals

Montreal Canadiens vs. Toronto Maple Leafs

Date	Away	Score	Home	Score	Notes
March 21	Toronto	3	Montreal	1
March 23	Toronto	1	Montreal	5	†
March 25	Montreal	2	Toronto	1
March 28	Montreal	4	Toronto	1
March 30	Toronto	0	Montreal	11

†Maurice "Rocket" Richard named First, Second and Third Star of the game.

Montreal wins best-of-seven series 4 games to 1

Chicago Black Hawks vs. Detroit Red Wings

Date	Away	Score	Home	Score	Notes
March 21	Chicago	2	Detroit	1
March 23	Chicago	1	Detroit	4
March 26	Detroit	0	Chicago	2
March 28	Detroit	1	Chicago	7
March 30	Chicago	5	Detroit	2

Chicago wins best-of-seven series 4 games to 1

Finals

see 1944 Stanley Cup Finals

Montreal Canadiens vs. Chicago Black Hawks

Date	Away	Score	Home	Score	Notes
April 4	Chicago	1	Montreal	5
April 6	Montreal	3	Chicago	1
April 9	Montreal	3	Chicago	2
April 13	Chicago	4	Montreal	5	OT

Montreal wins best-of-seven series 4 games to 0

NHL Awards

O'Brien Trophy:	Chicago Black Hawks
Prince of Wales Trophy	Montreal Canadiens
Calder Memorial Trophy:	August 'Gus' Bodnar, Toronto Maple Leafs
Hart Memorial Trophy:	Babe Pratt, Toronto Maple Leafs
Lady Byng Memorial Trophy:	Clint Smith, Chicago Black Hawks
Vezina Trophy:	Bill Durnan, Montreal Canadiens

All-Star Teams

First Team	Position	Second Team
Bill Durnan, Montreal Canadiens	G	Paul Bibeault, Toronto Maple Leafs
Earl Seibert, Chicago Black Hawks	D	Butch Bouchard, Montreal Canadiens
Babe Pratt, Toronto Maple Leafs	D	Dit Clapper, Boston Bruins
Bill Cowley, Boston Bruins	C	Elmer Lach, Montreal Canadiens
Lorne Carr, Toronto Maple Leafs	RW	Maurice Richard, Montreal Canadiens
Doug Bentley, Chicago Black Hawks	LW	Herb Cain, Boston Bruins
Dick Irvin, Montreal Canadiens	Coach	Hap Day, Toronto Maple Leafs

Debuts

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1943-44 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):

• Harry Lumley, Detroit Red Wings
• Bill Durnan, Montreal Canadiens
• Don Raleigh, New York Rangers
• Gus Bodnar, Toronto Maple Leafs

Last Games

The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1943-44 (listed with their last team):

• Buzz Boll, Boston Bruins
• Busher Jackson, Boston Bruins
• Frank Boucher, New York Rangers

Gallery

Connie Dion made only 9 saves in the Red Wings 15-0 demolition of the NYR, January 23, 1944.

Ken Kilrea sporting a War Bonds patch.

NHL Board of Governors

NHL General Managers

NHL Coaches

HNIC ad

See Also

• List of Stanley Cup champions

References

• Hockey Database
• NHL.com