1947-48 NHL season

The 1947-48 NHL season was the 31st season of the National Hockey League. Six teams each played 60 games. The Toronto Maple Leafs were the Stanley Cup winners. They defeated the Detroit Red Wings four games to none. This season the award of the Art Ross Trophy changed from the league's most outstanding player to the player who scored the most points during the regular season.

Regular Season

The 1947 All-Stars.

The season saw the 1st National Hockey League All-Star Game, an idea that, although proposed in the previous season, came into fruition this year. On October 13, 1947 at Maple Leaf Gardens, a team of all-stars played the Stanley Cup champion Toronto Maple Leafs. The game was very rough with fights, hard checking and a bad ankle injury to Chicago Black Hawks forward Bill Mosienko that nearly ended his career. The All Stars prevailed 4-3.

Other stars would retire, ending both the Montreal Canadiens' Punch Line and the Boston Bruins' Kraut Line. However, this season saw the creation of the Detroit Red Wings' Production Line. The policy of having players raise their hockey sticks to signify that a goal was scored was also initiated in this season, at the suggestion of Frank Patrick, with Habs forward Billy Reay being the first to do on November 13, 1947.

Seven games into the season, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Chicago Black Hawks made, at that time, the biggest trade in NHL history. The Maple Leafs sent five players to the Black Hawks in trade for Max Bentley and rookie winger Cy Thomas. Thomas only played eight games that year but Bentley handed to the Leafs a much-needed offensive boost that helped propel the team to first overall and an eventual Stanley Cup.

The New York Rangers decided to make a trade to improve their fortunes and sent Hal Laycoe, Joe Bell, and George Robertson to Montreal in exchange for Buddy O'Connor and defenceman Frank Eddolls. Montreal missed O'Connor, as their goal-scoring plummeted. Ken Mosdell was out from the start of the season with a broken arm, Rocket Richard had trouble with a bad knee and Murph Chamberlain broke his leg. In an attempt to boost the goal-scoring, Montreal traded Jimmy Peters and Johnny Quilty to Boston in exchange for Joe Carveth, but the rot continued. However, the worst occurred on January 11, 1948 when the Canadiens played the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. The Habs lost more than a game when Bill Juzda checked captain Toe Blake into the boards, breaking Blake's ankle and ending his career. It was also the end of the famed "Punch Line". (Ironically, that same night, Johnny Quilty's career was ended with a compound fracture of the leg). The Canadiens missed the playoffs for the first time since 1940, and Bill Durnan, for the first and only time in his career, failed to win the Vezina Trophy. This season was also the last season in which a goaltender was allowed to be named captain of their team. Bill Durnan was the last goaltender in NHL history to be captain. Toronto's Turk Broda won the Vezina this season.

Don Gallinger's career was ended in 1948 for betting against the Bruins.

The Bruins traded Joe Carveth for Billy Taylor which would result in one of the darkest chapters in Bruins and NHL history. Coming from the Detroit Red Wings, Taylor had been betting against his own team through a felon, James Tamer, and providing inside information on the team. Don Gallinger had been betting for the Bruins since his rookie season in 1942-43 but Taylor, who lived in the same boarding house as Gallinger, convinced him to bet against them to make more money. Bruins management began to suspect Taylor's activities and he was traded to the New York Rangers on February 6, 1948.

Detroit police wire-tapped Tamer's phone and recorded a conversation providing information on an injury to Bruins star Milt Schmidt and that Jack Crawford's daughter had just died. The caller also mentioned he wouldn't be playing well and bet $500 against the Bruins. The game referred to was on February 18, 1948 against the Chicago Blackhawks which ironically, the Bruins won 4-2 (Gallinger had no points in the game). Illegally obtained, the police couldn't use it to prosecute but passed the tape to NHL president Clarence Campbell. Confronted in private by Art Ross, Gallinger denied the allegations, continuing to do so when the story broke in the press on March 3, 1948. The league launched an investigation and on March 7, 1948, Gallinger played his last game in the NHL and scored the third goal in a 3-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. On March 8, 1948, Taylor was suspended for life from the NHL while Gallinger was suspended indefinitely. Only 23 years old and having led the Bruins in scoring two years before, Gallinger's career was over. He made several attempts to have the ban lifted which the league would finally grant in 1970.

Final Standings

GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, PIM = Penalties In Minutes
Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold

National Hockey League	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA	PIM
Toronto Maple Leafs	60	32	15	13	77	182	143	758
Detroit Red Wings	60	30	18	12	72	187	148	593
Boston Bruins	60	23	24	13	59	167	168	515
New York Rangers	60	21	26	13	55	176	201	480
Montreal Canadiens	60	20	29	11	51	147	169	724
Chicago Black Hawks	60	20	34	6	46	195	225	572

Scoring Leaders

GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points, PIM = Penalties In Minutes

Player	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
Elmer Lach	Montreal Canadiens	60	30	31	61
Buddy O'Connor	New York Rangers	60	24	36	60
Doug Bentley	Chicago Black Hawks	60	20	37	57
Gaye Stewart	Toronto Maple Leafs / Chicago Black Hawks	61	27	29	56
Max Bentley	Black Hawks / Toronto Maple Leafs	59	26	28	54
Bud Poile	Toronto Maple Leafs / Chicago Black Hawks	58	25	29	54
Maurice Richard	Montreal Canadiens	53	28	25	53
Syl Apps	Toronto Maple Leafs	55	26	27	53
Ted Lindsay	Detroit Red Wings	60	33	19	52
Roy Conacher	Chicago Black Hawks	52	22	27	49

Leading Goaltenders

GP = Games Played, TOI = Time On Ice (minutes), GA = Goals Against, SO = Shutouts, GAA = Goals Against Average

Player	Team	GP	TOI	GA	SO	GAA
Turk Broda	Toronto Maple Leafs	60	3600	143	5	2.38
Harry Lumley	Detroit Red Wings	60	3592	147	7	2.46
Bill Durnan	Montreal Canadiens	59	3505	162	5	2.77
Frank Brimsek	Boston Bruins	60	3600	168	3	2.80
Jim Henry	New York Rangers	48	2800	153	2	3.19
Emile Francis	Chicago Black Hawks	54	3240	183	1	3.39

Stanley Cup Playoffs

Playoff Bracket

	Semifinals					Finals
	1	Toronto Maple Leafs	4
	3	Boston Bruins	1
						1	Toronto Maple Leafs	4
						2	Detroit Red Wings	0
	2	Detroit Red Wings	4
	4	New York Rangers	2

Semifinals

The first round of the playoffs saw third seed Boston Bruins matched up with first seed Toronto Maple Leafs and fourth seed New York Rangers against second seed Detroit Red Wings.

Toronto vs. Boston

Toronto beat Boston 4 games to 1. Still, the Bears kept the series pretty darn close — even the powerful Leafs couldn't deny it. Three of the five games were decided by one goal.

Boston Bruins vs. Toronto Maple Leafs

Date	Away	Score	Home	Score	Notes
March 24	Boston Bruins	4	Toronto Maple Leafs	5	(OT)
March 27	Boston Bruins	3	Toronto Maple Leafs	5
March 30	Toronto Maple Leafs	5	Boston Bruins	1
April 1	Toronto Maple Leafs	2	Boston Bruins	3
April 3	Boston Bruins	2	Toronto Maple Leafs	3

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

NY Rangers vs. Detroit

Motown got their team pursuing Lord Stanley's Mug for the fourth time in six years.

New York Rangers vs. Detroit Red Wings

Date	Away	Score	Home	Score	Notes
March 24	New York Rangers	1	Detroit Red Wings	2
March 26	New York Rangers	2	Detroit Red Wings	5
March 28	Detroit Red Wings	2	New York Rangers	3
March 30	Detroit Red Wings	1	New York Rangers	3
April 1	New York Rangers	1	Detroit Red Wings	3
April 4	Detroit Red Wings	4	New York Rangers	2

Detroit wins best-of-seven series 4 games to 2

Finals

Detroit Red Wings vs. Toronto Maple Leafs

Date	Away	Score	Home	Score	Notes
April 7	Detroit	3	Toronto	5
April 10	Detroit	2	Toronto	4
April 11	Toronto	2	Detroit	0
April 14	Toronto	7	Detroit	2

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

Playoff Scoring Leaders

GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points

Player	Team	GP	G	A	Pts
Ted Kennedy	Toronto Maple Leafs	9	8	6	14

NHL Awards

O'Brien Trophy:	Detroit Red Wings
Prince of Wales Trophy:	Toronto Maple Leafs
Art Ross Memorial Trophy:	Elmer Lach, Montreal Canadiens
Calder Memorial Trophy:	Jim McFadden, Detroit Red Wings
Hart Memorial Trophy:	Bud O'Connor, New York Rangers
Lady Byng Memorial Trophy:	Bud O'Connor, New York Rangers
Vezina Trophy:	Turk Broda, Toronto Maple Leafs

All-Star Teams

First Team	Position	Second Team
Turk Broda, Toronto Maple Leafs	G	Frank Brimsek, Boston Bruins
Bill Quackenbush, Detroit Red Wings	D	Ken Reardon, Montreal Canadiens
Jack Stewart, Detroit Red Wings	D	Neil Colville, New York Rangers
Elmer Lach, Montreal Canadiens	C	Buddy O'Connor, New York Rangers
Maurice Richard, Montreal Canadiens	RW	Bud Poile, Chicago Black Hawks
Ted Lindsay, Detroit Red Wings	LW	Gaye Stewart, Chicago Black Hawks

Regular Season Attendance

Chicago: 491,345

New York: 467,054

Toronto: 418,856

Boston: 412,943

Detroit: 394,199

Montreal: 333,645

Total: 2,518,042

Debuts

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1947-48 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):

• Ed Sandford, Boston Bruins
• Paul Ronty, Boston Bruins
• Metro Prystai, Chicago Black Hawks
• Marty Pavelich, Detroit Red Wings
• Red Kelly, Detroit Red Wings
• Floyd Curry, Detroit Red Wings
• Tom Johnson, Montreal Canadiens
• Gerry McNeil, Montreal Canadiens
• Doug Harvey, Montreal Canadiens
• Fleming MacKell, Toronto Maple Leafs
• Tod Sloan, Toronto Maple Leafs

Last Games

The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1947-48 (listed with their last team):

• John Quilty, Boston Bruins
• John Mariucci, Chicago Black Hawks
• Toe Blake, Montreal Canadiens
• Bryan Hextall, New York Rangers
• Phil Watson, New York Rangers
• Billy Taylor, New York Rangers
• Syl Apps, Toronto Maple Leafs
• Nick Metz, Toronto Maple Leafs

Gallery

1947-48 Bruins defense - Flaman, Martin, Crawford, Brimsek, Henderson, Egan.

#10 Fern Flaman and #15 Milt Schmidt during a 1947-48 game.

Hawks Red Hamill and Bruins Jack Crawford head onto the ice in an early 1948 game.

Action from Game 2 of the semi-finals.

Video

Highlights of the October 13, 1947 All-Star game which including a fight, Bill Mosienko's injury and goals by Max Bentley and the winner for the All-Stars by Doug Bentley.

First National Hockey League Allstar Game (1947)

Highlights of the February 28, 1948 game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Chicago Black Hawks at Maple Leaf Gardens. Goals by Gus Bodnar on Turk Broda as well as Max Bentley and Joe Klukay on Emile Francis are shown in the Leafs 4-3 victory.

Ice Hockey (1948)

See Also

• List of Stanley Cup champions
• 1st National Hockey League All-Star Game
• National Hockey League All-Star Game
• Ice hockey at the 1948 Winter Olympics

References

• Hockey Database
• NHL.com