National Hockey League season

The 1941–42 NHL season was the 25th season of the National Hockey League. Seven teams played 48 games each. The Toronto Maple Leafs would win the Stanley Cup defeating the Detroit Red Wings winning four straight after losing the first three in a best-of-seven series, a feat only repeated three times in NHL history (1975, 2010, 2014) and once in Major League Baseball (2004) as of 2017.

League business [ edit ]

This season was the last season for the Brooklyn Americans who had changed their name from the New York Americans in an attempt to build a civic relationship with those from Flatbush area of New York.

Regular season [ edit ]

The Americans started the season without Harvey "Busher" Jackson who refused to sign. He was then sold to Boston. But the Amerks had two positive notes: two defencemen, Tommy Anderson and Pat Egan, were now All-Star calibre. That did not prevent them from finishing last, though. On December 9, 1941, the Chicago Black Hawks-Boston Bruins game would be delayed for over a half-hour as United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared that the United States was at war.[1]

Frank Patrick suffered a heart attack and had to sell his interest in the Montreal Canadiens, and the Habs almost had to move to Cleveland. But Tommy Gorman kept the team alive. They added Emile "Butch" Bouchard to start his great career on defence and another very good player, Buddy O'Connor, at centre. Montreal had goaltending problems as Bert Gardiner slumped, and rookie Paul Bibeault replaced him. He showed flashes of brilliance, but his inexperience showed. Joe Benoit starred with 20 goals, the first Canadien to do that since 1938–39, when Toe Blake did it.

The New York Rangers had a new goaltender as Sugar Jim Henry replaced the retired Dave Kerr. Henry was one of the reasons the Rangers finished first, something they would not again do for the next 50 years.

Final standings [ edit ]

[2]

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.

Playoffs [ edit ]

Playoff bracket [ edit ]

Quarterfinals Semifinals Stanley Cup Finals 1 New York 2 2 Toronto 4 2 Toronto 4 5 Detroit 3 3 Boston 2 4 Chicago 1 3 Boston 0 5 Detroit 2 5 Detroit 2 6 Montreal 1

Quarterfinals [ edit ]

(3) Boston Bruins vs. (4) Chicago Black Hawks [ edit ]

Boston won series 2–1





(5) Detroit Red Wings vs. (6) Montreal Canadiens [ edit ]

Detroit won series 2–1





Semifinals [ edit ]

(1) New York Rangers vs. (2) Toronto Maple Leafs [ edit ]

Toronto won series 4–2





(3) Boston Bruins vs. (5) Detroit Red Wings [ edit ]

Detroit won series 2–0





Stanley Cup Finals [ edit ]





Toronto won series 4–3





Awards [ edit ]

Player statistics [ edit ]

Scoring leaders [ edit ]

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

Source: NHL

Leading goaltenders [ edit ]

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 Min GA GAA W L T SO Frank Brimsek Boston Bruins 47 2930 115 2.35 24 17 6 3 Turk Broda Toronto Maple Leafs 48 2960 136 2.76 27 18 3 6 Jim Henry New York Rangers 48 2960 143 2.90 29 17 2 1 Johnny Mowers Detroit Red Wings 47 2880 144 3.00 19 25 3 5 Sam LoPresti Chicago Black Hawks 47 2860 152 3.19 21 23 3 3 Paul Bibeault Montreal Canadiens 38 2380 131 3.30 17 19 2 1 Chuck Rayner Brooklyn Americans 36 2380 129 3.47 13 21 2 1 Earl Robertson Brooklyn Americans 12 750 46 3.68 3 8 1 0 Bert Gardiner Montreal Canadiens 10 620 42 4.06 1 8 1 0

Coaches [ edit ]

Debuts [ edit ]

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1941–42 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):

Last games [ edit ]

The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1941–42 (listed with their last team):

Eddie Wiseman, Boston Bruins

Tommy Anderson, Brooklyn Americans

Art Coulter, New York Rangers

See also [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Diamond, Dan, ed. (2000). Total Hockey . Total Sports. ISBN 1-892129-85-X.

Dinger, Ralph, ed. (2011). The National Hockey League Official Guide & Record Book 2012 . Dan Diamond & Associates. ISBN 978-1-894801-22-5.

Dryden, Steve, ed. (2000). Century of hockey . Toronto, ON: McClelland & Stewart Ltd. ISBN 0-7710-4179-9.

Fischler, Stan; Fischler, Shirley; Hughes, Morgan; Romain, Joseph; Duplacey, James (2003). The Hockey Chronicle: Year-by-Year History of the National Hockey League . Publications International Inc. ISBN 0-7853-9624-1.

McFarlane, Brian (1973). The Story of the National Hockey League. New York, NY: Pagurian Press. ISBN 0-684-13424-1.

Notes