The flu first disrupted the NHL 101 years ago
Canadiens were in the Stanley Cup final in 1919, tied with Seattle after five games
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is hoping to crown a Stanley Cup champion this year, but it might not happen because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Bettman announced Thursday the NHL was going to “pause” the season because of the virus, noting: “Our goal is to resume play as soon as it is appropriate and prudent, so that we will be able to complete the season and award the Stanley Cup.”
There’s no guarantee that will happen and there’s a possibility the Cup will not be awarded for only the third time in history.
The last time was 2005, when Bettman and the NHL’S team owners locked out the players in a labour dispute, forcing the cancellation of the entire season.
The first time was 1919 because of an influenza pandemic.
The Spanish flu infected 500 million people around the world from January 1918 through December 1920 and killed more than 20 million. It also forced the cancellation of the Stanley Cup final between the Canadiens and Seattle Metropolitans after five games had been played; the series was tied 2-2-1.
In those days, the Stanley Cup final was played between the Pacific Coast Hockey Association champion and the NHL champion, with the leagues alternating as host. The Metropolitans were the host team in 1919, so the Canadiens had to travel to Seattle by train and it took a heavy toll.
The First World War from 191418 spread the Spanish Flu with mass movements of men aboard ships. Doctors had yet to learn it was caused by a virus. There also were no antibiotics to treat bacterial infections, such as pneumonia, that attacked weakened bodies and could lead to death.
The Canadiens and Metropolitans split the first four games of the 1919 Stanley Cup final, with Seattle winning Games 1 and 3 by scores of 7-0 and 7-2 and Montreal winning Games 1 and 5 by scores of 4-2 and 4-3 in overtime. Game 4 ended 0-0 after two overtime periods.
After the double-overtime game, both teams were exhausted and fighting the flu before Game 5, which was played three days later. The Canadiens’ Jack Mcdonald scored the OT winner in Game 5 while the Metropolitans were playing a man short. The Metropolitans’ only healthy extra player, Frank Foyston, was too tired to replace Cully Wilson as he came to the bench for a change and Mcdonald took advantage, scoring the winner.
Game 6 was scheduled to be played three nights later, but was cancelled that afternoon.
“Definite and final announcement was made by the Arena management at 2:30 p.m. that there will be no more world series games here this year,” the Montreal Gazette reported in the next day’s newspaper with a Seattle dateline. “At noon today workmen started tearing up the Arena ice floor preparatory to converting the building into a roller skating rink. The fact that the ice was being taken up settled all arguments as to whether or not the series would be continued if the visitors were able later to put enough men on the ice.
“(Newsy) Lalonde, (Louis) Berlinquette, (Billy) Coutu and (general manager George) Kennedy are reported only slightly ill. Last night the remaining four men came down, leaving only (Didier) Pitre, (Odie) Cleghorn and (Georges) Vézina, who are not afflicted. It is believed here the Canadiens contracted the disease in Victoria, where the players of that team are just recovering from influenza, seven of them having been in bed at one time.
“Not in the history of the Stanley Cup series has the world’s hockey championship been so beset with hard luck as has this one. Of the 19 players engaged in it, hardly one of them has gone through without some bad luck. The Seattle team has been badly battered, (Bobby) Rowe, (Frank) Foyston, (Cully) Wilson, (Muzz) Murray and (Jack) Walker all having had injuries. (Bert) Corbeau, the great Canadien defenceman, was hurt in the very first game and has not been able to do more than substitute since.
“The great overtime games of the series have taxed the vitality of the players to such an extent that they are in poor shape indeed to fight off such a disease as influenza. However, the Canadiens are being given the very best of care, nurses and physicians being in attendance at all times on them and every other attention is being shown the stricken players.”
Canadiens GM Kennedy wanted to forfeit to Seattle, but Metropolitans GM Pete Muldoon refused to accept because of the circumstances with the flu and the Stanley Cup wasn’t awarded.
Four days later, on April 5, Canadiens defenceman Joe Hall died at age 37 from pneumonia as a result of the flu, while in the Seattle Sanatorium. Hall was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1961.
Kennedy — a Montreal entrepreneur who purchased the Canadiens in 1910, changed the uniform colours from blue to red and created the iconic CH logo — never fully recovered from the Spanish flu and died on Oct. 19, 1921, at age 39. His widow, Myrtle Kendall, later sold the team to businessmen Joseph Cattarinich, Leo Dandurand and Louis Letourneau for $11,500. scowan@postmedia.com twitter.com/Stucowan1