THIS WEEK IN HISTORY: 1919
Stanley Cup Final called off after sickness and tragedy strike the Montreal Canadiens
The 1919 Stanley Cup Final had the makings of a classic. But it wound up being cancelled after one of hockey’s great tragedies — the death of one of the players. The format was East versus West, with the National Hockey League’s Montreal Canadiens facing off against the Pacific Coast Hockey Association’s Seattle Metropolitans in the “world series of hockey.” Because the teams had to travel by train, the entire best-of-five series was played in Seattle. The leagues had different rules, so they were alternated, game-togame. The Metropolitans walloped the Canadiens 7-0 in the first game, which was played under PCHA rules. But the Canadiens won game two 4-2, under NHL rules. The Metropolitans won game three 7-2, and the teams fought to a 0-0 draw in game four. The Canadiens successfully argued to play game five under NHL rules, because game four had ended in a draw, and stormed back from a 3-0 deficit to win 4-3 and tie the series. The deciding game was scheduled for the Seattle Ice Arena on April 1, but was cancelled when five Canadiens came down with the Spanish flu. “Newsy Lalonde, Joe Hall, Bert Couture, Louis Berlinguette and Jack Macdonald are all ill at their rooms at the Georgian Hotel,” reported the Vancouver World. “Temperatures of the men, it was announced, ranged from 101 to 105 degrees. Plans were being made before noon to move them to a hospital. “It will be two or three weeks before the visiting boys will be back on their feet and able to play, consequently the world series has been called off.” On April 5, Vancouver Millionaires owner and PCHA president Frank Patrick returned from Seattle and reported Joe Hall was “dangerously ill” with pneumonia. Hall succumbed to his illness that afternoon. “From the start, Hall’s illness took the most serious turn, and his temperature was at a dangerous point for almost a week,” the World reported. “No doubt his strenuous exertions in the first four games of the series had much to do with the weakening of his condition.” Hall’s wife and three children had rushed from their home in Brandon, Man., to be by his side, but he died while they were still en route. Hall’s body was brought to Vancouver from Seattle, and he was buried in Mountain View cemetery. Hall was 38 when he died, an 18-year veteran the World dubbed “the oldest player in the professional game.” Born in England, he immigrated to Canada when he was two and grew up in Brandon and Winnipeg. He was on the Winnipeg Rowing Club team that challenged for the Stanley Cup in 1904, and won the Cup with the Kenora Thistles in 1907 and the Quebec Bulldogs in 1912 and 1913. Hall was notorious for his hardedged style of play, which earned him the nickname “Bad Joe Hall.” How bad? A story in the Dec. 20, 1907 Winnipeg Tribune recounts how Hall “laid out” opposition player Charley Tobin by clobbering him over the head with his stick. “Whether the blow from the stick which caught Tobin across the temple and measured him on the ice landed by mere chance is not known,” said the Tribune. “But to the majority of the spectators in close proximity it appeared as if it had been deliberately struck to injure.” The game got so rough the opposition team quit. The Tribune called it “the most brutal hockey match ever witnessed here.” In January 1910, Hall was suspended after he “utterly destroyed and cut up the pantaloons of a referee” when he was playing for the Montreal Shamrocks. He was suspended in 1913 for another attack on a referee. And he had the distinction of leading the NHL in penalties during its inaugural season in 1917-18, picking up 100 penalty minutes in only 22 games. But he was also one of the top players in hockey’s pioneer days, and was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1961.