Welcome in. It is so great to have you here with
us today for another custom tailored deep dive.
Yeah, we have a really fascinating topic lined
up for you today. We do. It is one that is just
bursting with historical drama, high stakes negotiation.
And honestly, some completely unexpected twists.
Absolutely. Today, our source material is a comprehensive
Wikipedia article detailing the 1924 to 1925
National Hockey League season. Right. And look,
if you were sitting there thinking, wait, a sports
season from a century ago? Just stick around.
Yeah, please do. Because the sheer amount of
chaos packed into these few months is staggering.
It really is. Our mission today is to look well
beyond the ice to see a league experiencing massive,
chaotic, growing pains. Which is putting it mildly.
True. We are going to explore how this single
season featured international expansion, the
folding of rival leagues, and a massive labor
dispute that permanently changed sports history.
Okay, let's unpack this. Because to truly understand
why this season is essentially a masterclass
in business negotiation and history, we have
to look at the board before the game even starts.
Exactly. The professional hockey landscape back
then was nothing like the massive monopoly we
see today, right? No, not at all. If we connect
this to the bigger picture, You have to look
at the fierce competition that existed outside
the NHL at that time. Right. They weren't the
only game in town. Right before the 1924 to 1925
season started, a major competing league called
the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, or the
PCHA, actually folded. Wow. Just collapsed right
before the season. Yeah, they had been battling
for relevance for a while. And when they finally
collapsed, two of their major teams, Vancouver
and Victoria, just packed up and joined another
league entirely. Which was the Western Canada
Hockey League, right? The WCHL. You got it. So
what does that consolidation mean for the sport
as a whole? I mean, it sounds like the talent
pool was suddenly being squeezed into fewer places.
That is exactly what happened. It meant that
after years of having multiple different leagues
fiercely competing for the ultimate prize, which
is the Stanley Cup, the battle was suddenly whittled
down to just two heavyweights. The NHL and the
WCHL. Yes. You had the NHL in the east and this
newly bolstered WCHL out west. It created this
intense pressure cooker environment. Where the
NHL realized they had to step up. Yeah, they
realized they needed to aggressively expand their
own footprint just to survive and maintain dominance.
And that leads to a really massive milestone.
The NHL makes its very first foray into the United
States. A huge moment. They granted an expansion
franchise to a man named Charles Adams in Boston,
creating the Boston Bruins. But what I find so
curious about this expansion strategy is that
they didn't just blanket the U .S. market. Didn't
they actively turn down other major cities at
that exact same time? They did, yeah. Applications
for New York City, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia
were actually shelved at that same meeting. They
just left them on the table. They did. The league
decided to go all in on Boston. It was a calculated
risk. How so? Well, by choosing Boston, they
were picking a city with geographic proximity
to their established Canadian markets, places
like Montreal and Toronto. Ah, keeping travel
costs down. Exactly. They were testing the American
waters before overextending their reach down
the eastern seaboard. That makes a lot of strategic
sense. You don't want to expand so fast that
your logistics just entirely collapse. Right.
And at the same time, they're looking south.
They're also doubling down at home. The League
granted a second franchise for Montreal. Correct.
That franchise was granted to James Strachan
and Donat Raymond. And this brought the league
up to a total of six teams. Six teams total.
Yes. But to accommodate having six teams, the
league office made what seemed like a really
simple logistical change. They increased the
regular season schedule from 24 games to 30 games
per team. Just a six -game bump. A six -game
bump, which doesn't sound like much, but it is
a 25 % increase in their overall workload. That
is a lot of extra ice time. I want you listening
to keep that administrative detail in the back
of your mind. It sounds like standard business
growth, but that specific schedule increase is
the ticking time bomb that blows the league wide
open later in this deep dive. I cannot wait to
get into that. But the vibe of this era is just
so organic and unpredictable. The league is clearly
making things up as they go along to accommodate
this rapid growth. Very much so. For instance,
that new Montreal franchise we just mentioned.
I was reading that they didn't even have an official
nickname when they started playing. No, they
didn't. They literally just showed up for the
season wearing these deep crimson uniforms. And
the fans simply started calling them the Maroons.
Because of the sweaters. Exactly. The accidental
identity just stuck. They officially became the
Montreal Maroons solely based on the color of
their wool sweaters. That is incredible. And
the logistical headaches didn't stop at the uniforms
either. The arena situation in Montreal that
year sounds like a total sitcom. It really does.
They built this massive legendary building, the
Montreal Forum, specifically to house the new
Maroons. But things didn't exactly go according
to plan for the grand opening. How did the scheduling
actually shake out there? It is a brilliant piece
of historic irony. The Forum was indeed built
for the Maroons. However, their crosstown rivals,
the Montreal Canadiens, were the ones who actually
played the very first game there. Why? Well,
the Canadiens' usual home rank was the Mount
Royal Arena. But when late November rolled around
for their home opener... The Mount Royal Arena
physically couldn't produce ice. The ice machine
was broken. Essentially, yes. They had no ice.
So the Canadians are forced to move their opener
into the building constructed for their direct
rival. Precisely. They moved the November 29th
game to the Forum, and the Canadians ended up
crushing the Toronto St. Patrick 7 -1 in front
of 9 ,000 fans. Wow. It is pure 1920s chaos.
The infrastructure simply couldn't keep up with
the ambition of the league. Despite the chaos,
though, they were hitting some serious milestones.
Just a few days later, on December 1st, 1924,
we see the first NHL game ever played on United
States soil when the Boston Bruins hosted the
Maroons. A historic night. And shortly after
that, the league recorded its first ever scoreless
tie. Who was on the ice for that one? That was
on December 17th. It was a brutal, grinding,
goaltending duel between Jake Forbes of the Hamilton
Tigers and Alex Connell of the Ottawa Senators.
Nobody scored. Not a single goal. They played
all the way through without a single puck finding
the net. A 0 -0 slugfest. It paints a picture
of a very physical rough and tumble era. Players
are fighting for space, taking tons of penalties.
Was the league office comfortable with that gritty,
almost Wild West image? Or were they trying to
polish things up for a broader audience? They
were actively training to elevate the sports
image. In fact, this same season saw the introduction
of a brand new piece of hardware designed specifically
to encourage discipline. The Lady Bing Trophy.
Oh, I've heard of that. Yeah, it was donated
by Lady Bing, who was the wife of Canada's governor
general at the time. The specific mandate of
the award was to honor the player who exhibited
the best sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct
combined with excellence in play. So they are
essentially trying to incentivize players to
stop taking penalties and focus on skill. Yes.
She personally presented the very first trophy
to Frank Nyber of the Ottawa Senators. It is
a clear indicator of a league self -consciously
trying to transition from a brutal physical spectacle
into a respectable, disciplined professional
enterprise. Which brings us to the ultimate clash
between professional enterprise and the people
actually playing the game. Here's where it gets
really interesting. Let's talk about the Hamilton
Tigers. In terms of pure performance, the Tigers
were the undisputed best team in the NHL that
year. They finished first in the standings, 19
wins, 39 points. They were the regular season
champions. It dominated. Yet when the playoffs
rolled around, the Tigers were nowhere to be
found. This is the explosion caused by that ticking
time bomb we mentioned earlier. The six extra
games. Exactly. It all traces back to the schedule
expanding from 24 to 30 games. The Hamilton Tigers
players essentially looked at the new schedule
and demanded an extra $200 each for the additional
labor. To understand how a championship team
just vanishes, we need to look at the specific
arguments from both sides of the table. Let's
look at the mechanics of this standoff. Could
you? On management side, you have NHL president
Frank Calder and the Tigers owner Percy Thompson.
They pointed directly to the ink on the players'
contracts. Right. Those contracts stipulated
a flat rate of pay for all games played between
December 1st, 1924 and March 31st, 1925. Management's
stance was quite literal. The number of games
played within that specific window doesn't matter.
You agreed to a set amount of money for that
time period. If you view it strictly as a legal
contract dispute, management has a point. But
on the player's side, they are looking at the
physical reality of the sport. The actual toll
on their bodies. Exactly. Six extra games in
1925 meant a 25 % increase in their workload.
That is a massive jump in the physical toll on
their bodies and a significantly higher risk
of a career -ending injury. That makes total
sense from their perspective. The players felt
they were being taken advantage of through a
contractual loophole. They stated quite clearly
that they would rather retire entirely than provide
what they viewed as free labor to the owners.
It is a classic clash of leverage. The owners
have the contracts, but the players are the product.
How did the league office handle this? Did they
try to mediate or was it a hard line? It was
an incredibly hard line. Frank Calder threatened
the players with hefty fines and suspensions
if they didn't step onto the ice for the final
series. Wow, just straight to threats. Yeah,
it came down to the absolute wire. On the very
day of the final, semi -final game, a Tigers
player named Shorty Green met directly with Calder
to try and hammer out a last -minute compromise.
Did they get anywhere? Total gridlock. Neither
side would budge a single inch. As a result,
Calder brought the hammer down. The entire Hamilton
Tigers team was suspended. The whole team. The
whole team. They were fined $200 each, which
ironically is the exact amount they were demanding
in the first place, and they effectively eliminated
themselves from the playoffs. The regular season
champions are just gone. Gone. And it wasn't
just for the playoffs. That franchise would completely
dissolve at the end of the season. The magnitude
of that is hard to wrap your head around. An
entire first place franchise ceasing to exist
over a contract dispute. It obviously sent massive
shockwaves through the league. Yeah, absolutely.
With the first place teams suspended, how did
the NHL even run a playoff format? Well, the
semifinal series between the second place Toronto
St. Patrick's and the third place Montreal Canadiens
suddenly transformed into the de facto NHL championship.
Because first place was out. Right. But the drama
from the strike seemed to infect the rest of
the league because immediately a new power struggle
erupted. this time between the league president
and a team owner. Right. President Calder tries
to step in and mandate where the playoff games
are going to be held. He wants the Canadians
to play their home games at that shiny new Montreal
Forum to maximize revenue and optics. But the
Canadiens owner, Leo Dandurand, flat out refuses.
He tells the president of the league that home
games are home games, and his team plays better
in front of their own fans at the Mount Royal
Arena. Why does a team owner have the leverage
to tell the league president where they're going
to play a championship game? Because the central
league office wasn't the absolute authority it
is today. Power was highly decentralized and
wealthy owners wielded massive influence. Dandaran
stood his ground and amazingly called her back
down. So Dandaran's stubbornness pays off. The
Canadians win the series against Toronto 5 -2,
claiming the NHL title. They did. Now, just to
clarify the format for you listening, because
it is so different from modern sports, this wasn't
a best -of -seven series where you count the
wins and losses. Montreal won the series 5 -2
on total aggregate goals across two games. Correct.
It was a two -game set where you simply add up
the score from both nights. The Canadians outscored
Toronto by three goals over the two games. That
is so wild to think about now. Yeah, and as a
quick historical footnote, a year later when
the league introduced the Prince of Wales trophy
for the NHL playoff champion, the Canadians retroactively
engraved this 1925 victory onto it. But securing
the NHL title was only half the battle. Because,
as we discussed at the top of the deep dive,
the WCHL is out west waiting for them. Right,
the other heavyweight. The Stanley Cup final
is set. The NHL champion Montreal Canadiens versus
the WCHL champion Victoria Cougars. Where did
they play this final showdown? To maximize ticket
sales and capitalize on the Western fan base,
the games were played out west. They split the
series between the Patrick Arena in Victoria
and the Denman Arena in Vancouver. Going into
enemy territory after a grueling, chaotic season,
how did the Canadians fare against the Western
champions? The environment was incredibly hostile,
and the Victoria Cougars absolutely dominated
the series. They beat the Canadians three games
to one, had drastically outscored them 16 to
8. Wow. It was a complete dismantling of the
NHL champions. A competing league takes the ultimate
prize. They did. And what's fascinating here
is the monumental historical significance of
that specific outcome. Really? How so? Well,
the WCHL would eventually fold just a few years
later. Because of that, the Victoria Cougars
remained the last non -NHL team in history to
win the Stanley Cup. The very last one. Yes.
Since that 1925 victory, the Cup has been exclusively
lifted by NHL franchises. It remains one of the
most unbreakable trivia facts in all of sports
history. It is the final gasp of the multi -league
era, and they go out on top. Now, even though
the NHL lost the Cup that year, the league itself
was packed with individual superstars performing
at a level that is hard to comprehend. Oh, definitely.
I want to spend a moment looking at the raw stats,
because they tell a story about how the game
was played. you had Babe Die, who scored an unbelievable
38 goals in just 29 games. What does a scoring
pace like that imply about the style of hockey
in 1924? It implies a deeply offensive, almost
unstructured style of play compared to modern
eras. Remember, the rules regarding forward passing
were much more restrictive back then. So no easy
setups. Right. So individual puck handling skill
and sheer skating speed were paramount. For Dye
to score 38 goals in 29 games means he was physically
dominating the defense on a nightly basis. That
is wild. The athleticism required to maintain
that pace in the 30 -game season, especially
with the physical toll we discussed earlier,
is staggering. But the scoring title doesn't
always guarantee you the MVP. The Hart Trophy
for the league's most valuable player went to
Billy Birch. But wait, wasn't Billy Birch the
star player for the Hamilton Tigers? He was.
It is one of the greatest paradoxes in the history
of the sport. The league awarded its highest
individual honor to a player who was the captain
of a team that effectively went on strike and
forced its own dissolution. That is wild to think
about. The league is acknowledging his immense
value while simultaneously suspending him for
demanding to be compensated for that exact value.
It perfectly encapsulates the tension of the
season. What about on the defensive side of the
puck? In Montreal, you had goaltending greatness
in Georges Vizina. Over that grueling 30 -game
schedule, he posted a phenomenal 1 .81 goals
against average and secured five shutouts. That
is incredible consistency. He was a stabilizing
force in a league that was otherwise highly volatile.
Vecino was a wall. But my absolute favorite statistical
footnote of the entire year belongs to the new
expansion team, the Boston Bruins. They had a
rough start. They were the ultimate underdogs.
They finished their first season in dead last
place with a pretty dismal record of six wins
and 24 losses. But right at the end of the schedule,
they put together this incredibly gritty winning
streak. How did the last place team close out
the year? They ended the season by playing spoiler
in the most chaotic way possible. First, they
faced off against the mighty Montreal Canadiens
and beat them 3 -2. The Canadiens? Yes, and it
was a brutally rough game. To give you an idea
of the physicality, Lionel Hitchman of Boston
took four minor penalties alone. But a player
named Norman Shea managed to score the game winner
on a rebound in the third period. Taking down
the eventual NHL champions, and they didn't stop
there, did they? No. In their very next game,
those last -place Bruins shut out the league
-leading Hamilton Tigers 2 -0. Unbelievable.
Their goalie, Doc Stewart, played brilliantly
to keep the Tigers off the board. It is deeply
ironic that the absolute worst team in the league
dealt the final competitive blow to the first
place team. Right before the strike. Exactly.
Right before the Tigers initiated the historic
strike that turned the playoffs upside down.
So what does this all mean? We have covered a
dizzying amount of ground here today. We really
have. We started with the collapse of the PCHA
and the consolidation of power out West. We watched
the NHL counter with aggressive American expansion
into Boston, bumping the schedule up to 30 games.
Which caused all the trouble. Right. We saw organic
quirks like accidental team names and broken
ice machines, the introduction of the Lady Bing
trophy, and an unprecedented player strike that
resulted in a first place team dissolving rather
than compromising. their worth. It wasn't just
a schedule of games. It was the painful, chaotic
birth of the modern NHL. It was. And for you
listening, whether you follow sports or not,
there is a profound takeaway here about the nature
of organizational evolution. Definitely. This
century old sports history matters today because
it provides a blueprint for how systems evolve.
Growth is rarely a smooth, linear process. It
is usually pretty messy. Whether you are looking
at a modern tech startup, a massive legacy corporation,
or even your own personal endeavors, growth is
almost always accompanied by friction, rule -breaking,
and deeply uncomfortable negotiations. The growing
pains. Yeah. The NHL didn't become a multi -billion
dollar powerhouse by politely agreeing on everything.
It was forged through fierce rivalries, boundary
-pushing expansion, and the stark, uncompromising
reality of workers realizing their leverage.
I think that is the perfect lens to view this
through. The friction is the feature, not the
bug. Which leaves us with a final thought for
you to mull over as you go about your day. The
Hamilton Tigers sacrificed their team, their
championship hopes, and ultimately their very
existence in the league over a $200 labor dispute.
They drew a hard line in the sand and lost everything
in the short term. But if they hadn't drawn that
line, if they had simply accepted the 25 % workload
increase without a fight, how long would it have
taken for modern athletes to truly realize the
value of their labor? That's a great question.
It makes you wonder what other Hamilton Tigers
exist in history, what other movements, groups,
or visionary teams dissolved entirely under the
weight of their own demands just so that future
generations could thrive on the ground they broke.
Something to think about. Thank you so much for
joining us on this deep dive. We hope you enjoyed
exploring the chaos, the negotiations, and the
triumphs of 1924 with us. Keep questioning, keep
exploring, and we will catch you next time.