For a podcast title, The Deep Dive, Blood, Sweat,
and Six OTs, Unpacking the Wild 1932 -33 NHL
Season, Apple Podcast Description. Strap on your
skates for a journey back to the winter of 1932.
In this episode of The Deep Dive, we explore
a pivotal year in hockey history, filled with
bizarre rule changes, legendary brawls, and the
longest game ever played at the time. Discover
how the Detroit Red Wings got their iconic name,
why a referee had a coach arrested mid -game,
and the grueling physical reality of a six -overtime
playoff marathon between the Boston Bruins and
Toronto Maple Leafs. Whether you're a diehard
hockey fan or just love a story of chaotic sports
history, this deep dive delivers the ultimate
synthesis of the 16th NHL season. Keywords, 1932
-33 NHL season, hockey history, Stanley Cup,
New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston
Bruins, Detroit Red Wings, NHL rules, classic
sports trivia, six overtime game. Strap on your
skates for a journey back to the winter of 1932.
In this episode of the Deep Top, we explore a
pivotal year in hockey history filled with bizarre
rule changes, legendary brawls, and the longest
game ever played at the time. Discover how the
Detroit Red Wings got their iconic name. Why
a referee had a coach arrested mid -game. and
the grueling physical reality of a six -overtime
playoff marathon between the Boston Bruins and
Toronto Maple Leafs. Whether you're a diehard
hockey fan or just love a story of chaotic sports
history, this deep dive delivers the ultimate
synthesis of the 16th NHL season. Key words.
Welcome to the deep dive. Today, we are we're
doing a bit of time traveling. I want you to
really picture the winter of 1932. You're stepping
out of the freezing cold and into this smoky,
packed hockey arena. Right. The Great Depression
is just hanging heavy over absolutely everything
outside those doors. Exactly. But on the ice,
things are moving fast. We've got this massive
stack of notes here covering the National Hockey
League 16th season. And I got to say, the stories
buried in these archives are completely. It really
is a remarkable snapshot in time. You have a
league that's caught directly between two eras.
The players are still wearing heavy wool sweaters
and basically zero protective equipment. Just
flying around out there. Yeah, exactly. But the
business side of the sport is desperately trying
to modernize. OK, let's unpack this. We're looking
at a nine team league playing a pretty grueling
48 game schedule. But this isn't the highly polished
corporate product you see on TV today. This is
an era where the rules of the game were still
being hammered out in real time. What's fascinating
here is that this season, 1932 to 1933, serves
as a perfect case study of a league in transition.
We're going on a mission today to understand
not just the stats, who scored what, who won
the cup, but why this specific year was a chaotic
crucible. The NHL was actively trying to balance
the raw, almost frontier justice style of early
hockey with this intense push for structure and
professionalism. Because if they couldn't legitimize
the sport, they couldn't survive the economic
collapse. The financial pressure must have been
immense. You can actually see it in the franchise
shifts right before the puck even dropped. The
Ottawa Senators, for example, they made their
return after being forced to sit out the entire
previous season because they just ran out of
money. And on the flip side, the Philadelphia
Quakers, who also sat out the prior year, are
officially gone for good at this point. They
just couldn't make the math work anymore. But
the biggest branding shift happens in Michigan.
The Detroit Falcons decide to rename themselves,
and they officially become the iconic Detroit
Red Wings. Which is such a monumental moment
in sports history. They establish one of the
most recognizable identities in North American
sports. But while Detroit is securing its future,
the financial desperation of the era is glaringly
obvious in the front offices of other teams.
The gap between the haves and the have nots was
incredibly wide. Yeah. And that actually brings
up a wild front office anecdote from the Montreal
Maroons. The Maroons already had flat Walsh.
Dave Kerr, and Normie Smith in net. That's three
capable goalies. Plenty of depth, you'd think.
Right. But apparently they felt they needed an
absolute superstar to stay competitive because
they set their sights on acquiring Chuck Gardner
from the Chicago Blackhawks. Montreal formally
offered $10 ,000 plus one of their own goalkeepers
just to get Gardner. If we connect this to the
bigger picture. You have to remember, this is
the early 1930s. We're in a massive deflationary
period. $10 ,000 is a staggering, almost unthinkable
sum of money for a single -player transfer. It
highlights this fascinating economic desperation.
They were to stop piling talent. Absolutely desperate
for a competitive edge to draw fans. Ultimately,
there was no deal. But the sheer audacity of
the offer tells you how highly valued elite goaltending
was becoming. Speaking of goalies, the league
made a couple of quirky rule changes that directly
impacted the men in the crease this season. First,
they finally allowed a substitute player to serve
a penalty on behalf of a goaltender. Which was
a highly practical change. Before that, the logistics
of penalizing a goalie were just a mess. This
codified that you wouldn't just be left with
an empty net if your goaltender committed a slashing
penalty. Makes sense. But the second rule change
is a total doozy. The NHL mandated that a team
captain or an alternate captain must be on the
ice at all times. Yeah, the reasoning was that
teams were wasting too much time having players
skate over to the referee to argue calls. They
wanted one designated person responsible for
communication, instantly available to keep the
pace moving. But wait, if you're required to
have a captain on the ice at all times, how do
you manage that with line changes? Forwards are
only out there for a minute or two. This rule
led to an NHL record of four goaltenders serving
as team captains this season. George Hainsworth,
Roy Waters, Charlie Gardner, and Alex Connell.
I have to ask, does that mean the goalie was
literally skating out of the crease in those
heavy waterlogged pads all the way to center
ice to argue with the referee? That is exactly
what it means. And it looked just as ridiculous
as it sounds. But from a coaching perspective,
it makes perfect sense. Who is the one player
who plays all 60 minutes of a regulation game?
Your goaltender. Your goaltender. It's a brilliant
loophole. Teams exploited it to avoid having
to constantly juggle the captaincy between forward
lines and defensive pairings. The league eventually
had to ban goalies from being captains in 1948,
specifically because of the delays caused by
goalies slowly skating back and forth to argue
calls. That is amazing. So we have goalies skating
out to argue with refs, but the drama doesn't
stop at the rulebook. In the American division
standings, it was a dead heat. Boston and the
newly minted Detroit Red Wings tied for the best
overall record in the entire league, finishing
with 58 points apiece. Boston was awarded first
place via a head -to -head tiebreaker. But in
the Canadian division, the story was a bit bleaker
for some. The Toronto Maple Leafs took first
place in that division. But I know you want to
look at the Ottawa Senators. They are a fascinating
case study in how dictatorial team management
was at the time. Yes. The Senators started off
reasonably well. At midseason, they were up in
second place in their division, hovering right
around a 500 record. And then the wheels completely
fall off. They collapse in the second half and
finish dead last with just 32 points. And the
response from management is what blows my mind.
It's pretty extreme. NHL president Frank Ahern
was so furious with Ottawa's performance that
he instructed their coach, Sy Denany, to literally
fine players for displaying, quote, indifferent
hockey. It's ruthless. Ahern is essentially taxing
his players for looking bored. And at the exact
same time he's ordering these fines, he has to
publicly state that star player Hector Correa
is not for sale, desperately trying to stop a
fire sale of his few remaining assets. This wasn't
just a funny quirk. It was a reflection of the
absolute power owners held. There was no players'
union to file a grievance. None at all. If the
owner felt you weren't trying hard enough, he
just reached into your pocket and took your paycheck.
Here's where it gets really interesting, though.
If you think fining players is an extreme reaction,
I want to take you to the Boston Garden on March
14, 1933. This is the date of the very first
forfeit in the history of the National Hockey
League. This specific event is the ultimate example
of that clash we talked about earlier, the frontier
justice era of hockey smashing into the corporate
league it was trying to become. It is absolute
chaos. It's the Chicago Blackhawks visiting the
Boston Bruins. The game goes into overtime. Boston's
Marty Berry scores a goal to win it. But Chicago
vehemently disputes the call. They're claiming
the play was offside or there was interference.
Chicago's coach, Tommy Gorman, completely loses
his mind. He doesn't just yell at referee Bill
Stewart. He physically punches him. And Stewart,
fitting the mold of the 1930s NHL perfectly,
doesn't just blow his whistle and issue a game
misconduct. He throws several punches right back
at the coach. So you have a referee and a head
coach engaged in a literal fistfight on the ice.
Yeah, full -on brawl. Stewart then calls over
the police, actual Boston law enforcement, to
forcefully drag Gorman from the visitor's bench.
But the Chicago players refuse to back down.
They sit on the bench and flat -out refuse to
continue the game without their coach. Which
leaves Bill Stewart standing on the ice, realizing
the opposing team is effectively staging a wildcat
strike. So Stewart places the puck at center
ice. Boston's Cooney Weiland skates down an entirely
empty rink, completely alone, and scores a goal
without a single Chicago player on the ice. The
game is officially forfeited to Boston. And this
wasn't just a funny brawl for the papers. This
was a breaking point. It forced the NHL executives
to realize they couldn't be taken seriously as
a national business if their officials were engaging
in street fights and teams were refusing to play.
You just can't sell that product to advertisers.
Also, there's a brilliant piece of irony buried
in the sources here. Oh, about Stewart. Yeah.
That same referee, Bill Stewart, who had the
Chicago coach arrested, would actually go on
to become the head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks
just a few years later. He led them to a Stanley
Cup in the 1937 -38 season. The guy you had arrested
comes back to win you a championship. Incredible.
So, after a regular season featuring brawling
refs and goalie captains, we arrive at the playoffs.
And the structure back then was very different.
The two division winners, Boston and Toronto,
got a bye directly to the semifinals to face
each other. Meanwhile, the second and third place
teams battled it out in two -game total goal
series. For the listener who is only used to
modern playoff series where you just have to
win four games, how does a total goal series
actually work on the ice? It completely changes
the strategy of the game. You aren't just trying
to win the night. You are managing an aggregate
score over two games. Let's say your team wins
game one by a score of five to nothing. A blowout.
Exactly. But in game two, you could theoretically
lose door to nothing and you still advance because
your total aggregate score is five to four. Yeah.
It meant that late in the game, even if you were
losing badly on the scoreboard that night, every
single goal mattered immensely. You could never
take your foot off the gas. And the New York
Rangers were the absolute masters of it this
year. As the third seed in the American division,
the Rangers had to survive a brutal total goal
series against the Montreal Canadiens, winning
8 -5 on aggregate. Then they went up against
the Detroit Red Wings in another total goal series
and won that one 6 -3. So the Rangers punched
their ticket to the Stanley Cup Finals. But the
real story of the playoffs. the event that truly
defines this entire season, happened in that
other bracket. The semifinal matchup between
the American division champion Boston Bruins
and the Canadian division champion Toronto Maple
Leafs. The Maple Leafs were powered by their
famous kid line, right? Yes, the kid line was
legendary. It was a trio of young, dynamic stars,
Charlie Conacher, Harvey Busher Jackson, and
Joe Primo. They were fast, they were incredibly
skilled, and they were the undeniable engine
of that Toronto team. So they go up against Boston.
It's a best -of -five series. They split the
first four games. Boston takes Game 3 in overtime.
Toronto takes Game 4. It all comes down to a
decisive Game 5 on April 3, 1933, at Maple Leaf
Gardens. And this game... The game becomes a
monument to human endurance. I want you to really
visualize this arena. It's important to set the
scene. They play the first period, no score.
Second period, no score. Third period, no score.
We head into sudden death overtime. One period
of overtime goes by, nothing. Double overtime,
nothing. Triple overtime. Think about the fans
sitting in the stands. It's past midnight. They
have to go to work the next day, but they can't
leave because it's sudden death. Every shot could
end the season. And you have to consider the
physical toll on the players. These men are wearing
heavy, waterlogged wool sweaters and thick leather
pads. They don't have the lightweight composite
materials, the carbon fiber skates, or the advanced
nutrition and hydration we see today. They didn't
even have Zambonas back then to resurface the
ice. Oh, wow. So by the third or fourth overtime,
that ice must have been absolute garbage. Deep
ruts, snow everywhere, making it nearly impossible
to make a crisp pass or skate at full speed.
Exactly. It was a slushy, heavy mess. They were
running on pure, unadulterated willpower. And
the goaltenders, it's a duel for the ages between
Boston's Tiny Thompson and Toronto's Lorne Chabot,
making save after save, period after period,
kicking away heavy wet pucks through the snow.
It goes into the fourth overtime, the fifth overtime.
Can you imagine the atmosphere? The sheer exhaustion,
your skates are dull, your jersey weighs 15 pounds
from the sweat and melting ice. Finally, at four
minutes and 46 seconds into the sixth overtime
period, Toronto's Ken Doherty manages to find
a lane and slip the puck past Tiny Thompson.
Toronto wins it 1 -0. The time is approaching
1 .30 in the morning. That game immediately entered
the record books as the longest game in NHL history
at the time. It is still the second longest game
ever played. league. When you think about the
physical and mental toll playing essentially
three entire hockey games back to back in a single
night, it is almost incomprehensible. The precision
required to finally end it, or perhaps just the
sheer breakdown of the Boston defense that allowed
Doherty to score, is a testament to the absolute
limits of these athletes. It's an incredible
feat. But for Toronto, the victory was almost
a curse. Because remember those Newark Rangers
who advanced through the total goal series? They
were waiting in the Stanley Cup final. Exhaustion
inevitably catches up. It's a classic sports
narrative. The team that survives the marathon
battle rarely has enough left in the tank for
the final war. The Rangers were rested and ready.
The Maple Leafs were essentially dead on their
feet. In Game 1 of the Finals, the Rangers completely
blew them out, winning 5 -1. Toronto managed
to scrape together enough energy to rally for
a win in Game 2, but they quickly hit a wall.
New York's goalie, Andy Aikenhead, was phenomenal,
shutting the door when it mattered most. And
the Rangers' star forward, Bill Cook, completely
stole the show, ultimately scoring the cup -clinching
goal in overtime of Game 4. The Rangers defeated
the exhausted Maple Leafs three games to one,
capturing the Stanley Cup. It really highlights
the brutal reality of the playoff format at the
time. You fight through the longest game in history
just to earn the right to play a fully rested
opponent. And a huge reason the Rangers were
ready was Bill Cook. He wasn't just a playoff
hero. If you look at the regular season data,
he was dominant. He led the entire league in
scoring with 28 goals and 50 points in 48 games.
Meanwhile, Boston's legendary defenseman, Eddie
Shore, won the Hart Trophy as the league's most
valuable player. We also saw a significant historical
first in the awards department this season. This
was the very first time that NHL president Frank
Calder officially named a rookie of the year.
The inaugural honor went to Detroit Red Wings
forward Carl Voss. Carl Voss, cementing his name
in trivia history forever. But as much as we
love looking at these historical stats, there's
something in the award voting from this season
that mathematically makes no sense. This raises
an important question about how we evaluate greatness.
We see the analytics versus the eye test debate
all the time on sports media today. But it turns
out this exact same argument was happening in
1933. There's a glaring contradiction centered
entirely around Boston's goaltender, Tiny Thompson.
The guy who just played six overtimes and made
countless saves in slushy ice. Yes. So Tiny Thompson
won the Vazina Trophy, which is awarded to the
league's top goaltender. If you look at the hard
data, it is undisputed. He led the league with
a staggering 1 .76 goals against average. He
recorded 11 shutouts. He played exactly 3 ,000
minutes. The stats declare him unequivocally
the best goalie on the ice that year based on
preventing goals. That seems pretty cut and dry.
You stopped the most pucks. You were the best
goalie. You would think so. And yet, when it
came time to name the NHL All -Star team, Tiny
Thompson was completely left off the first team.
That honor went to Detroit's John Ross Roach.
Thompson wasn't even named to the second team
that went to Chicago's Chuck Gardner. Wait, so
the guy who officially wins the award for being
the best goaltender in the entire league, based
on the actual math, isn't considered one of the
top two goaltenders by the All -Star voters?
Precisely. I want you to consider how subjective
human voting can completely contradict hard data.
The Vizina was based on an objective mathematical
reality, allowing the fewest goals. But the all
-star teams were voted on by people with biases,
regional favorites, and subjective opinions on
what made a player look great on the ice. The
eye test completely ignored the analytics. It's
a paradox that proves some arguments in sports
never actually change. So what does this all
mean? We've talked about a league navigating
the Great Depression, rule changes that forced
goalies to become captains, owners taxing players
for looking apathetic, referees throwing punches
and calling the cops on coaches, and a six overtime
epic that pushed the human body to its absolute
limits. It means that the highly polished corporate
sports leagues you watch today didn't just spring
into existence fully formed. They were forged
in an era of trial, error and sheer passion.
The 1932 -33 NHL season is a microcosm of a sport
figuring out its boundaries. It's raw, it's unfiltered,
and the characters who lived it were navigating
a completely different world. Every bizarre rule,
every total goals series, and every unbelievable
anecdote from this season became a stepping stone
to the modern game we recognize today. Just an
incredible slice of history. And I want to leave
you with one final thought to mull over as we
wrap up this deep dive. Think about the psychology
of the Boston Bruins after Game 5 of the semifinals.
Imagine playing the... equivalent of nearly three
full hockey games in a single night. You're skating
on heavy waterlogged equipment. You're taking
hit after hit on chewed up ice. Your goalie is
making save after save. You pour every ounce
of your physical and emotional being onto that
rink only to lose one to zero in the sixth overtime
and have your entire season instantly end. How
long does a ghost like that haunt a locker room?
What does the silent train ride back to Boston
even sound like? It's something to ponder the
next time you hear a modern team complain about
being tired on the second night of a back to
back. Thank you for diving deep with us today.