A Great Game (24 page)

Even so, the Torontos' season opener seemed jinxed from the beginning. The morning newspapers were not even thinking hockey. They were instead consumed with the sudden passing of Ned Hanlan at age fifty-two. The “Boy in Blue” had been Canada's first-ever world champion—a rowing prize he captured before 100,000 spectators on
the River Thames—and he had been the city's most beloved athlete for years. “The death of Edward Hanlan removed the most famous oarsman that ever lived,” reported the
Globe
. “Nor is it likely that any other who comes after him will occupy so large a share of public attention.”
¹³

There was yet another serious distraction: the weather. Toronto was experiencing a sustained early-season thaw. As a contemporary cartoon illustrates (above), the ice was disappearing everywhere. Besides threatening game conditions, the situation left little opportunity for the home team to practice.

Nevertheless, 1,800 spectators streamed into the rink that night to see the match, again demonstrating Toronto's hunger for top-rank hockey. The crowd included a couple of hundred who had come down on a special train from Berlin.

Berlin won by a score of 3–0, but the game reports focused more on the appalling circumstances than on the actual play. The
News
labelled
it “Hockey on Bare Floor” and observed that “by the time play ceased there was not ten yards of solid ice in the rink.”
¹⁴
In such conditions, players hitting exposed boards were thrown headlong. The puck was often indistinguishable from the sugary slush mixing with the sand beneath.

The consensus was best summed up by the
World
: “The Flying Dutchmen of Berlin proved better mud horses than the Torontos.”
¹⁵

The Professionals, like the Marlboros before them, were a fast, skilled but light unit, especially up front. They had decent goaltending, but suspect defence. Predictions generally held that they could take the Dutchmen in a real contest on good ice, and these predictions were prescient, for Toronto's games against Berlin would be the pivotal matches of that first OPHL season.

The Toronto Professionals' second match of the season was out of town against Brantford, the team many considered the strongest in the league. Just the same, “Brown's Braves”
¹⁶
were also off to a rough start, having lost their first game to Guelph. The Pros did some shuffling. As Gee was down with a bad cold, Lambe came in at point and Corbeau moved up to cover.

The Torontos again lost. They fell 7–6 after Morrison, who had led the visitors' attack, broke a skate and had to sit out. By this time even Robertson's
Tely
raved about the encounter on Brantford ice, calling it “a tremendously fast game, with brilliant combination . . . played before a record crowd.”
¹⁷
Readers must have wondered how the
Telegram
's sports department managed to get such copy past the publisher.

For Brantford, Taylor and Marks had led the charge. A side story was the Braves' attempt to slip the ageless Pete Charlton into their lineup. He had come from Pittsburgh for the occasion. Alas, old Pete arrived with two right skates and could not lace up. Despite some inkling he had really come only to sign up players for the Western Pennsylvania league, a generous management paid him anyway.

Only three days after losing in Brantford, the Torontos would face their next road test at Guelph. This first of two matches against the Royal City septet was gaining a sense of urgency. While the twelve-game OPHL season was long by Ontario standards—an OHA team typically played four to eight—being in last place with a 0–2 record was still worrisome. The Royals were supposed to be the league's weak sisters. Victories against them were thus essential.

The hometown had a couple of interesting characters in its lineup. Harvey Corbeau, at cover, was the cousin of Toronto's Con. Also dressed was none other than Buck Irving himself. The league's secretary, the rink owner's son and the team's manager was also Guelph's point man. However, Irving injured a knee early in what would prove to be his last game as a player.

For the Torontos, Lambe
¹⁸
got his second straight start, with Corbeau again moved to cover. This time, no explanation was given for Gee's absence on defence. One presumes he was quietly cut at some point. Hereafter, his name vanishes from all reports.

Toronto defeated Guelph 4–3 and was judged very lucky to have won. Despite leading 2–0 at the half and 3–1 early in the second, they were badly outplayed and the score was tied with less than two minutes remaining in the game. Tyner had been great in what the Guelph
Mercury
considered the best hockey game ever played there. It ruefully described the winning marker, a hat-trick goal by Toronto's centre:

Finally, Bert Morrison lifted a shot from the side. Booth got in front of it, but the puck went through his skates and rolled tantalizingly and slowly, but very surely into the nets. It was all over but the shouting, and there wasn't much of that.
¹⁹

With the bare victory, one particular gripe among Toronto hockey fans was reaching a crescendo: the decision to play Rolly Young at right wing while moving Mallen to rover—a peculiar arrangement from the outset. Young had played rover before, whereas Mallen had been sought specifically to fill the right-wing position. Although Rolly had worked hard in the first three games, his “serpentine” rushing style left him constantly out of position. At the same time, Mallen, while clearly having speed to burn, had sometimes seemed indifferent in his efforts.

Whatever the reason for this odd placement, the situation was resolved when Mallen defected to the ECAHA's Montreal Wheelers shortly after the game at Guelph. Next came word that Morrison—to this point the team's best performer—was also going to Montreal, to play for the Shamrocks. His stint there was said to be a temporary, second-employer
arrangement. If the management of the Toronto Professionals were not worried before, they surely were now.

Miln quickly brought in two new men. One was Walter Mercer, Guelph's former star right winger. Irving cried foul, but he had already lost Wally before the season began. Mercer had been with the Ottawa Vics for their Stanley Cup semifinal against Renfrew. Interestingly, Mercer had played against Con Corbeau, then a ringer with the Creamery Kings.

The other man was a young French Canadian far better known—and better rated—at the time as a lacrosse player. He was the star goalkeeper of the Cornwall Lacrosse Club, one of the country's best. Soon, however, the potential of “Newsy” Lalonde in the national winter sport would become evident for all to see.

Without Lalonde, the Toronto Professionals were a good team. With him, they would become a Stanley Cup contender.

The Torontos Reach for the Stanley Cup

For the quintessence of gall commend us to this aggregation of false alarm hockey statesmen, who have wired a challenge for the Stanley Cup: to wit and namely the Toronto professionals. There can be no doubt but that the Wanderers upon receiving the wire last night laughed themselves to sleep.
¹

—
Toronto Telegram

None of the notices in Toronto had prepared fans for the significance of this new arrival. Newsy Lalonde's weight and toughness would add real punch to the Torontos' forward line, something it had been missing ever since the departure of Tommy Phillips back in the Marlboro era. Also unknown was the fierceness of Newsy's competitive streak and temper—attributes that were to make him a perpetual source of controversy.

The idea of signing Lalonde had come from Jimmy Murphy, manager of the Toronto Lacrosse Club and a respected local hockey coach. Besides the lacrosse connection, both Lalonde and Murphy hailed from Cornwall, the most easterly city in Ontario. The manufacturing centre was a significant sports hub of the day. Newsy had come up through the town's OHA and Federal league teams before moving on to the Canadian Soo for the International league's final campaign. He had had a
good season there. However, he had started 1907–08 in Portage la Prairie, where the reviews had been poor.