A Great Game (27 page)

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. Surely the pros. have no idea they can hope to win, so that we may put this proposed trip down more to pot hunting than the glory of Canada's great winter sport.
¹⁵

More balanced assessments of the challengers—including from Montreal's own observers—were consistent. The Torontos were judged to have as strong, fast and cohesive a forward unit as any, although, except for Lalonde, it was a bit on the small side. The challengers' weakness was in their back end—heavy, but lacking in consistency and teamwork. Corbeau contributed little on offence while Young was erratic defensively. Tyner was thought to be a fine goalkeeper, but had been mediocre in the latter half of the season.

Miln had a few options to shore up his club. The spare man, Lambe, could be used on defence. Yet, despite fan preference for the local player over Corbeau, there seemed little prospect of a switch. Given the risk that Morrison might stay out, Alex decided he also needed an additional spare forward.

The manager's solution was to ask all-star Jack Marks to come east with the team. Besides being a solid player, Marks had some Stanley Cup experience. He had scored two goals for the New Glasgow Cubs in their losing effort back in 1906. Still, what Miln really wanted was neither Smith nor Marks, but to get Morrison back in the lineup where he played best: on the large ice surface of the Montreal Arena.

Miln had been paying close attention to the Wanderers' grumbling about the Stanley Cup playoffs. Frustrated by numerous challenges, the champs had been complaining there was too much work and not enough money in holding the mug. Wanderer president William Jennings even claimed that “most of us feel inclined to send the cup to Toronto, and let them have it, and be done with it.”
¹⁶

More than a century later, with the Stanley Cup perhaps the most
revered trophy in the sporting world, such a comment seems incomprehensible to hockey fans.

Miln shrewdly figured out the real story. There was no way the Wanderers actually wanted to part with the Cup. Even then, being in the playoffs was gravy for a professional team. In truth, the problem was that the second game of the Toronto series conflicted with the Redbands' plans for their annual—and lucrative—barnstorming pilgrimage to the States.

The Wanderers were slated to take their Montreal Shamrock rivals to New York for a St. Patrick's Day match. Following that, they would play a “World Championship” against the winners of the Pittsburgh league. Cleveland's brand-new artificial-ice rink would be their final stop.

With this knowledge, Alex wired the Cup trustees. He had previously refused the Wanderers' request for a sudden-death game. However, through Foran and Ross, he now offered the Wanderers a one-game series in exchange for permission to play Morrison. The Montreal club's options being limited, they took what was a reasonable deal. Morrison was back in the Torontos' lineup.

Bert was already in Montreal and joined the team and a small band of supporters watching the final game of the Winnipeg Maple Leaf challenge. The Torontos were not discouraged by their look at the champions. Despite losing badly, the Leafs delivered a full load of physical punishment to the victors. Montrealers bemoaned:

If the Toronto professionals are human . . . they must have chortled with glee last night when the Maple Leaf lot hammered, slashed, and thrust at Wanderer players. The net result of the affair was this: Wanderer won by the substantial score of nine goals to three; but practically every player of the cup team left the ice marked, and two of them, Cecil Blachford and Walter Smaill, carried off liberal loads of adhesive plaster as facile [
sic
] ornaments.
¹⁷

Whether it was from having Morrison playing or the Cup champions hurting, Alex Miln was getting into a confident frame of mind. His encounters with the press in the rotunda of the Windsor Hotel, where he was renting a palatial suite, became increasingly cocky. Dismissive of key
Wanderer stars, he rated his team as, man for man, equal to the champs and even better on offence. And he bragged:

I haven't managed championship teams for nothing. Every man I've taken in hand has won a championship, and every one has been a good one. Our boys are all good, can skate, stick handle and shoot, and I'll be the sorest man in America if we don't win out.
¹⁸

This was certainly not the consensus. The betting pools leading up to game time had the Wanderers as 3–1 favourites. Odds were 2–1 that they would double the score on the Ontario representatives.

On the evening of Saturday, March 14, 1908, the big rink at the corner of St. Catherine Street and Wood Avenue opened its doors to an eager
crowd. When the Toronto Professionals took the ice to polite applause from the half-full stands, it marked the moment when hockey had come full circle. It had been some twenty years since the sport had first been played in Toronto. Now Canada's upstart commercial centre was taking on Montreal's best at its own game. Back home, fans waited patiently at the Mutual Street Rink for the wires from the Montreal Arena. Local sentiment was rallying around the pro team—with the notable exception of Robertson's
Tely
.

If the fans in Toronto were wound up, the same could hardly be said for Montreal. It was clear from news coverage that the locals did not take the Ontario champions seriously. Still, the crowd of about 3,000, if hardly a sellout, was better than expected. However, it was also readily apparent that the ice was in awful shape. The mild weather had created vast pools—mini-lakes, actually—on large parts of the slushy playing surface.

The Montreal Wanderers—Stanley Cup holders for most of the past three years—had lined up a cast replete with future Hall of Famers. William “Riley” Hern occupied the nets with Art Ross and Walter Smaill forming the defence in front of him. Frank “Pud” Glass would play rover behind centre Ernie Russell, while captain Cecil Blachford and Ernie “Moose” Johnson filled right and left wing respectively.

The challengers—Chuck Tyner, Con Corbeau, Rolly Young, Bert Morrison, Newsy Lalonde, Walter Mercer and Bruce Ridpath—were comparatively young, inexperienced and relatively unknown. All the same, if the challengers from Toronto were intimidated, they did not show it. The hometown fans were stunned as the Torontos came out fast and aggressive. Only three minutes into the game, Ridpath fired a quick shot that eluded Hern. Hockey-savvy Montrealers, instantly recognizing a future star, gave Bruce “a lusty cheer.”
¹⁹

The early lead did not last. Only a minute later, Russell finished a Montreal rush by putting a hard one past Tyner. Toronto disputed, albeit weakly, whether the puck had actually gone in before returning to centre ice for the faceoff.

Although the Wanderers continued to be noticeably outplayed, they stayed even with the Torontos throughout the half. With just four minutes left, Ridpath made an end-to-end rush—the best individual play of the night—but it ended when Hern handled his shot comfortably.

Almost from the outset, the horrid ice conditions started to become a
major factor in the game. Opposing players bogged down into scrums as they tried to control the puck and force it through the water. They were drenched from head to toe, as were the fans on the rails. At such close quarters, offsides were frequent, numerous penalties incurred and even more fouls committed as tempers grew short. Russell and Mercer had the first scrap of the night.

The first big controversy took shape just near the end of the half. Russell went down, favouring a knee. The Redbands immediately sought to substitute Bruce Stuart, younger brother of the late Hod and a star in his own right. But even the local fans were not buying the authenticity of the injury. They shouted “incredulous remarks”
²⁰
as Russell left the ice. Toronto protested against the use of Stuart. He was not allowed into the game, and Toronto's Mercer went off to even up the sides.

After the halftime break, during which frantic efforts were made to soak up some of the water, the dispute immediately resumed. Stuart again came on the ice. This time, referee Frank Patrick and judge of play Russell Bowie permitted the change. They argued that the intermission constituted the ten-minute break necessary before substitution for injury could be made under eastern rules.

The Torontos were irate at the decision. Not only did they disagree with the ruling, but they did not believe Russell was hurt. The Wanderers, they were convinced, wanted only to replace a player whose performance had been subpar. The Professionals even threatened to leave the ice, but compromised when they got to make a substitution of their own. Jack Marks was moved in for Mercer, who, though playing adequately, was fighting a cold and favouring an ankle.

From the beginning of the second, the Queen City started getting into penalty trouble. Both Young and Corbeau were off when Glass broke the tie off the top. He banged the puck in after a faceoff directly in front of Tyner.

The Torontos came right back. Only two minutes later, Ross lost the puck while trying to clear it. Lalonde managed to dig it out of the slush in front of the Montreal goal and evened the score at two apiece.

Only one minute after that, the Toronto challengers went ahead for the second time in the evening. Young joined the forward line on a rush. Taking control of the puck behind the Wanderer goal, he swept out in front and scored. The Montreal fans were beginning to contemplate the
real possibility of losing the Stanley Cup—and losing it to an unheralded new team from . . .
Toronto
. In a haze caused by smoking and warm temperatures, the atmosphere was becoming very intense.

Again, however, the Pros got into penalty trouble. Ridpath was still in the box, with Young and Lalonde just returning, when Glass took a pass from Johnson to tie the game once more. In the contest, the Torontos would take thirty-eight minutes in penalties to only twenty-six for the Wanderers, a differential that opened up almost entirely in the second half. Young, despite being credited with a very strong two-way game, was singled out six times and served fourteen minutes on the fence.

Ironically, power plays were not as big a factor in the game as might be thought. Toronto had a three-man advantage shortly after the count became 3–3, yet the score would stay that way for ten full minutes. In the tough slogging, lopsided manpower was no assurance of goals or even scoring chances.

Nevertheless, the play was beginning to shift Montreal's way, with Tyner increasingly keeping his team in it. Whereas the Torontos had at first seemed less bothered by—and more accustomed to—the poor conditions, the Wanderers' superior weight was beginning to tell. Stuart's presence had also given their attack some spark. Yet the Ontario champs were still getting their opportunities. Morrison in particular missed a couple of good ones.

The Wanderers finally broke the tie. After a strong offensive thrust, Montreal captain Blachford did the trick, fishing the puck out of water during a wild scramble in front of Tyner. The Torontos were again just returning to even strength.

Then came the most unusual event of the evening. After the go-ahead goal, Ridpath was down on the ice. It was later revealed he had received a butt-end to the groin. The injury was serious enough for Riddy, once on his feet, to leave the game for good. Glass was taken off to compensate.