A Great Game (30 page)

Irving immediately set off on his familiar routine of loud self-promotion. He dropped the names of some big potential signings and hinted at others. However, Buck was not repeating his Guelph mistake. He began to recruit realistically and aggressively—and in the process started to create tensions with other league owners.

St. Catharines also had an unhappy history with the OHA. A bastion of lacrosse, its hockey program had been devastated by Robertson's 1904 take-no-prisoners ban on players of the summer game. Two years after that, a hockey team sponsored by the local power company had played a visiting IHL pro team, leading to the breakup of the local amateur league.

With an eye on OPHL membership, the Athletic Lacrosse Club of St. Catharines had formed a pro hockey team during the previous season. The squad had played one exhibition game. It was against Hamilton's pros, a rival also organized by lacrosse players. St. Kitts won decisively and thus prepared to establish a permanent club.

At the outset of the season there was some doubt, however, whether
the Ontario capital itself would continue to compete against these other provincial towns. After their strong showing in the Stanley Cup game, rumours swirled around the Toronto Professionals' possible admission to the ECHA. These continued until late November, when Miln was said to have finally rejected a written offer from the Eastern league.

The Eastern teams no doubt wanted Toronto to make up for the defections to the Interprovincial and to blunt the competitive threat the new circuit represented. This time, Miln seems to have been tempted. In the end, though, he came to the same conclusions he had in the past. The Mutual Street Rink lacked the seating capacity to finance the transportation costs involved. The Ontario league represented smaller, but closer markets and was easy on the budget. And, of course, he still did not have that new rink.

With fans' appetite for the pro game so whetted by the Stanley Cup challenge, local opinion was distinctly disappointed by Miln's decision. The clear desire of Toronto fans was to be in a “big league” with Montreal. Worryingly for Miln and the Professionals' supporters, such a rivalry is what the amateur game, with its new Big Four league, would offer Toronto hockey fans.

The local Interprovincial entry, sponsored by the Toronto Amateur Athletic Club, set up shop at the Excelsior Rink on College Street. Percy Quinn and Eddie Livingstone—two hockey men of whom much would be heard in the years to come—were among the team's management. The TAAC, in bright crimson uniforms decorated with a large white
T
, also liked to use the name “Torontos.”

The challenge was not subtle.

For the Toronto Pros, the first order of business was to re-sign their roster. The players having scattered during the post-Cup exhibition tour in March, this was no easy feat. As well, competition for good players remained intense despite the smaller number of pro employers. Even Eastern league interests, having seen the Torontos up close in Stanley Cup play, were approaching some of the club's best men.

Local opponents tried to make much of rumours that the championship men would head to Pittsburgh. Corbeau, for one, did suit up in the
Smoky City. However, the truth was that those who went did so only to get in shape by playing on artificial ice during the preseason. The Western Pennsylvania league could no longer afford to lure quality players from Canada for the main campaign. In fact, this would be its last year of operation.

Ironically, the most problematic approaches came from within the OPHL itself. The other clubs—especially Berlin—made determined efforts to sign the members of the Torontos. Flagrantly ignoring the $25 salary limit, they were driving up Miln's payroll in the process. The Queen City manager would be successful in signing his core men—Corbeau, Lalonde, Morrison, Ridpath and Tyner. He did allow Mercer to be taken back by Guelph.

The biggest loss was Young—in an affair that got quite complicated. The Toronto captain had long had an uneasy relationship with the game. Despite the money earned and modest success on the ice, Rolly's real desire was to become a medical doctor. After the Stanley Cup match, he had mused about retiring and did not accompany the team on its postseason Ontario swing.

Despite declaring in the fall that he was finished, Young was later talked into inking a fat contract by Berlin president Oscar Rumpel and manager W. G. “Pop” Williams. Rolly realized almost immediately, however, that the new twenty-game OPHL schedule was too intense for his studies at the U of T. He asked to be released to play part-time in Toronto instead. Berlin refused and, after a great deal of haggling and threatened retirement, Young decided to stay with the game—but it would have to be in the Dutchmen's lineup.

With Young gone, the Toronto captaincy passed to Newsy Lalonde. Though only twenty-one years of age, the intense French Canadian was showing an increasing interest in leadership and a strong commitment to the franchise. He had, for example, helped get fellow Cornwall man Don Smith to fill in for Bert Morrison at the end of 1907–08.

As captain, Lalonde now had a hand in player recruitment. This was fortuitous. With the Federal league gradually fading, Lalonde's old stomping grounds in eastern Ontario were a good place to look for new talent. Lalonde knew the best players and had the contacts. Miln smartly sent Lalonde on the road east, where his first convert was Zina Runions. Another fellow Cornwall man, Runions was hired to take Mercer's place at right wing. Originally a goalkeeper, his résumé included the infamous March 1907 brawl against the Ottawa Vics that had resulted in the death of Bud McCourt.

Miln also re-signed Hugh Lambe as a spare defenceman and Herb Birmingham, a proven goal scorer, as a spare forward. Birmingham's contract meant that, of the 1904–05 OHA champion Toronto Marlboros, all the regulars had now gone pro except Edgar Winchester. And virtually all had signed at one time or another with the local Professionals.

The real catch was the netting of one Erskine “Skene” Ronan. The Ottawa lad had been a junior sensation before turning pro. Corbeau, returning from the West Penn league, had confirmed the rookie's talent. Although Ronan had been on the wings for the Pittsburgh Bankers, Miln intended to play him in Young's place at cover point.

The club now had five Stanley Cup regulars and good new men. Queen City opinion on the season's prospects was pretty optimistic. The
News
was the most unequivocal: “It looks as if the team would be even better than last year's, when they won the championship.”
¹³

The Ontario Pro league began its 1908–09 campaign with an aggressive preseason schedule. Its clubs played in no fewer than nine exhibition matches. Two of these would involve the Torontos.

The first was a road game against the Berlin Dutchmen. Last season's runners-up had succeeded in strengthening themselves through their frantic recruiting efforts. Besides Young from Toronto, they had also lured Billy “Lady” Taylor from Brantford, Art Serviss from Portage la Prairie and goalie Hugh Lehman from Pembroke of the Upper Ottawa Valley league. However, they had lost star cover Goldie Cochrane, signed by Buck Irving for Galt.

The Torontos had been training hard for the Christmas Day encounter, both on dry land and some early-winter ice. They were, however, without Runions and Ronan, who were still a couple of days away from relocating to Toronto. Birmingham, a natural centre, was pressed into service at right wing. At cover, the team borrowed Brantford bad boy Cap McDonald, who had returned from Pittsburgh. The presence of such bitter rivals as McDonald and Lalonde on the same side reminded fans that pro allegiance is a fleeting thing.

The Torontos had a decided advantage over Berlin, playing its second game that day. The Dutchmen had beaten Galt on the road, but fell behind the Professionals early and stayed that way most of the game. Nevertheless, they fought back to tie 5–5 before time expired. Toronto then wisely declined Berlin's offer to play off the draw.

The game was considered a good one, but a rough one. Young's performance had mixed reviews, but his defection only accentuated the bad blood between the clubs. Again, Uncle Gross was at the centre of the battles, this time principally with Corbeau. Lalonde and Ridpath picked up where they had left off in leading the Toronto offence.

The Torontos' home opener would be the only one of the preseason exhibitions not to feature two OPHL teams. It originated with Miln's
attempts to get the Edmonton Seniors to come to Toronto. Those plans went awry when the recent Stanley Cup challenger started to break up shortly after its loss in Montreal. Fortunately, Manager Miln was able to snare the Ottawa Hockey Club in the meantime.