A Great Game (31 page)

The match between the Toronto Professionals and Ottawa Silver Seven was a real coup. These two teams were widely considered the principal threats to the Montreal Wanderers' hold on the Cup. The Ottawas had bolstered themselves through the replacement of some aging veterans, in particular by luring Bruce Stuart from the Redbands.

As it happened, Stuart was either hurt or ill (depending on the report) and did not dress that Saturday evening, January 2, at the Mutual Street Rink. Still, the Ottawas lined up an impressive septet: Percy LeSueur, Fred Lake, Fred Taylor, Edgar Dey, Marty Walsh, Billy Gilmour and Hamby Shore. Cyclone Taylor's return to Toronto was his first since the OHA junior final of 1903–04.

With ticket prices hiked for the occasion—fifty cents for general admission, $1 for reserved seating—the teams did not disappoint. The encounter was fast and hard, with the Torontos matching the legendary dirty play of the Ottawas blow for blow. Lalonde put Gilmour out of the game with a cross-check to the mouth. Morrison was assigned to check Taylor, and the two went at each other all night.

In fact, the Professionals—their full lineup in place—were more than a match for the Ottawas, winning 5–4. Despite a clearly weaker defence, the hard skating and checking of their forwards slowed and frequently reversed the attack of the husky visitors. Walsh got three goals for Ottawa, but Taylor was held scoreless, while Morrison got two. Tyner equalled the renowned LeSueur at every turn.

For a club setting out to capture the Stanley Cup, it was a brilliant start to the year. Even the
Globe
, one of the harshest critics of the Pros, was impressed:

It is not intended to detract from the abilities of the great seven from Ottawa, but the Torontos were just as good, and a little better, and would repeat the victory in three games out of four.
¹⁴

Impressive as the Toronto Professionals had been, they would begin their regular season with a significant hole in their lineup. Bert Morrison would
not dress for the OPHL opener the following Tuesday in Berlin. He had apparently been hurt in the Ottawa game, though the nature of the injury was not disclosed. In the interim, Birmingham took his place at rover. The Ottawa exhibition had also featured the appearance of another new player. Albert “Dubbie” Kerr had replaced Runions at right wing halfway through the game. Recruited from Pittsburgh just in time for the season, his play had been exceptional. However, as the club hit the road, he was becoming the centre of controversy.

Kerr had been negotiating with both Toronto and Berlin. While it was claimed he signed first with the Professionals, the Dutchmen had paid for his transportation to Canada. An angry manager Williams bluntly told the press: “Kerr accepted and used our transportation and he's our man. Why, his trunk is here at the station.”
¹⁵

Miln had barely arrived at his hotel when he was loudly accosted by Berlin's senior people. The yelling continued until the game was supposed to start, and then some. The home team finally consented to allow Dubbie to play, but only under protest to the league executive.

The dispute only heightened the increasingly bitter rivalry between the two clubs. With both sides running the goalies, a good half-dozen scraps filled the night. The main event was between the former defence partners, Corbeau and Young.

It was also an exciting, seesaw game. In better condition thanks to longer preseason ice, Berlin eventually pulled through by a count of 8–7. As for Kerr, despite the loss, opinion was clearly that “he is a player worth fighting for.”
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The same lineup would get another chance—this time at home on Saturday against Guelph. The Royals' new management had not cured the club's problems. Uncertainty over financing had led to the abrupt dismissal and rehiring of its personnel around Christmas.

By the time the visitors arrived in Toronto, however, things were looking up somewhat. Guelph had come off a 2–2 preseason with some decent newcomers in uniform. Walter Mercer was back at right wing, rejoining Herb Fyfe at centre. Alex Miln believed the new rover, Howard Manson, to be “the fastest man in the league.”
¹⁷

Although the game was entertaining, the Royals proved no match for the Torontos. The local Pros pulled ahead early on power plays and won handily by a score of 15–8. At one point, they even managed to score while short two men. All the forwards had helped run up the count.

With a win and a near win, the club was satisfied with the season's first week on the ice. There was even more reason to celebrate at the box office. The Saturday-night game had gone head to head with the TAAC's Interprovincial match—and it was no contest. Nearly 2,000 turned out to see the professional Torontos at Mutual. The amateur version got clobbered by the Montreal Wheelers 14–7 before a small crowd at the Excelsior.

The Torontos headed into a busy second week with some storm clouds gathering around their lineup. Morrison remained out and was now said to be suffering from an “illness.”
¹⁸
Lalonde had received a bad gash to the foot in the season opener, leading to his early exit when it was reinjured against Guelph. As well, rumours had the other owners siding with Berlin in the Kerr dispute. There were further reports that, frustrated with the situation, Dubbie was about to jump at an offer from Ottawa.

On Monday night, the team travelled to Brantford and managed to put both Newsy and Dubbie on the ice just the same. It was a good thing. Brantford was widely rated as Toronto's most dangerous competitor. Notwithstanding the loss of Taylor and the retirement of Roy Brown as a player, the Braves had strengthened overall, especially with the addition of forwards Tommy Smith and Art Throop from Pittsburgh. This season's games with Brantford, much like the previous year's with Berlin, would prove to be the critical turning points of the campaign.

This first one was another well-attended, wildly entertaining and hard-fought match, but with the Torontos again coming up short. All the players—with the exception of Birmingham—were judged to have played well. Unfortunately, the Braves had the edge and pulled ahead in the final minutes to win 9–6.

It was a big loss on the ice, followed by bigger ones off the ice. Kerr
defected to the Ottawas almost as quickly as the final bell sounded. The later, bizarre decision of the league to award him to neither Toronto nor Berlin, but instead to Guelph, only confirmed the personal wisdom of his move. Lalonde was also lost, at least temporarily. Shortly after the game, he was confined to bed, as, apparently, was Morrison. Newsy had a serious case of blood poisoning. He was hospitalized just in time, the attending physician judging him fortunate to have avoided the amputation of his foot.

With the club badly hobbled, it headed back to Mutual Street for a game on Wednesday against Buck Irving's new Galt club. Runions moved back into Kerr's place at right wing. The surprise was on defence. Corbeau, Ronan and Birmingham were all moved up a slot, while Lawson Whitehead was tried out at point. Whitehead was a star with Toronto's Tecumseh Lacrosse Club and had been trying to get a place on the pro hockey team since its inception.

Galt had a solid lineup, much of it recruited from the other OPHL clubs. It included Goldie Cochrane and his brother, Marsh, on the forward line. Bob Mercer, brother of Walter, was in the nets. Despite some contract scraps with key players, “Irving's Indians”
¹⁹
were undefeated in the league race and doing reasonably well at the box office.

Again the Torontos lost a close affair, this time 5–4. It was a game in which rough play was as common as “samples of Red Rose tea at a country fair.”
²⁰
The hosts were judged the worse offenders. It ultimately cost them due to a key call against goalie Chuck Tyner. Tyner had again played a solid game, but he took a late penalty. That allowed Galt to score the eventual winner while Corbeau was left guarding the cage. Chuck tried valiantly to compensate by joining the rush in the closing moments. For the visitors, the surprise had been Pete Charlton. Playing point at the age of thirty, he had been one of the best performers on the ice.

Having lost three key players, the Torontos were now a fairly ordinary lot (excepting, of course, the sensational Ridpath). Miln had promised
to spare no expense to retain the championship, but with just one win in four league games, the club was beginning to fall back. Although opinion thus far was that he deserved “sympathy rather than criticism,”
²¹
pressure was on the manager to make good.

The next game—at St. Catharines on Friday night—would be a must-win.

St. Kitts had a very weak team. Winless in four (counting one exhibition), the Athletics
²²
had not been close in a single game. Their predicament was deepened by management's insistence on being the sole OPHL club to stick to the $25-a-player salary cap. By now their starting goaltender, 1906–07 Toronto Pro Mark Tooze, had quit in favour of Clarence Gorrie of the stillborn 1905–06 squad. More general turmoil was setting in, with some of their better players jumping ship and returning to Pittsburgh.

Miln was also making changes. He ended the Whitehead experiment by bringing the club's old reliable, Hugh Lambe, back at point. He also dumped Runions for good. Although tough, the right winger was judged to be otherwise inadequate. He would be replaced by Fred Young, little brother of Rolly.
²³
Fred had played the previous season in Pittsburgh, where the reviews had been fairly good.

The revamped squad played reasonably well and won 7–4 in front of a fairly large crowd. The Torontos had fallen behind 3–1 early on, relying on Tyner to keep it close. After that, the visitors had gradually overpowered a home side filled out with local intermediates.

While Toronto's lineup holes were challenging, it was Brantford who evoked the sympathy that second week. Heading home from a Wednesday game at Guelph, the Braves were involved in a terrible train wreck on the Grand Trunk line. Most badly injured was right winger Jack Marks. Marks had played with the local club in last year's Cup game and postseason. By all accounts, his extensive injuries would mean the end of his career. The
Star
gave unusual praise to a professional, calling Marks “a faithful and skilful player, who always gave his best efforts to his employers.”
²⁴

The big gaps in Brantford's roster would mean even more intense
competition for Miln in his efforts to shore up his team. But the manager was not letting up. For the next game, Monday, January 18, in Toronto, he would bring in yet another new defenceman and right winger. The first was “Stoke” Doran of the Pittsburgh Bankers. Husky, though often awkward on his skates, he resembled rearguard partner Con Corbeau enough to be mistaken for him. The second was Harold McNamara, one of three hockey-playing brothers from Sault Ste. Marie. McNamara was one of the former Edmontons who had gone his own way after the Cup challenge.