League National Hockey League Season champion New York Rangers Runners-up Detroit Red Wings Start date 1941 Number of games 48 Season MVP Tommy Anderson | Sport Ice hockey Champions Toronto Maple Leafs Champion Toronto Maple Leafs Top scorer Bryan Hextall Number of teams 7 Finals champion Toronto Maple Leafs | |
Duration November 1, 1941 – April 18, 1942 | ||
The 1941–42 NHL season was the 25th season of the National Hockey League. Seven teams played 48 games each. The Toronto Maple Leafs would win the Stanley Cup defeating the Detroit Red Wings winning four straight after losing the first three in a best-of-seven series, a feat only repeated thrice in NHL history (1975, 2010, 2014) and once in Major League Baseball (2004) as of 2016.
Contents
League business
This season was the last season for the New York Americans who changed their name to the Brooklyn Americans in an attempt to build a civic relationship with those from Flatbush area of New York.
Regular season
The Americans started the season without Harvey "Busher" Jackson who refused to sign. He was then sold to Boston. But the Amerks had two positive notes: two defencemen, Tommy Anderson and Pat Egan, were now All-Star calibre. That didn't prevent them from finishing last, though. On December 9, 1941, the Chicago Blackhawks-Boston Bruins game would be delayed for over a half-hour as United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared that America was at war.
Frank Patrick suffered a heart attack and had to sell his interest in the Montreal Canadiens, and the Habs almost had to move to Cleveland. But Tommy Gorman kept the team alive. They added Emile "Butch" Bouchard to start his great career on defence and another very good player, Buddy O'Connor, at centre. Montreal had goaltending problems as Bert Gardiner slumped, and rookie Paul Bibeault replaced him. He showed flashes of brilliance, but his inexperience showed. Joe Benoit starred with 20 goals, the first Canadien to do that since 1938–39, when Toe Blake did it.
The New York Rangers had a new goaltender as Sugar Jim Henry replaced the retired Dave Kerr. Henry was one of the reasons the Rangers finished first, something they would not again do for the next 50 years.
Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against
Playoffs
Note: all dates in 1942
Quarter-finals
Boston Bruins vs. Chicago Black Hawks
Boston wins best-of-three series 2–1
Detroit Red Wings vs. Montreal Canadiens
Detroit wins best-of-three series 2–1
Semi-finals
New York Rangers vs. Toronto Maple Leafs
Toronto wins best-of-seven series 4–2
Boston Bruins vs. Detroit Red Wings
Detroit wins best-of-three series 2–0
Final
Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Detroit Red Wings
Toronto wins best-of-seven series 4–3
Scoring leaders
Note: GP = Games played, G = Goals, A = Assists, PTS = Points, PIM = Penalties in minutes
Source: NHL
Leading goaltenders
Note: GP = Games played; Mins – Minutes Played; GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; SO = Shutouts
Debuts
The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1941–42 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):
Last games
The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1941–42 (listed with their last team):