1948–49 NHL season

1948–49 NHL season
League	National Hockey League
Sport	Ice hockey
Duration	October 13, 1948 – April 16, 1949
Number of games	60
Number of teams	6
Regular season
Season champion	Detroit Red Wings
Season MVP	Sid Abel (Detroit Red Wings)
Top scorer	Roy Conacher (Chicago Black Hawks)
Stanley Cup
Finals champions	Toronto Maple Leafs
Runners-up	Detroit Red Wings
NHL seasons
← 1947–48 1949–50 →

The 1948–49 NHL season was the 32nd season of the National Hockey League. In a rematch of the previous season, Toronto defeated Detroit in the Stanley Cup final to win the championship.

League business

Rule changes

A new rule, often called the "Durnan Rule", was introduced for the start of the season stating that goalies cannot be the captain and wear the "C" or "A". Specifically, NHL Rule 14-D (today's rule 6.1) read: No playing Coach or playing Manager or goalkeeper shall be permitted to act as Captain or Alternate Captain.

This rule was introduced because Bill Durnan, Montreal Canadiens goalie and captain, would frequently leave his crease to dispute calls with the referees. Opposing teams claimed that this would give the Canadiens unscheduled timeouts during strategic points in games. It would be another sixty years before another goalie would be captain. For the 2008–09 season, the Vancouver Canucks named Roberto Luongo their 12th team captain and NHL history's seventh goalie captain. The rule remained in place, however, and Luongo could not 'act' as captain during games.

Regular season

Don Gallinger of the Boston Bruins, hopeful he could win an appeal of his suspension in the gambling scandal, finally admitted to gambling and was expelled from the NHL for life in September.

On October 8, 1948, the New York Rangers were due to start their season against the Montreal Canadiens, when the team suffered misfortune. Buddy O'Connor, Frank Eddolls, Edgar Laprade, Bill Moe, and Tony Leswick were travelling in their car from Montreal to Saranac Lake, New York when their car was struck by a truck near Rouses Point. O'Connor suffered several broken ribs, Eddolls a severed tendon in his knee, Laprade suffered a broken nose, Moe had a cut in the head requiring several stitches and Leswick escaped with a few bruises.

On November 10, 1948, unseasonably warm temperatures caused a fog bank to occur inside the Boston Garden during a game between the Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings. Referee Bill Chadwick abandoned the game after only 9 minutes of the first period due to poor visibility. The game was replayed the following night, with Boston winning 4–1.

A league record of ten major penalties was set November 25, 1948, when 11,000 fans at the Montreal Forum witnessed a donnybrook. It started when the Habs' Ken Mosdell elbowed Maple Leaf Gus Mortson. Mortson retaliated by knocking Elliot de Grey down with his stick. Montreal's Maurice Richard then sprang onto Mortson's back and they fought, and then all hands joined in. Mortson, Richard, Toronto's Howie Meeker and Mosdell were banished with majors. Play had scarcely begun when Ken Reardon (Montreal) and Joe Klukay (Toronto) began fencing and Bill Barilko went at Reardon, while Klukay got into it with Billy Reay, and Hal Laycoe fought Garth Boesch. In the game itself, Turk Broda picked up his first shutout of the year as the Leafs won, 2–0.

A sad note was the death of former Pittsburgh Pirates defenceman Tex White, who was found dead in his bed at his home in Port Colborne, Ontario on December 12. He was only 48 years old.

Both Detroit and Montreal lost key players to injury this year. Montreal lost Elmer Lach with a fractured jaw when he collided with Toronto defenceman Bob Goldham, and Emile "Butch" Bouchard injured a knee. Detroit lost Gordie Howe, who underwent knee surgery.

Bill Durnan got hot in the second half of the season and recorded four consecutive shutouts, going 309 minutes and 21 seconds without giving up a goal. In all, Durnan had 10 shutouts and won his fifth Vezina Trophy in six years.

Final standings

National Hockey League	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA	PIM
Detroit Red Wings	60	34	19	7	75	195	145	621
Boston Bruins	60	29	23	8	66	178	163	434
Montreal Canadiens	60	28	23	9	65	152	126	728
Toronto Maple Leafs	60	22	25	13	57	147	161	706
Chicago Black Hawks	60	21	31	8	50	173	211	695
New York Rangers	60	18	31	11	47	133	172	413

Playoffs

Semifinals

Detroit Red Wings vs. Montreal Canadiens

Date	Away	Score	Home	Score	Notes
March 22	Montreal Canadiens	1	Detroit Red Wings	2	OT
March 24	Montreal Canadiens	4	Detroit Red Wings	3	OT
March 26	Detroit Red Wings	2	Montreal Canadiens	3
March 29	Detroit Red Wings	3	Montreal Canadiens	1
March 31	Montreal Canadiens	1	Detroit Red Wings	3
April 2	Detroit Red Wings	1	Montreal Canadiens	3
April 5	Montreal Canadiens	1	Detroit Red Wings	3

Detroit wins best-of-seven series 4 games to 3

Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Boston Bruins

Date	Away	Score	Home	Score	Notes
March 22	Toronto Maple Leafs	3	Boston Bruins	0
March 24	Toronto Maple Leafs	3	Boston Bruins	2
March 26	Boston Bruins	5	Toronto Maple Leafs	4	OT
March 29	Boston Bruins	1	Toronto Maple Leafs	3
March 30	Toronto Maple Leafs	3	Boston Bruins	2

Toronto wins best-of-seven series 4 games to 1

Final

Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Detroit Red Wings

Date	Away	Score	Home	Score	Notes
April 8	Toronto Maple Leafs	3	Detroit Red Wings	2
April 10	Toronto Maple Leafs	3	Detroit Red Wings	1
April 13	Detroit Red Wings	1	Toronto Maple Leafs	3
April 16	Detroit Red Wings	1	Toronto Maple Leafs	3

Toronto wins best-of-seven series 4 games to 0

Awards

Trophy	Winner
Calder Memorial Trophy: (Top first-year player)	Pentti Lund, New York Rangers
Hart Trophy: (Most valuable player)	Sid Abel, Detroit Red Wings
Lady Byng Trophy: (Excellence and sportsmanship)	Bill Quackenbush, Detroit Red Wings
O'Brien Cup: (Stanley Cup runner-up)	Detroit Red Wings
Prince of Wales Trophy: (Top regular-season record)	Detroit Red Wings
Art Ross Trophy: (Top scorer)	Roy Conacher, Chicago Black Hawks
Vezina Trophy: (Goaltender of team with lowest GAA)	Bill Durnan, Montreal Canadiens

Player statistics

Scoring leaders

Note: GP = Games played, G = Goals, A = Assists, PTS = Points, PIM = Penalties in minutes

Player	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
Roy Conacher	Chicago Black Hawks	60	26	42	68	8
Doug Bentley	Chicago Black Hawks	60	23	43	66	38
Sid Abel	Detroit Red Wings	60	28	26	54	49
Ted Lindsay	Detroit Red Wings	50	26	28	54	97
Jim Conacher	Chicago Black Hawks / Detroit Red Wings	59	26	23	49	43
Paul Ronty	Boston Bruins	60	20	29	49	11
Harry Watson	Toronto Maple Leafs	60	26	19	45	30
Billy Reay	Montreal Canadiens	60	22	23	45	33
Gus Bodnar	Chicago Black Hawks	59	16	26	45	14
Johnny Peirson	Boston Bruins	59	22	21	43	45

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

Player	Team	GP	Mins	GA	GAA	W	L	T	SO
Bill Durnan	Montreal Canadiens	60	3600	126	2.10	28	23	9	10
Harry Lumley	Detroit Red Wings	60	3600	145	2.42	34	19	7	6
Turk Broda	Toronto Maple Leafs	60	3600	161	2.68	22	25	13	5
Frank Brimsek	Boston Bruins	54	3240	147	2.72	26	20	8	1
Chuck Rayner	New York Rangers	58	3480	168	2.90	16	31	11	7
Jim Henry	Chicago Black Hawks	60	3600	211	3.52	21	31	8	0

Team Photos

• 

  Chicago Black Hawks

• 

  Detroit Red Wings

• 

  Montreal Canadiens

• 

  New York Rangers

• 

  Toronto Maple Leafs

References

• (1994) in Diamond, Dan: Years of glory, 1942–1967: the National Hockey League's official book of the six-team era. Toronto, ON: McClelland and Stewart. ISBN 0-7710-2817-2. 
• (2000) in Diamond, Dan: Total Hockey. Total Sports. ISBN 1-892129-85-X. 
• (2011) The National Hockey League Official Guide & Record Book 2012. Toronto, ON: Dan Diamond & Associates. ISBN 978-1-894801-22-5. 
• (2000) Century of hockey. Toronto, ON: McClelland & Stewart Ltd.. ISBN 0-7710-4179-9. 
• Duplacey, James (1996). The annotated rules of hockey. Lyons & Burford. ISBN 1-55821-466-6. 
• (2003) The Hockey Chronicle: Year-by-Year History of the National Hockey League. Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International Inc.. ISBN 0-7853-9624-1. 
• McFarlane, Brian (1973). The Story of the National Hockey League. New York, NY: Pagurian Press. ISBN 0-684-13424-1. 

Notes

External links

• Hockey Database
• NHL.com

National Hockey League seasons

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