Celebrating Hockey's History The Original 6 Table of Contents 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 The NHL at 100 The Original Six The Stanley Cup The Maple Leafs Forever Maple Leafs Magic Blue and White On Home Ice Leafs Legends Great Goalies and Defensemen Amazing Leafs Behind the Bench Fan Fun Facts Rivalries Glossary Further Reading and Websites to Check Out Test Your Leafs Knowledge Places to Go and About the Author 31 Index 32 30
The NHL at 100 Toronto almost wasn’t included when the NHL was formed in the fall of 1917 However during 100 years of league history the decision to give Toronto a team has proven to be a good one These days people often refer to Toronto as The Center of the Hockey Universe although they’re sometimes joking when they say it League Formation The National Hockey League NHL was formed at meetings held in Montreal on November 22 and 26 1917 Representatives from Toronto were among the five teams that were there But Toronto wasn’t sure of getting a team until the group from Quebec City decided they wouldn’t be able to play The first games in NHL history were played on December 19 1917 Toronto was on the road that night and was beaten 10-9 by the Montreal Wanderers 4 BYE-BYE Ousting a Troublemaker One of the main reasons the NHL was formed was to get rid of the man who owned Toronto’s team in the old National Hockey Association The NHA operated from 1909 until 1917 Toronto joined that league for the 1912 13 season In fact there were two Toronto teams that year the Toronto Tecumsehs and the Toronto Professional Hockey Club who were often called the Torontos or the Blueshirts The Tecumsehs struggled but the Blueshirts became very successful By the 1916 17 season the owners of the other NHA teams were fed up with Toronto’s Eddie Livingstone who always seemed to be arguing with everyone So they decided to close down the NHA and re-organize Ownership of the Toronto team in the new National Hockey League was given to the men who ran the city’s Arena Gardens where the games were played That’s why Toronto’s first NHL team became known as the Toronto Arenas Toronto’s first NHL win came in its first home game on December 22 1917 The Toronto Arenas beat the original Ottawa Senators 11-4
Harbor Shinny The history of hockey in Toronto is a lot older than the NHL and the NHA Paintings from the 1830s to the 1880s show people in the city playing games such as hurley and shinny on the frozen harbor ice on Lake Ontario The first stories about hockey teams appear in newspapers in 1886 However the first official hockey game in Toronto wasn’t played until February 16 1888 An unnamed reporter who covered the game wrote The play was very exciting and this sport is sure to become popular They sure got that right The good old days of shinny played on a frozen pond Toronto Professional Hockey Club 1906-07 5
