Saturday, March 25

America Beats the Canadians for the First Time


From Seattle's MyNorthwest, Proof Seattle Beat the Canadians for the Stanley Cup
If we were talking nowadays, it'd be "America Beats the Canadiens."

It was the year 1917. In Europe, the British Empire was part of the Entente battling the Central Powers. Still, we're talking hockey here, not a ware to end all wars. The NHA, predecessor of the NHL took on challengers each year in defense of the Stanley Cup. No American team had ever beaten the Canadians.

Our Brave Seattle Boys, from Wikipedia
Metropolitan Logo
However, 1917 turned out to be different. You see, the Seattle Metropolitans were the challengers that year. Their team was strong, with five future hall of famers. To make a story even shorter, they beat the Montreal Canadians (now Canadiens) in the Stanley Cup final.

Following the loss to the Americans, the NHA disbanded to become today's NHL. Two years later, when Seattle was to play Montreal for the cup, the Spanish Flu led to its cancellation. It would not be until 1928 that another American team, the New York Rangers, would win the Stanley Cup. To this very day, Seattle has never gotten an NHL team, so our 1917 victory over Montreal is likely to be our last for the forseeable future. Who knows if the NHL is still punishing Seattle for beating Montreal?


3 comments:

Justine Valinotti said...

It's funny how much those old Mets sweaters resemble some vintage bike jerseys.

There's been talk of bringing an NHL franchise to Seattle. The NHL says it wants an arena built in Seattle. I wonder whether the Vancouver Canucks have anything to do with the NHL's seeming reluctance to locate a team in The Emerald City.

Steve A said...

There's been continuous talk of bringing an NHL franchise to Seattle for the last hundred years. Just in the last month, see https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=AwrTceNbQt1YKgoAkFonnIlQ?fr2=time&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-002&fr=yhs-mozilla-002&p=seattle+nhl&btf=m

The talk goes on, but Seattle stays NHL'less...

cafiend said...

Sports apparel of the early 20th Century was all based on the same design aesthetic. I used to observe how much my 1970s wool cycling wear looked like old bathing suits from the turn of the century.

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