This Day in Hockey History – April 1, 1919 – Through Due to Flu
With the suspension of the 2019-20 NHL season due to COVID-19, we can perfectly understand the situation when the Stanley Cup Final was called off on April 1, 1919. So many players came down with the Spanish flu that the Montreal Canadiens only had three well enough to play the final game of the series. The game had already been postponed to the latest possible date to use the Arena in Seattle, so for the first time, the Stanley Cup was not awarded. As the Montreal Gazette grimly noted, “Not in the history of the Stanley Cup series has the world’s hockey championship been so beset with hard luck as has this one.”
The influenza came in waves, and the 1918-19 season was bracketed by them. Before it could even officially begin, on October 13, 1918 32-year-old Hamby Shore of the Ottawa Senators fell victim to the flu, casting a pall over the season to come.
That Spring, the Montreal Canadiens of the NHL and Seattle Metropolitans of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) competed for the Stanley Cup. Alternating between the Eastern and Western rules of play, each team won when playing in their preferred style. The series begun on March 19 was meant as a best-of-five, but the fourth game (on March 26) ended in a tie and needed to be replayed. After the fifth game knotted the series, a sixth game was scheduled for Tuesday, April 1st to be played by Western rules.
At 2:30 pm, a mere six hours before the game was due to begin, the announcement came “that there will be no more world series games here this year.” By the time the announcement was made, it was already too late to reconsider. At noon, the Seattle Ice Arena had begun converting the ice to a roller-skating rink. The Seattle Star explained, “There is absolutely no chance of the series being finished, as the lease on the Arena has expired and the ice has been taken up.”
The reason for the cancelation was that several players had fallen ill with the flu. The Canadiens would not be able to put its team on the ice unless (as they offered) they pulled in players from Victoria. When the Mets declined, Montreal’s owner-manager George Kennedy suggested that they could forfeit the Stanley Cup to Seattle which still had a more-or-less complete squad. Both Seattle’s manager Pete Muldoon and their league president Frank Patrick felt it would not be sporting to take the Cup out of the hands of the ill without a fair game. Instead, they all agreed to call it a draw.
They evenly divided the money amongst all the players, and they canceled all scheduled exhibition games. Unfortunately, about $5,000 of the Canadiens’ earnings went to covering hospital expenses. The entire series was not considered a financial success.
That April 1st, instead of going to the rink, two Canadiens went across the street to Georgina Hotel, the local hospital. Defenseman Joe Hall and left wing Jack McDonald, reported the Gazette, were “being given the very best of care, nurses and physicians being in attendance at all times on them and every other attention is being shown the stricken players.” Manager Kennedy and three of their teammates (Captain Newsy Lalonde, Louis Berlinquette, and Billy Coutu) were considered “slightly ill” and confined to their beds with high fevers. That left only Odie Cleghorn, defensemen Didier Pitre, and goalie Georges Vezina as healthy. The Canadiens thought they possibly contracted the flu when they played in Victoria, whose team had just been recovering.
Two days later, Hall developed pneumonia. The 37-year-old died April 5th at “Columbus sanitarium of pneumonia, following a severe attack of influenza.” Frank Patrick eulogized, “Joe Hall was one of the real veterans of hockey. He had been playing senior hockey since 1902. The game suffered a loss by his passing. Off the ice he was one of the jolliest, best-hearted, most popular men who ever played.”
Meanwhile, by that point, McDonald was “still in the hospital” but “in good condition.” After a week in the hospital, he was “reported as resting easy and his temperature is nearly normal.” However, he was still in bed after another week.
Teammates Berlinquette, Coutu, and Lalonde were “allowed to get up for the first time” on April 5th. Two days later, the Gazette reported that all Montreal players were pronounced out of danger and were “either on their feet” or “allowed to get out of bed.” Lalonde told them that “while weak, is feeling fine and is making his plans to return to his home.” He and his teammates finally made the trip home the following week. At that point, he made clear, “The games were the most strenuous I have ever been in and I would not like to go through another such experience for any amount of money. We were well treated during our illness and received the best of attention from the hospital, doctors and nurses, every effort being made by them to make us comfortable, while they kept our people at home posted as to our condition.”
The last of the Canadiens in Seattle was Manager Kennedy. Although he was supposedly on the road to complete recovery, he was not able to get up until after April 7. He made plans to leave Seattle April 13 but did not actually make it back until April 20. At that point, he planned to “get down to business this week.” Sadly, he never fully recovered and died just a few years later.
Meanwhile, the Seattle Metropolitans were mostly just dealing with injuries from the postseason. No less than five of their players were injured by the time the last game was called off. As of April 3, they did have three members of their club who “developed the disease” and were placed “under the care of physicians.” Defenseman Roy Ricky recovered from his “high fever” at Providence Hospital. In addition to forward Muzz Murray coming down with the flu, his wife and child also fell ill. The final flu victim from that series was Seattle manager Pete Muldoon himself.
As the only Stanley Cup series begun but not finished, the Cup was engraved, “Montreal Canadiens, Seattle Metropolitans, series not completed.” Until now, the only other year in which the Stanley Cup Final was canceled was during the 2004-05 NHL lockout. It remains to be seen what will happen with the 2019-20 season.
Additional Sources:
- Mike Commito, Hockey 365: Daily Stories from the Ice (Toronto: Dundurn, 2018), kindle edition.
- https://thepinkpuck.com/2019/03/26/this-day-in-hockey-history-march-26-1917-and-1919-stanley-firsts-part-1/
- https://www.cbssports.com/nhl/news/remembering-when-the-nhl-canceled-the-1919-cup-final-due-to-flu-pandemic/
- “Greatest Ice Series a Tie; ‘Flu’ Did It,” Seattle Star, 2 April 1919, p. 10.
- “World’s Hockey Series Cancelled,” Montreal Gazette, 2 April 1919, p. 14.
- “Hall Seriously Ill,” Montreal Gazette, 4 April 1919, p. 15.
- “Veteran Joe Hall Called by Death,” Montreal Gazette, 7 April 1919, p. 16.
- “Hockey Players Out of Danger,” Montreal Gazette, 8 April 1919, p. 14.
- “Four Canadien Players are Home,” Montreal Gazette, 14 April 1919, p. 16.
- “George Kennedy Back,” Montreal Gazette, 21 April 1919, p. 14.
