The Stanley Cup is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) considers it to be one of the "most important championships available to the sport". The trophy was commissioned in 1892 as the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup and is named after Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor General of Canada, who donated it as an award to Canada's top-ranking amateur ice hockey club. The entire Stanley family supported the sport, the sons and daughters all playing and promoting the game. The first Cup was awarded in 1893 to the Montreal Hockey Club, and winners from 1893 to 1914 were determined by challenge games and league play. Professional teams first became eligible to challenge for the Stanley Cup in 1906. In 1915, the National Hockey Association (NHA) and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), the two main professional ice hockey organizations, reached an agreement in which their respective champions would face each other annually for the Stanley Cup. It was established as the de facto championship trophy of the NHL in 1926 and then the de jure NHL championship prize in 1947.
Curtis Lester Patrick was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and coach associated with the Victoria Aristocrats/Cougars of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, and the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League (NHL). Along with his brother Frank Patrick and father Joseph Patrick, he founded the PCHA and helped develop several rules for the game of hockey. Patrick won the Stanley Cup six times as a player, coach and manager.
The O'Brien Trophy, or O'Brien Cup, as labelled on the trophy itself, is a retired trophy that was awarded in the National Hockey Association (NHA) and the National Hockey League (NHL) ice hockey leagues of North America from 1910 to 1950. It was originally donated to the NHA by Canadian Senator M. J. O'Brien in honour of his son, Ambrose O'Brien. The Cup was fabricated using silver from an O'Brien mine.
Henry William Sprague "Peg" Cleghorn, also known as "The Big Train", was a Canadian professional ice hockey player from Westmount, Quebec who played 17 professional seasons between 1911 and 1929 for the Renfrew Creamery Kings and Montreal Wanderers in the National Hockey Association (NHA) and the Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins in the National Hockey League (NHL). He was a member of three Stanley Cup championship teams, winning with the Senators in 1920 and 1921 as well as with the Canadiens in 1924. His brother Odie was also a professional player and the two played several seasons together.
Arthur Howey Ross was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and executive from 1905 until 1954. Regarded as one of the best defenders of his era by his peers, he was one of the first to skate with the puck up the ice rather than pass it to a forward. He was on Stanley Cup championship teams twice in a playing career that lasted thirteen seasons; in January 1907 with the Kenora Thistles and 1908 with the Montreal Wanderers. Like other players of the time, Ross played for several different teams and leagues, and is most notable for his time with the Wanderers while they were members of the National Hockey Association (NHA) and its successor, the National Hockey League (NHL). In 1911 he led one of the first organized player strikes over increased pay. When the Wanderers' home arena burned down in January 1918, the team ceased operations and Ross retired as a player.
The Kenora Thistles, officially the Thistles Hockey Club, were a Canadian ice hockey team based in Kenora, Ontario. Founded in 1894, they were originally known as the Rat Portage Thistles. The team competed for the Stanley Cup, the ice hockey championship of Canada, five times between 1903 and 1907. The Thistles won the Cup in January 1907 and defended it once before losing it that March in a challenge series. Composed almost entirely of local players, the team comes from the least populated city to have won the Stanley Cup. Nine players—four of them homegrown—have been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, and the Stanley Cup champion team was inducted into the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.
The 1921–22 NHL season was the fifth season of the National Hockey League (NHL). Four teams each played 24 games. The league dropped the split season and the two top teams played off for the league championship. The second-place Toronto St. Patricks defeated the first-place Ottawa Senators for the league championship.
Douglas Wagner Bentley was a Canadian ice hockey left winger who played 13 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Chicago Black Hawks and New York Rangers as part of a senior and professional career that lasted from 1933 to 1962. He was named to four NHL All-Star teams in his career and was the scoring leader in points and goals in 1942–43 and again in goals in 1943–44.
The 1924–25 NHL season was the eighth season of the National Hockey League. The NHL added two teams this season, a second team in Montreal, the Montreal Maroons and the first U.S. team, the Boston Bruins. Six teams each played 30 games.
Ernest Harvey Pulford was a Canadian athlete at the turn of the twentieth century, winning national championships in ice hockey, lacrosse, football, boxing, paddling and rowing. A highly regarded defenceman with the Ottawa Hockey Club, where he was known for being a large and solid player who was excellent at checking opponents. With Ottawa he won the Stanley Cup four times, and also won championships or tournaments in every sport in which he played. When the Hockey Hall of Fame was founded in 1945, Pulford was one of the original nine inductees.
The 1943–44 NHL season was the 27th season of the National Hockey League. Six teams played 50 games each. The Montreal Canadiens were the top team of the regular season and followed it up with the team's fifth Stanley Cup championship.
Francis Alexis Patrick was a Canadian professional ice hockey player, head coach, manager, and executive. Along with his brother Lester, he founded the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), the first major professional hockey league in Western Canada. Patrick, who also served as president of the league, took control of the Vancouver Millionaires, serving as a player, coach, and manager of the team. It was in the PCHA that Patrick would introduce many innovations to hockey that remain today, including the blue line, the penalty shot, and tracking assists, among others.
The 1930–31 NHL season was the 14th season of the National Hockey League. Ten teams played 44 games each. The Montreal Canadiens beat the Chicago Black Hawks three games to two in the best-of-five Stanley Cup Finals for their second consecutive Stanley Cup victory.
The 1938–39 NHL season was the 22nd season of the National Hockey League (NHL). Seven teams each played 48 games. The Boston Bruins were the Stanley Cup winners as they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs four games to one in the final series.
James Cooper Smeaton was a Canadian professional ice hockey player, referee and head coach. He served referee-in-chief of the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1917 until 1937. Smeaton served as a Stanley Cup trustee from 1946 until his death in 1978. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1961.
The 1905 Canadian Amateur Hockey League (CAHL) season was the seventh and final season of the league. Teams played a ten-game schedule. This year saw the addition of two teams, Montreal Westmount and Montreal Nationals. Montreal Nationals had previously been in the FAHL. Montreal Victorias won the league championship with a record of 9–1.
The 1904–05 Federal Amateur Hockey League (FAHL) season lasted from December 31, 1904, until March 3. Teams played an eight-game schedule.
Thomas Neil Phillips was a Canadian professional ice hockey left winger. Like other players of his era, Phillips played for several different teams and leagues. Most notable for his time with the Kenora Thistles, Phillips also played with the Montreal Hockey Club, the Ottawa Hockey Club, the Toronto Marlboros and the Vancouver Millionaires. Over the course of his career Phillips participated in six challenges for the Stanley Cup, the championship trophy of hockey, winning twice: with the Montreal Hockey Club in 1903 and with the Kenora Thistles, which he captained, in January 1907. Following his playing career, Phillips worked in the lumber industry until his death in 1923.
The 1904–05 Ottawa Hockey Club season, the club's 20th season of play, lasted from January 7, 1905, until March 11, 1905. Ottawa won the league championship of the Federal Amateur Hockey League and successfully defended its Stanley Cup championship against all challengers.
