Home > Hockey > Stanley Cup History > Montreal Canadiens vs. Chicago Blackhawks 1943 44

Montreal Canadiens vs. Chicago Blackhawks 1943-44

NHL, the National Hockey League is a premier professional North American Sports League played in indoor stadiums. It’s divided into two conferences, each comprising of three divisions of ice hockey teams. The league was established in 1917 in Montreal, Quebec and it is composed of 30 teams out of which 24 teams are based in U.S. and 6 in Canada. They have a regular season and playoffs leading to the Stanley Cup, which is the NHL Championship final.

The Stanley Cup is one of the most-recognized symbols in North American sports. It is the championship trophy of the NHL, National Hockey League which is won by one of the teams that have qualified for the championship finals after playing a series of playoff matches. It is the only trophy in professional sports that has the name of the winning players, coaches, management, and club staff engraved upon it. The Cup winners keep it until the new champion is crowned.

Montreal was led by the punch line with the trio of Rocket Richard, Elmer Lach and Toe Blake. With the new NHL rule changes, the game was sped up as delay penalties which were instituted and the center red line was added to reduce off-sides. The Canadiens flourished, excelled and dominated. They didn't lose at home all season, rolled to a 38-5-7 record and had the league's top offense and defense. In the playoffs, Montreal was upset in the first game of its series against Toronto but that merely woke up the Canadiens.

Montreal won the next four against the Maple Leafs to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals. It was much the same there. After winning game 1, Montreal got a hat-trick from Richard and won game 2 3-1. The Canadiens won at Chicago in game 3 and then closed out the series by winning game 4 on a Blake goal in overtime.

Back to Stanley Cup History