page_title: St. Louis Eagles
section_title: 1934–35 season
hierarchical_section_title: St. Louis Eagles / History / 1934–35 season
caption_attribution_description: English: The St. Louis Arena on the day of its controlled implosion, February 27 1999.
context_page_description: The St. Louis Eagles were a professional ice hockey team that played in the National Hockey League. Based in St. Louis, Missouri, the Eagles played for only one year, the 1934–35 NHL season.
  The team was founded in 1883 as the Ottawa Senators, a successful independent team that joined the NHL as a charter member in 1917. From the mid-1920s onward, they endured financial strain caused, in part, by being in the NHL's smallest market. The financial problems forced the Senators to suspend operations for the 1931–32 season. Upon their return to play, having sold their better players in an effort to raise funds, the Senators finished in last place for two straight seasons and continued to lose money. Following the repeat last place finish, the team decided that it could not survive in Ottawa and hoped to move to a bigger market.
  In an attempt to recoup losses and pay outstanding debts, the Senators moved the NHL franchise to St. Louis, where it was nicknamed the Eagles. However, the team continued to lose money because of its travel expenses, and it was forced to sell players to other teams to meet its financial obligations.
context_section_description: At the time there were nine teams in the NHL, divided into two divisions, the Canadian and American.  Logically, the Eagles should have been placed in the American Division with the Boston Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks, New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings.  However, in defiance of all geographic reality, the Eagles retained the Senators' place in the Canadian Division alongside the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Maroons, and New York Americans. The core of the Senators' players returned and the team played their games in the St. Louis Arena. The arena was built in 1929 to host the National Dairy Show, but had suffered financially. In 1931, an ice hockey rink was set up to attract new business. Once the Eagles began play the St. Louis Arena gained the distinction of being the only NHL stadium with racially segregated seating.
  In their first game the Eagles succumbed to a late rally by the defending Stanley Cup champion Black Hawks, losing 3–1. They registered their first win in the next game winning 4–2 over the Rangers. Following the win the Eagles went on an eight-game losing streak. After the first 13 games the Eagles posted a 2–11–0 record placing them last in their division. Gerard resigned as head coach and was replaced by George "Buck" Boucher, the coach that Gerard himself had replaced after the franchise's last season in Ottawa.
  Under Boucher's coaching the team showed improvement, posting a 3–3–3 record in the first nine games. However, the early losing streak had already damaged the fan base. Their inaugural game drew 12,622 fans, but attendance quickly diminished. In early January 1935 the team cut ticket prices to the lowest in the league in an attempt to bring out fans. By February the financial state of the team forced the Eagles to essentially sell leading goal scorer Syd Howe to the Detroit Red Wings. Officially, the trade broke down as such - Detroit received Howe and Ralph Bowman in exchange for Teddy Graham and $50,000. At the time it was considered a large sum of money. Likewise Frank Finnigan was sold to the Maple Leafs. The Eagles were unable to maintain the early success under Boucher, and finished with the worst record in the league for the third year in a row, with a record of 11–31–6. With only 84 goals scored, they were the lowest scoring team in the league. Only the Montreal Canadiens allowed more goals during the season, surrendering 145 to the Eagles' 144.
caption: The St. Louis Arena, as it looked on the day of its demolition - February 27, 1999.
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