1937 – 38 NHL season The 1937 – 38 NHL season was the 21st season of the National Hockey League ( NHL ) . Eight teams each played 48 games . The Chicago Black Hawks were the Stanley Cup winners as they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs three games to one in the final series . League business . Bill Dwyer could not come up with the capital required to retain his team and the NHL took full control of the New York Americans . The Howie Morenz Memorial Game , the NHL ' s second all - star game , was played November 2 , 1937 and raised over $ 11 , 447 , which , added to other contributions , established a fund of over $ 20 , 000 for the Morenz family . Prior to the start of the game , Howie Morenz ' s uniform and playing kit was auctioned and Joseph Cattarinich put down the winning bid of $ 500 . The uniform was presented to Howie Morenz Jr . The NHL All - stars defeated a combined team of Canadiens and Maroons players 6 – 5 . Rookie defenseman Chris Chelios played his first All - Star game that night and assisted on the game winning goal . Regular season . Charlie Conacher was named captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs , and he had a big weekend at the expense of Chicago November 13 with a hat trick in a 7 – 3 win . He then scored 2 goals in a 3 – 3 tie . However , The Big Bomber ran into misfortune once more on November 18th in Montreal against the Canadiens when he dislocated his shoulder . The cycle of injuries had a cumulative effect on Conacher ' s nervous and physical condition and his doctor told him to retire from hockey . He did retire for the rest of the season , but would play again the next season , but was forever gone from the Leafs . The New York Rangers lost their star center Neil Colville for a few games as the result of some horseplay that must have infuriated Lester Patrick . Defenceman Joe Cooper was pursuing a fad of slicing off neckties from teammates using a penknife . Colville threw up his hand only to receive a gash that required 11 stitches to close . The New York Americans , with Ching Johnson and Hap Day to relieve Joe Jerwa and Al Murray on defence , were doing much better than usual . Earl Robertson , their new goaltender , was leading the Canadian Division in goaltending and ended up doing so at season ' s end . The Amerks also had Sweeney Schriner and Nels Stewart contributing in a nice way to the offence . The Montreal Maroons , coached at first by King Clancy , settled into last place and president and general manager Tommy Gorman decided he ' d take over as coach . He did even worse and the fans stayed away . Although the team did badly , one highlight was an 11 – 7 win over their rivals , the Canadiens , and Baldy Northcott had a hat trick in the game . There seemed to be nothing Gorman could do to revitalize the team and at one stretch the team lost 8 straight games . On March 17 , 1938 , the Maroons played their last game against their rivals , the Canadiens . Detroit was the shockingly bad team of the American Division . After winning the Stanley Cup in 1937 , they were reclining in the cellar of the Division . They had one bright moment when Carl Liscombe set a record for the fastest hat trick to this time ( since broken by Bill Mosienko ) . Liscombe scored three goals in 1 minute and 52 seconds in a 5 – 1 win over Chicago . On March 17 , 1938 , Nels Stewart scored his 300th National Hockey League goal in a 5 – 3 loss to the Rangers . Final standings . " Note : GP = Games played , W = Wins , L = Losses , T = Ties , Pts = Points , GF = Goals for , GA = Goals against , PIM = Penalties in minutes " < br > " Note : Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold " Scoring leaders . " Note : GP = Games played , G = Goals , A = Assists , PTS = Points , PIM = Penalties in minutes " Playoffs . The Cinderella story of the century was the Chicago Black Hawks , who would barely made the playoffs , but proceeded to defeat the Canadiens , the Americans and the Maple Leafs to win the Cup with the record lowest regular - season winning percentage in the NHL . Quarter - Finals . The New York Americans stunned the New York Rangers as Lorne Carr scored the winner in overtime in the third and deciding game . The Canadiens beat the Hawks in game one of the quarterfinal , as Toe Blake had the hat trick . But Mike Karakas shut out the Canadiens in the second game and even though Georges Mantha appeared to win the game with a freak , evergoal in game three , Earl Seibert kept the Hawks from losing with a goal late in the game , and then the Hawks won the series in overtime . Semi - Finals . In an upset , the Toronto Maple Leafs beat Boston in the Series A Semi - Finals . In the Series B Semi - Finals , it was Chicago and the New York Americans , who beat Chicago in game one 3 – 1 . Game two was a great goaltenders battle between Mike Karakas and Earl Robertson . It appeared that the Americans were headed to their first Stanley Cup final when Nels Stewart scored with seconds left in the game , but referee Clarence Campbell disallowed the goal , saying Eddie Wiseman was in the goal crease . Cully Dahlstrom scored the goal that saved the Black Hawks . In New York , the deciding game saw Alex Levinsky of Chicago score the go - ahead goal , but the red light didn ' t go on . Investigation revealed that fans were holding the goal judge ' s hand so he could not signal the goal . Although the Amerks came close , they were unable to tie the score and the Black Hawks were in the finals . Debuts . The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1937 – 38 ( listed with their first team , asterisk ( * ) marks debut in playoffs ) : Last games . The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1937 – 38 ( listed with their last team ) :