1915-16 NHA season

The 1915–16 NHA season was the 7th season of the National Hockey Association. Five teams would play a 24 game schedule. Montreal Canadiens would win the league championship and defeat the Portland Rosebuds to win their first ever Stanley Cup.
==League Business==
Toronto Blueshirts included the players from the Toronto Shamrocks/Ontarios/Tecumsehs franchise. Before the season, Ed Livingstone, the Shamrocks owner, purchased the Blueshirts franchise from Frank Robinson. At the annual meeting of November 9, 1915, he was ordered to sell the Shamrocks franchise but could not do so as the Pacific Coast Hockey Association 'raided' the franchise and signed its players.
* Emmett Quinn continued as president
* Frank Calder continued as secretary-treasurer
Directors:
* Sam Lichtenhein, Ernie Russell, Wanderers
* E. J. Livingstone, Shamrocks
* Frank Robinson, M. J. Quinn, Toronto
* Barney Kane, Quebec
* George Kennedy, Canadiens
* Martin Rosenthal, Frank Shaughnessy, Ottawa
President Quinn instituted a rule that officials would be locked in their dressing rooms between periods to disallow influence from the press or players.
==Regular Season==
Several players from the PCHA signed with NHA clubs:
* Frank Nighbor, Ottawa
* Bert Lindsay, Wanderers
* Walter Smaill, Wanderers
===Highlights===
On January 23, 1916, Skene Ronan was arrested by Toronto police and charged with assault for hitting Alf Skinner.
On February 23, 1916, Gordon Roberts of the Wanderers drew a match penalty for cutting Ottawa's Frank Nighbor in a game in Montreal. On the next visit of the Wanderers to Ottawa, Roberts was pelted with bottles from the Ottawa fans.
The race for the scoring championship was close between Newsy Lalonde of the Canadiens, Joe Malone of Quebec and Cy Denneny of Toronto. Lalonde would finish with 31 goals in 25 games and Malone and Denneny would tie for second with 26 goals. Clint Benedict of Ottawa would have the best G.A.A. of 3.0 to best Georges Vezina's 3.2 goals per game. Gordon Keats of Toronto would score five goals in a game against Quebec on February 7, 1916. He would finish the season with 22 goals in 24 games.
===Final standings===
Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF= Goals For, GA = Goals Against
National Hockey Association	GP	W 	L 	T	GF 	GA
Montreal Canadiens 	24	16	7 	1	104	76
Ottawa Senators 	24	13	11	0	78 	72
Quebec Bulldogs 	24	10	12	2	91 	98
Montreal Wanderers 	24	10	14	0	90 	116
Toronto Blueshirts 	24	9 	14	1	97 	98
Montreal is the champion and winner of the O'Brien Cup.
===Results===
Month	Day	Visitor 	Score	Home 	Score
Dec. 	18 	Canadiens	2 	Toronto 	1
Dec. 	18 	Quebec 	5 	Wanderers	8
Dec. 	22 	Toronto 	1 	Ottawa 	7
Dec. 	22 	Wanderers	3 	Canadiens	2
Dec. 	25 	Ottawa 	2 	Quebec 	3
Dec. 	25 	Wanderers	6 	Toronto 	5
Dec. 	29 	Ottawa 	0 	Wanderers	4
Dec. 	29 	Canadiens	2 	Quebec 	5
Jan. 	1 	Canadiens	4 	Ottawa 	2
Jan. 	1 	Quebec 	4 	Toronto 	3
Jan. 	5 	Toronto 	1 	Canadiens	6
Jan. 	5 	Wanderers	1 	Quebec 	6
Jan. 	8 	Quebec 	2 	Ottawa 	4
Jan. 	8 	Canadiens	3 	Wanderers	5
Jan. 	12 	Ottawa 	0 	Toronto 	1
Jan. 	12 	Quebec 	3 	Canadiens	5
Jan. 	15 	Ottawa 	5 	Canadiens	2
Jan. 	15 	Toronto 	3 	Quebec 	4
Jan. 	17 	Wanderers	7 	Ottawa 	3
Jan. 	20 	Toronto 	4 	Wanderers	7
Jan. 	20 	Canadiens	2 	Quebec 	2 (20' OT)
Jan. 	23 	Canadiens	1 	Toronto 	3
Jan. 	23 	Quebec 	2 	Wanderers	1
Jan. 	25 	Ottawa 	6 	Quebec 	3
Jan. 	26 	Toronto 	1 	Ottawa 	2
Jan. 	26 	Wanderers	4 	Canadiens	5
Jan. 	29 	Ottawa 	5 	Wanderers	4
Jan. 	29 	Toronto 	5 	Quebec 	6 (16'10" OT)
Jan. 	31 	Wanderers	2 	Toronto 	8
Feb. 	2 	Quebec 	0 	Ottawa 	4
Feb. 	2 	Wanderers	9 	Canadiens	5
Feb. 	5 	Toronto 	5 	Canadiens	10
Feb. 	5 	Wanderers	5 	Quebec 	8
Feb. 	7 	Wanderers	1 	Ottawa 	3
Feb. 	7 	Quebec 	5 	Toronto 	11
Feb. 	9 	Ottawa 	2 	Canadiens	3 (7'20" OT)
Feb. 	9 	Toronto 	3 	Quebec 	3 (20' OT)
Feb. 	12 	Canadiens	3 	Ottawa 	1
Feb. 	12 	Toronto 	1 	Wanderers	3
Feb. 	16 	Ottawa 	1 	Toronto 	3
Feb. 	16 	Quebec 	3 	Canadiens	4
Feb. 	19 	Toronto 	2 	Ottawa 	5
Feb. 	19 	Wanderers	3 	Canadiens	1
Feb. 	23 	Ottawa 	4 	Wanderers	3
Feb. 	23 	Canadiens	3 	Quebec 	2
Feb. 	26 	Ottawa 	2 	Toronto 	9
Feb. 	26 	Quebec 	3 	Canadiens	4 (15" OT)
Feb. 	28 	Wanderers	2 	Ottawa 	6
Mar. 	1 	Wanderers	2 	Quebec 	6
Mar. 	1 	Toronto 	3 	Canadiens	7
Mar. 	4 	Canadiens	15 	Wanderers	5
Mar. 	4 	Quebec 	5 	Toronto 	7
Mar. 	8 	Quebec 	5 	Ottawa 	8
Mar. 	8 	Toronto 	3 	Wanderers	2
Mar. 	11 	Ottawa 	1 	Canadiens	4
Mar. 	11 	Wanderers	2 	Toronto 	10
Mar. 	13 	Ottawa 	4 	Quebec 	0
Mar. 	15 	Canadiens	5 	Ottawa 	1
Mar. 	15 	Quebec 	6 	Wanderers	1
Mar. 	18 	Canadiens	6 	Toronto 	4
===Scoring leaders===
Player 	Team 	GP	G
Newsy Lalonde 	Canadiens	24	31
Joe Malone 	Quebec 	24	26
Cy Denneny 	Toronto 	24	26
Didier Pitre 	Canadiens	24	23
Gordon Keats 	Toronto 	24	22
Gordon Roberts	Toronto 	21	21
Frank Nighbor 	Ottawa 	23	19
Corb Denneny 	Toronto 	22	18
Rusty Crawford	Quebec 	22	18
Jack Darragh 	Ottawa 	21	16
===Leading Goaltenders===
Name 	Club 	GP	GA 	SO	Avg.
Clint Benedict	Ottawa 	24	72 	1 	3.0
Georges Vezina	Canadiens	24	76 	 	3.2
Paddy Moran 	Quebec 	22	82 	 	3.7
Percy LeSueur 	Toronto 	23	92 	1 	4.0
Bert Lindsay 	Wanderers	23	110	1 	4.8
Harry Holmes 	Toronto 	1 	6 	 	6.0
Billy Hague 	Wanderers	1 	6 	 	6.0
Rochon 	Quebec 	2 	16 	 	8.0
==Playoffs==
===Stanley Cup Finals=== 
See 1916 Stanley Cup Finals
==Game Ads==
15-16NHAMontrealGameAd.jpg|Montreal
15-16NHAOttawaGameAd.jpg|Ottawa
15-16NHAQuebecGameAd.jpg|Quebec City
15-16NHATorontoGameAd.jpg|Toronto
==See also==
*National Hockey Association
*List of pre-NHL seasons
*List of Stanley Cup champions
Category:1916 in hockey
Category:National Hockey Association