1949 Stanley Cup playoffs

The 1948–49 NHL season was the 32nd season of the National Hockey League. In a rematch of the previous season, Toronto defeated Detroit in the Stanley Cup final to win the championship.
==League business==
===Rule changes===
A new rule, often called the "Durnan Rule", was introduced for the start of the season stating that goalies cannot be the captain or an alternate captain and wear the "C" or "A". Specifically, NHL Rule 14-D (today's rule 6.1) read: No playing Coach or playing Manager or goalkeeper shall be permitted to act as Captain or Alternate Captain.
This rule was introduced because Bill Durnan, Montreal Canadiens goalie and captain, would frequently leave his crease to dispute calls with the referees. Opposing teams claimed that this would give the Canadiens unscheduled timeouts during strategic points in games. It would be another sixty years before another goalie would be captain. From 2008 until 2010, the Vancouver Canucks had Roberto Luongo as their captain, the seventh goalie to serve as a captain in the NHL. The rule remained in place, however, and Luongo could not 'act' as captain during games.
==Regular season==
Don Gallinger of the Boston Bruins, hopeful he could win an appeal of his suspension in the gambling scandal, finally admitted to gambling and was expelled from the NHL for life in September.
On October 8, 1948, the New York Rangers were due to start their season against the Montreal Canadiens, when the team suffered misfortune. Buddy O'Connor, Frank Eddolls, Edgar Laprade, Bill Moe, and Tony Leswick were travelling in their car from Montreal to Saranac Lake, New York when their car was struck by a truck near Rouses Point. O'Connor suffered several broken ribs, Eddolls a severed tendon in his knee, Laprade suffered a broken nose, Moe had a cut in the head requiring several stitches and Leswick escaped with a few bruises.
On November 10, 1948, unseasonably warm temperatures caused a fog bank to occur inside the Boston Garden during a game between the Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings. Referee Bill Chadwick abandoned the game after only 9 minutes of the first period due to poor visibility. The game was replayed the following night, with Boston winning 4–1.
A league record of ten major penalties was set November 25, 1948, when 11,000 fans at the Montreal Forum witnessed a donnybrook. It started when the Habs' Ken Mosdell elbowed Maple Leaf Gus Mortson. Mortson retaliated by knocking Elliot de Grey down with his stick. Montreal's Maurice Richard then sprang onto Mortson's back and they fought, and then all hands joined in. Mortson, Richard, Toronto's Howie Meeker and Mosdell were banished with majors. Play had scarcely begun when Ken Reardon (Montreal) and Joe Klukay (Toronto) began fencing and Bill Barilko went at Reardon, while Klukay got into it with Billy Reay, and Hal Laycoe fought Garth Boesch. In the game itself, Turk Broda picked up his first shutout of the year as the Leafs won, 2–0.
A sad note was the death of former Pittsburgh Pirates defenceman Tex White, who was found dead in his bed at his home in Port Colborne, Ontario on December 12. He was only 48 years old.
Both Detroit and Montreal lost key players to injury this year. Montreal lost Elmer Lach with a fractured jaw when he collided with Toronto defenceman Bob Goldham, and Emile "Butch" Bouchard injured a knee. Detroit lost Gordie Howe, who underwent knee surgery.
Bill Durnan got hot in the second half of the season and recorded four consecutive shutouts, going 309 minutes and 21 seconds without giving up a goal. In all, Durnan had 10 shutouts and won his fifth Vezina Trophy in six years.
===Final standings===
==Playoffs==
===Playoff bracket===
===Semifinals===
====(1) Detroit Red Wings vs. (3) Montreal Canadiens====
====(2) Boston Bruins vs. (4) Toronto Maple Leafs====
===Stanley Cup Finals===
==Awards==
Trophy 	Winner
Calder Memorial Trophy:(Top first-year player) 	Pentti Lund, New York Rangers
Hart Trophy:(Most valuable player) 	Sid Abel, Detroit Red Wings
Lady Byng Trophy:(Excellence and sportsmanship) 	Bill Quackenbush, Detroit Red Wings
O'Brien Cup:(Stanley Cup runner-up) 	Detroit Red Wings
Prince of Wales Trophy:(Top regular-season record)	Detroit Red Wings
Art Ross Trophy:(Top scorer) 	Roy Conacher, Chicago Black Hawks
Vezina Trophy:(Goaltender of team with lowest GAA)	Bill Durnan, Montreal Canadiens
===All-Star teams===
First team 	  Position  	Second team
Bill Durnan, Montreal Canadiens 	G 	Chuck Rayner, New York Rangers
Bill Quackenbush, Detroit Red Wings	D 	Glen Harmon, Montreal Canadiens
Jack Stewart, Detroit Red Wings 	D 	Ken Reardon, Montreal Canadiens
Sid Abel, Detroit Red Wings 	C 	Doug Bentley, Chicago Black Hawks
Maurice Richard, Montreal Canadiens	RW 	Gordie Howe, Detroit Red Wings
Roy Conacher, Chicago Black Hawks 	LW 	Ted Lindsay, Detroit Red Wings
==Player statistics==
===Scoring leaders===
Note: GP = Games played, G = Goals, A = Assists, PTS = Points, PIM = Penalties in minutes
Player 	Team 	GP	G 	A 	Pts	PIM
Roy Conacher 	Chicago Black Hawks 	60	26	42	68 	8
Doug Bentley 	Chicago Black Hawks 	58	23	43	66 	38
Sid Abel 	Detroit Red Wings 	60	28	26	54 	49
Ted Lindsay 	Detroit Red Wings 	50	26	28	54 	97
Jim Conacher 	Detroit Red Wings / Chicago Black Hawks	59	26	23	49 	43
Paul Ronty 	Boston Bruins 	60	20	29	49 	11
Harry Watson 	Toronto Maple Leafs 	60	26	19	45 	0
Billy Reay 	Montreal Canadiens 	60	22	23	45 	33
Gus Bodnar 	Chicago Black Hawks 	59	19	26	45 	14
Johnny Peirson	Boston Bruins 	59	22	21	43 	45
Source: NHL
===Leading goaltenders===
Note: GP = Games played; Mins – Minutes Played; GA = Goals Against; GAA = Goals Against Average; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; SO = Shutouts
Player 	Team 	GP	Mins	GA 	GAA 	W 	L 	T 	SO
Bill Durnan 	Montreal Canadiens 	60	3600	126	2.10	28	23	9 	10
Harry Lumley 	Detroit Red Wings 	60	3600	145	2.42	34	19	7 	6
Turk Broda 	Toronto Maple Leafs	60	3600	161	2.68	22	25	13	5
Frank Brimsek	Boston Bruins 	54	3240	147	2.72	26	20	8 	1
Chuck Rayner 	New York Rangers 	58	3480	168	2.90	16	31	11	7
Jim Henry 	Chicago Black Hawks	60	3600	211	3.52	21	31	8 	0
==Coaches==
*Boston Bruins: Dit Clapper
*Chicago Black Hawks: Charlie Conacher
*Detroit Red Wings: Tommy Ivan
*Montreal Canadiens: Dick Irvin
*New York Rangers: Lynn Patrick
*Toronto Maple Leafs: Hap Day
==Debuts==
The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1948–49 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):
*Jack Gelineau, Boston Bruins
*Dave Creighton, Boston Bruins
==Last games==
The following is a list of players of note who played their last game in the NHL in 1948–49 (listed with their last team):
*Neil Colville, New York Rangers
==See also==
*List of Stanley Cup champions
*2nd National Hockey League All-Star Game
*National Hockey League All-Star Game
*1948 in sports
*1949 in sports
== References ==
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;Notes
==External links==
* Hockey Database
* NHL.com