1910–11 NHA season

The 1910–11 NHA season was the second season of the now defunct National Hockey Association. Five teams played 16 games each, starting on December 31, 1910 and ending on March 10, 1911. The Ottawa Hockey Club won the league championship and took over the Stanley Cup from the Montreal Wanderers.
==League Business==
The annual meeting was held November 12, 1910 electing the following executive:
* Emmett Quinn (president and secretary)
Directors:
* Eddie McCafferty, Wanderers
* John Ambrose O'Brien, Renfrew
* W. P. Humphrey, Shamrocks
* George Kennedy, Canadiens
* Joe Power, Quebec
The Shamrocks resigned from the league and were not replaced. The Club Athletique-Canadien and the Quebec Hockey Club were granted franchises. Haileybury and Cobalt left the league. Club-Athletique-Canadien had made a claim on the Canadiens name and threatened a lawsuit if they were not granted a franchise. There are three written descriptions of this transaction. Coleman(1966) writes that George Kennedy, president of the CAC bought the Haileybury franchise. In Andy O'Brien's book, Ambrose O'Brien is quoted as saying that he sold the Canadiens to Kennedy. In Holzman's book, the franchise was given to Kennedy, but Kennedy had to pay O'Brien for the rights to Newsy Lalonde. In The Globe of March 7, 1911, it is claimed that Lalonde's sale was the first ever sale of a player.
The NHA decided to impose a $5,000 per team salary cap.
A second meeting, on November 26, 1910 updated the Board of Directors to:
* D'Arcy McGee, Ottawa
* James A. Barnett, Renfrew
* Adolphe Lecours, Canadiens
* Joe Power, Quebec
* Eddie McCafferty, Wanderers
The salary cap, while opposed by the players was upheld at the meeting.
===Salary Cap===
The salary cap of $5000 per club caused a situation where Bruce Stuart of Ottawa threatened a mass defection to a new league. However, the players found that the Arena Company, owners of the Montreal Arena would not rent to the players. There was no other suitable arena in Montreal available for a new league and the players had no choice but to abandon the effort. Some players took a large cut in salary: Marty Walsh, Fred Lake and Dubby Kerr were paid $600 each where they had been paid $1200 each in 1910. The dispute caused the cancellation of a pre-season exhibition series in New York for the Ottawas and Wanderers.
===Rule Changes===
Games were changed from two periods of 30 minutes, to three periods of twenty minutes, with ten minute rest periods. The Spalding hockey puck was adopted as the standard puck.
==Regular season==
===Final standings===
Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF= Goals For, GA = Goals Against
National Hockey Association	GP	W 	L 	T	GF 	GA
Ottawa Hockey Club 	16	13	3 	0	122	69
Montreal Canadiens 	16	8 	8 	0	66 	62
Renfrew Creamery Kings 	16	8 	8 	0	91 	101
Montreal Wanderers 	16	7 	9 	0	73 	88
Quebec Bulldogs 	16	4 	12	0	65 	97
===Results===
Month	Day	Visitor 	Score	Home 	Score
Dec. 	31 	Ottawa 	5 	Canadiens	3
Jan. 	2 	Renfrew 	2 	Quebec 	3
Jan. 	5† 	Wanderers	4 	Renfrew 	2
Jan. 	7 	Canadiens	4 	Quebec 	1
Jan. 	7 	Wanderers	5 	Ottawa 	10
Jan. 	10 	Quebec 	4 	Wanderers	5 (overtime)
Jan. 	10 	Ottawa 	5 	Renfrew 	4
Jan. 	14 	Renfrew 	1 	Canadiens	4
Jan. 	14 	Quebec 	5 	Ottawa 	13
Jan. 	16 	Quebec 	5 	Renfrew 	10
Jan. 	18 	Canadiens	4 	Wanderers	5
Jan. 	21 	Canadiens	4 	Ottawa 	5 (overtime)
Jan. 	21 	Wanderers	5 	Quebec 	3
Jan. 	24 	Renfrew 	5 	Ottawa 	19
Jan. 	24 	Quebec 	5 	Canadiens	9
Jan. 	27 	Canadiens	6 	Renfrew 	5
Jan. 	28 	Ottawa 	8 	Wanderers	2
Feb. 	1 	Renfrew 	8 	Quebec 	7
Feb. 	1 	Wanderers	6 	Canadiens	3
Feb. 	3 	Wanderers	5 	Renfrew 	8
Feb. 	4 	Ottawa 	6 	Quebec 	4
Feb. 	7 	Canadiens	9 	Wanderers	2
Feb. 	11 	Quebec 	2 	Canadiens	3
Feb. 	11 	Wanderers	4 	Ottawa 	9
Feb. 	15‡	Wanderers	4 	Renfrew 	5 (at Ottawa)
Feb. 	15 	Canadiens	4 	Quebec 	7
Feb. 	18 	Renfrew 	4 	Wanderers	6
Feb. 	18 	Ottawa 	7 	Quebec 	2
Feb. 	21 	Renfrew 	2 	Canadiens	4
Feb. 	22 	Wanderers	3 	Quebec 	1
Feb. 	24 	Ottawa 	7 	Renfrew 	8
Feb. 	25 	Quebec 	3 	Wanderers	2
Feb. 	27 	Quebec 	11 	Renfrew 	10
Feb. 	28 	Wanderers	2 	Canadiens	3
Feb. 	28 	Quebec 	2 	Ottawa 	6
Mar. 	2 	Ottawa 	7 	Wanderers	11
Mar. 	2 	Canadiens	3 	Renfrew 	5
Mar. 	4 	Renfrew 	7 	Ottawa 	6
Mar. 	7 	Wanderers	6 	Renfrew 	7
Mar. 	8 	Ottawa 	4 	Canadiens	3
Mar. 	10 	Canadiens	0 	Ottawa 	5
† Protested by Renfrew.
‡ Replay of protested game.
===Goalkeeper Averages===
Name 	Club 	GP	GA 	SO	Avg.
Vezina, Georges	Canadiens	16	62 	 	3.9
LeSueur, Percy 	Ottawa 	16	69 	1 	4.3
Hern, Riley 	Wanderers	16	88 	 	5.5
Moran, Paddy 	Quebec 	16	97 	 	6.1
Lindsay, Bert 	Renfrew 	16	101	 	6.3
===Leading scorers===
Name 	Club 	GP	G
Walsh, Marty 	Ottawa 	16	37
Kerr, Dubby 	Ottawa 	16	32
Smith, Don 	Renfrew 	16	28
Ridpath, Bruce	Ottawa 	16	22
Cleghorn, Odie	Renfrew 	16	20
Lalonde, Newsy	Canadiens	16	19
Pitre, Didier 	Canadiens	16	19
Russell, Ernie	Wanderers	10	18
Darragh, Jack 	Ottawa 	16	18
Glass, Pud 	Wanderers	16	17
==Stanley Cup Challenges==
===Preliminary playoffs===
Four teams challenged for the Stanley Cup: Prince Albert, who was disqualified out of the 1910-11 Saskatchewan Senior Playoffs; Port Arthur, who won the New Ontario League in present-day Thunder Bay; Galt, who won the Ontario Professional League; and Port Hope, who won the Eastern Ontario Professional League.
Two preliminary series were played:
2 games total goals
Date 	Winner 	Loser 	Location
March 8 	Port Arthur 6	Prince Albert 3	Winnipeg
March 10	Port Arthur 6	Prince Albert 5	Winnipeg
Port Arthur beat Prince Albert 12 goals to 8.
Date 	Winner	Loser 	Location
March 3	Galt 8	Port Hope 4	Galt
March 7	Galt 4	Port Hope 4	Port Hope
Galt beat Port Hope 12 goals to 8.
The Ottawa Senators then played two challenges against Galt and Port Arthur at The Arena in Ottawa.
===Galt vs. Ottawa===
March 13, 1911
Galt 	4	at	Ottawa 	7	
Billy Hague 	 	G 	Percy LeSueur	 	
Billy Baird 	 	P 	Fred Lake 	1	
Mike Murphy 	 	CP	Hamby Shore 	 	
Tommy Smith 	1	RO	Jack Darragh 	 	
Jim Mallen 	 	C 	Marty Walsh 	3	
Louis Berlinguette	2	RW	Bruce Ridpath	2	
Fred Doherty 	1	LW	Albert Kerr 	1	
===Port Arthur vs. Ottawa===
Marty Walsh was a "one-man wrecking crew", scoring ten goals against Port Arthur.
March 16, 1911
Port Arthur 	4	at	Ottawa 	13	
H. Zeigler 	 	G 	Percy LeSueur	 	
McDonough 	 	P 	Fred Lake 	 	
Eddie Carpenter	1	CP	Hamby Shore 	 	
Jack Walker 	1	F 	Jack Darragh 	 	
O'Leary 	 	F 	Marty Walsh 	10	
W. McGregor 	1	F 	Bruce Ridpath	2 	
Wellington 	1	F 	Albert Kerr 	1 	
==Post-season Exhibition series==
After the season a series was arranged between Renfrew and Montreal Wanderers and Ottawa to play in New York. Renfrew and Montreal played first, with the winner to play-off against Ottawa. After the Wanderers defeated Renfrew 18–5 (13–4, 4–1), Ottawa won a $2,500 prize for the two-game series winning 12–7 ( 7–2, 5–8 ).
Date 	Winning Team 	Score	Losing Team 	Location
March 17, 1911	Montreal Wanderers	14–4 	Renfrew 	St. Nicholas Rink, New York
March 18, 1911	Montreal Wanderers	4–1 	Renfrew 	St. Nicholas Rink, New York
March 20, 1911	Ottawa 	7–2 	Montreal Wanderers	St. Nicholas Rink, New York
March 21, 1911	Montreal Wanderers	8–5 	Ottawa 	St. Nicholas Rink, New York
==Ottawa Hockey Club 1911 Stanley Cup Champions==
==Team Photos==
10-11GaltPros.jpg|Galt
1910-11OttSen.jpg|Ottawa Hockey Club
10-11PrinceAlbert.jpg|Prince Albert
==Game Ads==
10-11NHAMontrealGameAd.jpg|Montreal
10-11NHAQuebecGameAd.jpg|Quebec City
10-11SCupWinnipegGameAd.jpg|Playoff @ Winnipeg
==See also==
*National Hockey Association
*List of pre-NHL seasons
*List of Stanley Cup champions
==References==
* 
* 
* 
* Podnieks, Andrew; Hockey Hall of Fame (2004). Lord Stanley's Cup. Triumph Books, 12, 50. ISBN 1-55168-261-3. 
Category:1911 in hockey
Category:National Hockey Association