1910–11 NHA season

The 1910–11 NHA season was the second season of the now defunct National Hockey Association. The Ottawa Hockey Club won the league championship. Ottawa took over the Stanley Cup from the Montreal Wanderers and defended it against teams from Galt, Ontario, and Port Arthur, Ontario.
==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.
Source: Coleman, p. 201–203.
===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.Coleman, p. 202
==Regular season==
===Final standings===
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
Standings: 
Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against
==Stanley Cup challenges==
Ottawa played two challenges after the season at The Arena in Ottawa.
===Galt vs. Ottawa===
 March 13, 1911Galt beaten in a poor game
Galt 	4	at	Ottawa 	7	
Billy Hague 	 	G 	Percy LeSueur	 	
Billy Baird 	 	P 	Fred Lake 	1	
Ras 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, 1911Ottawa still holds the cup
Port Arthur 	4	at	Ottawa 	13	
Herman Zeigler 	 	G 	Percy LeSueur	 	
Paddy McDonough 	 	P 	Fred Lake 	 	
Eddie Carpenter 	1	CP	Hamby Shore 	 	
Jack Walker 	1	RO	Jack Darragh 	 	
Mickey O'Leary 	 	C 	Marty Walsh 	10	
Willard McGregor	1	RW	Bruce Ridpath	2 	
Wes Wellington 	1	LW	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 ).
Ottawa and Montreal then played a two-game series in Boston on March 22 and March 25, 1911 (the first game being the first professional hockey game in Boston). Ottawa won a $2,500 purse by a total score of 13–11 (5–7, 8–4). Ottawa had picked up Cyclone Taylor from Renfrew to play in the Boston exhibition games.
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
March 22, 1911	Montreal Wanderers	7–5 	Ottawa 	Boston Arena, Massachusetts
March 25, 1911	Ottawa 	8–4 	Montreal Wanderers	Boston Arena, Massachusetts
 	 	 	 	Boston Arena, Massachusetts
 	 	 	 	Boston Arena, Massachusetts
; Sources: 
* 
* 
*
==Schedule and 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.
==Player statistics==
===Goaltending averages===
Name 	Club 	GP	GA 	SO	Avg.
Georges Vezina	Canadiens	16	62 	0 	3.9
Percy LeSueur 	Ottawa 	16	69 	1 	4.3
Riley Hern 	Wanderers	16	88 	0 	5.5
Paddy Moran 	Quebec 	16	97 	0 	6.1
Bert Lindsay 	Renfrew 	16	101	0 	6.3
===Scoring leaders===
Player 	Team 	 	 	
Marty Walsh 	Ottawa Senators 	16	35	51
Dubbie Kerr 	Ottawa Senators 	16	33	45
Don Smith 	Renfrew Creamery Kings	16	26	49
Bruce Ridpath 	Ottawa Senators 	16	23	51
Odie Cleghorn 	Renfrew Creamery Kings	16	20	66
Newsly Lalonde	Montreal Canadiens 	16	19	63
Didier Pitre 	Montreal Canadiens 	16	19	22
Ernie Russell 	Montreal Wanderers 	11	18	26
Jack Darragh 	Ottawa Senators 	16	18	36
Frank Glass 	Montreal Wanderers 	16	17	31
* 
* 
* 
* Podnieks, Andrew; Hockey Hall of Fame (2004). Lord Stanley's Cup. Triumph Books, 12, 50. ISBN 1-55168-261-3. 
==External links==
*Oilers Heritage: The NHA
Category:1910 in ice hockey
Category:1911 in ice hockey
Category:National Hockey Association seasons