1915–16 NHA season

The 1915–16 NHA season was the seventh 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===
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 Hockey Club	24	9 	14	1	97 	98
Standings: 
Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF= Goals For, GA = Goals Against
Montreal is the champion of the O'Brien Cup.
==Playoffs==
The Canadiens hosted the Portland Rosebuds, champions of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) in the 'World Series' for the Stanley Cup.
===Stanley Cup Finals===
Champions 	Runners up 	Format 	Result
Montreal Canadiens	Portland Rosebuds	best of 5	3–2
==Exhibitions==
After the Stanley Cup playoff, Portland and Montreal travelled to New York for two exhibition games. The teams then played two games in Cleveland. Montreal then travelled to Boston to play the winner of an exhibition series played between Ottawa, Quebec and the Wanderers.
==Schedule and 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
==Player statistics==
===Scoring leaders===
Player 	Team 	 	 	 	 	
Didier Pitre 	Montreal Canadiens	24	24	15	39	42
Joe Malone 	Quebec Bulldogs 	24	25	10	35	21
Newsy Lalonde 	Montreal Canadiens	24	28	6 	34	78
Duke Keats 	Toronto Blueshirts	24	22	7 	29	112
Cy Denneny 	Ottawa Senators 	24	24	4 	28	57
Gordon Roberts	Montreal Wanderers	21	18	7 	25	64
Frank Nighbor 	Ottawa Senators 	23	19	5 	24	26
Corb Denney 	Toronto Blueshirts	22	20	3 	23	75
Rusty Crawford	Quebec Bulldogs 	22	18	5 	23	54
Odie Cleghorn 	Montreal Wanderers	21	15	7 	22	51
===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
==References==
* 
Category:1915 in ice hockey
Category:1916 in ice hockey
Category:National Hockey Association seasons