April 1st
The Stanley Cup Final is Cancelled
On this day, the year of our Lord 1919, the Montreal Canadiens attempted to concede the Stanley Cup to the Seattle Metropolitans. This was due to the Spanish Flu, which ran through the Montreal Canadiens and the team couldn’t ice a full roster. However, the Metropolitans refused to accept the Cup, seeing it as unsportsmanlike.
Unfortunately, this could have been avoided. At the time, all the Stanley Cup Final rounds were best-of-five series rather than best-of-seven series, and this would have been the 6th game.
How can that be? Well, Game 4 was called a tie because the teams were still tied after 2 overtime periods. If one team had scored an overtime goal, the series would have been tied going into Game 5, and there would have been a 1919 Stanley Cup champion.
Happy Birthday Ken Reardon!
On April 1st, 1921, Ken Reardon was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Reardon started playing with the Montreal Canadiens in 1940, but his career was cut short by serving in the military during World War 2.
Reardon returned to the Canadiens in 1946, and won his only Stanley Cup as a player that year. Reardon finished his career as a bruising defenseman that played 341 games and scored 26 goals and 122 points, and 604 penalty minutes. Reardon also won 5 Stanley Cups as vice-president of the Montreal Canadiens, and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1966.