1909 ECHA season


The 1909 ECHA season was the fourth and final season of the Eastern Canada Hockey Association. Teams played a twelve-game schedule. The Ottawa Hockey Club would win the league championship with a record of ten wins, two losses and take over the Stanley Cup.

League business

Executive

The Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association league meeting was held November 4, 1908, and was a pivotal meeting in the evolution from amateur to professional ice hockey leagues. At the meeting the two last amateur, or at least partly amateur teams resigned over the signing of players from other teams. Montreal HC and Montreal Victorias left the league and later would continue as senior level men's teams playing for the Allan Cup. Unpaid players would no longer play with paid players.
The league would continue with four professional teams. The league name was changed to Eastern Canadian Hockey Association to reflect the change in status.

Regular season

The Wanderers', Cecil Blachford had retired and Bruce Stuart had moved to Ottawa. New additions included Joe Hall, Harry Smith, Jimmy Gardner and Steve Vair. The Wanderers would come close to their rivals, finishing second with nine wins and three losses.
Ottawa saw Harvey Pulford and Alf Smith retire, and Tom Phillips leave. Ottawa would replace these players with Edgar Dey, Billy Gilmour and Albert 'Dubby' Kerr from the Toronto Professionals. Alf Smith would organize the Ottawa Senators of the Federal Hockey League.
Shamrocks added Harry Hyland, and Quebec saw the start of the career of Joe Malone.
Ottawa played an exhibition game prior to the season with the Toronto professionals on January 2 in Toronto. Toronto defeated Ottawa 5–4. Dubby Kerr played in the game for Toronto, and signed with Ottawa a week later.
On January 25, Wanderers played an exhibition game in Cobalt, Ontario, versus the Cobalt Silver Kings, betting $500 on themselves to win, but lost 6–4. After the game Harry Smith would leave the Wanderers to join Haileybury of the Timiskaming League.

Highlights

The rivalry between Ottawa and Wanderers continued, Wanderers winning the first on January 6 7–6 in overtime, with Harry Smith scoring four against his former team. Ottawa would win the next 5–4 in Ottawa, and defeat Montreal in Montreal 9–8 before 8000 fans. Ottawa would finish the series winning 8–3 in Ottawa to clinch the championship.
Marty Walsh of Ottawa would win the scoring championship with 38 goals. Ottawa would average nearly ten goals per game.

Final standing

Note GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against
TeamGPWLTGFGA
Ottawa HC12102011763
Montreal Wanderers129308261
Quebec HC1239078106
Montreal Shamrocks12210056103

Results

MonthDayVisitorScoreHomeScore
Jan.2Quebec HC8Shamrocks9
Jan.6Shamrocks4Quebec HC12
Jan.6Ottawa HC6Wanderers7
Jan.9Quebec HC5Ottawa HC13
Jan.13Ottawa HC11Shamrocks3
Jan.13Wanderers7Quebec HC3
Jan.16Shamrocks7Ottawa HC9
Jan.16Quebec HC6Wanderers7
Jan.20Shamrocks5Wanderers7
Jan.23Ottawa HC18Quebec HC4
Jan.27Shamrocks1Wanderers5
Jan.30Wanderers4Ottawa HC5
Jan.30Quebec HC4Shamrocks8
Feb.6Ottawa9Wanderers8
Feb.6Shamrocks6Quebec HC9
Feb.10Shamrocks6Wanderers8
Feb.13Quebec HC6Ottawa HC14
Feb.17Wanderers12Shamrocks2
Feb.20Ottawa HC7Shamrocks3
Feb.20Wanderers7Quebec HC4
Feb.27Shamrocks2Ottawa HC11
Feb.27Quebec HC6Wanderers7
Mar.4Wanderers3Ottawa HC8
Mar.7Ottawa HC6Quebec HC11

Player statistics

Scoring leaders

Note: GP = Games played, G = Goals scored
NameClubGPG
Marty WalshOttawa HC1238
Herb JordanQuebec HC1229
Bruce StuartOttawa HC1122
Charles PowerQuebec HC1222
Albert KerrOttawa HC920
Harry HylandShamrocks1118
Frank "Pud" GlassWanderers1217
Steve VairWanderers712
Billy GilmourOttawa HC1111
Jimmy GardnerWanderers1211

Goaltending averages

Note: GP = Games played, GA = Goals against, SO = Shutouts, GAA = Goals against average
NameClubGPGASOGAA
Riley HernWanderers12615.1
Percy LeSueurOttawa HC12635.3
Bill BakerShamrocks121038.6
Paddy MoranQuebec HC121068.8

Stanley Cup challenges

Montreal vs. Edmonton

Prior to the season, Wanderers would play a challenge against the Edmonton Hockey Club, champions of the Alberta Amateur Hockey Association. Despite all players except for one being a 'ringer' for Edmonton, Montreal would defeat them December 28–30, 1908, in Montreal. In game one, Harry Smith scored 5 goals as he led the Wanderers to a 7–3 victory. The Edmontons won game two, 7–6, but Montreal took the two-game total goals series, 13–10.
Source: Coleman
After the challenge, Edmonton would play an exhibition game in Ottawa on January 2, defeating the Ottawa Senators 4–2. Ottawa played the Toronto Pros the same day in Toronto, losing 5–4. Lindsay, Pitre and Vair, having played with Edmonton for the challenge, would sign after the exhibition game with Renfrew of the Federal League. The players would help Renfrew to the FHL championship.
After the season, Ottawa took over the Cup, but a series against the Winnipeg Shamrocks could not be arranged and no challenge was played. Challenges from Renfrew of the Federal Hockey League and Cobalt of the Timiskaming League were disallowed when the Stanley Cup trustees ruled that the players on Renfrew and Cobalt were ineligible, having joined their teams after January 2.

Post-season exhibition

Ottawa and the Montreal Wanderers played a two-game series at the St. Nicholas Rink in New York on March 12 and March 13. Ottawa won the first game 6–4, and the second game was tied 8–8.

Stanley Cup engraving

non-players =
  • Thomas D'arcy McGee, Llewellyn Bates
  • Pete Green, Patrick Basketville
  • Martin Rosenthal, Mac McGilton
  • Charles Sparks, George Bryson, Dave Mulligan
  • Percy Butler, S.N. Nagle
all-notes =
  • There are two team pictures one including only players which is reproduced in Coleman, p. 177. The other includes all the players and executives Podnieks Page 41.
engraving-notes =
  • Ottawa added a new ring to the bottom of the Stanley Cup and put their name on it.