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- NHA 1913-14 Season
NHA
1913-14 Season
| Team | GP | W | L | T | Pts. | GF | GA | Diff. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toronto Blueshirts | 20 | 13 | 7 | 0 | 26 | 93 | 65 | 28 |
| Montreal Canadiens | 20 | 13 | 7 | 0 | 26 | 85 | 65 | 20 |
| Quebec Bulldogs | 20 | 12 | 8 | 0 | 24 | 111 | 73 | 38 |
| Ottawa Senators | 20 | 11 | 9 | 0 | 22 | 65 | 71 | -6 |
| Montreal Wanderers | 20 | 7 | 13 | 0 | 14 | 102 | 125 | -23 |
| Toronto Ontarios | 20 | 4 | 16 | 0 | 8 | 61 | 118 | -57 |
The 1913–14 NHA season was the fifth for the National Hockey Association and resulted in a thrilling finish, with the Toronto Hockey Club (Blueshirts) winning the championship. The league saw a significant expansion to six teams, incorporating the two long-awaited Toronto franchises—the Blueshirts and the Toronto Tecumsehs (who were renamed to the Toronto Ontarios during the season)—following the completion of the new Arena Gardens. In league business, the NHA solidified its relationship with the rival Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) and the Maritime League, establishing a formal working agreement, including a draft system and annual Stanley Cup play-off arrangements between the leagues. The season also introduced several rule changes, such as having the referee drop the puck rather than place it on the ice, limiting the width of the goaltender’s stick, and permanently banning checking into the boards in the latter half of the schedule. On a controversial note, the league mandated that assists be officially recorded for the first time.
The regular season concluded with a tie for first place between the Toronto Blueshirts and the Montreal Canadiens, both holding 13–7–0 records, necessitating a two-game, total-goals playoff for the O’Brien Cup and the Stanley Cup. Although the Canadiens won the first game 2–0, Toronto stormed back in the second game with a decisive 6–0 victory at home to win the series 6–2 overall. After securing the NHA championship, the Blueshirts went on to face the Victoria Aristocrats of the PCHA in the first ever inter-league Stanley Cup “World’s Series,” which was controversially arranged after the NHA overlooked the trustees’ request to play the Maritime champions. The Toronto Blueshirts swept the Victoria Aristocrats in three straight games to be crowned the official Stanley Cup champions. The top scorer of the NHA season was Tommy Smith of the Quebec Bulldogs with 39 goals.