Detroit Red Wings: Stanley Cup Countdown to Christmas

The Detroit Red Wings have won 11 Stanley Cup Championships in their storied history. As we count down to Christmas, Octopus Thrower also counts down and recaps all of the Red Wings’ Stanley Cup titles.

Stanley Cup Season: 1936-37

What else happened that year:

Boxer Joe Louis beat Jim Braddock to become World Heavyweight Champion. The Golden Gate Bridge opened in San Francisco, where it would stand for 77 years before Godzilla-related destruction in 2014. Aviator Howard Hughes flew from LA to New York in 7 hours 28 minutes. A record Delta hopes one day to beat. And finally; in 1937, a teenage Jaromir Jagr took to the ice for the first time, inventing a lasting relationship between sport and questionable hair styles.

Who Detroit Defeated:

The Detroit Red Wings beat the New York Rangers 3-2 in a best-of-five series.

Team Leaders:

Goals – Larry Aurie (23)
Assists – Marty Berry (27)
Points – Marty Barry (44)
PIM – Ebbie Goodfellow (43)
Wins – Normie Smith (25)
GAA – Normie Smith (2.05)
SO – Normie Smith (6)

Season Recap:

After winning their first Stanley Cup the previous season, expectations were high for the Detroit Red Wings, and the team willingly obliged. More silverware was adorned on the Red Wings as they lifted the Prince of Wales Trophy for topping the American Division. Again. Marty Barry, who scored 44 points in the regular season, became the first Detroit Red Wing to be awarded the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy.

It wasn’t just the forwards who led the way, goalie Normie Smith became the first Red Wing to be awarded the Vezina Trophy. Larry Aurie, in his tenth season with Detroit, had scored 23 goals before a season-ending leg fracture while playing the New York Rangers ended his scoring run.

The NHL in the 1936-37 season was very different to how we know it now. The New York Americans and Montreal Maroons still existed while Gary Bettman didn’t (yet). It was a more simple time, when nobody would dream of putting a hockey team in the middle of the desert.

As mentioned above, the Detroit Red Wings topped the NHL with 59 points, while the Montreal Canadiens could only manage second place with 54. Those were the days eh? The Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs were both mid-table teams. Despite breezing through the regular season, they playoffs would prove to be much more of a challenge.

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Detroit met the Montreal Canadiens in the semi-final and comfortably won the first two games 4-0 and 5-1 respectively at the Detroit Olympia. The journey north of the border proved more difficult, being on home ice buoyed the Canadiens who won 3-1 in game three, then repeated that score in game four.

Game five would be the decider and it took three periods of overtime to find a winner. Hec Kilrea came through in the 11th minute to win the game and give the Red Wings a shot at becoming the first American team to win successive Stanley Cups. Final score Detroit 3-2 Montreal.

Tough opposition wasn’t the only challenge; Aurie was out, Smith injured his elbow and was out, while Doug Young and Orville Roulston also succumbed to injury.

Missing key All-Star players, the remaining healthy Red Wings traveled to Madison Square Garden for game one of the Stanley Cup Finals, only to lose 5-1. After the circus literally came to town, the New York Rangers agreed to play the remaining games in Detroit. The Red Wings revelled in the Olympia and won game two, tying the series. The two teams would again trade wins until the series was tied at 2-2.

Next: Detroit Red Wings Stanley Cup Countdown: Cup #1

On April 15th 1937, both teams took to the ice, both just 60 minutes away from glory. Any similarities ended when the puck dropped as Detroit dominated the Rangers and won the game 3-0. Rookie goalie Earl Robinson who stepped in to replace the injured Smith recorded two shutouts in the final series and the Stanley Cup would stay in Detroit.

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