1930–31 NHL season

Art Ross bitterly complained about the Stanley Cup final setup. His team had been vanquished in two consecutive games by the Montreal Canadiens in 1929–30. As a result, the Board of Governors decided to make the final a best-of-five series.

The Great Depression was starting to take its toll on the NHL. In attempts to solve financial problems, the Pittsburgh Pirates moved to Philadelphia and became the Philadelphia Quakers, but there was nothing about the team to win games or fans. It was intended that the team stay in Philadelphia only until a new arena was built in Pittsburgh. The arena was never built, and the team folded after only one season in the new city. The state of Pennsylvania would be without an NHL team until the league doubled in size 36 years later.

The Ottawa Senators were in a similar financial boat but instead of relocating, they sold a star asset and future Hall of Famer, King Clancy, to the Toronto Maple Leafs for $35,000 and two players. Even after the sale of Clancy, the Senators' owners put the team up for sale for $200,000, although no bids approached anywhere near that figure. The team would suspend operations before the start of the next season.[1]

The Detroit Cougars changed the team name to the Detroit Falcons.

Howie Morenz led the league in scoring.

Dick Irvin started his career in coaching with Chicago and they finished second in the American Division. He resigned at season's end after having taken the Black Hawks to the finals.

On March 26, during the second game of the best-of-five series between the Bruins and Canadiens, coach-GM Art Ross of Boston pulled his goalie for an extra attacker while down 1–0 with 40 seconds left in the final period. The attempt was unsuccessful. This marked the first time in Stanley Cup play that a goalie was pulled for an extra attacker.[2]

Howie Morenz won the Hart Trophy for the second time in his career. Frank Boucher won the Lady Byng for the fourth consecutive year. Roy Worters won the Vezina Trophy for the one and only time in his career.

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1930–31 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):

• Art Chapman, Boston Bruins
• Doc Romnes, Chicago Black Hawks
• John Sorrell, Detroit Falcons
• Johnny Gagnon, Montreal Canadiens
• Paul Haynes, Montreal Maroons
• Dave Kerr, Montreal Maroons
• Alex Levinsky, Toronto Maple Leafs
• Bob Gracie, Toronto Maple Leafs

The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1930–31 (listed with their last team):

• Frank Fredrickson, Detroit Falcons
• Bert McCaffrey, Montreal Canadiens
• Joe Simpson, New York Americans
• Babe Dye, Toronto Maple Leafs

• List of Stanley Cup champions
• 1930 in sports
• 1931 in sports

• Diamond, Dan, ed. (2000). Total Hockey. Total Sports. ISBN 1-892129-85-X.
• Diamond, Dan, ed. (2009). NHL Official Guide & Rule Book 2010. NHL.
• Dinger, Ralph, ed. (2011). The National Hockey League Official Guide & Record Book 2012. Dan Diamond & Associates. ISBN 978-1-894801-22-5.
• Dryden, Steve, ed. (2000). Century of hockey. Toronto, ON: McClelland & Stewart Ltd. ISBN 0-7710-4179-9.
• Fischler, Stan; Fischler, Shirley; Hughes, Morgan; Romain, Joseph; Duplacey, James (2003). The Hockey Chronicle: Year-by-Year History of the National Hockey League. Publications International Inc. ISBN 0-7853-9624-1.
• McFarlane, Brian (1973). The Story of the National Hockey League. New York, NY: Pagurian Press. ISBN 0-684-13424-1.
• Kitchen, Paul (2008). Win, Tie or Wrangle. Manotick, Ontario: Penumbra Press. ISBN 978-1-897323-46-5.
• McFarlane, Brian (1989). One hundred years of hockey. Toronto, Ontario: Deneau Publishers. ISBN 0-88879-216-6.

Notes

• Hockey Database
• NHL.com