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The Curse of Muldoon, named after Pete Muldoon, was a sports-related curse that supposedly prevented the Chicago Black Hawks of the National Hockey League from finishing in first place between 1927 and 1967. [1]
The Hawks' first season, 1926–27, was a moderate success, with the forward line of Mickey MacKay, Babe Dye, and Dick Irvin each finishing near the top of the league's scoring race. The Hawks lost their 1927 first-round playoff series to the Boston Bruins. Following this series, team owner Frederic McLaughlin fired head coach Pete Muldoon.
Jim Coleman, a sportswriter for The Globe and Mail wrote in 1943 that the reason for Muldoon's firing boiled down to a heated end-of-season argument with McLaughlin. As the story goes, McLaughlin felt that the Black Hawks were good enough to finish first in the American Division. Muldoon disagreed, and McLaughlin fired him. Muldoon supposedly responded, "Fire me, Major, and you'll never finish first. I'll put a curse on this team that will hoodoo it until the end of time." At the time, finishing in first place was considered to be as much of an achievement as winning the Stanley Cup. While the team would win the Stanley Cup in 1934 (defeating the Detroit Red Wings in the Finals), 1938 (defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs) and 1961 (again defeating the Red Wings), they would do so without having finished in first place either in a multi-division or a single-league format.
In 1967, the last season of the six-team NHL, the Hawks finished first, breaking the supposed Curse of Muldoon, 23 years after the death of McLaughlin. Afterward, sportswriter Jim Coleman, who first printed the story of the curse in 1943, admitted that he made the story up to break a writer's block he had as a deadline approached. [2]
The Chicago Blackhawks are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago. The Blackhawks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference and have won six Stanley Cup championships since their founding in 1926. They are one of the "Original Six" NHL teams, along with the Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, and New York Rangers. Since 1995, the team has played their home games at the United Center, which they share with the National Basketball Association's Chicago Bulls; both teams previously played at the now-demolished Chicago Stadium.
The Original Six are the teams that comprised the National Hockey League (NHL) between 1942 and 1967. The six teams are the Boston Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, and Toronto Maple Leafs. After serving as the league's only teams for 25 seasons, they were joined by six new franchises in the 1967 NHL expansion.
The Toronto Marlborough Athletic Club, commonly known as the Toronto Marlboros, was founded in 1903. It operated junior ice hockey and senior ice hockey teams in the Ontario Hockey Association and later the Ontario Hockey League. The Marlboros were a farm team to the Toronto Maple Leafs and one of the dominant junior teams in history, winning seven Memorial Cup championships. The senior team competed for the Stanley Cup in 1904, and won the Allan Cup in 1950.
Charles William "The Big Bomber" Conacher, Sr. was a Canadian professional ice hockey forward who played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings and New York Americans in the National Hockey League. An early power forward, Conacher was nicknamed "The Big Bomber," for his size, powerful shot and goal scoring. He led the NHL five times in goals, and twice led in overall scoring. Over five seasons from 1931-32 to 1935-36 Conacher was named to three NHL First All-Star Teams and two NHL Second All-Star Teams. He is an Honoured Member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. In 2013, Charlie Conacher was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame. In 2017 Conacher was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history.
The 1950–51 NHL season was the 34th season of the National Hockey League. The Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Montreal Canadiens four games to one for the Stanley Cup to win their fifth Cup in seven years.
The 1944–45 NHL season was the 28th season of the National Hockey League. Six teams each played 50 games. The Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup in seven games versus the Detroit Red Wings.
The 1945–46 NHL season was the 29th season of the National Hockey League. The Montreal Canadiens won the Stanley Cup, defeating the Boston Bruins for the team's sixth championship.
The 1927–28 NHL season was the 11th season of the National Hockey League. Ten teams played 44 games each. The New York Rangers won the Stanley Cup beating the Montreal Maroons, becoming the first NHL team based in United States to win it.
The 1961–62 NHL season was the 45th season of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Toronto Maple Leafs were the Stanley Cup champions as they defeated the Chicago Black Hawks four games to two.
The 1963–64 NHL season was the 47th season of the National Hockey League. Six teams each played 70 games. The Toronto Maple Leafs won their third consecutive Stanley Cup by defeating the Detroit Red Wings four games to three in the final series.
The 1954–55 NHL season was the 38th season of the National Hockey League. The Detroit Red Wings were the Stanley Cup champions as they defeated the Montreal Canadiens four games to three in the best-of-seven final series. The Canadiens were without star forward Maurice 'Rocket' Richard who had been suspended for the playoffs, a suspension which led to the March 17, 1955 "Richard Riot" in Montreal.
The 1973–74 NHL season was the 57th season of the National Hockey League. The Philadelphia Flyers won the Stanley Cup championship, the team's first. The team was the first of the post-1967 teams to win the Cup.
The 1977–78 NHL season was the 61st season of the National Hockey League. The Montreal Canadiens won their third Stanley Cup in a row, defeating the Boston Bruins four games to two in the Stanley Cup Finals.
The NHL's Norris Division was formed in 1974 as part of the Prince of Wales Conference. When the NHL realigned into geographic divisions in 1981, the division moved to the Clarence Campbell Conference, where it comprised the league's Great Lakes and Midwest teams, with the Detroit Red Wings being the only member to remain from the previous season. The division existed for 19 seasons until 1993. The division was named in honour of James E. Norris, longtime owner of the Red Wings. It is the forerunner of the NHL's Central Division. Intense rivalries developed between its constituent teams, which through the 1980s were noted for enforcer-heavy squads that had poor performances – qualifying for the playoffs with .500 points percentages, and achieving no Stanley Cup titles or appearances in the finals – but great local popularity. Despite the division's reputation, the 1985–86 St. Louis Blues made an impressive cinderella run by reaching the Conference Finals where it took the Calgary Flames 7 games to dispatch them following The Monday Night Miracle, and the 1990–91 Minnesota North Stars reached the Stanley Cup finals.
Linton Muldoon Treacy, better known as Pete Muldoon, was a Canadian ice hockey coach and pioneer in the western United States. He was the coach of the Seattle Metropolitans from 1915 to 1924 and led the team to a Stanley Cup championship in 1917. Muldoon later became the first coach of the Chicago Black Hawks. He was known for reportedly putting a curse on the Black Hawks after he was fired at the end of the 1926–27 season.
The 1938 Stanley Cup Finals was a best-of-five series between the Chicago Black Hawks and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Chicago won the series 3–1 to win their second Stanley Cup. With their record of 14-25-9, they possess, to date, the lowest regular-season winning percentage of any championship team in the four major professional sports leagues, and are the only ones to do so with a losing record.
The 1966–67 Chicago Black Hawks season was the Hawks' 41st season in the National Hockey League, and the team was coming off a team record 37 victories in the 1965–66 season, as they finished in second place in the NHL. The Black Hawks then were upset by the fourth place Detroit Red Wings in the NHL semi-finals, losing in six games.
This is a complete alphabetic list of all players who won the Stanley Cup ice hockey trophy with years and total wins. The Stanley Cup was first awarded in 1893, and since 1926 it has been the championship trophy of the National Hockey League (NHL). The list includes all known players from each winning team from 1893 to 1923. Since 1924, all players whose names were actually engraved on the Stanley Cup are listed. The list also includes any player who qualified but whose name was not engraved on the Stanley Cup, and any player who did not qualify but who dressed in the playoffs
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