For the competing hockey leagues 1925-26 was a make-or-break season. Both loops were paying higher salaries than they wanted, and though neither was carrying on large-scale raids on the other, the top players were well aware not only of the power they held by threatening to jump ship, but also looked at the salaries the top stars of baseball - guys like Powell Slocum and Max Morris - were earning. And they wanted a piece of the pie. Exacerbating the problem was that the two circuits were continuing to expand, pushing the number of clubs ever higher. This had the effect of not only lowering the overall talent pool, but it also created some haves and have-nots. Everything came to a head in '25-26.
The season began on a tragic note. In the team's first game of the season Montreal Valiants' longtime star goalie Al Juneau collided with a team mate, hitting his head on the ice with a sickening crack. He gamely finished the first period, but passed out in the locker room and was sent to the hospital in Detroit. He was found to have suffered a skull fracture and died over night. His death cast a pall over the team and though the Vals did gamely compete for the man they lovingly called "June Bug," they ended up finishing in fifth-place.
Juneau and Davey Vert were the forerunners for a goaltending revolution that took over the game in 1925-26. Though Vert now skated for the Shamrocks (who won the regular season title with a 26-9-1 mark), his replacement in Ottawa, Sam Jordan, had the greatest season in net up to that time, posting a 1.53 GAA with 12 shutouts over the 36-game season. Most of the teams now had a defensive focus and goal-scoring was down across the board. One team that didn't focus on defense was Toronto and they suffered a dismal season, winning just 10 games and allowing 133 goals, twice as many as New York allowed and 78 more than Ottawa allowed. Adding to the Dukes' woes was an injury-plagued campaign for Jack Barrell. The winger toughed it out for 31 games, but managed just 17 goals, a far cry from his high tallies of years past. A new goal-scoring force emerged in New York's Chris Schneider who won the scoring crown by scoring 39 goals and adding nine assists. Boston's Jack Rossdale scored 30 - the only other player to top that mark (and they had six extra games in which to do it thanks to the addition of the Detroit Bulldogs, the league's seventh club).
The new Bulldogs impressed, finishing third with a very respectable 20-16-0 mark. They were not a high-scoring outfit, but they did play hard and well on defense, allowing the third-fewest goals in the NAHC. Defending champion Quebec toppled all the way to sixth thanks to an anemic offense that scored only 66 goals all season.
The USHA had replaced the Philadelphia Rascals with a new club of their own in the Chicago Packers. The new team was exciting featuring the league's runner-up in goals scored with Danny McLachlan potting 28 - but the club was a sieve defensively allowing 111 goals in 30 games and finishing a distant last with a 7-20-3 mark. The race for the title came down to two of the league's newer clubs in the Montreal Nationals and Cleveland Eries. Cleveland was an offensive force, scoring 89 goals while the Nationals were built on defense and goaltending as they had the USHA's answer to Davey Vert and Sam Jordan in Jesse Hart. The longtime veteran netminder was stingy with a 1.57 GAA and 10 shutouts. Buffalo was the league's top scoring outfit and had the league's best player in Andre St. Laurent, who came into his own as a star in his own right, scoring 31 goals and adding 13 assists to lead the league in points by 10 over runner-up (and team mate) Cal Oliphant.
Hamilton and the New York Eagles struggled, Hamilton thanks to a sputtering offense and New York largely due to a porous defense. Only the Packers kept those two from competing for the basement - as it was they finished with identical 11-15-4 records.
The total-goals series in the NAHC needed a third-game as New York and Ottawa were squared at four apiece after two. The Shamrocks dominated the third contest, winning 4-0 to earn the right to play for the cup. Facing them would be the winner of the USHA's total-goals playoff between first-place Montreal (19-9-2) and second-place Cleveland (18-9-3), an evenly matched pair if ever there was one. The Eries took the series in surprisingly easy fashion, making Hart look human for a change. Cleveland's hot play carried over into the Cup series - with a small game one hiccup in there (a 5-2 loss in game one in New York's Bigsby Gardens). The Eries bounced back to win three straight with 4-1, 5-1 and 4-0 victories as they seemingly outclassed the much more heralded and certainly better paid Shamrocks.
That Cup title turned out to be the last hurrah for the both the Eries and the USHA as a whole. Big changes were coming to the world of hockey in the spring of 1926.
NAHC Standings | GP | W | L | T | PTS | GF | GA | USHA Standings | GP | W | L | T | PTS | GF | GA | |
New York Shamrocks | 36 | 26 | 9 | 1 | 53 | 104 | 66 | Montreal Nationals | 30 | 19 | 9 | 2 | 40 | 77 | 48 | |
Ottawa Athletics | 36 | 21 | 15 | 0 | 42 | 74 | 55 | Cleveland Eries | 30 | 18 | 9 | 3 | 39 | 89 | 72 | |
Detroit Bulldogs | 36 | 20 | 16 | 0 | 40 | 83 | 71 | Buffalo Bears | 30 | 15 | 13 | 2 | 32 | 93 | 71 | |
Boston Bees | 36 | 19 | 17 | 0 | 38 | 97 | 95 | Hamilton Hammers | 30 | 11 | 15 | 4 | 26 | 60 | 72 | |
Montreal Valiants | 36 | 16 | 18 | 2 | 34 | 86 | 88 | New York Eagles | 30 | 11 | 15 | 4 | 26 | 68 | 90 | |
Quebec Champlains | 36 | 12 | 21 | 3 | 27 | 66 | 89 | Chicago Packers | 30 | 7 | 20 | 3 | 17 | 77 | 111 | |
Toronto Dukes | 36 | 10 | 26 | 0 | 20 | 87 | 133 |
NAHC SCORING LEADERS | ||||||||
Player | Goals | Player | Assists | Player | Points | |||
Chris Schneider, NYS | 39 | Charlie Oliphant, OTT | 12 | Chris Schneider, NYS | 48 | |||
Jack Rossdale, BOS | 30 | Efrem Massicotte, OTT | 12 | Charlie Oliphant, OTT | 34 | |||
Jack Cooper, BOS | 27 | Rene Mailloux, VAL | 10 | Jack Rossdale, BOS | 33 | |||
Harvey McLeod, VAL | 25 | Ben Scheer, NYS | 10 | Jack Cooper, BOS | 32 | |||
Charlie Oliphant, OTT | 22 | Three players tied | 9 | Rene Mailloux, VAL | 29 |
NAHC TOP GOALIE
Sam Jordan, OTT: 21-15-0 1.53 GAA, 12 ShO
USHA SCORING LEADERS | ||||||||
Player | Goals | Player | Assists | Player | Points | |||
Andre St.Laurent, BUF | 31 | Cal Oliphant, BUF | 16 | Andre St.Laurent, BUF | 44 | |||
Danny McLachlan, CHI | 28 | Andre St.Laurent, BUF | 13 | Cal Oliphant, BUF | 34 | |||
Dick Carey, CLE | 20 | Dick Carey, CLE | 11 | Danny McLachlan, CHI | 33 | |||
Charles Tattler, CLE | 19 | Charlie Gagnon, CHI | 11 | Dick Carey, CLE | 31 | |||
Two players tied | 18 | Bernard Gregory, CHI | 11 | Two players tied | 28 |
TCHA TOP GOALIE
Jesse Hart, NAT: 19-9-2, 1.57 GAA, 10 ShO
McDaniels Trophy: Chris Schneider, NYS