The real impact of the financial crash of October 1929 hit the North American Hockey Confederation in the 1930-31 season as clubs saw their attendance plummet as fans simply did not have the disposable income to go to hockey games.
To help the clubs with travel expenses the NAHC moved the New York Eagles into the American Division and the Montreal Nationals into the Canadian Division. While the move suited the Nationals, who proved a strong competitor in the Canadian, the arrival of the Eagles into an already strong division was a disaster for the Detroit Bulldogs who posted the worst season in the entirety of professional hockey history, winning one - yes one - game all season against 42 losses and a single tie. Unsurprisingly this allowed three of the other four American Division teams to post point totals north of 50 and even the fourth-place Eagles finished at .500 with a 17-17-10 mark and 44 points.
In the offseason the owner of the Boston Bees, Francis Denny, whose club had lost the best-of-three Challenge Cup Final to Ottawa, successfully forced a change on his reluctant fellow owners with a change in the format of the Cup Final to a best-of-five format going forward. Citing the success of baseball's World Championship Series, which had been a best-of-seven series since the 1890s, Denny convinced the other owners that more games meant more revenue - and also allowed the better team (which had been his team in the 1930 Final, he believed) a better chance to win out.
The regular season brought new division winners and a surprising crash of the 1930 champion Ottawa Athletics. The New York Shamrocks captured the American Division, by virtue of the quirky NAHC tiebreaking rules which stipulated that the club with the fewer losses would gain precedence when two or more clubs finished with the same number of points. That proved the case in 1930-31 as the Shamrocks and Boston Bees each posted 58 points, but New York's 25-11-8 campaign was given the edge over Boston's 26-12-6 mark. In the Canadian, the Montreal Valiants posted the best mark in the entire league with a 30-11-3 campaign that was good for 63 points. Conversely, the Athletics tumbled into the cellar with an 8-29-7 mark, 16 points behind the fourth-place Quebec Champlains.
The Valiants boasted the league's most potent offense, tallying 137 goals, while allowing just 78. The Masters Trophy went to centerman Harvey McLeod who led the league in scoring with 54 points on 30 goals and 24 assists (both second). Toronto had a coaching change as Jack Barrell took over behind the bench, while also playing right wing in six games (he failed to score) in what turned out to be his last season as a player. Under Barrell's leadership the Dukes finished a strong second to the Valiants in the Canadian Division led by Leo Morey whose 32 goals led the league. The Nationals proved more than competitive in their first season in the Canadian Division, finishing third with 48 points. Quebec (39 pts) and the Athletics (23 pts) completed the Canadian standings.
The shock waves of the Stock Market crash of October 1929 would reverberate across the globe for the next decade and impact every facet of life - including professional hockey. But in the early days of what would become the Great Depression, things in hockey were looking up. The NAHC had finally cemented its place as the top league of the sport after the tumultuous decade of the 1920s, rising from a four-team circuit that was beset by competition, rife with in-fighting amongst its ownership and touting an increasingly defense-oriented game that the fans often found lackluster. Now, as the calendar prepared to flip to the 1930s, the league had ten teams, the in-fighting was (mostly) gone and the game itself, thanks to the changes implemented in November 1929 was, in a word, electric.
Bill Yeadon, the New York Eagles' coach and general manager, had put it best when asked about the state of the game prior to the league meetings:
I believe in keeping the game wide open. Our followers are entitled to action... and not for a few brief moments, but for three full-20 minute periods per game. The open style of play calls for better stickhandling and speedier skating. What better system could the coaches and players adopt to preserve and further popularize the fastest game on earth.
Yeadon got his wish: the 1929-30 NAHC season featured an explosion of scoring and, thanks to the rule changes, the game was fast and exciting. The ten teams combined to score 1311 goals, up from 913 the year before as the new rules opened up the ability to move the puck very efficiently in the offensive zone, leading to more - and better - scoring chances than ever before. Combined with the hard hitting, intelligent positioning and top-notch skating of the previous years, the game was a thrill to watch once again.
No one took better advantage than the Boston Bees. With Frank Denny having wisely hired Max Dewar to run the club back in 1924, the former firebrand defenseman proved a tactical offensive genius in 1929. His club scored a ridiculous 192 goals - 60 more than the next-best team in the league, en route to 31 wins and a new record of 66 points. They ultimately would win the Challenge Cup as well, dominating the sport in a way no one else ever had. The team the papers dubbed "Dewar's Dynamics" were led by two breakout stars: second-year center Bert Cordier and third-year winger George Tremaine. The two finished 1-2 in both goals and assists (and therefore points) with Gordier scoring a league-best 47 goals with 33 assists and Tremaine scoring 44 goals with a league-best 34 assists. Their point tallies were far ahead of all other players. The team had a total of four 20-goal scorers and defenseman Cy Beech even got into the offensive act with 13 goals and 21 assists. Dewar's protege continued to be the league's hardest-working and biggest-hitting blueliner, racking up 105 penalty minutes as well (that mark was - surprisingly - only the third-highest in the league).