1939–40 Montreal Canadiens season explained

Team:	Montreal Canadiens
League:	NHL
Season:	1939–40
Year:	1939
Leaguerank:	7th
Record:	10–33–5
Goalsfor:	90
Goalsagainst:	168
Goalsleader:	Toe Blake (17)
Assistsleader:	Charlie Sands (20)
Pointsleader:	Toe Blake (36)
Pimleader:	Polly Drouin (51)
Winsleader:	Claude Bourque (9)
Gaaleader:	Claude Bourque (3.29)

The 1939–40 Montreal Canadiens season was the 31st season in franchise history. The team placed seventh in the regular season and did not qualify for the playoffs for the first time since the 1935–36 season. The Canadiens would not finish a season in last place in their division for another 59 years, and would not finish last in the league for another 82 years.

Regular season

The Canadiens' first game saw them score what would be a season-high 8 goals as they defeated the Chicago Black Hawks 8–2 at the Montreal Forum on November 5, 1939. The Habs were undefeated over their first six games (4–0–2) and were 6-2-2 in their first ten. After that, however, long winless streaks were the rule. They went 3-8-0 in December, 1-10-1 in January, 1-8-1 in February and 1-5-1 in March. Their most lopsided loss happened on February 22, 1940 – 1–10 against the Chicago Black Hawks at Chicago.

Record vs. opponents

Schedule and results

Regular season results
No.	R	Date	Score	Opponent	Record
1	W	November 5, 1939	8–2	Chicago Black Hawks (1939–40)	1–0–0
2	W	November 9, 1939	2–0	New York Americans (1939–40)	2–0–0
3	T	November 16, 1939	3–3 OT	Boston Bruins (1939–40)	2–0–1
4	W	November 19, 1939	2–1 OT	@ New York Rangers (1939–40)	3–0–1
5	W	November 21, 1939	2–1	@ Boston Bruins (1939–40)	4–0–1
6	T	November 23, 1939	1–1 OT	New York Rangers (1939–40)	4–0–2
7	L	November 25, 1939	4–6	Detroit Red Wings (1939–40)	4–1–2
8	L	November 30, 1939	2–5	@ New York Americans (1939–40)	4–2–2
9	W	December 3, 1939	3–1	@ Detroit Red Wings (1939–40)	5–2–2
10	W	December 7, 1939	4–1	Toronto Maple Leafs (1939–40)	6–2–2
11	L	December 9, 1939	0–3	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1939–40)	6–3–2
12	L	December 10, 1939	2–3	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1939–40)	6–4–2
13	W	December 14, 1939	5–3 OT	New York Americans (1939–40)	7–4–2
14	L	December 16, 1939	2–4	New York Rangers (1939–40)	7–5–2
15	L	December 19, 1939	2–5	@ New York Rangers (1939–40)	7–6–2
16	L	December 21, 1939	2–3	Boston Bruins (1939–40)	7–7–2
17	L	December 25, 1939	1–3	@ Detroit Red Wings (1939–40)	7–8–2
18	L	December 28, 1939	4–6	Toronto Maple Leafs (1939–40)	7–9–2
19	L	December 31, 1939	1–6	@ Boston Bruins (1939–40)	7–10–2
20	L	January 1, 1940	0–1	@ New York Americans (1939–40)	7–11–2
21	L	January 4, 1940	2–3	Detroit Red Wings (1939–40)	7–12–2
22	L	January 6, 1940	1–3	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1939–40)	7–13–2
23	W	January 7, 1940	2–1	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1939–40)	8–13–2
24	L	January 9, 1940	0–2	Chicago Black Hawks (1939–40)	8–14–2
25	L	January 14, 1940	2–4	@ Boston Bruins (1939–40)	8–15–2
26	L	January 16, 1940	1–6	Boston Bruins (1939–40)	8–16–2
27	L	January 18, 1940	0–1	New York Rangers (1939–40)	8–17–2
28	T	January 25, 1940	2–2 OT	New York Americans (1939–40)	8–17–3
29	L	January 27, 1940	1–3	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1939–40)	8–18–3
30	L	January 28, 1940	1–8	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1939–40)	8–19–3
31	L	January 30, 1940	1–4	@ New York Americans (1939–40)	8–20–3
32	L	February 4, 1940	0–9	@ New York Rangers (1939–40)	8–21–3
33	L	February 8, 1940	1–2	Detroit Red Wings (1939–40)	8–22–3
34	W	February 11, 1940	3–2 OT	@ Detroit Red Wings (1939–40)	9–22–3
35	T	February 15, 1940	1–1 OT	Chicago Black Hawks (1939–40)	9–22–4
36	L	February 17, 1940	1–3	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1939–40)	9–23–4
37	L	February 18, 1940	1–2	Toronto Maple Leafs (1939–40)	9–24–4
38	L	February 22, 1940	1–10	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1939–40)	9–25–4
39	L	February 24, 1940	0–2	New York Rangers (1939–40)	9–26–4
40	L	February 25, 1940	2–6	@ New York Rangers (1939–40)	9–27–4
41	L	February 29, 1940	2–4	Boston Bruins (1939–40)	9–28–4
42	T	March 2, 1940	3–3 OT	New York Americans (1939–40)	9–28–5
43	L	March 3, 1940	0–3	@ New York Americans (1939–40)	9–29–5
44	L	March 7, 1940	1–6	Chicago Black Hawks (1939–40)	9–30–5
45	W	March 9, 1940	3–0	Detroit Red Wings (1939–40)	10–30–5
46	L	March 10, 1940	2–5	@ Detroit Red Wings (1939–40)	10–31–5
47	L	March 14, 1940	4–8	Toronto Maple Leafs (1939–40)	10–32–5
48	L	March 17, 1940	2–7	@ Boston Bruins (1939–40)	10–33–5

^[1]

Player statistics

Regular season

Scoring

Player	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
	LW	48	17	19	36	48
	C/RW	47	9	20	29	10
	C/LW	46	11	12	23	29
	D/LW	42	9	11	20	6
	LW	47	12	7	19	24
	LW	42	4	11	15	51
	C	30	4	10	14	2
	D	47	3	9	12	22
	D	48	2	10	12	48
	C	23	2	8	10	8
	RW	10	4	5	9	0
	RW	41	1	5	6	6
	RW	13	3	2	5	24
	RW	14	2	3	5	2
	RW/C	11	1	4	5	4
	C	7	2	2	4	0
	LW	21	2	2	4	0
	D	46	1	3	4	10
	D	32	1	3	4	6
	D	6	0	3	3	6
	D	11	0	1	1	0
	G	36	0	0	0	0
	G	7	0	0	0	0
	G	5	0	0	0	0
	RW	2	0	0	0	0
	C	10	0	0	0	0
	D	7	0	0	0	16

Goaltending

Player	MIN	GP	W	L	T	GA	GAA	SO
	2210	36	9	24	3	121	3.29	2
	415	7	1	5	1	24	3.47	0
	310	5	0	4	1	18	3.48	0
	25	1	0	0	0	5	12.00	0
Team:	2960	48	10	33	5	168	3.41	2

^[2]

Awards and records

All-Star teams

Transactions

May 15, 1939	To Montreal Canadiens cash	To Chicago Black Hawks Des Smith	^[3] ^[4]
October 10, 1939	To Boston Bruins Herb Cain	To Montreal Canadiens Ray Getliffe Charlie Sands	^[5]
October 11, 1939	To Montreal Canadiens Earl Robinson	To Chicago Black Hawks cash	^[6]
November 29, 1939	To Boston Bruins George Brown	To Montreal Canadiens cash	^[7]
January 4, 1940	To New York Americans Johnny Gagnon	To Montreal Canadiens cash	^[8]
April 26, 1940	To Montreal Canadiens Herb Gardiner cash	To New York Rangers Claude Bourque	^[9]

Playoffs

They did not qualify for the playoffs

See also

• 1939–40 NHL season

References

• Canadiens on Hockey Database
• Canadiens on NHL Reference

Notes and References

1. Web site: 1939–40 Montreal Canadiens Games. Hockey-reference.com . 2009-06-04 .
2. Web site: hockey-reference.com . 2009-05-28 . 1939-40 Montreal Canadiens Statistics - Hockey-Reference.com.
3. Web site: NHL trades for 1939-1940 . 2021-07-22 . NHL Trade Tracker.
4. Book: Diamond . Dan . Total NHL . 2003 . Triumph Books . Chicago . 803 . 978-1-57243-604-6.
5. Book: Diamond . Dan . Total NHL . 2003 . Triumph Books . Chicago . 498, 572 & 784 . 978-1-57243-604-6.
6. Book: Diamond . Dan . Total NHL . 2003 . Triumph Books . Chicago . 773 . 978-1-57243-604-6.
7. Book: Diamond . Dan . Total NHL . 2003 . Triumph Books . Chicago . 489 . 978-1-57243-604-6.
8. Book: Diamond . Dan . Total NHL . 2003 . Triumph Books . Chicago . 567 . 978-1-57243-604-6.
9. Book: Diamond . Dan . Total NHL . 2003 . Triumph Books . Chicago . 868 & 878 . 978-1-57243-604-6.