| 1951–52 NHL season | |
| League: | National Hockey League |
| Sport: | Ice hockey |
| Duration: | October 11, 1951 – April 15, 1952 |
| Season: | Regular season |
| No Of Games: | 70 |
| No Of Teams: | 6 |
| Season Champ Name: | Season champion |
| Season Champs: | Detroit Red Wings |
| Mvp: | Gordie Howe (Red Wings) |
| Mvp Link: | Hart Memorial Trophy |
| Top Scorer: | Gordie Howe (Red Wings) |
| Top Scorer Link: | Art Ross Trophy |
| Finals: | Stanley Cup |
| Finals Link: | 1952 Stanley Cup Finals |
| Finals Champ: | Detroit Red Wings |
| Finals Runner-Up: | Montreal Canadiens |
| Nextseason Link: | 1952–53 NHL season |
| Prevseason Link: | 1950–51 NHL season |
| Nextseason Year: | 1952–53 |
| Prevseason Year: | 1950–51 |
| Seasonslistnames: | NHL |
The 1951–52 NHL season was the 35th season of the National Hockey League. The Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup by sweeping the Montreal Canadiens four games to none.
A long-standing feud between Boston president Weston Adams and general manager Art Ross ended on October 12, 1951, when Adams sold his stock in Boston Garden to Walter Brown.
The Chicago Black Hawks, who had made the mammoth nine player deal the previous season, now decided to make the largest cash deal for players to this time by paying $75,000 for Jim McFadden, George Gee, Jimmy Peters, Clare Martin, Clare Raglan and Max McNab.
The NHL and the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) agreed to a January 15 deadline for professional teams to call up players from the CAHA's Major Series of senior ice hockey. The agreement gave the NHL a source of emergency replacement players, and prevented teams in Canada from losing players during the Alexander Cup playoffs.[1]
The league mandated that home teams would now wear a basic white uniform, while road teams will wear coloured uniforms. Before then, teams would often play with colored jerseys against each other, and with Television being in black white at the time, this helped viewers at home identify the two teams clearly.
The goal crease is enlarged from 3feetx7feetft (xft) to 4feetx8feetft (xft). The faceoff circles are expanded from a 10feet radius to a 15feet radius.
Conn Smythe offered $10,000 for anyone who found Bill Barilko, missing since August 26. Barilko and Dr. Henry Hudson had left Rupert House on James Bay in the doctor's light plane for Timmins, Ontario, after a weekend fishing trip and had not been found.
For the fourth straight season, the Detroit Red Wings finished first overall in the National Hockey League.
On November 25 in Chicago, Chicago goalie Harry Lumley hurt a knee. At age 46, trainer Moe Roberts, who played his first game in the NHL for Boston in 1925–26, played the third period in goal for Chicago and did not yield a goal. Roberts would stand as the oldest person to ever play an NHL game until Gordie Howe returned to the NHL at age 51 in 1979.[2]
Chicago was not drawing well and so they decided to experiment with afternoon games. It worked, as the largest crowd of the season, 13,600 fans, showed up for a January 20 game in which Chicago lost to Toronto 3–1.
Elmer Lach night was held March 8 at the Forum in Montreal as the Canadiens tied Chicago 4–4. 14,452 fans were on hand to see Lach presented with a car, rowboat, TV set, deep-freeze chest, bedroom and dining room suites, a refrigerator and many other articles.
On the last night of the season, March 23, 1952, with nothing at stake at Madison Square Garden, 3,254 fans saw Chicago's Bill Mosienko score the fastest hat trick in NHL history, 3 goals in 21 seconds. Lorne Anderson was the goaltender who gave up the goals to Chicago. Gus Bodnar also set a record with the fastest three assists in NHL history as he assisted on all three goals Mosienko scored. Chicago beat the New York Rangers 7–6.
Detroit finished 8–0, sweeping the defending Stanley Cup champions Toronto (the first time in NHL history the cup champs were swept in the first round) and Montreal, the first time a team had gone undefeated in the playoffs since the 1934–35 Montreal Maroons. The Wings scored 24 goals in the playoffs, compared to a combined five goals for their opponents. Detroit goaltender Terry Sawchuk never allowed a goal on home ice during the playoffs.
See main article: 1952 Stanley Cup Finals.
| Detroit Red Wings | ||
| Art Ross Trophy
| Gordie Howe, Detroit Red Wings | |
| Calder Memorial Trophy
| Bernie Geoffrion, Montreal Canadiens | |
| Hart Trophy
| Gordie Howe, Detroit Red Wings | |
| Lady Byng Memorial Trophy
| Sid Smith, Toronto Maple Leafs | |
| Vezina Trophy
| Terry Sawchuk, Detroit Red Wings |
| First team | Position | Second team | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Terry Sawchuk, Detroit Red Wings | align=center | G | Jim Henry, Boston Bruins |
| Red Kelly, Detroit Red Wings | align=center | D | Hy Buller, New York Rangers |
| Doug Harvey, Montreal Canadiens | align=center | D | Jimmy Thomson, Toronto Maple Leafs |
| Elmer Lach, Montreal Canadiens | align=center | C | Milt Schmidt, Boston Bruins |
| Gordie Howe, Detroit Red Wings | align=center | RW | Maurice Richard, Montreal Canadiens |
| Ted Lindsay, Detroit Red Wings | align=center | LW | Sid Smith, Toronto Maple Leafs |
Note: GP = Games played, G = Goals, A = Assists, PTS = Points, PIM = Penalties in minutes
| Player | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | PIM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detroit Red Wings | 70 | 47 | 39 | 86 | 78 | ||
| Detroit Red Wings | 70 | 30 | 39 | 69 | 123 | ||
| Montreal Canadiens | 70 | 15 | 50 | 65 | 36 | ||
| New York Rangers | 70 | 19 | 42 | 61 | 14 | ||
| Toronto Maple Leafs | 70 | 27 | 30 | 57 | 6 | ||
| Montreal Canadiens | 67 | 30 | 24 | 54 | 66 | ||
| Chicago Black Hawks | 70 | 31 | 22 | 53 | 10 | ||
| Detroit Red Wings | 62 | 17 | 36 | 53 | 32 | ||
| Toronto Maple Leafs | 70 | 19 | 33 | 52 | 33 | ||
| Boston Bruins | 69 | 21 | 29 | 50 | 57 |
Note: GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; SO = Shutouts
| Player | Team | GP | MIN | GA | GAA | W | L | T | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detroit Red Wings | 70 | 4200 | 133 | 1.90 | 44 | 14 | 12 | 12 | |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | 70 | 4170 | 154 | 2.22 | 29 | 24 | 16 | 5 | |
| Montreal Canadiens | 70 | 4200 | 164 | 2.34 | 34 | 26 | 10 | 5 | |
| Boston Bruins | 70 | 4200 | 176 | 2.51 | 25 | 29 | 16 | 7 | |
| New York Rangers | 53 | 3180 | 159 | 3.00 | 18 | 25 | 10 | 2 | |
| New York Rangers | 14 | 840 | 42 | 3.00 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 0 | |
The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1951–52 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):
The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1951–52 (listed with their last team):