1948–49 NHL season

League business

Rule changes

A new rule, often called the "Durnan Rule", was introduced for the start of the season stating that goalies cannot be the captain or an alternate captain and wear the "C" or "A". Specifically, NHL Rule 14-D (today's rule 6.1) read: No playing Coach or playing Manager or goalkeeper shall be permitted to act as Captain or Alternate Captain.

This rule was introduced because Bill Durnan, Montreal Canadiens goalie and captain, would frequently leave his crease to dispute calls with the referees. Opposing teams claimed that this would give the Canadiens unscheduled timeouts during strategic points in games. It would be another sixty years before another goalie would be captain. From 2008 until 2010, the Vancouver Canucks had Roberto Luongo as their captain, the seventh goalie to serve as a captain in the NHL. The rule remained in place, however, and Luongo could not 'act' as captain during games.

Regular season

Don Gallinger of the Boston Bruins, hopeful he could win an appeal of his suspension in the gambling scandal, finally admitted to gambling and was expelled from the NHL for life in September.

On October 8, 1948, the New York Rangers were due to start their season against the Montreal Canadiens, when the team suffered misfortune. Buddy O'Connor, Frank Eddolls, Edgar Laprade, Bill Moe, and Tony Leswick were travelling in their car from Montreal to Saranac Lake, New York when their car was struck by a truck near Rouses Point. O'Connor suffered several broken ribs, Eddolls a severed tendon in his knee, Laprade suffered a broken nose, Moe had a cut in the head requiring several stitches and Leswick escaped with a few bruises.

On November 10, 1948, unseasonably warm temperatures caused a fog bank to occur inside the Boston Garden during a game between the Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings. Referee Bill Chadwick abandoned the game after only 9 minutes of the first period due to poor visibility. The game was replayed the following night, with Boston winning 4–1.

A league record of ten major penalties was set November 25, 1948, when 11,000 fans at the Montreal Forum witnessed a donnybrook. It started when the Habs' Ken Mosdell elbowed Maple Leaf Gus Mortson. Mortson retaliated by knocking Elliot de Grey down with his stick. Montreal's Maurice Richard then sprang onto Mortson's back and they fought, and then all hands joined in. Mortson, Richard, Toronto's Howie Meeker and Mosdell were banished with majors. Play had scarcely begun when Ken Reardon (Montreal) and Joe Klukay (Toronto) began fencing and Bill Barilko went at Reardon, while Klukay got into it with Billy Reay, and Hal Laycoe fought Garth Boesch. In the game itself, Turk Broda picked up his first shutout of the year as the Leafs won, 2–0.

Both Detroit and Montreal lost key players to injury this year. Montreal lost Elmer Lach with a fractured jaw when he collided with Toronto defenceman Bob Goldham, and Emile "Butch" Bouchard injured a knee. Detroit lost Gordie Howe, who underwent knee surgery.

Bill Durnan got hot in the second half of the season and recorded four consecutive shutouts, going 309 minutes and 21 seconds without giving up a goal. In all, Durnan had 10 shutouts and won his fifth Vezina Trophy in six years.

Final standings

Playoffs

Playoff bracket

The top four teams in the league qualified for the playoffs. In the semifinals, the first-place team played the third-place team, while the second-place team faced the fourth-place team, with the winners advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals. In both rounds, teams competed in a best-of-seven series (scores in the bracket indicate the number of games won in each best-of-seven series).

| RD1-seed1=1 | RD1-team1=Detroit | RD1-score1=4 | RD1-seed2=3 | RD1-team2=Montreal | RD1-score2=3 | RD1-seed3=2 | RD1-team3=Boston | RD1-score3=1 | RD1-seed4=4 | RD1-team4=Toronto | RD1-score4=4 | RD2-seed1=1 | RD2-team1=Detroit | RD2-score1=0 | RD2-seed2=4 | RD2-team2=Toronto | RD2-score2=4

Semifinals

(1) Detroit Red Wings vs. (3) Montreal Canadiens

|1-1-1 =No scoring |1-1-2 =No scoring |1-2-1 =No scoring |1-2-2 =04:13 – Gordie Howe (1) |1-3-1 =Maurice Richard (1) – 12:29 |1-3-2 =No scoring |1-4-1 =No scoring |1-4-2 =04:52 – pp – Max McNab (1) |goalie1-1 =Bill Durnan |goalie1-2 =Harry Lumley

|2-1-1 =Gerry Plamondon (1) – pp – 04:23 |2-1-2 =01:31 – Sid Abel (1) |2-2-1 =No scoring |2-2-2 =No scoring |2-3-1 =Billy Reay (1) – pp – 04:46 Gerry Plamondon (2) – pp – 06:01 |2-3-2 =00:50 – pp – Ted Lindsay (1) 16:49 – Sid Abel (2) |2-4-1 =Gerry Plamondon (3) – 02:59 |2-4-2 =No scoring |goalie2-1 =Bill Durnan |goalie2-2 =Harry Lumley

|3-1-1 =10:41 – Ken Mosdell (1) 18:24 – Leo Gravelle (1) |3-1-2 =No scoring |3-2-1 =No scoring |3-2-2 =No scoring |3-3-1 =10:02 – Murdo MacKay (1) |3-3-2 =Gordie Howe (2) – 08:07 Gordie Howe (3) – sh – 15:03 |goalie3-1 =Bill Durnan |goalie3-2 =Harry Lumley

|4-1-1 =04:43 – Leo Gravelle (2) |4-1-2 =Red Kelly (1) – sh – 08:34 |4-2-1 =No scoring |4-2-2 =Gordie Howe (4) – 18:38 |4-3-1 =No scoring |4-3-2 =Gordie Howe (5) – 13:19 |goalie4-1 =Bill Durnan |goalie4-2 =Harry Lumley

|5-1-1 =No scoring |5-1-2 =No scoring |5-2-1 =Rip Riopelle (1) – 01:11 |5-2-2 =No scoring |5-3-1 =No scoring |5-3-2 =05:10 – Sid Abel (3) 16:28 – Gerry Couture (1) 17:00 – Gordie Howe (6) |goalie5-1 =Bill Durnan |goalie5-2 =Harry Lumley

|6-1-1 =No scoring |6-1-2 =No scoring |6-2-1 =06:41 – Gerry Plamondon (4) 08:44 – Maurice Richard (2) 09:56 – pp – 09:56 |6-2-2 =Gordie Howe (7) – pp – 12:56 |6-3-1 =No scoring |6-3-2 =No scoring |goalie6-1 =Bill Durnan |goalie6-2 =Harry Lumley

|7-1-1 =No scoring |7-1-2 =03:17 – Gordie Howe (8) |7-2-1 =Glen Harmon (1) – 06:33 |7-2-2 =12:10 – sh – Leo Reise (1) 18:46 – pp – Gerry Couture (2) |7-3-1 =No scoring |7-3-2 =No scoring |goalie7-1 =Bill Durnan |goalie7-2 =Harry Lumley

(2) Boston Bruins vs. (4) Toronto Maple Leafs

|1-1-1 =Harry Watson (1) – pp – 05:15 |1-1-2 =No scoring |1-2-1 =Harry Watson (2) – 07:25 |1-2-2 =No scoring |1-3-1 =Max Bentley (1) – 07:50 |1-3-2 =No scoring |goalie1-1 =Turk Broda |goalie1-2 =Frank Brimsek

|2-1-1 =Ray Timgren (1) – pp – 03:36 |2-1-2 =05:02 – sh – Woody Dumart (1) |2-2-1 =No scoring |2-2-2 =17:24 – Paul Ronty (1) |2-3-1 =Harry Watson (3) – 10:57 Harry Watson (4) – 18:41 |2-3-2 =No scoring |goalie2-1 =Turk Broda |goalie2-2 =Frank Brimsek

|3-1-1 =08:46 – Ted Kennedy |3-1-2 =Grant Warwick (1) – 09:56 Woody Dumart (2) – 17:16 |3-2-1 =14:15 – sh – Gus Mortson (1) 19:57 – Joe Klukay (1) |3-2-2 =Johnny Peirson (1) – pp – 13:53 |3-3-1 =11:49 – Fleming MacKell (1) |3-3-2 =Ed Sandford (1) – 07:11 |3-4-1 =No scoring |3-4-2 =Woody Dumart (3) – 16:14 |goalie3-1 =Turk Broda |goalie3-2 =Frank Brimsek

|4-1-1 =03:18 – Fleming MacKell (2) |4-1-2 =Johnny Peirson (2) – pp – 11:16 |4-2-1 =10:30 – Sid Smith (1) |4-2-2 =No scoring |4-3-1 =15:17 – pp – Sid Smith (2) |4-3-2 =No scoring |goalie4-1 =Turk Broda |goalie4-2 =Frank Brimsek

|5-1-1 =Cal Gardner (1) – pp – 06:27 Ray Timgren (2) – 14:58 |5-1-2 =12:17 – pp – Grant Warwick (2) |5-2-1 =Max Bentley (2) – 08:01 |5-2-2 =No scoring |5-3-1 =No scoring |5-3-2 =19:03 – Johnny Peirson (3) |goalie5-1 =Turk Broda |goalie5-2 =Frank Brimsek

Stanley Cup Finals

Main article: 1949 Stanley Cup Finals

|1-1-1 =Max Bentley (3) – 13:15 |1-1-2 =04:15 – pp – George Gee (1) |1-2-1 =Jimmy Thomson (1) – pp – 16:02 |1-2-2 =No scoring |1-3-1 =No scoring |1-3-2 =13:56 – Bill Quackenbush (1) |1-4-1 =Joe Klukay (2) – 17:13 |1-4-2 =No scoring |goalie1-1 =Turk Broda |goalie1-2 =Harry Lumley

|2-1-1 =Sid Smith (3) – pp – 08:50 Sid Smith (4) – pp – 09:56 |2-1-2 =No scoring |2-2-1 =Sid Smith (5) – pp – 17:58 |2-2-2 =No scoring |2-3-1 =No scoring |2-3-2 =05:50 – Pete Horeck (1) |goalie2-1 =Turk Broda |goalie2-2 =Harry Lumley

|3-1-1 =No scoring |3-1-2 =Jack Stewart (1) – 04:57 |3-2-1 =No scoring |3-2-2 =Bill Ezinicki (1) – 11:02 Ted Kennedy (2) – 12:40 Gus Mortson (2) – 16:18 |3-3-1 =No scoring |3-3-2 =No scoring |goalie3-1 =Turk Broda |goalie3-2 =Harry Lumley

|4-1-1 =No scoring |4-1-2 =Ted Lindsay (2) – 02:59 |4-2-1 =10:10 – pp – Ray Timgren (3) 19:45 – Cal Gardner (2) |4-2-2 =No scoring |4-3-1 =15:10 – Max Bentley (4) |4-3-2 =No scoring |goalie4-1 =Turk Broda |goalie4-2 =Harry Lumley

Awards

All-Star teams

Player statistics

Scoring leaders

Note: GP = Games played, G = Goals, A = Assists, PTS = Points, PIM = Penalties in minutes

Source: NHL

Leading goaltenders

Note: GP = Games played; Mins = Minutes played; GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; SO = Shutouts

Coaches

• Boston Bruins: Dit Clapper
• Chicago Black Hawks: Charlie Conacher
• Detroit Red Wings: Tommy Ivan
• Montreal Canadiens: Dick Irvin
• New York Rangers: Lynn Patrick
• Toronto Maple Leafs: Hap Day

Debuts

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1948–49 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):

• Jack Gelineau, Boston Bruins
• Dave Creighton, Boston Bruins

Last games

The following is a list of players of note who played their last game in the NHL in 1948–49 (listed with their last team):

• Neil Colville, New York Rangers

References

• {{cite book |last1=Fischler |first1=Stan |last2=Fischler |first2=Shirley

;Notes

References

1. (2008-09-30). "Captain Puckstopper". Greatest Hockey Legends.com.
2. Weekes, Don. (2003). "The Best and Worst of Hockey's Firsts: The Unofficial Guide". Greystone Books.