1951–52 Chicago Black Hawks season

Off-season

In the off-season, the Black Hawks were involved in the largest cash deal at the time, as they gave the Detroit Red Wings $75,000 in exchange for Jim McFadden, George Gee, Jimmy Peters, Clare Martin, Clare Raglan and Max McNab.

Regular season

The Black Hawks started the season off playing .500 hockey through their opening eight games, as they sat with a 3–3–2 record, however, the team fell into a five-game losing streak, and quickly fell out of playoff contention. Chicago would slump all season long, ending up in last place in the league for the second consecutive season with a 17–44–9 record, earning 43 points, which was a seven-point improvement on the previous season.

In an early season matchup (November 24) against the Detroit Red Wings at the Detroit Olympia, Black Hawks captain Jack Stewart made his return to the team after missing nearly a year of action due to a back injury. The Black Hawks defeated the powerful Red Wings 6–2 in his return. The following night in Chicago, Chicago goaltender Harry Lumley suffered a minor knee injury. Team trainer Moe Roberts, who had first played in the NHL in 1925–26 with the Boston Bruins, and had not played in the league since 1933–34 with the New York Americans, was an emergency third period replacement in goal for Chicago. Roberts stopped every shot he faced to help the Hawks win the game.

With the team having some attendance problems, the Black Hawks decided to experiment with afternoon games, and it worked, as on January 20, 1952, the Hawks had a season high crowd of 13,600 in a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Black Hawks forward Bill Mosienko set an NHL record during Chicago's final game of the season at Madison Square Garden in New York, as he scored 3 goals on New York Rangers goaltender Lorne Anderson in 21 seconds as Chicago defeated New York 7–6.

Offensively, Bill Mosienko led the team with 31 goals and 53 points, while newly acquired George Gee had a club high 31 assists, and finished second in team scoring with 49 points. Al Dewsbury led the Black Hawks blueline, scoring 7 goals and earning 24 points, while posting a team high 99 penalty minutes, while fellow defenceman Bill Gadsby also had a solid season, scoring 7 goals, registering 22 points and accumulated 87 penalty minutes.

In goal, Harry Lumley played in all 70 games, winning 17 of them, while posting a GAA of 3.46, and earning 2 shutouts.

Season standings

Record vs. opponents

Schedule and results

|- | 1 || October 11 || Chicago Black Hawks || 2–4 || Montreal Canadiens || 0–1–0 || 0 |- | 2 || October 13 || Chicago Black Hawks || 3–1 || Toronto Maple Leafs || 1–1–0 || 2 |- | 3 || October 14 || New York Rangers || 2–3 || Chicago Black Hawks || 2–1–0 || 4 |- | 4 || October 18 || Detroit Red Wings || 6–1 || Chicago Black Hawks || 2–2–0 || 4 |- | 5 || October 21 || Toronto Maple Leafs || 1–1 || Chicago Black Hawks || 2–2–1 || 5 |- | 6 || October 25 || Montreal Canadiens || 2–2 || Chicago Black Hawks || 2–2–2 || 6 |- | 7 || October 28 || Boston Bruins || 2–0 || Chicago Black Hawks || 2–3–2 || 6

| Legend:

Player statistics

Scoring leaders

Goaltending

References

• Hockey-Reference
• National Hockey League Guide & Record Book 2007

References

1. [https://goaltendinglegends.blogspot.com/2008/01/maurice-moe-roberts.html Goaltending Legends: Maurice "Moe" Roberts]
2. "1951-52 Chicago Black Hawks Schedule".