1904 CAHL season

The 1904 Canadian Amateur Hockey League (CAHL) season lasted from January 2 until February 24. Teams played an eight game schedule. This was a tumultuous year as Ottawa resigned in February and defaulted four games.

Also, prior to the start of the season a rival hockey league, the Federal Amateur Hockey League was started, with the Montreal Wanderers taking most of the 'Little Men of Iron' from the Montreal Hockey Club.

League Business

Executive

• Harry Trihey, Shamrocks (President)
• F. Stocking, Quebec (1st Vice-President)
• J. P. Dickson ( 2nd Vice-President)
• Fred McRobie, Montreal (Secretary-Treasurer)

As the Wanderers had signed players from Montreal, it was forbidden for teams to play games against FAHL teams, and for team officials to participate in FAHL activities.

Season

Highlights

This season saw several impressive rookies including Frank Patrick for Montreal Victorias, Ernie (Moose) Johnson for Montreal and Alf Smith and Jim McGee for Ottawa.

The season started out with Ottawa winning their first four games. However, in their third game against the Victorias, the Ottawa team arrived 1½ hours late. The game was called at midnight, with Ottawa ahead 4–1. After a game where the Shamrocks arrived late in Ottawa, the League levied fines against the Shamrocks and Ottawa, and ordered the Ottawa-Victorias game to be replayed. Despite a threat from Mr. Dickson of Ottawa that Ottawa would resign if the game was to be replayed, the League continued to demand that the game be played. The Ottawa club offered to play it if it had a bearing on the league championship, but this was not acceptable to the league. In the end, Ottawa resigned from the league and the league considered the final four games to be forfeits. This overshadowed a great season from Quebec, which won the CAHL season with a record of 5–1 (plus two wins by forfeit).

Final Standing

Team	Games Played	Wins	Losses	Ties	Goals For	Goals Against
Quebec Hockey Club	6	5	1	0	50	37
Montreal Victorias	8	5	3	0	75	48
Montreal Hockey Club	7	2	5	0	34	49
Montreal Shamrocks	7	0	7	0	32	74
Ottawa Hockey Club‡	4	4	0	0	32	15

^‡ Resigned from league.

Results

Month	Day	Visitor	Score	Home	Score
Jan.	2	Victorias	18	Shamrocks	2
	2	Montreal	3	Quebec	9
	9	Victorias	6	Ottawa	10
	9	Quebec	13	Shamrocks	5
	16	Ottawa	8	Montreal	3
	16	Victorias	12	Quebec	5
	20	Shamrocks	3	Montreal	8
	23	Victorias	8	Montreal	5
	30	Shamrocks	6	Quebec	8
	30†	Ottawa	4	Victorias	1
Feb.	6	Quebec	6	Montreal	4
	6	Shamrocks	5	Ottawa	10
	13	Victorias	12	Shamrocks	7
	17	Montreal	5	Shamrocks	4
	20 (††)	Quebec	9	Victorias	7
	24	Montreal	6	Victorias	11
	-	Montreal		Ottawa
	-	Ottawa		Shamrocks
	-	Quebec		Ottawa
	-	Ottawa		Quebec

† Ordered to be replayed but never replayed as Ottawa resigned from league.

†† Birthday of the Champion.

Goalkeeper Averages

Name	Club	GP	GA	SO	Avg.
Hutton, John Bouse	Ottawa	4	15		3.8
Nichol, J.	Victorias	8	48		6.0
Moran, Paddy	Quebec	6	37		6.2
Waugh, O.	Montreal	5	32		6.4
Brophy, Fred	Montreal	1	8		8.0
Kenny	Shamrocks	4	35		8.8
Price	Montreal	1	9		9.0
Cloran	Shamrocks	3	39		13.0

Scoring Leaders

Name	Club	GP	G
Bowie, Russell	Victorias	8	27
Jordan, Herb	Quebec	6	19
Russell, Blair	Victorias	8	17
Howard, Cavey	Victorias	6	16
McGee, Frank	Ottawa	4	12
Sargent, Grover	Montreal	6	11
Power, Joe	Quebec	6	10
Coulson, Herbert	Montreal	6	8
Smith, Alf	Ottawa	4	8
Foulis, C.	Shamrocks	6	7

Stanley Cup challenges

For more details on this topic, see 1903–04 Ottawa Hockey Club season.

Ottawa would leave the CAHL in mid-season, leaving Quebec to win the league. The Stanley Cup did not pass to the Quebec Bulldogs based on their league championship. The Cup trustees decided that the Cup went with Ottawa. Quebec refused to make a challenge for the Stanley Cup, arguing that the Cup belonged to the CAHL season winner.

Winnipeg vs. Ottawa

Before Ottawa resigned from the CAHL, Ottawa HC defended the Cup against the Winnipeg Rowing Club in a best two-of-three series played in Ottawa 9–1,2–6,2–0 (2–1).

Date	Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Location
December 30, 1903	Ottawa HC	9–1	Winnipeg Rowing Club	Aberdeen Pavilion, Ottawa
January 1, 1904	Winnipeg Rowing Club	6–2	Ottawa HC
January 4, 1904	Ottawa HC	2–0	Winnipeg Rowing Club
Ottawa wins best-of-three series 2 games to 1

Exhibitions

After the season, the Montreal Victorias travelled to New York city, to play against Brooklyn Crescents and the New York Wanderers. The Victorias tied Brooklyn 8-8 and lost to the Wanderers 6-4.

Ottawa Hockey Club 1904 Stanley Cup champions

Roster

  Forwards

• Frank McGee(rover)
• Alf Smith (also played coverpoint-Playing-Coach)
• Billy Gilmour
• Suddy Gilmour
• Harry 'Rat' Westwick
• Scott&

  Defencemen

• Harvey Pulford (point-Captain)
• James A. McGee (point-coverpoint)
• Arthur Moore(coverpoint)

  Goaltenders

• John “Bouse” Hutton

  Coaching and Administrative Staff

• Percy Mituttler (President), Robert Shillington (Manager)
• Patrick Baskerville (Treasurer), Thomas D'Arcy McGee (Secretary)
• Halder Kirby (Club Doctor), Llewellyn Bates (Director)
• Chauncy Kirby, Martin Rosenthal, Charles Sparks (Directors)
• Mac McGilton (Ass’t Trainer), Pete Green (Trainer)

Stanley Cup engraving

Cyclone Taylor scratched 'Fred W. Taylor' over the official engraving of '1904 Ottawa'.

• &Scott first name remains unknown.

See also

• 1904 FAHL season
• List of Stanley Cup champions

References

• Coleman, Charles L. (1966). The Trail of the Stanley Cup, Vol. 1, 1893–1926 inc. 
• Podnieks, Andrew (2004). Lord Stanley's Cup. Triumph Books. ISBN 1-55168-261-3. 
• Shea, Kevin; Wilson, John Jason (2006). Lord Stanley: The Man Behind the Cup. Fenn Publishing Company, Ltd. ISBN 1-55168-281-8. 

Preceded by Ottawa Hockey Club 1903	Ottawa Hockey Club Stanley Cup Champions 1904	Succeeded by Ottawa Hockey Club 1905
Preceded by 1903	CAHL seasons 1904	Succeeded by 1905