Ice Hockey in the 1930s
Ice hockey in the 1930s experienced significant transformations that helped solidify its position as a major professional sport in North America. By the end of the 1920s, the National Hockey League (NHL) had emerged as the leading hockey league, with franchises in both the U.S. and Canada. However, the Great Depression prompted challenges, leading to team departures and economic difficulties, yet the league successfully maintained a core group of franchises known as the "Original Six" by implementing strategic measures, such as a salary cap and reduced ticket prices.
To attract a broader audience, the NHL introduced several rule changes, including forward passing, penalty shots, and an icing rule, which altered the gameplay and made it more appealing to fans, particularly in the U.S. Despite some resistance from traditional Canadian fans who felt the game was being "Americanized," these innovations led to increased attendance and engagement. Iconic players like Eddie Shore, Frank Boucher, and Aurel Joliat emerged during this era, contributing to the sport's popularity.
The decade also saw the Stanley Cup championship evolve in its format, further enhancing the competitive nature of the league. Overall, the 1930s marked a pivotal period in ice hockey's history, establishing it as a prominent sport and setting the stage for future growth.
Ice Hockey in the 1930s
The 1930’s marked the birth of the National Hockey League (NHL). Although a number of franchises were lost in major American and Canadian cities, the league was able to survive and retain its fan base despite a cap on players’ salaries, a reduction in ticket prices, and significant changes to the way the game itself was played.
By the end of the 1920’s, the NHL was the premier professional hockey league in North America, with ten franchises, six of which were in U.S. cities. With rule changes that allowed forward passing in all three zones of the rink and radio broadcasts of games in both the United States and Canada, professional hockey was creating a fan base that was beginning to rival those of baseball and boxing. By 1931, however, the Great Depression had led to the departure of the Philadelphia Quakers and the Ottawa Senators from the league, although Ottawa returned for the 1932-1933 season. By the end of the 1930’s, only the two franchises in New York (the Rangers and the Americans), the Boston Bruins, the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Montreal Canadiens, the Detroit Red Wings, and the Chicago Blackhawks remained. Nonetheless, the 1930’s was a remarkable decade for professional hockey in terms of how the team owners kept the league solvent and how the game changed to attract increasing numbers of fans.
Labor Relations, Business, and the NHL
In 1931, the board of governors of the NHL approved an increase in the number of games played from forty-four to forty-eight for each franchise in an effort to ensure that players would be better compensated during the economic downturn that affected both the United States and Canada. However, with revenues continuing to shrink, the board established a salary cap, mandating that no team’s payroll could exceed $70,000 per year and that no individual player could receive more than $7,500 per year. Stars such as Frank Boucher of the Rangers, Lorne Chabot of the Maple Leafs, and Aurel Joliat of the Canadiens resisted the move by refusing to play, but the board gave team owners the power to suspend any of the holdouts. Eventually, all of the dissidents capitulated. Ticket prices were slashed as well. In 1933, the top price for a ticket to an NHL game was three dollars, and in many arenas, fans could see a game for fifty cents. While such measures had negative effects on the NHL—the Montreal Maroons and Ottawa Senators folded—the league avoided the fate of rival professional hockey leagues such as the American Hockey League, which was forced to suspend activity altogether.
The Great Depression made it increasingly difficult for sports franchises to attract investors. As economic conditions worsened, only the teams in major American markets with large arenas—such as in New York, Detroit, and Chicago, which had a new 16,500-seat arena—seemed viable. However, Conn Smythe, the owner of the Maple Leafs, was able to attract some of Canada’s largest banks to fund the construction of a 13,500-seat arena. He convinced the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers to accept 20 percent of their pay in Maple Leafs stock while building the new arena. In return, Smythe pledged to use only union labor. Thus, the “original six” franchises remained solvent throughout the Great Depression.
Rule Changes
To attract more casual sports fans to hockey games, the NHL instituted a few controversial changes to the rules of the game. In 1929, the rules allowing increased forward passing were instituted. In 1934, the league instituted the penalty shots, taken thirty-eight feet from the goaltender and employed when an offensive player is fouled in scoring position. By 1937, the icing rule, which made it illegal for a player to pass an untouched puck from the defensive zone to the offensive zone, had been adopted. As a result, hockey became more dependent on passing and team play and an arguably faster-paced game than it had been previously. The changes also led to the development of semipermanent forward lines for teams. The result was healthy attendance for all of the original six franchises throughout the 1930’s. However, these innovations were not considered improvements to the game by all fans. Longtime Canadian hockey fans bemoaned the “Americanization” of the game, claiming that the rule changes catered to an American audience that did not completely understand the game. Further, these changes coincided with the league’s quest for American investors to ensure financial solvency. While many Canadian fans voiced feelings of disenfranchisement from their national game, the rule changes and the partnerships with investors did much to ensure the survival of the league during the 1930’s.
Professional Stars and Top Teams
Despite the salary caps, the NHL did much to attract and keep the dominant amateur hockey players of the time by signing them to long-term contracts. Toronto’s Frank “King” Clancy was probably the most popular defensive player of the decade. Montreal’s Joliat was perhaps the most popular francophone player of the decade. Boucher of the Rangers was the most dominant center of the period. However, Eddie Shore of the Boston Bruins was the most talked-about player of the 1930’s. A player of great intensity, Shore was known as much for his physical style of play as he was for his pregame antics, which included skating onto the ice wearing a black and gold cape with a “valet” in tow.
The dominant teams of the 1930’s were the Canadiens, the Blackhawks, and the Red Wings; each won two Stanley Cup championships during the period. The Maple Leafs appeared in six Stanley Cup series, losing five and winning one. During the 1930’s, the Stanley Cup championship was changed to a best-of-five-games format and, later in the decade, to a best-of-seven-games format, the system that is still in use. Radio broadcasts of this league championship led to even greater popularity for the game in the United States. Thus, the league survived the Great Depression and readied itself for the expansion it experienced over the following fifty years.
Impact
The 1930’s established ice hockey as one of the premier professional sports in North America. Initially a Canadian pastime, hockey enjoyed tremendous success in the United States during and after the 1930’s. The rule changes adopted by the NHL during the ten-year period from 1929 to 1939 were designed to entice the casual fan to follow hockey, and this notion of expanding the fan base provided a model for rule changes in other major sports.
Bibliography
Askin, Mark, and Malcolm G. Kelly. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the History of Hockey. Toronto: Pearson Education Canada, 2000. Concise overview of the history of ice hockey, including the pivotal decade of the 1930’s.
Houston, William. Pride and Glory: One Hundred Years of the Stanley Cup. Whitby, Ont.: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1992. History of hockey’s professional championship, which began during the 1890’s.
McKinley, Michael. Hockey: A People’s History. Toronto: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 2006. Charts hockey from its beginning and discusses teams, rules, and equipment.
Pincus, Arthur, with David Rosner, Len Hochberg, and Chris Malcolm. The Official Illustrated NHL History: The Story of the Coolest Game. Chicago: Triumph Books, 2001. Comprehensive coverage that includes statistics and other information. Numerous historical and contemporary photographs.