October 3, 2011
Pucks From The Past
Doing The Double, Part 2

by Iain Fyffe

Displaying pretext

Last time, we defined the Double (based on a European football concept), which is winning both the regular season championship and the postseason cup in the same year. We had a look at some early retroactive champions and Doubles, from 1893 to 1911.

The creation of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association in 1911 gave hockey two major leagues, of roughly the same quality. This would ultimately bring to an end the chaotic nature of earlier Stanley Cup challenges, as the trophy soon became an annual series between the NHA (later NHL) and the PCHA. Things got a bit more murky when the Western Canada Hockey League arrived in 1921, briefly making the Stanley Cup a three-league race. On top of this, sometimes each league had its own playoffs to determine their champion. It should be noted that to determine who the "league" champion was in these years, the major-league team with the best record was selected, regardless of which league they played in.

Before 1912, clubs won the Double about two-thirds of the time, as we saw last time. With all these differences, surely the Double would be a much rarer occurrence, and indeed it is. Between 1912 and 1926 (the last season before the NHL absorbed the western league and took sole position of the Stanley Cup), only four teams won the Double: Quebec in 1913, Vancouver in 1915, Montreal in 1916, and Ottawa in 1920. That's 27%, nearly 40% lower than the early era. The Senators had a very impressive run of seasons here, starting in 1917. In 10 seasons they won six league titles and three Cup championships, including their 1920 Double. As we'll see below, they added another Double in 1927 before beginning their ultimate decline.

"Double" winners, 1912-1926
Season	League winner		Stanley Cup winner
1912	New Westminster Royals	Quebec Bulldogs
1913	Quebec Bulldogs		Quebec Bulldogs
1914	Victoria Aristocrats	Toronto Blueshirts
1915	Vancouver Millionaires	Vancouver Millionaires
1916	Montreal Canadiens	Montreal Canadiens
1917	Ottawa Senators		Seattle Metropolitans
1918	Seattle Metropolitans	Toronto Arenas
1919	Ottawa Senators		Seattle Metropolitans
1920	Ottawa Senators		Ottawa Senators
1921	Toronto St. Pats	Ottawa Senators
1922	Ottawa Senators		Toronto St. Pats
1923	Edmonton Eskimos	Ottawa Senators
1924	Ottawa Senators		Montreal Canadiens
1925	Hamilton Tigers		Victoria Cougars
1926	Ottawa Senators		Montreal Maroons

The short-lived but extremely successful Seattle Metropolitans of the PCHA came very close to the Double—they had the best regular season result in 1918, one season after winning the Stanley Cup in 1917. We credit them with a second Stanley Cup in 1919, since they were ahead in the series (on goals) when it was cancelled due to the influenza epidemic that claimed the life of Montreal Canadien defenseman and tough guy Joe Hall.