Montreal Maroons

There is a little known but great book out there called The Montreal Maroons: The Forgotten Stanley Cup Champions by William Brown.

When it comes to hockey legends in Montreal, of course everyone thinks of the Les Canadiens. But until the close of the 1930s, the city also featured an equally good team, the Montreal Maroons.

Montreal was such, and really remains, such a hockey hotbed that the NHL did not mind having two teams in the same market. Initially the more culturally fragmented city saw the Francophone community support the Habs, and Anglophones cheered for the Maroons.

The Maroons won two Stanley Cup championships, in 1926 and 1935, compared to the Canadiens 3 championship titles in the same between-World-Wars time frame. But the Great Depression really took its toll on both teams. The Canadiens obviously survived, despite some suggestions of a relocation to Cleveland, Ohio. The Maroons, who remained competitive on the ice, could not wait out the economic hard times. The team was sold to interests in St. Louis, but the league would not approve relocation to the mid-west city. The league put forth some effort to relocating the team to Philadelphia but the franchise was doomed to remain dormant.

The Maroons featured some great players, including the following featured profiled legends:

Clint Benedict - Praying Bennie was the statistically dominant goalie of the early NHL. He backstopped the Ottawa Senators to the NHL's first dynasty, and wore the very first goalie mask in NHL history.

	Bill Beveridge - Bill Beveridge is a long forgotten goaltender of a long forgotten team. There's not many people around anymore that saw the Montreal Maroons play.
	Herb Cain - Herb Cain is the only former NHL scoring champion not in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

	Sprague Cleghorn - A great defenseman, history will always remember Sprague Cleghorn as the baddest man in all of hockey..
	Dinny Dinsmore - For the most a spare part, Dinsmore played 9 games in his final season for the handsome sum of just $1.
	Baldy Northcott - Lawrence Northcott was nicknamed Baldy, even though he had a much adored beautiful and thick mane of hair..
	Babe Siebert - A great power forward and an even better defenseman, Babe Siebert played for both the Maroons and the Canadiens before his tragic death.
	Hooley Smith - The Montreal Maroons all time leading scorer was the star of the mighty S-Line.

Some other greats who I hope to profile soon include Nels Stewart, Lionel Conacher, Reg Noble and Punch Broadbent.

Be sure to check out the newest channel here at the GreatestHockeyLegends.com Network - Montreal Maroons Legends.