Jesus and Mary Magdalene

Early years (1917-27)

The National Hockey League was formed in Montreal, Quebec in 1917, and initially consisted of five teams formerly belonging to the National Hockey Association. Its formation was a reaction against Eddie Livingstone, owner of the NHA's Toronto Blue Shirts, by his fellow NHA owners.

The owners of the other four NHA clubs--the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators and Quebec Bulldogs--had already forced the Blue Shirts to suspend operations midway through the 1916-17 NHA season, and had enough votes to throw Livingstone out for good. However, rather than risk protracted legal action, they simply created a new league--the NHL-and didn't invite Livingstone to join them. On paper, they also remained members of the NHA and were able to vote down Livingstone's attempts to keep that league operating.

However, the Senators and the two Montreal clubs felt it would be unthinkable not to have a team from Toronto in the new league. Accordingly, the new league granted a Toronto franchise to the owners of the Arena Gardens (also known as the Mutual Street Arena). The Gardens made a deal with Livingstone to lease his Blue Shirt players for the season. The Arena's owners promised to return the players to Livingstone when the season ended. Under manager Charlie Querrie, the Toronto team--unofficially known as "the Torontos" or even "the Blue Shirts"[1]-won the Stanley Cup in the NHL's inaugural season. Instead of returning the players to Livingstone, the Arena Gardens owners formed a new club, the Toronto Arena Hockey Club, with Arena auditor Hubert Vearncombe as president. The team became known as the Toronto Arenas.

Livingstone filed suit against the new club, an action that dogged the Arenas in their second season. They were forced to sell most of their stars due to mounting legal bills, resulting in a horrendous five-win season. With the club losing money and the team far behind Ottawa and Montreal in the standings in a three-team league, they requested after their game on February 20, 1919 to withdraw from play with four games left in the season. The league agreed and ended the regular season, immediately proceeding to the playoffs. The Arenas' .278 winning percentage is still the worst in franchise history.

A court eventually ruled that Livingstone still had his club, but without