1939–40 Montreal Canadiens season

1939–40 Montreal Canadiens
League7th NHL
1939–40 record10–33–5
Goals for90
Goals against168
Team information
General managerJules Dugal
CoachPit Lepine
CaptainWalter Buswell
ArenaMontreal Forum
Team leaders
GoalsToe Blake (17)
AssistsCharlie Sands (20)
PointsToe Blake (36)
Penalty minutesPolly Drouin (51)
WinsClaude Bourque (9)
Goals against averageClaude Bourque (3.29)

The 1939–40 Montreal Canadiens season was the 31st season in franchise history. The team placed seventh in the regular season and did not qualify for the playoffs for the first time since the 1935–36 season. The Canadiens would not finish a season in last place in their division for another 59 years, and would not finish last in the league for another 82 years.

Regular season

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The Canadiens' first game saw them score what would be a season-high 8 goals as they defeated the Chicago Black Hawks 8–2 at the Montreal Forum on November 5, 1939. The Habs were undefeated over their first six games (4–0–2) and were 6-2-2 in their first ten. After that, however, long winless streaks were the rule. They went 3-8-0 in December, 1-10-1 in January, 1-8-1 in February and 1-5-1 in March. Their most lopsided loss happened on February 22, 1940 – 1–10 against the Chicago Black Hawks at Chicago.

Final standings

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National Hockey League
GP W L T GF GA PIM Pts
Boston Bruins 48 31 12 5 170 98 330 67
New York Rangers 48 27 11 10 136 77 520 64
Toronto Maple Leafs 48 25 17 6 134 110 485 56
Chicago Black Hawks 48 23 19 6 112 120 351 52
Detroit Red Wings 48 16 26 6 90 126 250 38
New York Americans 48 15 29 4 106 140 236 34
Montreal Canadiens 48 10 33 5 90 167 338 25

[1]

Note: GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, PIM = Penalty Minutes, Pts = Points
       Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold.

Record vs. opponents

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1939–40 NHL Records [2]
Team BOS CHI DET MTL NYA NYR TOR
Boston — 6–1–1 5–3 6–1–1 7–1 2–4–2 5–2–1
Chicago 1–6–1 — 6–0–2 5–2–1 3–4–1 4–4 4–3–1
Detroit 3–5 0–6–2 — 5–3 5–3 2–3–2 1–6–1
Montreal 1–6–1 2–5–1 3–5 — 2–4–2 1–6–1 1–7
N.Y. Americans 1–7 4–3–1 3–5 4–2–2 — 1–6–1 2–6
N.Y. Rangers 4–2–2 4–4 3–2–2 6–1–1 6–1–1 — 4–1–3
Toronto 2–5–1 3–4–1 6–1–1 7–1 6–2 1–4–3 —


Schedule and results

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Regular season results
No. R Date Score Opponent Record
1 W November 5, 1939 8–2 Chicago Black Hawks (1939–40) 1–0–0
2 W November 9, 1939 2–0 New York Americans (1939–40) 2–0–0
3 T November 16, 1939 3–3 OT Boston Bruins (1939–40) 2–0–1
4 W November 19, 1939 2–1 OT @ New York Rangers (1939–40) 3–0–1
5 W November 21, 1939 2–1 @ Boston Bruins (1939–40) 4–0–1
6 T November 23, 1939 1–1 OT New York Rangers (1939–40) 4–0–2
7 L November 25, 1939 4–6 Detroit Red Wings (1939–40) 4–1–2
8 L November 30, 1939 2–5 @ New York Americans (1939–40) 4–2–2
9 W December 3, 1939 3–1 @ Detroit Red Wings (1939–40) 5–2–2
10 W December 7, 1939 4–1 Toronto Maple Leafs (1939–40) 6–2–2
11 L December 9, 1939 0–3 @ Toronto Maple Leafs (1939–40) 6–3–2
12 L December 10, 1939 2–3 @ Chicago Black Hawks (1939–40) 6–4–2
13 W December 14, 1939 5–3 OT New York Americans (1939–40) 7–4–2
14 L December 16, 1939 2–4 New York Rangers (1939–40) 7–5–2
15 L December 19, 1939 2–5 @ New York Rangers (1939–40) 7–6–2
16 L December 21, 1939 2–3 Boston Bruins (1939–40) 7–7–2
17 L December 25, 1939 1–3 @ Detroit Red Wings (1939–40) 7–8–2
18 L December 28, 1939 4–6 Toronto Maple Leafs (1939–40) 7–9–2
19 L December 31, 1939 1–6 @ Boston Bruins (1939–40) 7–10–2
20 L January 1, 1940 0–1 @ New York Americans (1939–40) 7–11–2
21 L January 4, 1940 2–3 Detroit Red Wings (1939–40) 7–12–2
22 L January 6, 1940 1–3 @ Toronto Maple Leafs (1939–40) 7–13–2
23 W January 7, 1940 2–1 @ Chicago Black Hawks (1939–40) 8–13–2
24 L January 9, 1940 0–2 Chicago Black Hawks (1939–40) 8–14–2
25 L January 14, 1940 2–4 @ Boston Bruins (1939–40) 8–15–2
26 L January 16, 1940 1–6 Boston Bruins (1939–40) 8–16–2
27 L January 18, 1940 0–1 New York Rangers (1939–40) 8–17–2
28 T January 25, 1940 2–2 OT New York Americans (1939–40) 8–17–3
29 L January 27, 1940 1–3 @ Toronto Maple Leafs (1939–40) 8–18–3
30 L January 28, 1940 1–8 @ Chicago Black Hawks (1939–40) 8–19–3
31 L January 30, 1940 1–4 @ New York Americans (1939–40) 8–20–3
32 L February 4, 1940 0–9 @ New York Rangers (1939–40) 8–21–3
33 L February 8, 1940 1–2 Detroit Red Wings (1939–40) 8–22–3
34 W February 11, 1940 3–2 OT @ Detroit Red Wings (1939–40) 9–22–3
35 T February 15, 1940 1–1 OT Chicago Black Hawks (1939–40) 9–22–4
36 L February 17, 1940 1–3 @ Toronto Maple Leafs (1939–40) 9–23–4
37 L February 18, 1940 1–2 Toronto Maple Leafs (1939–40) 9–24–4
38 L February 22, 1940 1–10 @ Chicago Black Hawks (1939–40) 9–25–4
39 L February 24, 1940 0–2 New York Rangers (1939–40) 9–26–4
40 L February 25, 1940 2–6 @ New York Rangers (1939–40) 9–27–4
41 L February 29, 1940 2–4 Boston Bruins (1939–40) 9–28–4
42 T March 2, 1940 3–3 OT New York Americans (1939–40) 9–28–5
43 L March 3, 1940 0–3 @ New York Americans (1939–40) 9–29–5
44 L March 7, 1940 1–6 Chicago Black Hawks (1939–40) 9–30–5
45 W March 9, 1940 3–0 Detroit Red Wings (1939–40) 10–30–5
46 L March 10, 1940 2–5 @ Detroit Red Wings (1939–40) 10–31–5
47 L March 14, 1940 4–8 Toronto Maple Leafs (1939–40) 10–32–5
48 L March 17, 1940 2–7 @ Boston Bruins (1939–40) 10–33–5

[3]

Player statistics

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Regular season

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Scoring

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Player Pos GP G A Pts PIM
Toe Blake LW 48 17 19 36 48
Charlie Sands C/RW 47 9 20 29 10
Ray Getliffe C/LW 46 11 12 23 29
Georges Mantha D/LW 42 9 11 20 6
Lou Trudel LW 47 12 7 19 24
Polly Drouin LW 42 4 11 15 51
Marty Barry C 30 4 10 14 2
Doug Young D 47 3 9 12 22
Red Goupille D 48 2 10 12 48
Paul Haynes C 23 2 8 10 8
Johnny Gagnon RW 10 4 5 9 0
Rod Lorrain RW 41 1 5 6 6
Bill Summerhill RW 13 3 2 5 24
Tony Demers RW 14 2 3 5 2
Earl Robinson RW/C 11 1 4 5 4
William Meronek C 7 2 2 4 0
Armand Mondou LW 21 2 2 4 0
Walt Buswell D 46 1 3 4 10
Cy Wentworth D 32 1 3 4 6
John Doran D 6 0 3 3 6
Armand Raymond D 11 0 1 1 0
Claude Bourque G 36 0 0 0 0
Wilf Cude G 7 0 0 0 0
Mike Karakas G 5 0 0 0 0
Gus Mancuso RW 2 0 0 0 0
Gordon Poirier C 10 0 0 0 0
Rhys Thomson D 7 0 0 0 16

Goaltending

[edit]
Player MIN GP W L T GA GAA SO
Claude Bourque 2210 36 9 24 3 121 3.29 2
Wilf Cude 415 7 1 5 1 24 3.47 0
Mike Karakas 310 5 0 4 1 18 3.48 0
Charlie Sands 25 1 0 0 0 5 12.00 0
Team: 2960 48 10 33 5 168 3.41 2

[4]

Note:
Pos = Position; GPI = Games played in; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes; +/- = Plus/minus; PPG = Power-play goals; SHG = Short-handed goals; GWG = Game-winning goals
Min, TOI = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T,T/OT = Ties; OTL = Overtime losses; GA = Goals-against; GAA = Goals-against average; SO = Shutouts; SA = Shots against; SV = Shots saved; SV% = Save percentage;

Awards and records

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All-Star teams

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First Team   Position  
Toe Blake LW

Transactions

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May 15, 1939 To Montreal Canadiens
cash 		To Chicago Black Hawks
Des Smith 		[5][6]
October 10, 1939 To Boston Bruins
Herb Cain 		To Montreal Canadiens
Ray Getliffe
Charlie Sands 		[5][7]
October 11, 1939 To Montreal Canadiens
Earl Robinson 		To Chicago Black Hawks
cash 		[5][8]
November 29, 1939 To Boston Bruins
George Brown 		To Montreal Canadiens
cash 		[5][9]
January 4, 1940 To New York Americans
Johnny Gagnon 		To Montreal Canadiens
cash 		[5][10]
April 26, 1940 To Montreal Canadiens
Herb Gardiner
cash 		To New York Rangers
Claude Bourque 		[5][11]

Playoffs

[edit]

They did not qualify for the playoffs

See also

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Citations

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  1. ^ Standings: NHL Public Relations Department (2008). Dave McCarthy; et al. (eds.). THE NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE Official Guide & Record Book/2009. National Hockey League. p. 147. ISBN 978-1-894801-14-0.
  2. ^ "All-Time NHL Results". NHL.com. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
  3. ^ "1939–40 Montreal Canadiens Games". Hockey-reference.com. Retrieved June 4, 2009.
  4. ^ "1939-40 Montreal Canadiens Statistics - Hockey-Reference.com". hockey-reference.com. Retrieved May 28, 2009.
  5. ^ a b c d e f "NHL trades for 1939-1940". NHL Trade Tracker. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  6. ^ Diamond, Dan, ed. (2003). Total NHL. Chicago: Triumph Books. p. 803. ISBN 978-1-57243-604-6.
  7. ^ Diamond, Dan, ed. (2003). Total NHL. Chicago: Triumph Books. pp. 498, 572 & 784. ISBN 978-1-57243-604-6.
  8. ^ Diamond, Dan, ed. (2003). Total NHL. Chicago: Triumph Books. p. 773. ISBN 978-1-57243-604-6.
  9. ^ Diamond, Dan, ed. (2003). Total NHL. Chicago: Triumph Books. p. 489. ISBN 978-1-57243-604-6.
  10. ^ Diamond, Dan, ed. (2003). Total NHL. Chicago: Triumph Books. p. 567. ISBN 978-1-57243-604-6.
  11. ^ Diamond, Dan, ed. (2003). Total NHL. Chicago: Triumph Books. p. 868 & 878. ISBN 978-1-57243-604-6.

References

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