1940–41 Montreal Canadiens season

1940–41 Montreal Canadiens
1940–41 Montreal Canadiens
League	6th NHL
1940–41 record	16–26–6
Goals for	121
Goals against	143
Team information
General manager	Tommy Gorman
Coach	Dick Irvin
Captain	Toe Blake
Arena	Montreal Forum
Team leaders
Goals	John Quilty (18)
Assists	Toe Blake (20)
Points	John Quilty (34)
Penalty minutes	Red Goupille (81)
Wins	Bert Gardiner (13)
Goals against average	Bert Gardiner (2.75)
	← 1939–40 1941–42 →

The 1940–41 Montreal Canadiens season was the 32nd season in club history. The team placed sixth in the regular season to qualify for the playoffs. The Canadiens lost in the quarter-finals against Chicago Black Hawks.

Off-season

During the off-season, Dick Irvin was hired as the new coach of the team. Irvin had previously been the coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Maple Leafs' owner Conn Smythe, who wanted to hire Hap Day, suggested Irvin to the Canadiens.^[1]^[2]

Regular season

Rookie Johnny Quilty led the team in scoring and the team increased its wins total to 16 from 10 in the previous season.

Final standings

National Hockey League
	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA
Boston Bruins	48	27	8	13	67	168	102
Toronto Maple Leafs	48	28	14	6	62	145	99
Detroit Red Wings	48	21	16	11	53	112	102
New York Rangers	48	21	19	8	50	143	125
Chicago Black Hawks	48	16	25	7	39	112	139
Montreal Canadiens	48	16	26	6	38	121	147
New York Americans	48	8	29	11	27	99	186

^[3]

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against
Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold.

Record vs. opponents

1940–41 NHL Records ^[4]
Team	BOS	CHI	DET	MTL	NYA	NYR	TOR
Boston	—	4–2–2	3–0–5	5–2–1	7–0–1	4–2–2	4–2–2
Chicago	2–4–2	—	2–6	3–4–1	3–2–3	4–3–1	2–6
Detroit	0–3–5	6–2	—	4–3–1	5–1–2	3–2–3	3–5
Montreal	2–5–1	4–3–1	3–4–1	—	4–3–1	2–5–1	1–6–1
N.Y. Americans	0–7–1	2–3–3	1–5–2	3–4–1	—	1–6–1	1–4–3
N.Y. Rangers	2–4–2	3–4–1	2–3–2	5–2–1	6–1–1	—	3–5
Toronto	2–4–2	6–2	5–3	6–1–1	4–1–3	5–3	—

Playoffs

The Canadiens qualified for the playoffs and played the Chicago Black Hawks. The Black Hawks won the best-of-three series in three games, two games to one.

Schedule and results

Regular season results
No.	R	Date	Score	Opponent	Record
1	T	November 3, 1940	1–1 OT	Boston Bruins (1940–41)	0–0–1
2	L	November 10, 1940	1–3	Chicago Black Hawks (1940–41)	0–1–1
3	L	November 14, 1940	2–6	Toronto Maple Leafs (1940–41)	0–2–1
4	L	November 16, 1940	2–4	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1940–41)	0–3–1
5	T	November 17, 1940	4–4 OT	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1940–41)	0–3–2
6	L	November 21, 1940	1–2	@ Detroit Red Wings (1940–41)	0–4–2
7	W	November 23, 1940	3–1	New York Americans (1940–41)	1–4–2
8	L	November 24, 1940	1–2	@ New York Americans (1940–41)	1–5–2
9	W	November 26, 1940	3–2	@ Boston Bruins (1940–41)	2–5–2
10	L	November 30, 1940	1–6	@ New York Rangers (1940–41)	2–6–2
11	L	December 5, 1940	2–3	New York Rangers (1940–41)	2–7–2
12	W	December 7, 1940	3–2	Detroit Red Wings (1940–41)	3–7–2
13	L	December 12, 1940	3–4	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1940–41)	3–8–2
14	W	December 15, 1940	2–1 OT	@ Detroit Red Wings (1940–41)	4–8–2
15	L	December 19, 1940	0–2	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1940–41)	4–9–2
16	W	December 21, 1940	3–1	Boston Bruins (1940–41)	5–9–2
17	W	December 26, 1940	7–5	Chicago Black Hawks (1940–41)	6–9–2
18	W	December 28, 1940	3–0	New York Americans (1940–41)	7–9–2
19	L	December 31, 1940	2–4	@ New York Americans (1940–41)	7–10–2
20	W	January 1, 1941	2–1	@ New York Rangers (1940–41)	8–10–2
21	T	January 4, 1941	3–3 OT	New York Rangers (1940–41)	8–10–3
22	L	January 5, 1941	0–3	@ Detroit Red Wings (1940–41)	8–11–3
23	L	January 7, 1941	3–4 OT	Toronto Maple Leafs (1940–41)	8–12–3
24	L	January 9, 1941	1–3 OT	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1940–41)	8–13–3
25	L	January 11, 1941	1–2	Boston Bruins (1940–41)	8–14–3
26	L	January 12, 1941	5–7	@ Boston Bruins (1940–41)	8–15–3
27	W	January 16, 1941	5–1	Chicago Black Hawks (1940–41)	9–15–3
28	W	January 18, 1941	2–1	Detroit Red Wings (1940–41)	10–15–3
29	L	January 23, 1941	2–3	Toronto Maple Leafs (1940–41)	10–16–3
30	T	January 25, 1941	2–2 OT	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1940–41)	10–16–4
31	L	February 2, 1941	1–2	@ New York Rangers (1940–41)	10–17–4
32	L	February 4, 1941	3–5 OT	@ Boston Bruins (1940–41)	10–18–4
33	T	February 6, 1941	4–4 OT	Detroit Red Wings (1940–41)	10–18–5
34	T	February 8, 1941	3–3 OT	New York Americans (1940–41)	10–18–6
35	L	February 9, 1941	3–6 OT	@ New York Americans (1940–41)	10–19–6
36	W	February 11, 1941	6–2	New York Rangers (1940–41)	11–19–6
37	W	February 13, 1941	6–5	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1940–41)	12–19–6
38	L	February 15, 1941	0–5	Boston Bruins (1940–41)	12–20–6
39	L	February 16, 1941	1–2	@ Detroit Red Wings (1940–41)	12–21–6
40	L	February 20, 1941	1–2	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1940–41)	12–22–6
41	W	February 22, 1941	7–3	Chicago Black Hawks (1940–41)	13–22–6
42	L	February 27, 1941	2–5	@ New York Rangers (1940–41)	13–23–6
43	L	March 1, 1941	1–3	New York Rangers (1940–41)	13–24–6
44	W	March 2, 1941	3–2	@ New York Americans (1940–41)	14–24–6
45	W	March 6, 1941	4–3	Toronto Maple Leafs (1940–41)	15–24–6
46	L	March 8, 1941	0–4	Detroit Red Wings (1940–41)	15–25–6
47	L	March 9, 1941	0–8	@ Boston Bruins (1940–41)	15–26–6
48	W	March 15, 1941	6–0	New York Americans (1940–41)	16–26–6

^[5]

Player statistics

Regular season

Scoring

Player	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
John Quilty	C	48	18	16	34	31
Joe Benoit	RW	45	16	16	32	32
Toe Blake	LW	48	12	20	32	49
Ray Getliffe	C/LW	39	15	10	25	25
Murph Chamberlain	LW	45	10	15	25	75
Tony Demers	RW	46	13	10	23	17
Elmer Lach	C	43	7	14	21	16
Jack Adams	LW	42	6	12	18	11
Charlie Sands	C/RW	43	5	13	18	4
Polly Drouin	LW	21	4	7	11	0
Ken Reardon	D	34	2	8	10	41
Red Goupille	D	48	3	6	9	81
Jack Portland	D	42	2	7	9	34
Tony Graboski	LW/D	34	4	3	7	12
Lou Trudel	LW	16	2	3	5	2
Alex Singbush	D	32	0	5	5	15
Stuart Ernest Smith	LW	3	2	1	3	2
Jim O'Neil	C/RW	12	0	3	3	0
Georges Mantha	D/LW	6	0	1	1	0
Paul Bibeault	G	4	0	0	0	0
Wilf Cude	G	3	0	0	0	0
Bert Gardiner	G	42	0	0	0	0
Paul Haynes	C	7	0	0	0	12
Doug Young	D	3	0	0	0	4

Goaltending

Player	MIN	GP	W	L	T	GA	GAA	SO
Bert Gardiner	2600	42	13	23	6	119	2.75	1
Wilf Cude	180	3	2	1	0	13	4.33	0
Paul Bibeault	210	4	1	2	0	15	4.29	0
Team:	2990	48	16	26	6	147	2.95	1

Playoffs

Scoring

Player	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
Joe Benoit	RW	3	4	0	4	2
Toe Blake	LW	3	0	3	3	5
Ray Getliffe	C/LW	3	1	1	2	0
Murph Chamberlain	LW	3	0	2	2	11
John Quilty	C	3	0	2	2	0
Elmer Lach	C	3	1	0	1	0
Charlie Sands	C/RW	2	1	0	1	0
Jack Portland	D	3	0	1	1	2
Jack Adams	LW	3	0	0	0	0
Tony Demers	RW	2	0	0	0	0
Polly Drouin	LW	1	0	0	0	0
Bert Gardiner	G	3	0	0	0	0
Red Goupille	D	2	0	0	0	0
Tony Graboski	LW/D	3	0	0	0	6
Jim O'Neil	C/RW	3	0	0	0	0
Ken Reardon	D	3	0	0	0	4
Alex Singbush	D	3	0	0	0	4
Stuart Ernest Smith	LW	1	0	0	0	0

Goaltending

Player	MIN	GP	W	L	GA	GAA	SO
Bert Gardiner	214	3	1	2	8	2.24	0
Team:	214	3	1	2	8	2.24	0

^[6]

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

Calder Memorial Trophy : Johnny Quilty

Transactions

Citations

^ Smythe & Young 1981, p. 143.
^ Hunter 1997, p. 42.
^ Standings: NHL Public Relations Department (2008). Dave McCarthy; et al. (eds.). THE NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE Official Guide & Record Book/2009. National Hockey League. p. 148. ISBN 978-1-894801-14-0.
^ "All-Time NHL Results". NHL.com. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
^ "1940–41 Montreal Canadiens Games". Hockey-reference.com. Retrieved June 4, 2009.
^ "1940-41 Montreal Canadiens Statistics - Hockey-Reference.com". hockey-reference.com. Retrieved May 28, 2009.

References

Hunter, Douglas (1997). Champions: The Illustrated History of Hockey's Greatest Dynasties. Chicago, Illinois: Triumph Books. ISBN 1-57243-213-6.
Smythe, Conn; Young, Scott (1981). Conn Smythe: If you can't beat 'em in the alley. Toronto, Ontario: McClelland and Stewart. ISBN 0-7710-9078-1.