1940–41 OHA season

1940–41 NHL season

The 1940–41 NHL season was the 24th season of the National Hockey League (NHL). Seven teams each played 48 games. The Boston Bruins were the Stanley Cup winners as they swept the Detroit Red Wings four games to none in the final series.

Regular season

The Montreal Canadiens had hit the bottom in 1939–40, and were in financial trouble. Frank Patrick decided to become an investor and governor for the team, and Tommy Gorman was hired as general manager. He hired recently released Toronto coach Dick Irvin to run the team. One of the first things Gorman and Irvin did was scout for players, and the Canadiens came up with Johnny Quilty, Joe Benoit, Elmer Lach and defenceman Ken Reardon. Bert Gardiner would be used in goal, replacing Claude Bourque and Wilf Cude. Murph Chamberlain was bought from Toronto to bolster the offence.

Quilty and Benoit came through, as did Toe Blake, but the Habs had a long way to go, finishing sixth. Quilty won the Calder Trophy as the league's top rookie. In fact, before the season started, Coach Irvin handed a sealed envelope to a reporter of his guess who would win the Calder Trophy, and when the season ended, the reporter opened the envelope: Johnny Quilty was the choice Irvin made.

The Boston Bruins set a record 23 straight unbeaten games en route to a strong first place finish at the end of the schedule. The Rangers, stunningly, finished fourth after the previous year's Stanley Cup win and Dave Kerr wasn't up to his usual form in goal.

Final standings

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

National Hockey League	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA	PIM
Boston Bruins	48	27	8	13	67	168	102	246
Toronto Maple Leafs	48	28	14	6	62	145	99	306
Detroit Red Wings	48	21	16	11	53	112	102	337
New York Rangers	48	21	19	8	50	143	125	356
Chicago Black Hawks	48	16	25	7	39	112	139	335
Montreal Canadiens	48	16	26	6	38	121	147	435
New York Americans	48	8	29	11	27	99	186	231

Scoring leaders

Note: GP = Games played, G = Goals, A = Assists, PTS = Points, PIM = Penalties in minutes

PLAYER	TEAM	GP	G	A	PTS	PIM
Bill Cowley	Boston Bruins	46	17	45	62	16
Syl Apps	Toronto Maple Leafs	41	20	24	44	6
Gord Drillon	Toronto Maple Leafs	42	23	21	44	2
Bryan Hextall	New York Rangers	48	26	18	44	16
Syd Howe	Detroit Red Wings	48	20	24	44	8
Lynn Patrick	New York Rangers	48	20	24	44	12

Stanley Cup playoffs

see 1941 Stanley Cup Finals

Playoff bracket

NHL awards

Calder Memorial Trophy:	Johnny Quilty, Montreal Canadiens
Hart Memorial Trophy:	Bill Cowley, Boston Bruins
Lady Byng Memorial Trophy:	Bobby Bauer, Boston Bruins
O'Brien Cup:	Detroit Red Wings
Prince of Wales Trophy:	Boston Bruins
Vezina Trophy:	Turk Broda, Toronto Maple Leafs

All-Star teams

First Team	Position	Second Team
Turk Broda, Toronto Maple Leafs	G	Frank Brimsek, Boston Bruins
Dit Clapper, Boston Bruins	D	Earl Seibert, Chicago Black Hawks
Wally Stanowski, Toronto Maple Leafs	D	Ott Heller, New York Rangers
Bill Cowley, Boston Bruins	C	Syl Apps, Toronto Maple Leafs
Bryan Hextall, New York Rangers	RW	Bobby Bauer, Boston Bruins
Sweeney Schriner, Toronto Maple Leafs	LW	Woody Dumart, Boston Bruins
Cooney Weiland, Boston Bruins	Coach	Dick Irvin, Montreal Canadiens

Debuts

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1940–41 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):