One thing that became obvious after the 1927-28 season was that the bulk of the talent in the NAHC appeared to reside in the Canadian Division. Four of the five clubs in the Canadian posted records above .500 while only two American Division clubs could say the same. To be fair, every team in the American Division had been a member of the USHA while only the New York Eagles of the Canadian Division could say the same. And there was the fact that the Montreal Valiants were simply dominant in 1927-28.

The Valiants were superb in all facets of the game. Their goalie, Cal Laberge, was the top netminder in the league, posting a 1.37 GAA while playing every minute of every game. The offense was high-powered, scoring a league best 125 goals (22 more - or half a goal per game better - than their cross-town rivals who were second were 103). The Valiants' top line of Harvey McLeod (36 goals), Rene Mailloux (30) and Dick Carey (23) was both young and extremely gifted while the defense pairing of Syd Laurent and Lou McDonald was top notch as well. The Valiants were built to dominate - and they did, posting a 32-11-1 mark, winning their division by 15 points and also posting 13 more than the American Division champions did.

If the Valiants were the best team in the league (and they were) then the best-run team had to be the Ottawa Athletics. Despite being cash-strapped, the A's finished 24-18-2 with the second-best record in their division and third-best in the league as a whole. Ottawa had a couple of top-notch wingers in Fred Byers (23 g) and Frank Clinard (21) and one of the best defensemen in the game in Ace Anderson (9g, 8a). Third-place went to the New York Eagles, whose were 22-20-2 and had a burgeoning star on their hands in Buck Bernier (23 g, 12 a) working as center between the brother tandem of wingers Andre (18 g, 6 a) and Bernie St. Laurent (14 g, 14 a). The Eagles had a great defensive anchor as well in Hoss Thompson, a big, physical defenseman who could also score (10 g, 6 a). Dutch Lenz was a solid netminder and the Eagles, ironically, might have been good enough to win the American Division. 

Toronto, at 20-17-7, was the fourth team in the division to post a winning record - and the fourth to post a positive goal differential as well (100-92). With Jack Barrell sold off to Chicago and their brief run as a true contender over, the Dukes were in a transitional period. Goalie Henry Gemmill was pretty good, but the club was derailed by injuries to two of their best forwards. Albert Fortin led the club with 22 goals, but only played 32 of the 44 games. Similarly Norb Hickey (10 goals) played only 22 games. The Dukes brought in Jack Cooper in a trade with Boston, and he played well with 11 goals in 26 games for Toronto. Quebec was the lone Canadian Division team to have a poor season, turning in a 13-30-1 record. The Champs featured the very talented Elmer Morey (14 g, 7 a) on defense. Morey was a multisport star who also played professional football and lacrosse and excelled in all three sports. But even Morey couldn't help a club plagued by poor goaltending and frequent turnovers. The Champlains allowed a league-high 126 goals.

Coming into the season the American Division was thought to be the exclusive preserve of the high-priced New York Shamrocks. But the Greenshirts weren't particularly lucky in 1927-28, stumbling badly and finishing in fourth place with an 18-24-2 mark. The flip side of that coin was the surprising Detroit Bulldogs who rose from a last place performance in 1926-27 to win the division with a 24-16-4 mark. Wingers Dutch Van Nostrand (27 goals) and Baldy Hicks (20) paced the attack while goalie John Murphy (1.97 GAA) anchored the defensive side. The Bulldogs were short on name recognition, but played hard and worked as a team under first-year coach Charles Rausse, the former star center who brought a great work ethic and solid tactical knowledge to his new role.

The Montreal Nationals finished second, five points back with a 21-18-5 mark. Left wing Charlie Gagnon turned in a stellar season, nearly notching a point-per-game with 26 goals and 15 assists in 41 games. Longtime star goalie Jesse Hart was not quite as quick in goal as he had been in his salad days, and turned in a somewhat middling season (2.13 GAA) in a goal-depressed era and the gritty Bulldogs eked out more wins than losses despite a goal differential of just +5. The third-place Boston Bees started slowly but were chugging along be season's end, playing far better than their final record of 21-21-2 would indicate. Defenseman Cy Beech continued to emerge as one of the game's most exciting (and hard-hitting) players, racking up 165 penalty minutes while scoring 12 goals, just three off the team lead of right wing Frank Gerow's 15. Fred Brown turned in a brilliant season in net, posting a 1.65 GAA that was third in the league behind Laberge and Ottawa's Sam Jordan (1.64).

The Shamrocks as previously mentioned were a big disappointment in 1927-28. At age 35, goalie Davey Vert was seemingly starting to show his age, turning in a 2.24 GAA which among all starting goalies was only better than the performances of the goalies in Chicago and Quebec. The Shamrocks did get another great goal-scoring performance from star center Chris Schneider (28 goals) but the team was flat-out undisciplined, racking up nearly 600 penalty minutes, by far the most in the NAHC, and both Vert's poor performance and the team's flat goal differential of 100-100 can be at least partially laid at the feet of their playing shorthanded about 20% of the time.

Then there was the Chicago Packers. The 1927-28 season was an unmitigated disaster. With their former coach having "cursed" them on his way out of town, an owner who openly criticized the new coach in the papers on a regular basis and a front office that shuffled players like playing cards, the Packers were a mess. The team's star, right wing Jack Barrell, had his leg broken in two places in training camp, didn't return until February and even then was playing at less than 100%, finishing with just two goals in 10 appearances. Chicago traded for Charles Tattler from the Nationals and he did turn in a reasonably solid performance with 16 goals and 9 assists in 32 games, but he had Malcolm Cummings (20 g, 5 a) were the only offensive firepower to be found with Barrell out and team struggled to score goals (only Quebec scored fewer). With 22 skaters seeing ice time (including the "retired" George Mitchell who was coaching the team), there was no continuity or cohesiveness. And Mitchell was a dead man walking, and knew it. The team allowed a whopping 139 goals (more than twice as many as the Valiants) and used two goalies - veteran Adam Scott walked away from the team after being shelled mercilessly in his four games and Otis Pershall was unable to do much, posting the highest GAA of any goalie with more than 20 appearances (2.95).

The playoff format again featured the 2nd and 3rd-place clubs in a two-game, total-goals matchup to be followed by another two-game, total-goals matchup with the division winners before the best-of-five Challenge Cup Finals. The Canadian Division saw the Eagles down the Athletics 3-2 and 3-1 but fall to the juggernaut from Montreal 2-1 and 4-0. The American saw the red-hot Boston Bees take out Montreal 1-2 and 3-1. The Bees shocked the Bulldogs 4-3 and 3-1 to make the Finals. Boston's run came to a screeching halt as the Valiants' all-around brilliance resulted in a sweep by scores of 3-2, 4-2 and 3-1.

The McDaniels Trophy went to Harvey McLeod of the Valiants for his stellar season (36 goals, 19 assists, 55 points) in which he led the league in goals and points and was second in assists. The Yeadon Trophy as the league's "most gentlemanly" player went to New York Eagles star Buck Bernier who had only 15 penalty minutes while scoring 23 goals and 12 assists. And the brand-new Juneau Trophy for the best goaltender went, appropriately enough, to Juneau's replacement in the Montreal Valiants' net: Cal Laberge, who racked up 16 shutouts en route to a 32-11-1 record and miniscule 1.37 GAA.

 

North American Hockey Confederation Standings 1927-28

American Division GP W L T PTS GF GA   Canadian Division GP W L T PTS GF GA
Detroit Bulldogs 44 24 16 4 52 101 90   Montreal Valiants 44 32 11 1 65 125 61
Montreal Nationals 44 21 18 5 47 103 98   Ottawa Athletics 44 24 18 2 50 88 74
Boston Bees 44 20 20 4 44 81 75   New York Eagles 44 22 20 2 46 93 87
New York Shamrocks 44 18 24 2 38 100 100   Toronto Dukes 44 20 17 7 47 100 92
Chicago Packers 44 10 30 4 24 79 139   Quebec Champlains 44 13 30 1 27 72 126

 

NAHC SCORING LEADERS 1927-28

Player Goals   Player Assists   Player Points  
Harvey McLeod, VAL 36   Dick Carey, VAL 23   Harvey McLeod, VAL 55  
Rene Mailloux, VAL 30   Harvey McLeod, VAL 19   Dick Carey, VAL 46  
Chris Schneider, NYS 28   Charlie Gagnon, NAT 15   Rene Mailloux, VAL 42  
Dutch Van Nostrand, DET 27   Bernie St. Laurent, NYE 14   Charlie Gagnon, NAT 41  
Charlie Gagnon, NAT 26   Syd Laurent, VAL 12   Buck Bernier, NYE 35  
Buck Bernier, NYE 23   Lionel Young, NAT 12   Chris Schneider, NYS 35  
Fred Byers, OTT 23   Rene Mailloux, VAL 12   Dutch Van Nostrand, DET 32  
Dick Carey, VAL 22   Buck Bernier, NYE 12   Albert Fortin, TOR 29  
Albert Fortin, TOR 21   Four players tied    Dick Carey, VAL 29  
Two players tied 20         Bernie St. Laurent, NYE 28  

 

NAHC GOALIE LEADERS 1927-28

Player W L T ShO GAA
Cal Laberge, VAL 32 11 1 16 1.37
Sam Jordan, OTT 24 18 2 13 1.64
Fred Brown, BOS 20 20 4 11 1.65
Dutch Lenz 22 20 2 10 1.92
John Murphy, DET 24 16 4 8 1.97

 

AWARD WINNERS:

McDaniels Trophy - Harvey McLeod, Mtl Valiants

Yeadon Trophy - Buck Bernier, NY Eagles

Juneau Trophy - Cal Laberge, Mtl Valiants