Arenas' colorful legacy to live again at Heritage Classic on Sunday

They were the Toronto Blueshirts to some in the fledgling NHL, a name carried over for the League's inaugural 1917-18 season from the folded National Hockey Association. To others, they were simply the "Torontos," or "the Toronto team."

They would soon adopt "Arenas" as their first official NHL nickname, so coined for their Arena Gardens home by the Toronto Arena Company, owners of each. In 1919-20, upon its purchase and reorganization out of bankruptcy by a group of investors, the team would become the St. Patricks, or St. Pats for short.
Finally, in 1926-27, they were branded the Toronto Maple Leafs, bought by Canadian war hero, legendary horseman and sand and gravel magnate Conn Smythe, who moved them into then-majestic Maple Leaf Gardens which he built and opened in 1931.

The Buffalo Sabres and Toronto Arenas jerseys that will be worn by the Sabres and Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2022 Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic. Atop this story: Harry Cameron (left) and Jack Adams, who played for the Stanley Cup-champion Arenas in 1917-18.
So on Sunday, with a respectful eye to the almost first days of its century-plus NHL history, the Maple Leafs will wear jerseys celebrating the Arenas at the 2022 Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic against the Buffalo Sabres at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, Ontario (4 p.m. ET, SN, TVAS, TNT, NHL LIVE).
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"When the Toronto Maple Leafs meet the Buffalo Sabres at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, we again will honor Canada's preeminent role in the history of our game while renewing a great and longstanding NHL rivalry," Commissioner Gary Bettman said last September in announcing the game. "In addition, by inviting the first U.S.-based team to a Heritage Classic, we will celebrate the greater Golden Horseshoe region as the home of so many fans of both the Leafs and Sabres."
It was 375 miles east of Hamilton that the Torontos made their inauspicious NHL debut on Dec. 19, 1917, a 10-9 loss at the Montreal Wanderers in one of two season-opening games. At the same time, the defending Stanley Cup-champion Canadiens, having won their first championship in the NHA's final season of 1916-17, were 7-4 winners at the Ottawa Senators.
The writer assigned to the Wanderers-Torontos game was as unimpressed by the game as was the Montreal Gazette headline writer.

In an early 1950s photo at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens, future Hall of Famer Ted Lindsay (left), Detroit Red Wings president Marguerite Norris and Bert Lindsay, Ted's father, who played goal for the Montreal Wanderers against the Toronto Arenas on opening night of the inaugural 1917-18 NHL season.
"Wanderers Won From Toronto: Locals Scored a Lucky Victory in Opening Professional Hockey Fixture" set the tone for the paragraphs that followed, only 700 or so fans in attendance, many of them soldiers enlisted in the war.
"That the play was ragged and dragged tediously at times is best shown by the number of goals scored, which also speaks but little for the work of the goalkeepers," the story suggested.
Wanderers goalie Bert Lindsay, father of future Hall of Famer Ted Lindsay, surrendered nine goals and still won. Torontos coach Dick Carroll split the game between Sammy Hebert, who was lit up for five first-period goals, and Art Brooks, who gave up the other five over the final 40 minutes.
"Had either Hebert or Brooks shown any ability to stop shots, the Torontos would have no doubt won, as they had the best part of the play the greater part of the game," the Gazette story continued, the visitor having mounted a furious late rally of three consecutive goals that left them one short of a tie.

The Toronto Arenas, who defeated the Pacific Coast Hockey Association's Vancouver Millionaires to win the 1917-18 Stanley Cup championship.
Torontos general manager Charles Querrie, who wouldn't last the season as he feuded with the team's front office, had laid out an interesting set of preseason rules for his players. Among them:
"First and foremost, do not forget that I am running this team. … It does not require bravery to hit another man over the head with your stick. If you want to fight, go over to France. … Do not think you are putting over something on the manager when you do anything you should not. You are being paid to play hockey, not be a good fellow."
The Torontos returned home three days later to defeat the Senators 11-4 on their way to a 13-9-0 record that season, good for second place behind the Canadiens. A two-game, total-goals series win against the Canadiens gave them the right to challenge the Vancouver Millionaires, champion of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, for the Stanley Cup.
The Torontos won the five-game series 3-2. All of it was played at Arena Gardens, the Mutual Street Arena the only indoor rink east of Manitoba to have artificial ice, the victory giving the franchise its first of 13 Stanley Cup titles.

Toronto Maple Leafs owner Conn Smythe (left) and Detroit Red Wings coach and GM Jack Adams, who played for the 1917-18 Toronto Arenas, chat at Maple Leaf Gardens during the 1939 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Even if the nickname wasn't yet official, the Cup engraver needed something. So he added "1918 TORONTO ARENAS" to the squat trophy's shoulder, just beneath its sterling bowl.
In their two seasons as the Arenas, Toronto would have a combined record of 18-22-0 (13-9-0 in 1917-18, 5-13-0 in 1918-19). The team was 15-6-0 at the Arena Gardens (10-1-0 in 1917-18), winning its first eight games at home before losing 9-0 to the Canadiens on Feb. 18, 1918, going 5-4-0 at home the next season, 0-9-0 on the road.
The Arenas' 1917-18 run of eight consecutive home wins to begin a season remains the NHL record for consecutive victories to start a season by a club in its first season.
Reg Noble was the Arenas' all-time leader in points (53) and goals (39), ranking fourth in goals and points among all NHL players over that span. Harry Cameron led all defensemen in goals (28), assists (15) and (43) in the same period.
It had been a highly entertaining 1917-18 season. Cameron was fined $100 by Querrie for not trying hard enough, as the general manager saw it; forward Jack Adams, the future Detroit Red Wings coach and GM, saw eight games of regular-season action but was deemed ineligible for the playoffs; in Game 2 of the Final, a 6-4 loss, roughneck forward Ken Randall was fined $15 for abusive language.

The 1923-24 Toronto St. Patricks, the team that succeeded the Toronto Arenas and preceded the Toronto Maple Leafs. In the back row, far right, is GM Charles Querrie, who held that position with the Arenas.
But surely the most wonderful story on the first-year Torontos was Harry Mummery, a hulking defenseman with a Technicolor history.
A Stanley Cup winner in 1913 with the NHA's Quebec Bulldogs, Mummery worked part time as a fireman with Canadian Pacific Railways and was an emergency goalie for Quebec. He was legendary for rumbling into the Arena Gardens boiler room straight from the locomotive by way of a local butcher shop, frying up two thick steaks on a rinsed coal shovel and washing them down with a pint of cream just before a game.
Mummery's legend grew as large as his 245-pound physique. He arrived in Montreal for the Canadiens' 1920-21 season with a stack of unpaid restaurant tabs, prompting Montreal executive Leo Dandurand to ask how many cats his gigantic player owned.
As it turned out, Mummery had none. He just drank gallons of cream, the thick beverage which rose to the top in Toronto in the NHL's maiden season, the Arenas' rich heritage worthy of celebration in a signature League game the team's successor will play against the Sabres on Sunday.
Photos: Turofsky/Hockey Hall of Fame