1938 Stanley Cup Finals


The 1938 Stanley Cup Finals was a best-of-five series between the Chicago Black Hawks and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Chicago won the series 3–1 to win their second Stanley Cup. With their record of 14-25-9, they possess, to date, the lowest regular-season winning percentage of any championship team in the four major professional sports leagues, and are the only ones to do so with a losing record.
This would be the last best-of-five Stanley Cup Finals.

Paths to the Finals

Toronto defeated Boston Bruins in a best-of-five 3–0 to advance to the finals. The Black Hawks had to play two best-of three series; winning 2–1 against Montreal Canadiens, and 2–1 against the New York Americans.

Game summaries

Chicago lost their regular goaltender, Mike Karakas, during the playoffs and started Alfie Moore in game one. League president Frank Calder ruled that Moore was ineligible, but allowed the victory. Paul Goodman played and lost game two. Karakas returned for games three and four wearing a steel toe in his skate to protect his foot.
Chicago set a record with eight American players winning the Stanley Cup. Also set a record for attendance with 18,497 in game three. It was the second time in NHL history a team would win the stanley cup after starting three different goalies in the playoffs after the Detroit Red Wings accomplish the feed the previous year, no Stanley Cup Champions would win the cup while starting three different goalies until the Penguins did it in 2016. It was the last time that the Hawks would win the Stanley Cup at home until 2015, and the last that a Chicago team would win a championship at Chicago Stadium until the Bulls won their second straight NBA championship in 1992. The next time the Blackhawks would win the Stanley Cup at home would be in 2015, when they defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in game six of the 2015 Stanley Cup Finals; by this time they had moved into the United Center.
The NHL did not see fit to make sure that the Cup was in Chicago when they won the game and the series on April 12.

Chicago Black Hawks 1938 Stanley Cup Champions