A Great Game (26 page)

Lalonde had again led the Toronto attack, scoring two and being constantly dangerous around the net. The playmaking Ridpath, whose speed and stickhandling just kept getting stronger, was the game's selfless star, his play and demeanour adored by the fawning crowd. The Torontos were now widely acknowledged as a solid seven from goal to left wing, with an ever-improving team game. Tyner had been a bit soft that night, but it was not a real concern.

On the other hand, Morrison was a worry. As each game passed, there was ever more pointed coverage in the local papers of his listless play. Hopping trains back and forth to play with the Montreal Shamrocks, he looked visibly tired to many. The Berlin game had been his fourth in five nights, all in different cities. However, this criticism may have been rooted as much in resentment of Bert's divided loyalties as in his actual performance, since his scoring stats—for both Toronto and the Shamrocks—remained healthy.

Exactly one week after taking the OPHL lead, the Toronto Professionals hosted the Guelph Royals. The Royals' downward spiral was accelerating. The year before, they had taken four of their five exhibition games, losing only narrowly to the Montreal Wanderers. By now, however, the Speed River club was in turmoil.

Buck Irving's management errors were beginning to add up. Each loss seemed to be followed by wholesale changes to player personnel and pay arrangements. This sense of panic undermined both employee and fan loyalty. Irving's perpetual trick of getting spectators out through the false promise of a big new star was also wearing thin. Interests connected to the old Guelph Nationals were said to be actively looking for an alternative to Buck's team.

As they reached Toronto, though, the Royals were coming off their second win of the season—another surprise defeat of Brantford—and they gave the overconfident Torontos a bit of a scare. Early in the game, Guelph shot out to a 4–1 lead. Alas, although the visitors continued to play hard, the home squad gradually got untracked and eventually coasted to a 10–7 victory. Robertson's
Tely
characteristically alleged a pro conspiracy, noting that “some were uncharitable enough to remark that they were playing for a close score.”
⁶

Lalonde added yet another five goals, ably set up by Ridpath with two of his own. The usually unheralded Corbeau and Mercer, who were returning from a stint as ringers in the Temiskaming league, got some plaudits. In fact, the point man scored his first of the season. Morrison also got two goals—as well as more biting criticism of his play.

The following Tuesday, the Torontos were on their way to Berlin and another hugely important match against the Dutchmen. They were now holding a commanding lead in the OPHL race with seven wins and two losses. A road victory would virtually clinch the title for the Professionals.

Berlin was a good team, and every game against Toronto had been a contest. Its record of five wins and four losses was also closer to the leaders than it sounded. A recent narrow loss to Brantford had been overturned by the league due to the Braves' “borrowing” of a Guelph player. Thus, if the Dutchmen could win this one, they would have the same number of official defeats as the Torontos—and still be in it.

Two and a half thousand people came to Berlin that night from all across southwestern Ontario. “Tumultuous applause”
⁷
greeted Mayor Allan Huber as he dropped the puck wearing a silk hat, brand new for the occasion. The atmosphere was as tense as the stakes were high.

Besides the tight race, there was ill feeling between the teams. Berlin's star cover, Uncle Gross, had had a running feud with the Torontos—especially with his counterpart, Rolly Young—all season. However, Young, a Waterloo native, was ably supported by rooters from both his hometowns.

It turned out to be the Berliners who had nothing to cheer about. The Dutchmen were given “an unmerciful drubbing,”
⁸
on the losing end of a 9–1 score. The Torontos won in every category, including the battle with Gross. Young fought Gross “hammer and tongs”
⁹
all night long, aided by partner Corbeau. Con at one point picked up a wooden plank that had (somehow) fallen onto the ice and hurled it at the Berlin player. Near the end, the banged-up Dutchman finally retired for the evening.

For once, Morrison got grudging praise from the Toronto press. His six goals—including one with a two-man disadvantage—had earned him at least a bit of acclaim. More plaudits went to Ridpath, Young and Lalonde, who had done much of the playmaking. Berlin's successful attempt to shut down the French Canadian centre had served only to shift the team's attack to its rover.

While technically still in it, Berlin was, for all practical purposes, now finished. Toronto would have to lose both their remaining games,
including one to Guelph. The Dutchmen would have to win both theirs, as well as a replay against Brantford. After that, they would have to beat the Torontos in a tiebreaker—hardly likely after this thrashing.

Recriminations were already beginning in Berlin, with some alleging that the team's abysmal performance was a consequence of being out of condition and “too intimate with the booze.”
¹⁰

The Torontos would anticlimactically lock up the championship a mere two nights later at Guelph. Although it was too late to make any difference, the Royals were starting to improve. They held the leaders to a five-all tie in the first half before finally succumbing 8–5. Lambe replaced the travelling Morrison in what was a rough and dirty game. No fewer than five players were laid out on the ice during the contest.

The Professionals' last game of the regular season was at home against Brantford on February 29. It would be a testament to the growing popularity of the team. Clearly, it was a nothing contest. As well, Roy Brown was notorious for his tedious delaying tactics against a fast opponent. The house was nevertheless packed to the rafters that Saturday night.

The game was a testament on the ice as well—to the rising Toronto powerhouse. Even with their goaltender playing well, the Braves were demolished by a score of 12–3. Lalonde led the way with eight goals and
a fight. His brawl with Brantford right winger Jack Marks ended only when the police finally came on the ice—a first for the Queen City.

The reviews were stellar nonetheless. Billy Hewitt's sports pages at the
Star
, usually so skeptical, declared that “the local ‘pros.' never showed up in Toronto so well as they did Saturday night.”
¹¹
Some reports even praised Morrison's play. With their tenth-straight victory, the Torontos' OPHL campaign could not be ending on a higher note.

At the same time as the Toronto Professionals were wrapping up the provincial championship, they were also lodging a Stanley Cup challenge with the trustees. Alex Miln contacted P. D. Ross and William Foran
¹²
in his capacity as president of the Ontario league, and they awarded his team a two-game, total-goals series set for March 14 and 16, conditional on the Montreal Wanderers successfully defending against the Winnipeg Maple Leafs on March 10 and 12.

Considering that Miln's team had existed for less than a year and a half, the Mutual Street manager had every reason to savour the moment. Almost immediately, however, there was a serious complication. The trustees issued a decree barring from Cup competition all those who had played for more than one team during the season—an unprecedented intervention prompted by the rampant shifting of men and the hiring of ringers. After the outcry around moves by the Kenora Thistles and Montreal Wanderers in March 1907, Ross and Foran told the senior leagues that restrictions had to be put in place.

The trustees explained their actions in a public statement condemning “the promiscuous buying and selling of players” and “dishonorable [
sic
] violations of contracts.” Further, they decried that “the present condition of hockey points to the Stanley Cup becoming merely a gate-money asset
to the club executive which is willing to gamble highest and most shamelessly in the purchase of players.”
¹³

Unfortunately, every Toronto Professional except Ridpath and Lambe had played for another squad during the year. So, no sooner had the Wanderers wrapped up the ECAHA title than they filed a protest against the participation of Toronto players Mercer, Morrison, Tyner and Young in the Stanley Cup series.
¹⁴
The trustees backtracked significantly, but still banned Morrison, who had played a game with the Montreal Shamrocks even after the OPHL challenge had been accepted.

Notwithstanding the constant press criticism, Bert's absence from the Torontos' lineup would leave a significant hole to fill—he was the club's second-highest scorer. Acting again on Jimmy Murphy's advice, Miln secured Cornwall's Donald Smith to play rover. At a reputed 130 pounds soaking wet, Smith was small even for his era. However, word was that his speed and skill more than compensated.

Three days before the first Cup game, the Torontos would have the opportunity to test out the new man. It would be in an “all-star game.” The Pros, it was announced, would face a team collected from the other three OPHL clubs.

Like all-star games before and after, the affair was a soft, high-scoring one. Referee E. J. “Eddie” Livingstone—a man destined for both fame and infamy on Toronto's pro hockey scene—had little to do. The permanent club rolled over the Ontario All-Stars 16–10, Smith showing up very well with five goals.

The team was scheduled to depart for Montreal the next morning. By then, assessments of its chances were coming in fast and furious. Not surprisingly, the most negative were found in Toronto's OHA newspapers, John Ross Robertson's
Tely
being the harshest: