• U.S.

Sport: Hockey, Midseason

2 minute read
TIME

Like baseball watches who say that the team that leads the league on the Fourth of July will win the pennant, hockey followers also have a mid-season superstition. They say that the Stanley Cup is won in January. Of the ten major league teams that begin this week the critical middle month of their activity, four stand high in the running.

Montreal Canadiens, present world champions, are the fastest and one of the toughest teams on the ice. In their lineup is still famed slope-faced, round-shouldered Howie Morenz, the highest paid, the fastest hockey player in the world. Aurel Joliat, in his little black cap, puts Morenz in position to shoot and handles his passes with none of the jealousy that in past seasons has marred their cooperation.

Montreal Maroons: big-boned, heavy-thewed, they win by muscle rather than strategy; they are the strongest team in the league defensively. They began the season losing game after game but have since pulled up to second place in the international group.

Boston: last year, with flat-faced Eddie (“Shining”) Shore tossing puck-carriers off his wide hips on the defense, snaking through the opposition when he cared to take the puck, the Boston team swept the board all season but were mysteriously by the Canadiens in the playoffs. Now Shore is quieter; his team has a slight edge in the American group, nothing more.

Chicago: in the first weeks the Blackhawks played phenomenally, justifying the odd theories of OWner Frederic McLaughlin who copied Knute Rockne’s football tactics, sent a bigger squad into action than his rivals, got them up for calisthenics at an hour when most hockey players are sleeping. But recently two Chicago players, overtrained, have fainted in action; the team has slipped from first place to second.

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