The game is widely considered the greatest game ever played, at least of that era. Canadiens: Hall, high fever; MacDonald, high fever; Berlanquette, cut on lip; Corbeau, sprained shoulder. And West Coast rules favor athleticism and speed.
But the biggest explosion certainly is in the fall of 1918. You know, he's 37 years old. The players really wanted to win. SPRAIN | Pronunciation in English. And [the Stanley Cup Final] was finally something everyone could rally around and celebrate. KT: Yeah, so Joe Hall's sort of the first enforcer in hockey. Ligue 1 leaders PSG travel to Manchester United for their Champions League last-16 first leg on Feb. 12. And again, two small kids.
Your browser doesn't support HTML5 audio. And that sounds remarkably like, not exhaustion, but the Spanish flu. KT: Yeah, so again, like I said, it's sort of the American League and the National League, and so there's slightly different rules. KT: The game goes into two overtimes, and players start collapsing on the ice at the end. Seattle Post Intelligencer, March 31, 1919: "Seattle: Rowe, wrenched ankle; Foyston, torn tendon; Rickey, cut on leg; Walker, bruised leg; Wilson, fever. And there was a lot of thought then that he never fully recovered from the Spanish flu, that it potentially had weakened his heart. KG: That season — that hockey season started. When I first started researching the book, I wasn't sure, you know, if people cared about hockey. So tell me about that pandemic. Verratti has a sprained ankle, PSG say | Reuters. And it's pretty clear at this point that the players are under tremendous strain. And at that point, the Canadiens don't have enough players to put a team on the ice, and they offer to forfeit the series. So, four days after the game was called off, Joe Hall died. So, let's hope that this thing doesn't get anywhere near what Spanish flu pandemic did, right?
This has been really great. There's forward passing in the West, there's not in the East. And so he declines the forfeit. So George Kennedy, the owner of the Canadiens, he recovers from the short-term effects of this flu. And it was going to be the Seattle Mets and the Montreal Canadiens. "New checks early in the week will help define the length of his absence. "The war had been devastating, and this virus had been devastating. How to say sprained in spanish school. So the presidents of both leagues, Frank Calder and Frank Patrick, decide that they are gonna replay by Eastern rules and that from now on they'll play until there's a winner. So who was "Bad Joe" Hall? And, you know, the East Coast game is more individualistic. KT: Yeah, it says: "1919–Montreal Canadiens–Seattle Metropolitans–Series Not Completed. I think it's a message that needs to get out there. Did the newspapers pick up on that?
They have a position called the rover. Schools were back in session, and the Seattle Metropolitans were back on the ice. They talked about waiting a few weeks. So each team has now won two games. But, you know, from everything that I've seen, nobody picked up on it until the day after Game 5's played. I read a stat that Spanish Flu pandemic cut the life expectancy in America by 12 years. "It was kind of a cute little side story. KT: So there's two leagues back then. KT: Two Metropolitans, both head coaches, they all wake up with, you know, scary fevers, like, 103-104 degree temps. And he was widely respected. There was no vaccine to it. How to spell sprain. They talk about moving it to Vancouver a little bit. And if you apply that to today's population, right, that's 2.
And, yeah, it was a really exciting time and really had this populace that needed something to celebrate, right? The Metropolitans go up three goals. And this game again goes into overtime, and the Canadiens win. And it's more of a flow game. Pete Muldoon, the head coach for the Metropolitans, won't accept winning, you know, not on the ice.
"As this coronavirus started to spread, I definitely was looking at it thinking, 'This is eerily similar. ' KG: But in January of 1919, those restrictions were lifted. And it spread rapidly. The East Coast league has six. I feel horrible for, you know, the college seniors and high school seniors that have lost, you know, something special, something that can never be given back to them. KG: And by October of 1918, Seattle had pretty much shut everything down, right? I mean, the arena in Seattle held 2, 500 people, and they were packing it with 3, 500 for these games. Seattle Daily Times, April 1, 1919: "Influenza has within the past 48 hours laid out five of the Canadiens. I'm completely willing to give up my sports so that 230 million people don't have to die. All the fans in the arena think that the game's over. Game 4 is where things start to get really interesting.
You know, they're standing room only. KG: What lessons do you take from this story? He lived in Vancouver, British Columbia. Yeah, that's correct. So it's the swine flu that we had 10 years ago. KT: Yeah, absolutely. And off the ice, they all loved him. Our restaurants will be full and our arenas will be packed. Bars and restaurants had shut down. KG: As entertaining as it was, it really messed up this schedule of the Stanley Cup finals, right?
You've gotten to spend, as I understand it, a little bit of time with the Stanley Cup itself. And he says he didn't know much about hockey. KG: So when you hear people complaining that all of their favorite sporting events have been taken away, what do you want to say to them?