The Montreal Canadiens Invade California, 1943
An NHL Team to Los Angels, to Raise Money for War Relief
The connection between hockey and international politics is strong. There were the great Cold War series, “Fireworks,” by The Tragically Hip, and, of course, Wayne Gretzky’s story about drinking beer with Soviet players in his basement while their KGB minders were distracted upstairs.
It turns out that in April 1943, Montreal’s Les Canadiens, along with a handful of other NHL players, made their way to California to play a series of hockey games in support of war charities.
An archival file at Library and Archives Canada, titled “National Hockey League Games at Los Angeles in Aid of War Relief Organizations — Proposals Re” only holds seven pages of records. But after reading them, I found some contemporary newspaper reporting about this event, too.
Here’s the story:
In early March 1943, a Mr. P. H. Halbriter, an American, sent a wire to Canada’s Minister of National Defence.
Halbriter was contacting the Minister — Colonel, the Honourable J.L. Ralston — on behalf of “three worthy war relief organizations” who were “desirous of sponsoring a Canadian-American hockey series in Los Angeles.”
All proceeds to go to the organizations.
Halbriter told Ralston that the Montreal “Canadians” [Note: not my spelling!] had already accepted a plan to play, and so Halbriter needed help asking for the cooperation of the National Hockey League in arranging an American hockey team to oppose them.
Ralston wrote to Major-General L. R. LaFlèche, Minister of National War Services, asking him to help. This was something LaFlèche was “only too glad to do” but thought it might “entail some considerable negotiations.”
Léo Richer LaFlèche was himself a veteran of the First World War. As an infantry officer of the Van Doos, he had been wounded in 1916 on the battlefield and rescued by a party of his men who each won a Military Medal for saving his life. He would rise to the rank of Major-General.
In 1942, LaFlèche had been elected to Parliament, representing Outremont, and would serve as Minister of National War Services until 1945. (After the war, he was an Ambassador to Greece, Argentina, Uruguay, and High Commissioner in Australia.)
LaFlèche wired back to Halbriter to “strongly suggest” the best way to make the game happen: It would “greatly assist” things if the Canadian government received an official request from the United States government, along official channels.
LaFlèche wrote to Norman Robertson, the Under Secretary of State for External Affairs, to enlist his support.
Just what happened next is unclear, but arrangements for the formal invitation seem to have been initiated by Mr. T.J. Monty, Acting Canadian Government Trade Commissioner in Los Angeles.
LaFlèche then contacted Mr. Mervin “Red” Dutton, the Chairman of the National Hockey League, to bring the NHL on board.
Hockey Wants To Do Its Full Share
The NHL’s Governors met in Toronto in March 1943 to discuss the request.
Dutton, Chairman of the NHL, told LaFlèche, the Minister, that if the U.S. government officially requests the Canadian Government to facilitate “such a hockey series,” the Government of Canada “in turn asks the National Hockey League to supply the personnel for such a series,” the league would do “everything in its power” to get players to L.A.
But the Governors warned the government to keep several factors in mind:
First - The National Hockey League Play-offs will be commencing about the middle of March and will run until possibly the middle of April.
Second - By 3rd or 4th of April, four teams will be free of play-off responsibilities and it might be possible to get personnel for two teams from this group. This would mean, however, that such a series could not start in Los Angeles until somewhere between the 10th and 15th of April.
Third - The transportation and Exit Permits etc. would have to be arranged for by both Governments.
Fourth - The expenses for such a trip should be guaranteed to these players by some responsible body.
Fifth - These players’ contracts all expire at the end of the hockey season, and such a trip would have to be voluntary on the part of the individuals playing. The Governors feel that they could get individual players to volunteer for such a trip but at the time of writing they hardly care to guarantee this.
Dutton explained the reason for his list:
“Hockey wants to do its full share in the furtherance of any worthwhile cause, and I have enumerated the above items, not with the view of discouraging the project, but more of outlining some of the difficulties, none of which should be unsurmountable, surrounding the proposed series.”
CANADIENS SINK NAVY
In March, newspapers in Canada and the United States broke the news that the NHL was coming to California.
The Hon. Senator Donat Raymond, President of the Canadiens (and himself a Stanley Cup winner), secured agreement from the NHL for his team to play. The idea was for the Montreal team to face an American team, and there was some suggestion this was to be the first annual U.S.-Canada invitational series.
In the end, it seems that another NHL team was not up for the tournament.
Instead, the Canadiens' opponent would be decided by a playoff between the San Diego Skyhawks, a professional team in California, and the Victoria Navy.
The Navy was made up of Royal Canadian Navy men waiting for orders in the war, and while they waited, they played in the Island Senior League.
By the way, the Victoria Navy team had wonderful hockey sweaters, featuring a dog wearing a sailor’s cap.
There is a picture of them in one of the newspaper articles from 1943, but I cannot reproduce it for copyright reasons. (Another photo, below.) I looked them up online, and it turns out the Victoria Royals of the WHL recreated these sweaters recently for a Canadian Armed Forces appreciation event. There is a picture of the sweaters in this Times Colonist article.
Both teams had a handful of NHLers on their roster. Rex, Max, and Doug Bentley, called “the greatest brother combination in ice hockey history” by the Los Angeles Times, played for San Diego, as did Turk Broda, the Toronto Maple Leafs’ goalie.
But Navy beat the Skyhawks, and most of the pro players on the Skyhawks moved over to Navy. Turk Broda stuck around, although it is not clear whether he was a back-up goalie or the referee (he was willing to do both jobs).
The Canadiens-Navy series went ahead - a best of 7 match with games at the “Tropical Ice Gardens,” (called Westwood Ice Gardens in the news at the time.) This was apparently the only year-round outdoor ice rink in the world at the time.
Tom Hogarth of the Los Angeles Daily News wrote a piece on the series in 2017. He explains that Rocket Richard did not play as he had a broken bone. But the Canadiens did play Gordon Dillon, NHL scoring champ; Buddy O’Connor; and Toe Blake and Elmer Lach of the “punch line”.
The Los Angeles Times coverage of the series was breathless, to say the least. It makes for delightful reading, with full accounts of every game.
Here is a description of one goal:
“It looked as though the Navy was on its way, but the Canadiens then took a hand in the offensive picture. Joe Benoit, Toe Blake, and Elmer Lach made a sharp drive up the ice. Rayner, Victoria goalie, went down on his knees making a great stop of Buddy O’Connor’s try. O’Connor stayed on the puck, which veered off on an angle and fired a pass to Glen Harmon, left defense man, who poured it into the net before Rayner could recover. It was a hot piece of action that had the crowd on its feet. Time was 18m, 34s.”
There was entertainment during the period breaks, too:
In one game,
“Belita, the beautiful blond whirlwind, put on one of her figure skating performances after the first period and repeated again between the second and third.”
She was described in another article as “skating star and all-around athlete.” (Belita represented the United Kingdom in the 1936 Winter Olympics, but did not medal, and then moved to Hollywood.)
Montreal ultimately won the series 4-1. Navy won the one game and at least one fight. As the papers put it, the Canadiens “wound up losing both the pugilistic encounters and the ice-hockey game”.
Did I say fight?
I should have said, as the Los Angeles Times wrote, “a red-hot fistic duel which found both players slugging it out with no holds barred near the end of the second period.”
One of the fistic duelists was Reg Bentley, and so Max and Doug rushed to join the fight in support of their brother, and it “looked if there would be a grand free for all.” But other players held back Max and Doug. Grand free for all averted.
How did Navy win? It turns out they had borrowed three Canadiens that night.
War metaphors were frequent in accounts of the game. This was, of course, the height of the Second World War. But also a good reminder that this phenomenon is nothing new.
The Canadiens were on a “Southern California invasion” route, the “Victoria snipers” were scoring goals, and — inevitably — the final headline of the series: “CANADIENS SINK NAVY.”
All of the stories mention the charities involved, and the Canadiens, after being awarded the “Jim Tuthill-Signal Oil trophy” were “welcome back whenever they can find time to appear again.”
One game was reported to have 6500 “screaming fans.” There is some confusion about the cost: If you wanted a reserved seat, a single game ticket was $1.10. General admission was seventy-five cents, but a student or serviceman could get in for $0.60. (This contradicts a letter I quote below, which says servicemen paid no fee.)
The External Affairs folder at the archives contains an effusive letter of thanks from Halbiter to LaFlèche, thanking him for “helping to make our hockey series possible.”
“Southern California was happy to extend its hospitality to your colorful hockey teams. We viewed ice hockey of such caliber as never before seen here. Our sports-writers and newspaper people were more enthusiastic over this series than they have ever been for a sports event. We admitted all service men to the games free of charge, so thousands of these boys enjoyed the series as our guests.”
And while the diplomatic file on the hockey series is thin, only seven pages, LaFlèche told Robertson that all of Halbriter’s thanks “must go largely” to the Department of External Affairs.
***
This one was for you, Brian.
The archival file is 'National Hockey League games at Los Angeles in aid of war relief organizations - Proposals re,' RG25-A-3-b, Volume 8492, File 5010-40 Part 1.
Newspaper quotes are drawn from: "Canadiens to Play In California," The Globe and Mail (1936-); Mar 12, 1943; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Globe and Mail pg. 15; "Hockey Series Arranged Here Soon to Boost Service Funds," Los Angeles Times (1923-1995); Mar 30, 1943; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Los Angeles Times pg. 13; "Canadiens Will Play Games in California," The Montreal Gazette; April 1, 1943; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: pg. 14; "Victoria Navy Sextet Plays Skyhawks Tonight: Teams Renew Series at ...," Los Angeles Times (1923-1995); Apr 9, 1943; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Los Angeles Times pg. 19; "CANADIENS TAKE ON NAVY ICERS TONIGHT: BENTLEY BROTHERS TO AID ...," Los Angeles Times (1923-1995); Apr 13, 1943; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Los Angeles Times pg. A9; "Navy Sextet Gunning for Revenge Tonight: Bentley Boys, After Day's …," Los Angeles Times (1923-1995); Apr 16, 1943; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Los Angeles Times pg. 18; "Navy Upsets Canadiens: Fight With Bentley Boys Proves Costly to Montreal Pucks," DYER, BRAVEN, Los Angeles Times (1923-1995); Apr 17, 1943; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Los Angeles Times pg. 6; "LES CANADIENS DEFEAT VICTORIA SEXTET, 3-2," Curnow, Jack, Los Angeles Times (1923-1995); Apr 18, 1943; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Los Angeles Times pg. 17; "Canadiens Sink Navy: Montreal," DYER, BRAVEN, Los Angeles Times (1923-1995); Apr 21, 1943; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Los Angeles Times pg. A13; "Canadiens Win, 8 to 5," The Globe and Mail (1936-); Apr 22, 1943; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Globe and Mail pg. 16.