NHL – National Hockey League

Stanley Cup (Author: Uncleweed, Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0)

The National Hockey League (NHL) was formed on November 26, 1917 after a meeting of club owners in the National Hockey Association (NHA). The main reason to form a new league was to get rid of Eddie Livingstone, the owner of the Toronto Blueshirts.
NHL was formed by five teams:

Montreal Canadiens,
Montreal Wanderers,
Ottawa Senators,
Quebec Bulldogs and
Toronto Arenas.

The first four teams were part of the NHA in the previous years and Toronto Arenas was a brand new team. Because of the financial problems, Quebec Bulldogs did not start in the first two seasons.

The first president of the NHL was Frank Calder and he was in the office until his death in 1943 (btw. Calder Memorial Trophy for the rookie of the year is named after him).

First NHL Season

The first game was played on December 19, 1917 and Montreal Wanderers defeated Toronto Arenas 10–9, however, Montreal Wanderers did not finish the season while their rink burned down.

The first season was divided into two halves. The winner of the first half was Montreal Canadiens with 10 wins out of 14 games. Toronto Arenas won the second half with 5 wins out of 8 games.

NHL Champion

The NHL champion was determined by two games between the winner of the first half – Montreal Canadiens, and the second half – Toronto Arenas. Toronto Arenas defeated Montreal Canadiens 7–4 in the first game played in Toronto and in the second game Montreal Canadiens defeated Toronto Arenas 4–3 in Montreal. The winner of NHL Championship was Toronto Arenas with total score 10–7 (score from both games was the only criterion). This does not mean that Toronto Arenas won the Stanley Cup (at least not yet).

Stanley Cup Final

According to the rules, the winner of the NHL played with the winner of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association league (PCHA). In the 1917–18 season, the PCHA consisted from Seattle Metropolitans, Vancouver Millionaires and Portland Rosebuds. The winner of PCHA was Vancouver Millionaires.

NHL and PCHA had different rules that time. PCHA allowed forward passing and seventh player (rover) on the ice. In the best-of-five series three games were played according to the rules of NHL (all won by Toronto Arenas, NHL) and two games were played according to the rules of PCHA (both won by Vancouver Millionaires, PCHA). This means that Toronto Arenas won the best-of-five series by 3 games to 2 and became the Stanley Cup winner. We remind that they were not the first Stanley Cup winner. Stanley Cup is older than NHL and the first winner was awarded in the 1893 – Montreal Hockey Club.

Source

Marshall D. Wright (2010): The National Hockey League, 1917-1967: a year-by-year statistical history.