{"id":13502,"date":"2017-02-21T10:54:16","date_gmt":"2017-02-21T18:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=13502"},"modified":"2017-02-24T10:04:23","modified_gmt":"2017-02-24T18:04:23","slug":"presentation-looks-at-the-time-victoria-almost-won-the-stanley-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2017\/02\/21\/presentation-looks-at-the-time-victoria-almost-won-the-stanley-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Presentation looks at how Victoria almost won the Stanley Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1913, the Victoria Cougars came within close reach of the Stanley Cup; some would say they won it. On Thursday, February 23, local hockey fan Roger McGuire is hosting a presentation in which he\u2019ll talk about what happened, as well as Canada\u2019s rich hockey history and Victoria\u2019s lengthy connection to the creation of professional hockey.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, it\u2019s an overview of how Victoria was actually quite instrumental in the development of hockey,\u201d says McGuire. \u201cFrom the game it was in the early days of being a professional sport to becoming a national league. A big reason that hockey got going was the entrepreneurship of the Patrick brothers, Frank and Lester.\u201d<\/p>\n

The brothers were born in Quebec and were the sons of a wealthy lumberman. But it might have been a risky decision when they sold the family business to finance the formation of their Pacific Coast Hockey Association, where they could invite others to come together and play some hockey for an actual league.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
A newspaper story from the era (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cLester Patrick lived in Victoria and operated a team here, in 1912, after building the arena in 1911,\u201d says McGuire. \u201cIt was actually Frank Patrick who came up with the idea, \u2018What if we start a hockey league on the west coast of Canada?\u2019 Initially, they had in mind teams on the west coast of Canada, and the prairie teams, and possibly even the US. They had a three-team league in the first year, and this three-team league only had 23 players amongst all three teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Victoria\u2019s team was low on players and in a separate league, they had a chance to play against the eastern league\u2019s all-star team, and they wanted to play them for the Stanley Cup. Apparently, the Pacific Coast Hockey Association seemed so appealing that eastern players were turning coat on their eastern teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey wanted a challenge for the Stanley Cup in the first year, but it was too late in the season for ice in the east, so they invited the all-star team from the east to come out and play against the western all-stars,\u201d says McGuire. \u201cSo they actually did that in 1912, at the end of their first season. Some of those players who came out, they saw what was going on in BC and they decided that they wanted to play in that league rather than the eastern league. That was really the first true challenge to the eastern dominance of hockey, because you had some of the best players offering to come and play for Victoria, Vancouver, and the New Westminster Team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Victoria Cougars were keen for the cup, so they challenged the Stanley Cup champions to a series on the pacific coast, and the champions obliged. However, the results have been contested due to the champions doing some rule changing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a proposal not long after by the Pacific Coast Hockey Association to challenge the east for the Stanley cup,\u201d says McGuire. \u201cHowever, the Stanley Cup Champion team, which was the Quebec Bulldogs, decided against allowing the series to be for the Stanley Cup. So they held a series, it was billed as the world Championship of Hockey, and the winner of two of the three games held in Victoria and Vancouver was the Victoria team.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Victoria Won the Stanley Cup
\n7:15 pm, Thursday, Febuary 23
\n$5, James Bay New Horizons Centre
\n234 Menzies Street
\njamesbaynewhorizons.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1913, the Victoria Cougars came within close reach of the Stanley Cup; some would say they won it. On Thursday, February 23, local hockey fan Roger McGuire is hosting a presentation in which he\u2019ll talk about what happened, as well as Canada\u2019s rich hockey history and Victoria\u2019s lengthy connection to the creation of professional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t