[Canada 02]

A century ago:

https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/...n-coronavirus/

The year was 1919 and the Seattle Metropolitans were locked in a titanic struggle of a rematch with the Montreal Canadiens for the Stanley Cup, having prevailed in their finals series two years prior.

But on April 1, 1919, when a decisive Game 6 was to be played, public health officials canceled the series just 5½ hours before puck drop.

Montreal players Joe Hall, Jack MacDonald, Newsy Lalonde, Bill Couture and Louis Berlinquette and coach George Kennedy had been hospitalized with fevers of 101 to 105 degrees due to the Spanish influenza that ravaged the planet from January 1918 through December 1920. Two Seattle players, Roy Rickey and Muzz Murray, would also soon be stricken along with coach Pete Muldoon.

“The health department is the one that shut the series down,’’ said Kevin Ticen, author of last year’s Metropolitans book titled “When it Mattered Most: The Forgotten Story of America’s First Stanley Cup Champions.”

“They canceled the last game because they didn’t want people in that close proximity,” Ticen said. “The players also all shared the same water, so they worried that they were contaminated.’’

Hall, 37, a three-time Cup-winning defenseman and married father of three, would die four days later at the Columbus Sanatorium.