NHL championship against

Joe Malone recorded five goals for the Canadiens in their NHL debut, a 7–4 victory over the Senators,[29] en route to a league leading 44 goal season.[30] The fledgling league nearly collapsed on January 2, 1918, after a fire destroyed the Montreal Arena, home to both the Wanderers and the Canadiens.[31] The Canadiens relocated to the 3,000-seat Jubilee Arena, but the Wanderers ceased operations, reducing the NHL to three teams.[32] Playing a revamped split season schedule, Montreal won the first half title, but lost the league championship to second half winning Toronto by a score of 10–7 in a two-game, total goals series.[33]

The Canadiens won the NHL championship against the Senators in 1918–19, and traveled west to meet the PCHA champion Seattle Metropolitans for the Stanley Cup.[34] The series is best remembered for its cancellation due to the Spanish flu pandemic.[35] Several players from both teams became ill, prompting health officials in Seattle to cancel the sixth, and deciding, game.[34] With his entire team either in the hospital or confined to bed, Kennedy attempted to borrow players from the PCHA's Victoria Aristocrats, only to be turned down by PCHA president Frank Patrick.[36] With no way to field a team, Kennedy announced he was forfeiting the game—and the Cup—to the Metropolitans. However, the Metropolitans turned it down; coach Pete Muldoon felt that with the Canadiens decimated by the flu, it wouldn't be sportsmanlike to claim the title.[37] Star defenceman Joe Hall never recovered, and died on April 5, 1919.[



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