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Dominion Hockey Challenge Lineal Championship (Part 0)
The world of hockey and pro wrestling seem to have a kinship of fandom. Perhaps its the bold uniform colours. The artistic expression of the goaltenders. Or some of the brash and outlandish natural heels that have laced them up over the years. Maybe it’s the bloodied fisticuffs that mirror the crimson masks of the squared circle.
With all of the things in common, one thing that hockey doesn’t have is a line of champions who had to best their previous ruler to reign supreme. Through the 1980’s, be it in the NWA or the WCW, The Nature Boy Ric Flair would often below out the following concept in the midst of his heated promo deliveries.
“In order to be the man, you gotta beat the man”.
One day, an idea dropped it’s line and hook down from the aether and snagged my mind.
Who is the current lineal Stanley Cup champion?
If we started not from the most recent hoist of the Stanley Cup, but from the very first time the cup was awarded to Montreal in 1893?
To track this lineal title, which I have given the name of the “Dominion Hockey Challenge Lineal Championship”, two main resources were used.
For the pre-NHL seasons and through the transforming leagues over the early years, I relied heavily on Wikipedia entries of each season.
internationalhockeywiki.com also came in handy when the title jumped from NHL precursor leagues to other leagues in North America.
Once the NHL became an established entity, the encyclopedia that is Hockey Reference (hockey-reference.com) became a saving grace.
A visual representation of the journey was essential from the start as I wanted to showcase the morphing identities as well as the art of logo design through the years.
The pre-NHL season graphics have mostly been derived by the brilliant and diligent work of Chronicles of Hockey (chroniclesofhockey.com).
Through the NHL years, the vast catalogue that is Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos did a lot of the heavy lifting (sportslogos.net).
Here are the rules to determine succession:
Champion’s Advantage: The challenger must beat the current champion to be able to take on the title. This means that ties result in the champion retaining the title.
League Hopping: During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s when the “challenge” aspect of the Stanley Cup was prominent, if a challenger from another league wins the title, the title goes with them to be defended amongst the clubs in the new champion’s league.
Exhibitions: Early history exhibition games are included in this project as they were used to showcase the fledgeling clubs and talents.
NOTE: There is a pathway that involves international exhibition games (i.e. the Super Series). However, that is out of the scope of this current pursuit and may be a thread in the future.
In Part I, we will travel back to the 1890’s to begin our journey to find the true Dominion Hockey Challenge Lineal Champion.
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