Moose Johnson

Montreal Hockey Club and Montreal Wanderers intermediate team.Johnson's playing career began in 1902 in the Montreal City Hockey League where he would, at times, play with his junior, intermediate and senior teams all in the same weekend. He moved on to the Canadian Amateur Hockey League in 1903 and played two seasons with the Montreal Hockey Club, scoring 9 goals in 11 games in that time. He then moved on to join the Montreal Wanderers of the newly formed Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association in 1905, and finished tenth in league scoring with 12 goals. Ottawa came back to lead the second game 9–1, and tie the series, but two late goals by Montreal's Lester Patrick gave Montreal the victory, 12–10 on aggregate, to win both the ECAHA championship, and the Stanley Cup as Canada's national amateur champions. The ECAHA turned professional in 1906–07, and the Wanderers signed Johnson to a contract. Along with teammates Jack Marshall, Hod Stuart, Frank Glass and Riley Hern, Johnson became the first professional player ever allowed to compete for the Stanley Cup as the Wanderers defended a challenge by the New Glasgow Cubs of the Maritime Hockey League prior to the ECAHA season's start. including two in the final game of the second series against Kenora to help the Wanderers regain control of the Cup. on a 1911 Sweet Caporal postcard. Johnson was again named to the second all-star team on left wing in 1907–08. His offence fell in the ECAHA season, as he recorded nine goals in 10 games for the ECAHA champion Wanderers, but he added 11 goals in five Stanley Cup challenge games as the Wanderers successfully defended their title on three occasions. Johnson was an offensive star in the challenges, scoring four goals on one game against the Ottawa Victorias in a January 1908 challenge, and again scoring four in a game against the Winnipeg Maple Leafs in a March 1908 challenge. He scored one goal as Montreal again defended the Stanley Cup against the Edmonton Eskimos in a challenge that preceded the 1908–08 ECAHA season, and added ten more during the campaign, but Montreal lost the league title to Ottawa, and with it control of the Stanley Cup. Johnson completed his second NHA season in 1910–11, scoring six goals and recording 60 penalty minutes in 16 games. Johnson and Glass played together on the 1902–03 Montreal St. Lawrence team in the Montreal City Hockey League before rejoining in the 1906 season on the Montreal Wanderers. At the onset of the 1905–06 season Brooklyn Skating Club manager Tom Howard tried to acquire both Johnson and Glass to his club, but the AAHL rules committee ruled the Canadians ineligible to play with the American club on counts of professionalism. New Westminster, Portland and Victoria When Lester and Frank Patrick formed the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) in 1911, they sought to lure the NHA's top stars out west. Johnson, by then considered one of the game's best players, was among the players who jumped at the higher salaries the Patricks were offering. Johnson was placed on the New Westminster Royals, and switched positions from left wing to cover-point (defence). Prior to the 1912–13 season, and despite being branded an "outlaw" by the NHA, Johnson appeared ready to return to the Wanderers as he signed a new contract with the eastern team. However, he previously signed a contract with the Royals, Johnson was again named to the all-star team that season, Following the season, he moved to Portland, Oregon when the Royals transferred south to become the Portland Rosebuds. He again made the all-star team in 1915, the first of five consecutive seasons in which he did so. He eventually signed with Portland, and was reported to have turned down lucrative offers to return to the NHA. The Rosebuds won the PCHA championship that season, and in doing so became the first American team to compete for the Stanley Cup. For Johnson, it marked his first in a Stanley Cup Final in six years, and was not without controversy. The Rosebuds faced the NHA's Montreal Canadiens, and the entire series was played in Montreal. As a consequence of his jumping to the PCHA in 1911, Montreal Wanderers owner Sam Lichtenhein had won a judgement against Johnson for $2,000 for breach of contract, but it was not enforceable unless he returned to the jurisdiction of Quebec's courts. When it became known that Lichtenhein would gain Johnson's salary for playing in the series, Johnson contemplated refusing to play. He decided to play in the series anyway, and scored one goal in the five-game series. Lester Patrick, managing the Spokane Canaries, thought he had an agreement to secure Johnson's playing rights for the 1916–17 season. Portland had come to verbal agreement with Patrick that they would do so if he would relinquish claims on four players Portland sought to sign. When it was determined that some of those players would not report to Portland, the Rosebuds refused to relinquish Johnson, leading Patrick to claim he had been "double crossed". Remaining with the Rosebuds, Johnson posted a career-high 21 points in 1916–17. Johnson returned to hockey in 1926 with the Los Angeles Palais-de-Glace when he played a couple of games in the Commercial Hockey League before spending the winter of 1926–27 with the Minneapolis Millers of the American Hockey Association. He again returned to the game in 1928–29 with the Portland Buckaroos of the Pacific Coast Hockey League, then played two seasons in the California Hockey League between 1929 and 1931 with the Hollywood Millionaires and then the San Francisco Tigers before retiring for good at the age of 45. ==Playing style==

'' Johnson was one of the most dominant rushing defensemen of the late-1900s and 1910s. Drawing frequent comparisons to Cyclone Taylor – as Brad Park would to Bobby Orr sixty years later – Johnson was noted for his long, smooth skating stride which allowed him to cover a large amount of ice very quickly and contribute to the attack. He was a consistent scoring threat from the back end through his whole career; in his rookie and sophomore seasons with the Wanderers, he was among the top ten goal scorers in the league, and scored eleven goals over five challenge games during the successful 1908 post-season. Johnson's offensive upside was such that his coaches would occasionally play him on the left wing, as against the Kenora Thistles in a 1907 challenge match. Si Griffis, playing for the Thistles at the time, claimed that it was Johnson's play which determined the Wanderers' victory. Johnson's poke check could also be used to force turnovers and generate offensive rushes. Combining good breakaway speed with positional awareness, Johnson would charge an oncoming attacker, use his poke check to strip the player of the puck, bank it off the sideboards and race after it. While on the attack himself, he would often deliberately make as if he were dumping the puck in. Instead, when thirty feet from the opposing net, he would deliberately fire the puck along the boards so that it rimmed around behind the opponent's goalie; however, rather than chase after it, he would subsequently cut across the slot and pick up the puck as it came out the other side. Johnson missed three weeks and seven games resting his wrenched shoulder but was back again on February 8 against the Vancouver Millionaires, Portland winning the home contest 8 goals to 4 and Johnson playing with his shoulder strapped in a leather case. on January 14, 1918 To his supporters, Johnson's proneness to injury was a result of his physical style of play and the retaliation that came with it, and he was often touted as a relatively clean player. Johnson accumulated eight seasons where his penalty totals were triple or quadruple the number of games played. ==Off the ice==

Johnson was born in the neighbourhood of Pointe-Saint-Charles in Montreal, Quebec on February 26, 1886. As a 14-year-old in 1900, he suffered an accident in which he survived a 2,300 volt electrical shock, but the incident resulted in the loss of two fingers on his right hand. He settled in Portland when his career ended and worked full-time as a brakeman for Union Pacific until he retired to White Rock, British Columbia in 1954. He suffered a stroke in 1961, and died two years later at the age of 77. ==Career statistics==

Regular season and playoffs Stanley Cup challenges ==References==