Canadiens owner George Kennedy never recovered from the influenza he contracted in 1919, and died on October 19, 1921, at age 39. His widow sold the Canadiens to a unit that would be known affectionately as the Three Musketeers of owners, Leo Dandurand, Louis Letourneau, and Joseph Cattarinich. Dandurand became manager and coach, and immediately there were problems between him and Newsy Lalonde. At one point, Dandurand accused Lalonde of not trying, and also the fans started to boo their old hero. Finally, Lalonde walked out on the team. NHL president Frank Calder mediated the dispute and Lalonde returned to the team. But his days in Montreal were numbered.
Regular season
Georges Vezina came third in the league in goals against average of 3.9 per game. Odie Cleghorn led the Canadiens in offence, scoring 21 goals and 3 assists.
[1]
Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold.
Clement Piché had signed a contract with the Canadiens on December 6, 1921. Later that month, on December 21, he was slated to play versus the Hamilton Tigers. He did noy play due to the flu, yet he had been erroneously been credited with playing one shift in that game.[4][5][6]
"A daily newspaper from yesterday announced that Piché had been sent on the ice in the game of two nights ago. That was an error, as Piché suffers from the flu and will not even be able to play Saturday night in Ottawa [the article was published on Friday]. The doctor recommended that he not go out this week and he will not be able to resume training before Sunday."[7]
^Standings: NHL Public Relations Department (2008). Dave McCarthy; et al. (eds.). THE NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE Official Guide & Record Book/2009. National Hockey League. p. 146. ISBN978-1-894801-14-0.