The 1936 Stanley Cup Finals was contested by the Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs. This was Detroit's second appearance in the Finals and Toronto's sixth. Detroit would win the series 3–1 to win their first Stanley Cup. This marked the sixth consecutive season of a different winner, and the eighth of the first ten teams (excluding the New York Americans and the Pittsburgh Pirates/Philadelphia Quakers, who never won the Cup) to win in the ten seasons since the Stanley Cup became exclusive to the NHL.
Path to the Final
Detroit defeated the defending champion Montreal Maroons in a best-of-five 3–0 to advance to the Finals. The Leafs had to play a total-goals series; 8–6 against Boston Bruins, and win a best-of-three 2–1 against the New York Americans to advance to the Finals.
The 1936 Stanley Cup was presented to Red Wings captain Doug Young by NHL PresidentFrank Calder following the Red Wings 3–2 win over the Maple Leafs in game four.
The following Red Wings players and staff had their names engraved on the Stanley Cup
Frank "Honey" Walker (Trainer), John Gilles (Business Manager)
Carl Mattson† (Ass't Trainer/qualified)
Stanley Cup engraving
Four Red Wings were included on the team picture, but left off the Stanley Cup: Wilfie Starr, Art Giroux, Les Tooke, and assistant trainer Carl Mattson. Tooke, who spent the season with the Windsor Shamrocks of the Michigan-Ontario Hockey League, was the Wings' spare goaltender; he never played in the NHL.
Detroit: "City of Champions"
When the Red Wings won the 1936 Stanley Cup, the City of Detroit was mired in the Great Depression, which had hit Detroit and its industries particularly hard. But with the success of the Red Wings and other Detroit teams and athletes in the 1935/36 sports season, Detroit's luck appeared to be changing, as the city was dubbed the "City of Champions".[1] The Detroit Tigers started the winning streak by winning the 1935 World Series, and the Detroit Lions continued the process by capturing the 1935 NFL Championship Game. When the Red Wings completed their own championship drive, the city had seen three major sporting league championships in less than a year.
