The Dawson City Nuggets, an “all-star” team, were drawn from this ragtag bunch. The small league played at a newly-built, indoor rink that amazingly boasted an attached clubhouse, dressing rooms, showers, lounges and a dining room. Boyle, a one-time boxing promoter with a passion for hockey, put together a four-team league consisting of miners, prospectors, police and civil servants.

Its population, which had topped 40,000 at the peak of the gold rush in 1898, had fallen to less than 5,000, though there were more settlers in the surrounding hinterland.

His nickname was “King of the Klondike.”īy 1904, however, Dawson City was in decline, the gold largely played out. Boyle, a larger-than-life character, had made a fortune in the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898 through mining concessions and other businesses. The Cup challenge was organized by Colonel Joe Boyle, Dawson City’s number one citizen. In the fall of 1904, the reigning Stanley Cup champions, Ottawa’s Silver Seven, the forerunners of the Ottawa Senators, were challenged by an upstart team from Dawson City, Yukon called the Dawson City Nuggets, or sometimes the Dawson City Klondikers. The winning team also got to take home the Cup, and only relinquished the trophy upon its defeat by a challenger. A hockey club, usually the winner of some league play, challenged the Cup holder for the trophy, typically in a best of three game series, or a two-game, total goals series. Instead of the Eastern and Western Conference champions of the National Hockey League playing in a best-of-seven series, the Cup was a “challenge” cup for amateur play. Who could compete for the Stanley Cup was also very different. The other team members didn’t have it easy though line changes were a thing of the future. At best, his shins were protected by cricket pads. He was virtually indistinguishable from other players, wearing little or no padding. Similar to rugby, the puck-handler who found his progress blocked was forbidden to pass the puck forward to an open team mate. The extra player was known as the “rover.” The game itself was divided into two, thirty-minute halves, instead of three, twenty-minute periods. For one thing, a team had seven players on the ice instead of the modern six. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the rules of ice hockey were considerably different than they are today.

The silver seven