March 11, 1918, stands as one of professional hockey's most defining dates. That evening, the National Hockey League (NHL) staged its very first championship game—a watershed moment that would forever alter the trajectory of the sport. The Toronto Hockey Club rose to the occasion, overpowering the Montreal Canadiens with a commanding 7-3 win in the opening contest of a two-game total-goals series, setting themselves on the path to becoming the league's first-ever champion.
The NHL didn't arrive quietly—it was forged in the fires of bitter dispute. In the months leading up to that historic season, team owners had grown utterly fed up with the National Hockey Association (NHA), largely because of ongoing clashes involving Toronto Blueshirts owner Eddie Livingstone. Rather than let the infighting drag on, they chose a radical solution: suspending the NHA entirely and launching the NHL in November 1917. The Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, and Ottawa Senators signed on as the founding franchises. Toronto's situation was more complicated—the city received a temporary club, run by the owners of Arena Gardens and stocked with players pulled from the Blueshirts roster. Though this squad would eventually come to be called the Toronto Arenas, they played that inaugural season without any official name.
Nothing about the 1917-18 NHL season went according to plan. When their arena was destroyed by fire in January 1918, the Montreal Wanderers were forced to pull out, shrinking the league to a mere three teams. Officials divided the campaign into two halves—Montreal captured the first, Toronto took the second—naturally pitting the two against each other in the league's maiden championship series.
The format for this inaugural NHL Championship was a two-game total-goals affair. Game one took place at Arena Gardens in Toronto on March 11, 1918, and the home side was utterly dominant. Toronto stormed to a 7-3 victory, powered by Alf Skinner, who would go on to finish as the playoff scoring leader. Two days later, Montreal clawed back with a 4-3 win in the second game, but it wasn't nearly enough. Toronto's decisive first-game cushion held firm, giving them a 10-7 aggregate triumph and the distinction of being the NHL's first title holders.
By winning the championship, Toronto claimed the O'Brien Cup—the storied trophy that had previously belonged to the NHA. But the greater prize still lay ahead. Their victory punched a ticket to the Stanley Cup Final, where they would go on to topple the Vancouver Millionaires of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, etching their names in history as the first NHL team to hoist the Stanley Cup.