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How a Pandemic Denied Hockey its Top Prize When the National Hockey League made its debut in 1917, the United States and Canada had just enacted conscription to supplement their armed forces in the war that had been ravaging Europe for three years. Also since 1914, the NHL and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association champion teams had competed for the Stanley Cup. However, the 1918 Armistice ending World War I soon threatened to deny both leagues the trophy by producing an unexpected adversary: The Spanish Flu. As the World Hockey Association would do more than five decades later, attractive salary offers from PCHA teams sometimes drew high-calibre players away from the National league. Stars of the era such as Cyclone Taylor, Newsy Lalonde, Frank Foyston, and brothers Frank and Lester Patrick played in the NHL, its predecessor the NHA, and the PCHA throughout their careers. No Decision features these and other figures, including the Ottawa Senators and Vancouver Millionaires, as it recounts the 1919 NHL and PCHA playoffs and the Montreal Canadiens' rail trip through western Canada to the Stanley Cup final in Seattle against the Metropolitans.