Newsy Lalonde had the skill to back up his words with actions. He scored three goals, and the Canadiens shook off their late-season slump by blasting the Senators 8–4. Odie Cleghorn scored three in the next game at Ottawa, and the Canadiens won 5–3. Back at the Jubilee for game three, Lalonde scored five times. The Canadiens won 6–3 and took a three-games-to-nothing lead. The series seemed to be in the bag now, but the Senators weren’t going down without a fight. They staved off elimination with a 6–3 win of their own in game four, and the series went back to Montreal. At home for game five Lalonde set the tone with an early goal. The Canadiens went on to a 4–2 victory that wrapped up the series.
Although Al had told him he’d done good work, the Canadiens didn’t take David with them for the games in Ottawa. They let him come back for the home games, however, and he was there when they wrapped up the series on a Thursday night. The newspapers on Friday morning all reported that the Canadiens would leave for the West Coast on Monday, which would be March 10. They’d be on a train to Vancouver, but nobody knew for sure if that was where they’d wind up. Vancouver and Seattle were the teams that had made the PCHA playoffs, but their series wasn’t over yet. It wouldn’t end until a few days after the Canadiens left Montreal. So not only did David have to wait a bit longer to find out if Mr. Kennedy would let him go, there was still a chance that even if he did go, he wouldn’t make it to Seattle.
As Mr. Kennedy had told him, taking David on the trip would cost the team more money. It wasn’t really a matter of being able to afford it. It was more a problem that the extra expenses would have to come out of what the team earned on their trip. Gate receipts from the Stanley Cup games were supposed to cover all their expenses and also provide the players with some bonus money. Any extra expenses meant that each player would wind up getting a smaller bonus, and it wasn’t as if any of them earned very much money to begin with. NHL salaries only ranged from about $500 to $1,500. Winning the Stanley Cup could mean an extra $300 or so to each player. Even the loser’s share would be about $200.
Mr. Kennedy knew the bonus money meant a lot to the players, so he thought it was only fair they be the ones to decide if David could come or not. The team was going to meet at two o’clock on Saturday afternoon to discuss the trip. That was when they’d make up their minds.
Instead of getting together at the rink, the meeting was at the Athletic Club that Mr. Kennedy owned downtown. He had organized the Club Athlétique Canadien in 1908 before there even was a Montreal Canadiens hockey team. Although Mr. Kennedy was actually an Irish Canadian, his club was mostly for French Canadians.
George Kennedy had been one of Canada’s best wrestlers in the early 1900s, but his family was never happy that he took up the sport. His real name was actually George Kendall, but he changed his surname to Kennedy because of his family’s disapproval. In 1903 Mr. Kennedy gave up going into the ring and started training and promoting other wrestlers instead. Wrestling was the main interest when the Athletic Club started in 1908, but soon Mr. Kennedy got involved in other sports, too.
By 1910 the Club had constructed a four-storey building on Saint Catherine Street a few blocks east of Saint Lawrence. It had a fancy gymnasium with all sorts of exercise equipment and room to hold two thousand fans to watch boxing or wrestling matches. There was also a billiards parlour filled with pool tables, a bowling alley with automatic pin-setting machines, a handball court, showers, a sauna, and a massage room. There was even a reading room stocked with newspapers and sports magazines from all across Canada and the United States.
Mr. Kennedy told David to be at the club at three o’clock. The meeting would be just about over by then, and that was when the players would make their decision.
David took the Saint Lawrence streetcar to Saint Catherine Street, then walked for about ten minutes to the block past Saint Hubert Street where the club was located. Rue San t-Hubear, the French people said. This was the French part of downtown.
When he got there, David was sent upstairs to where Mr. Kennedy had his office. His secretary was there, and she told him to go in.
The door to the office was big and heavy, but almost silent on its hinges as David pushed it open. Mr. Kennedy was sitting behind a large desk that faced the door. A few of the players were seated in chairs in front of him. Most of them were standing.
Getting up from his seat when he saw David come in, Mr. Kennedy said, “Ah, good, you’re here.” He motioned for David to join him at the front of the room. “There’s one more thing we need to discuss,” he told the players. “And this kid is it. I’m sure you all recognize him. He’s been helping out in the dressing room lately, and Al tells me he’s been doing a find job. Kid’s name is David Saifert. And here’s the situation …”
Mr. Kennedy sat on the edge of his desk before he continued. “Some of you guys will probably remember a fellow named Jacques Montagne who used to wrestle for me.” There were a few nods and murmurs of agreement. “You probably heard that Jacques got killed fighting in Belgium. Well, David’s a friend of Jacques’s brother, and he’s lost some people, too. His father got killed in the war, as well, and his mother and sister died from the flu. He’s got no family left in Montreal.”
The owner-manager explained about David’s uncle and how David hoped to find him in Seattle if the team could take him out there with them. “Now this isn’t charity we’re talking about. The kid’s going to work for it. But it’s not just my money that’s going to be affected. It’s yours, too. So we’re all going to vote on it.”
Mr. Kennedy got up off his desk. He put a big arm around David’s shoulders and gave him a slight shove toward the door. “And you’re going to wait downstairs until we’re done. So go grab a newspaper or something in the reading room. I’ll be down to let you know when the boys have decided.”
As the captain, Newsy Lalonde spoke first. “The kid works hard as far as I can tell. It’s fine by me if we bring him along.”
“That’s easy for you to say,” Billy Couture grumbled. “You make more money than any two of us put together!”
“Yeah, but what’s it gonna cost to bring him?” Odie Cleghorn asked. “Another hundred bucks maybe? Even if it’s $200, that’s still only $20 off each of our bonuses.”
“Says the guy whose father works in the oil business,” Couture countered. “Twenty bucks is a lot of money to some of us! Jobs in the summer will be harder to find now that the soldiers are back. And what if Vancouver beats them and we don’t even go to Seattle? Then it’s $20 off our bonuses for nothing! Al was handling our equipment fine all season without him.”
“Billy’s right,” Louis Berlinquette said. “And my wife’s expecting a baby in the spring. We sure could use that bonus money.”
Joe Hall shook his head with disgust. “I’ve got three kids of my own at home. My wife and I are both from big families, but if we weren’t, I’d sure like to think there’d be someone who’d look out for them if something happened to us. This kid needs our help, and I think we should give it to him.”
The room fell silent for a moment.
Then another player spoke. It was Georges Vézina. “I sayz we bring da boy,” he told his teammates. “And dat we all help to pay. Even if we don’t get to Seattle, it’s da right t’ing to do.”
Everyone stared at the goalie for a moment. Then there were nods of agreement from around the room. Even Couture and Berlinquette weren’t going to argue when the Silent Habitant spoke out in English.
“Okay then,” Newsy announced. “It’s decided. The kid can come.”