Vezina Trophy Seasons Revisited: George Hainsworth’s 1927-28 Season – Hockey Writers – Canadiens History

If you recognize the name – George Hainsworth – it would make sense. After all, he won the first Vezina Trophy in 1926-27 as a member of the Montreal Canadiens.

At that time, this award, which was named after Georges Vezina, who was the Canadiens goalkeeper who passed away, was given to a goalkeeper who played more than 25 games and was on a team that allowed few goals to be scored.

While this award has changed, Hainsworth was lucky enough to be part of some amazing Canadian teams to start his career. In fact, the 1927-28 season marked his second season in the NHL and would end up being his second consecutive Vezina Trophy season to open that career.

With that, here’s a look back at Hainsworth’s 1927-28 season and his path to his second Vezina Trophy in two years.

Hainsworth Becomes Back-to-Back Vezina Winner

As a 31-year-old rookie, Hainsworth won his first Vezina with the Canadiens. A year later, he followed that up by becoming the first player in NHL history to win the award in consecutive seasons.

Related: Revisiting Vezina Trophy Seasons – George Hainsworth’s 1926-27 Season

Hainsworth played 44 regular season games for the Canadiens in 1927-28 and posted a 26-11-7 record giving up just 48 goals in that span. He finished with a league-best 1.05 goals-against average (GAA) and 13 shutouts – one less than 14 in his rookie season.

He started the season unbeaten in the first three games with two wins and a draw. He gave up just two goals and got his first shutout of the season in their third game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Split by one loss, Hainsworth went on an 18-game unbeaten streak, including a five-game shutout.

In the second half of the season, he appeared to be struggling and came as the team finished with a draw and a loss at the hands of the Montreal Maroons. Still, Hainsworth only gave up three goals in that span and played nearly 130 minutes.

While the Maroons would go on to win the Stanley Cup, Hainsworth would earn his second straight Vezina and continue his run as one of the best players in the league at the time.

At Canadiens, Hainsworth was untouchable

As regular season players, the team and Hainsworth were the top dogs. They are the top scorers of all time with 116 goals – the closest being the Maroons with 96. They also gave up a few – thanks to Hainsworth – with only 48 goals. The closest team to that was the Ottawa Senators who gave up 57 in their 44 games that season.

Related: Revisiting a Collection of Calder Trophy Seasons

As for Hainsworth individually, he led the NHL in games played with 44, won with 26 and, as mentioned before, goals against average with 1.05. Or as an adjusted number, Hainsworth’s GAA is 1.65 for the 1927-28 season.

Hainsworth remains among the Canadiens’ best

His efforts went unnoticed again – until today. Even accounting for Montreal’s past good goals, Hainsworth remains seventh on the franchise’s all-time list in games played (318) and first in GAA (1.78). He is sixth in wins (167) behind names like Carey Price, Jacques Plante, Patrick Roy, Ken Dryden and Bill Durnan, and remains the leader in shutouts (75) – a mark that may not be seen for the foreseeable future.

As for Hainsworth’s career, his second Vezina was not the end of the road in terms of his accomplishments. He had more hardware to come in his career including Stanley Cups and another Vezina Trophy.

He was eventually inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame posthumously in 1961 and remains – to this day – one of only five goaltenders to win the Vezina in three consecutive seasons.

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