Flu Bug Really Took a Big Bite Out of the 1919 Stanley Cup Finals

Nineteen-nineteen was anything but a banner year for championship sports events.

The World Series, of course, was marred by the Black Sox scandal, and the Stanley Cup finals, only the second of its kind after the formation of the National Hockey League in 1917, was canceled because of an influenza epidemic that swept the continent.

The Montreal Canadiens and the Seattle Metropolitans had each won two games--a fifth game ended in a scoreless tie--before five of the Canadiens’ nine players became ill.

Also ill was the Canadiens’ manager, George Washington Kennedy. But he requested permission to augment his roster with members of the Victoria Aristocrats, who had finished third behind the Metropolitans and the Vancouver Millionaires in the three-team Pacific Coast Hockey Assn.

The Metropolitans declined, and the deciding game of the series, scheduled to be played in Seattle April 1, was canceled.

Five days later, influenza took the life of defenseman Joe Hall of the Canadiens, who was later elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Trivia time: Only four of the 14 coaches employed by the Kings in their 22 seasons in the NHL have compiled winning records in their time with the Kings. Name them.

Teen idol: Among the many teen-age girls who mourned the departure of Steve Sax from the Dodgers last winter was actress Winona Ryder, who stars in the black comedy, “Heathers.”

Ryder, 17, told The Times last March that she “worshiped” Sax for years, to the point of writing “Winona Sax” on her school notebook.

But the day he signed with the Yankees, she said in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine: “I burst into tears. The . . . Yankees. I would never do that, if I was a Dodger. It’s morally reprehensible.”

How time flies: Friday, it will have been five years since 23-year-old Wayne Gretzky scored two goals and assisted on another as the Edmonton Oilers beat the New York Islanders, 5-2, in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals to win the first of their four NHL championships.

Last month, after the Oilers had been eliminated by the Kings in the first round of the playoffs, owner Peter Pocklington said it was time for the Oilers to rebuild.

I’d rather be fishing: According to figures published in the June issue of Sport magazine, Larry Nixon of Bee Branch, Ark., earned $208,000 in prize money as a bass fisherman last year, or more than twice the $100,000 Don Casey was paid to coach the Clippers.

Money Matters II: Roger Clemens’ three-year, $7.5-million contract with the Boston Red Sox includes bonuses for awards won, but not for making the All-Star team.

According to Sport magazine, Clemens’ agent, Randy Hendricks of Houston, told Red Sox executives: “For $2.5 million a year, you are entitled to an All-Star.”

Trivia answer: Bob Pulford, Bob Berry, Ron Stewart and Robbie Ftorek, whose winning percentage of .534 in 132 games, not including a 5-11 record in playoff games, was second only to Pulford’s .535 in 396 games.

Quotebook: Ickey Woods of the Cincinnati Bengals, on the National Football League’s banning of teammate Stanley Wilson for drug use: “I’m not saying I’m glad about it, but I do feel the man is getting what he deserved.”