Alfred Lepine: The NHL’s Original Pit

Alfred ‘Pit’ Lepine played an important role in the success of the Montreal Canadiens in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. Often in the shadow of legendary Howie Morenz, Lepine helped the Habs to two consecutive Stanley Cup championships.

He is also part of a select group of 44 players in National Hockey League history that have scored five or more goals in a single game. Of course, another Pit would come along a few decades later with Hubert ‘Pit’ Martin playing in the NHL during the 1960’s and 1970’s.

Pit Lepine – NHL Career

Lepine played in the NHL from 1925-26 to 1937-38, all with the Canadiens. Over his career, he scored 143 goals and assisted on 98 for 241 points over 526 regular season games. Of course, it was an era when team’s played less than a 50 game regular season schedule. In the Stanley Cup playoffs, Pit added 12 points over 41 games.

He played just 27 games in his rookie 1925-26 season. Interestingly, his older brother by four years, Hec Lepine, played his only 33 NHL games that season for Montreal. In his first full season, 1926-27, Pit broke out with 16 goals, tying him for tenth in the league. The Calder Trophy would not come along until 1936-37 but you have to think Lepine would have been a candidate for rookie of the year.

1929-30 easily goes down as Pit Lepine’s best season in the NHL. Playing the full 44 game schedule, he scored 24 and assisted on nine for 33 points. He tied for tenth in the league for goal scoring with Bun Cook of the New York Rangers. Five of those 24 goals came in one game. On December 14, 1929, the Habs hosted the Ottawa Senators at the Montreal Forum. Lepine scored five of the team’s six goals in a 6-4 victory over their Ottawa River rivals.

That year, Montreal finished first in the five team Canadian Division and second overall behind the Art Ross coached Boston Bruins. Boston dominated the league like few other teams have done in NHL history. Yet, in the Stanley Cup finals, the Canadiens swept the Bruins in the best of three series. Pit tied for the team playoff scoring lead.

It was certainly a different National Hockey League than we have today. It was the last year the Detroit franchise would be called the Cougars, renamed the Falcons for the following two years before settling in as the Red Wings. Long gone franchises like the Pittsburgh Pirates, Montreal Maroons, New York Americans and the original Ottawa Senators still competed in the league.

In 1930-31, the Canadiens once again finished first in the Canadian Division and were once again second overall behind the Bruins. When it came to the finals, Boston was nowhere to be found. Montreal defeated the Chicago Blackhawks for the championship.

Although he would hang around in the league for a few more years, 1931-32 was mostly Pit’s swan song season. His 19 goals tied him for tenth in the NHL with Baldy Northcott and Jimmy Ward of the Montreal Maroons and Johnny Gagnon of the Canadiens.

Pit Lepine – Coaching

It was either bad luck and timing or Lepine just wasn’t a good coach. In 1938-39, he dropped down to the IAHL (predecessor to the AHL) to act as player/coach of the New Haven Eagles.

Playing 52 of the team’s 54 regular season games, Lepine’s paltry eight goals and 23 assists still ranked him a close second on the team for overall scoring. New Haven finished last overall in the eight team league during the regular season with just 14 wins in 54 games.

For the 1939-40 NHL season, Babe Siebert was to take over as head coach of the Montreal Canadiens. Unfortunately, Babe Siebert drowned during the off-season. The Canadiens scrambled and named Lepine coach.

Montreal finished last overall in the seven team NHL, nine points behind the sixth place New York Americans. Their ten wins are the lowest total in Canadiens history, tied with 1918-19 when teams played just an 18 game schedule. Their winning percentage of .260 that year has never even closely been challenged over the team’s long history.

Toe Blake led the rag-tag team. When Dick Irvin took over the coaching job for 1940-41, Blake was the centrepiece of a quickly built powerhouse that would soon dominate the league.

Pit Lepine – Rookie Cards

The Pit Lepine rookie cards come from several companies during the 1933-34 season. Some of these include the 1933-34 V129 #42, 1933-34 Ice Kings V357 #46 and 1933-34 O-Pee-Chee V304A #20. All Lepine cards are considered common card.

All cards feature him as a member of the Montreal Canadiens. As you can see in the image above, Ice Kings got it wrong, naming him Pete Lepine and not Pit.

The blue card shown here is from the 1937-38 O-Pee-Chee set. Notice that all three cards use the exact same image.

 

Season	Team	Lge	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
1925-26	Montreal Canadiens	NHL	27	9	1	10	18
1926-27	Montreal Canadiens	NHL	44	16	1	17	20
1927-28	Montreal Canadiens	NHL	17	4	1	5	6
1928-29	Montreal Canadiens	NHL	44	6	1	7	48
1929-30	Montreal Canadiens	NHL	44	24	9	33	47
1930-31	Montreal Canadiens	NHL	44	17	7	24	63
1931-32	Montreal Canadiens	NHL	48	19	11	30	42
1932-33	Montreal Canadiens	NHL	46	8	8	16	45
1933-34	Montreal Canadiens	NHL	48	10	8	18	44
1934-35	Montreal Canadiens	NHL	48	12	19	31	16
1935-36	Montreal Canadiens	NHL	32	6	10	16	4
1936-37	Montreal Canadiens	NHL	34	7	8	15	15
1937-38	Montreal Canadiens	NHL	47	5	14	19	24
1938-39	New Haven Eagles	IAHL	52	8	23	31	16
	NHL Totals		523	143	98	241	392