This crazy, fun NHL Saturday miniseries moves onward with another season of hardware review: 1961. Smack in the range of the Original Six era, this was a season that saw the Chicago Black Hawks win the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1938. Let that sink in, as this was the only Chicago NHL championship in the entire Original Six period. After all, if a few teams were winning the lion’s shares, other teams were not.

1961 Hart: Bernie Geoffrion, RW, Montréal (original); Frank Mahovlich, LW, Toronto (revised)

Five forwards were in the Top 10 for Point Shares: Montréal right wing Bernie Geoffrion (11.6); Toronto left wing Frank Mahovlich (10.4); Canadiens center Jean Béliveau (9.3); Montréal LW Dickie Moore (8.0); and New York RW Andy Bathgate (7.2). With the Rangers missing the postseason and three Habs on this list, we’re left with giving the award to Mahovlich even though Geoffrion won the vote. It’s pretty simple, eh?

The Leafs finished just two points behind the Habs, too, in the standings, so clearly Mahovlich had a huge impact on that reality. He finished fourth in the vote, despite leading the NHL with 41 even-strength goals.

1961 Norris: Doug Harvey, Montréal (original); Allan Stanley, Toronto (revised)

When looking at the career of defenseman Doug Harvey, it seems he won a lot of Norris votes just because he was “Doug Harvey”—including this one and the one in 1962. He doesn’t appear in any of the Top 10 PS lists that matter for this award, while Toronto veteran blueliner Allan Stanley fits the bill with 8.1 PS overall (sixth) and 5.4 DPS (second). And again, his team finished very high in the standings. We re-assign!

For the record, Harvey finished with 7.0 PS, which is a good season, but again, hardly exceptional.

1961 Vezina: Johnny Bower, Toronto (original); Glenn Hall, Chicago (revised)

Maple Leafs goaltender Johnny Bower (12.1 PS) won the Vezina, although Chicago’s Glenn Hall (14.4) topped the league in goalie Point Shares. No other netminder was in double digits, so it comes down to these two. The Black Hawks finished 15 points behind Toronto in the standings, which makes this an easy award to re-assign. This is the fourth consecutive year we’ve chosen Hall as the Vezina winner. Dominance.

1961 Calder: Dave Keon, C, Toronto (original); Bob Nevin, RW, Toronto (revised)

The only two rookies worth much value in terms of postseason qualification both played for the Maples Leafs: C Dave Keon (4.2 PS) and RW Bob Nevin (55). The voters chose Keon; we’re choosing Nevin. We’re not sure why the voters chose Keon by a two-to-one margin over Nevin, when the latter had more points and a higher plus/minus rating. The only place Keon “wins” here is by 0.1 DPS over Nevin. Oh well; we fixed it.

We also point out this is the first time in our Original Six era of awards revisions that we have not confirmed a single vote winner.

1961 Conn Smythe: Hall

We have two primary options for this award as the Black Hawks beat Montréal in six and then Detroit in six to win their sole Cup of the Original Six era: defenseman Pierre Pilote (15 points) or Hall (2.02 GAA, .937 S%). How Hall managed to lose four games with those numbers is a mystery, while Pilote topped the postseason skaters in assists (12), points, plus/minus rating (+11), and shot percentage (20 percent).

LW Bobby Hull added 14 points, so Pilote wasn’t alone in leading the scoring charge. Still, Chicago scored just 35 goals in 12 games, so Hall really needed to be on his game for this Cup to happen. We will go with him for the retrospective trophy here. Remember, he won the vote for the Conn Smythe in 1968, despite being on the losing end of a sweep. We didn’t agree with that choice then, but everything evens out, eh?