The Forgotten New York hockey team

 Being from New York, I get two say I have multiple local teams, although one of our teams is 8 hours away. I support all three teams, but did you know there was once another? 

Indeed, the original New York team was the New York Americans, which debuted in the 1925-26 season renting out Madison Square Garden, which would prove to be a fatal mistake for the franchise, as their success prompted MSG to create their own team- the Rangers- the very next year. The two teams would share an uneasy situation with both teams playing their home games in the same arena for the entirely of the Americans' existence. 

The team was constantly facing financial difficulty and barely made it through the Depression, and it could not survive losing the vast majority of it's players to World War II- the team last played during the 1941-42 season. 

The team's final season was known as the Brooklyn Americans, although they played in MSG, which is in Manhattan, not Brooklyn. 

Getting a card from the Americans was something I was looking forward to happening, but my options are fairly limited. They have almost 250 cards issued, but the vast majority were issued during the team's actual existence, and are quite rare. However, I managed to get my hands on a box of the 2004-05 In the Game Franchises sets for both the US releases, and this allowed me to add both versions of the Americans to my collection. 

Red Dutton was player, coach and even owner of the Americans- and layed a curse on the Rangers saying they would never win a Stanley Cup during his lifetime...which turned out to be true. 

Although he grew up in Canada, Schriner was the first NHL player who was born in Russia. 

The Uniforms they wore during their New York Americans days were based on the flag, with one version having the star field in blue, and the other in red. I do not know which was the home and road versions, or even if they were home and road versions. 

This set goes pretty in-depth, and the sole year of the Brooklyn Americans is also represented. In fact, the Database shows only 10 cards ever issued for the Brooklyn Americans, and 7 of them are from this set. These two base cards are the complete team set, and both have two regional promo versions making up the majority of the team's cardboard history. They only ever got one card issued during their only season of existence, and only 4 base cards make up the complete collection for the team- this one set provides 50% of them. 

I don't really know much about Chuck Rayner, despite the fact that his entire NHL career was spent in the New York area- 1 year with the Americans, 8 with the Rangers. He is a Hall of Famer. 

I know even less about Mel Hill, although his Wikipedia entry mentions that he also played professional soccer. 

All four players are appearing for the first time in my collection. My main focus being on getting at least one card of every person to get one, or at least as many different people as possible. The pre-Original 6 era is largely absent from this project. 

When this team folded is when the Original 6 era began. The NHL entered the 1930s with 10 teams, but three failed during the depression and the Americans failed during WWII. The league would operate with only six teams until the 1967-68 season, when it doubled in size. 

Despite being around a short time- 17 years - with minimal success, the team managed to put 14 people into the Hockey Hall of Fame, and set some sports history by being the first team in ANY professional sport to include the player's name on the back of the uniform, if Wikipedia is to be believed. 

Getting an Americans card- often called Amerks- was something I didn't think would actually happen any time soon. Although my "Top 10 most wanted" list on the sidebar mentioned an unnamed team, (that was the Cleveland Barons- now named because the team is present in my collection, stay tuned) it really SHOULD have been the Americans...I just didn't think it would be possible. I still don't think getting a card issued when the team actually existed is possible, but I won't give up hope.