NHL’s centennial

The five men who met on Nov. 26, 1917, to form the National Hockey League could not have dreamed of the 31-team, multi-billion-dollar enterprise it is a century later. That day the owners of the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators and Quebec Bulldogs, along with league president-to-be Frank Calder, drew up a document at the posh Windsor Hotel in Montreal that established the NHL out of the ruins of the strife-torn National Hockey Association, which had been founded in 1909. The NHL wanted to hold an outdoor game this week in Montreal to mark its 100th anniversary, but couldn’t find a suitable venue, Commissioner Gary Bettman said Friday. There was some grumbling this week that the league wasn’t doing enough to celebrate the centennial of its founding. There was a general managers meeting in a ballroom at the former hotel, now an office and condo complex called Le Windsor, followed by the unveiling of a plaque marking it as the site of the league’s birth. Bettman later spoke at a chamber of commerce luncheon. There is also a display of portraits of the top 100 players of the last 100 years and other activities, with appearances by some star players from the past. That was enough for Chuck Fletcher, the Montreal-born GM of the Minnesota Wild. “I think it’s pretty cool coming here to the Windsor Hotel,” said Fletcher. “I’m a big historian, so I love this stuff.”