The 1948 Stanley Cup playoffs was the playoff tournament of the National Hockey League (NHL) for the 1947–48 season. It began on March 24, 1948. It concluded on April 14, with the Toronto Maple Leafs defeating the Detroit Red Wings to win the Stanley Cup.
Playoff seeds The top four out of the six teams in the league qualified for the playoffs: Toronto Maple Leafs – 77 points Detroit Red Wings – 72 points Boston Bruins – 59 points New York Rangers – 55 points
Playoff bracket In each round, teams competed in a best-of-seven series (scores in the bracket indicate the number of games won in each best-of-seven series). In the semifinals, the first-place team played the third-place team, while the second-place team played the fourth-place team. The winners of the semifinals then played for the Stanley Cup.
Semifinals
(1) Toronto Maple Leafs vs. (3) Boston Bruins Toronto beat Boston 4 games to 1. Although Boston kept it close. Three of the five games were decided by one goal.
(2) Detroit Red Wings vs. (4) New York Rangers
It looked initially to be a close series as, after the Blueshirts lost the first two games, the Wings Production line got lazy. But wingers, Ted Lindsay and Gordie Howe chose follow Lindsay's recent quote:
Finals
Detroit appeared in the Stanley Cup Finals for the fourth time in six years, while Toronto was trying to repeat as Cup champpions.
Scoring leaders GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points Player Team GP G A Pts Ted Kennedy Toronto Maple Leafs 9 8 6 14 Max Bentley Toronto Maple Leafs 9 4 7 11 Pete Horeck Detroit Red Wings 10 3 7 10 Jim McFadden Detroit Red Wings 10 5 3 8 Syl Apps Toronto Maple Leafs 9 4 4 8 Harry Watson Toronto Maple Leafs 9 5 2 7 Milt Schmidt Boston Bruins 5 2 5 7
See also 1947–48 NHL season List of Stanley Cup champions
References