The NHL entered its eighth season with two goals; place a team in a major US market and place another team in Canada's Largest City Montreal for the Anglo fans, who were left behind when the Wanderers folded after a fire destroyed their arena just five games into the first NHL season. The team in Montreal would be named the Maroons, and they would play their first game against their American expansion brothers on December 1st, losing the first-ever NHL game played in the USA to the Boston Bruins 2-1.

The Maroons, who had to pay $10,000 of their $ 15,000 expansion fee to the Montreal Canadiens for territorial rights, would have an arena of their own in Montreal, as they became the first tenant of the brand new Montreal Forum that had been built especially for the Maroons. However, not even an arena of their own could help the first-year team as they struggled to finish in fifth place with a 9-19-2 record.