The 1925-26 NHL season was the ninth season in the National Hockey League . Seven teams played 36 games each. The mode for the final round planned in the previous year was also implemented this time. For the last time the NHL had to compete with another league for the Stanley Cup profit. The Montreal Maroons , who had eliminated the table leaders in the NHL final, who eliminated the Ottawa Senators , brought the cup back to the NHL with a 3-1 win against the defending champions, the Victoria Cougars . Ice hockey was a huge success in New York. The New York Americans had taken over the team from the excluded Hamilton Tigers . The hall served as Madison Square Garden , where a game against the Montréal Canadiens was watched by an incredible 17,000 spectators. The other new team, the Pittsburgh Pirates , started the season with tragedy. They met in their first game against the Montréal Canadiens in whose goal, as in all games of the last 15 years, the NHL legend Georges Vezina was. Vezina had a fever and collapsed in the first trimester. The doctors found tuberculosis . Vezina died four months later.