To be honest, I chose this as a topic only because the team's name grabbed my attention and that
little is known about the organization, which appears to only have operated in the Upper Ottawa
Valley Hockey League (UOVHL) for 1940-41 season.
What is known, is that despite it's short existance,
the team had two future NHL players on the roster.
They are Hank Blade who played 24 games with the Chicago Blackhawks in 1947 and 1948,
and Rip Riopelle,
who played 3 seasons with the Montreal Canadiens between 1947 and 1950. Rip only played one
regular season game with the team, while Hank played two in the playoffs.
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The assumption that the CAR in the name stood for "Canadian Army Reserve",
was incorrect. Thanks to research by Douglas McLeod, it was discovered that the name was actually
the "Ottawa Car and Aircraft Bombers" and they simply went by the name Bombers or Car Bombers.
The Ottawa Car and Aircraft Bombers were admitted to the league after
their representatives, T. Short and T. McInenly, outlined their plans.
The team was composed of employees of the company and used the
Renfrew Arena as their home ice.
Though the company was originally called the Ottawa Car Company, then
the Ottawa Car Manufacturing Company, and finally the Ottawa Car and
Aircraft Company, it was always known around town as Ottawa Car. That
they were building parts for Lancasters makes the team name Ottawa Car
Bombers a perfect fit.
In the team's only
season, manager Tom McInenly managed to ruffle a few feathers with the league's president.
The problems began when the Bombers played a semi-fanal series against the Petawawa Military Camp team, in which
they replaced Jimmy Abson and Bruce Dick with Hank Blade and Jack Pumple. League rules stipulated that players for
which replacement is sought must have enlisted after signing to play hockey and must be moved by the military
from the district in which they were intended to play. Abson and dick however, were in the military before
joining the hockey team, thus making the replacement with Blade and Pumple against the rules. League president
Ed Anderson ordered the Bombers to replay two games against Petawawa, which Ottawa had won 4-1 in Pembroke
and 8-6 in Renfrew, or face expulsion from the finals.
Despite the threats, Ottawa manager McInenly refused to
replay the games, and the series was awarded to Petawawa who went on to win the league title while Ottawa finished
third.
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