MANCHESTER, Wash — They were fire on ice. The team of the century.
"Their style was unbelievably athletic," said Kevin Ticen, author of When It Mattered Most, a history of the Seattle Metropolitans hockey team, America's first Stanley Cup champions.
"Great players with very small egos," Ticen said.
The Seattle Mets, once nearly forgotten, are forgotten no more.
"They, in a lot of respects, changed hockey," he said. "I feel like you win a championship, you deserve to have people know you and know your story."
In 1917, Seattle was bursting at the seams.
"Population's booming. Industry's booming. UPS is growing. Nordstrom's growing. Boeing's growing. And this team sort of brought it all together and was the cherry on top of everything that they were doing," Ticen said.
The underdog Metropolitans clawed their way into the Stanley Cup finals against the overconfident champs from Montreal.
"They're pretty arrogant," Ticen said. "They don't even bring the cup with them."
The Canadians took the first game. But the Mets quickly adjusted, and the team's star player, Frank Foyston, led them through three straight wins to capture the cup.
"He is Michael Jordan. He's Joe Montana. He's the best player on the ice and the best human being," Ticen said.
"He liked people," said Barbara Daniels, Foyston's daughter.
Daniels, who lives on the Kitsap Peninsula, was born after her father's playing days were through.
"He didn't talk to me about hockey much," she said. "He was a turkey farmer when I knew him."
But she does remember her dad's pride in being recognized as one of the sport's greatest players.
"We were so proud to know that he was going into the Hall of Fame," Daniels said. "That was the big thing."
The Seattle Mets would go on to compete for the cup twice more, with one series interrupted by the Great Flu Pandemic. It's the only tie ever inscribed on the Stanley Cup.
Ticen said, "These guys stayed in touch 30 years after they were done playing, and it just showed how tight-knit the team was and how close the bonds were."
They were tough, quiet, and kind. The sort of sports heroes who only come around once a century.
"These guys did everything in their power to play the game the right way and compete and to be heroes to the community," Ticen said. "It was magic."
When It Mattered Most: The Forgotten Story of America’s First Stanley Cup, and the War to End All Wars is available to purchase on Amazon.
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