On Apr. 1, 1919, the Stanley Cup playoffs between the Montreal Canadians and the Seattle Metropolitans ended tied at 2-2-1 after the city of Seattle health department called off the series due to the flu.

On April 5, five days after the final was cancelled, one Canadian player Joseph Henry ‘Bad Joeﾔ’Hall, the oldest player in NHL hockey, succumbed to pneumonia at the age of thirty-seven. The series was ruled a tie and the Stanley Cup was not awarded in 1919, the only time since it’s inception in 1893.

Seattle’s influenza epidemic claimed over 1,400 lives from September 1918 through February 1919, and left the city with an excess death rate of 414 per 100,000.