the NHA franchise was bought from O'Brien, who had operated a team with it, no other assets came with the franchise. According to Coleman, the franchise for the Torontos was that used by the Les Canadiens. Other books quote O'Brien as selling the Canadiens to George Kennedy, leaving the case of which franchise was sold to Robinson unresolved. In any case, the Toronto team was built from scratch and did not include any players from Les Canadiens. The first manager was Toronto native and former Ottawa Senators player Bruce Ridpath, who had intended to be a playing-coach but was no longer able to play due to an injury suffered when he was struck by an automobile the previous year. The schedule for the 1911–12 season was drawn up with two Toronto teams. As the Arena was not finished, no games were scheduled to be played in Toronto until the end of January, when the new arena was supposed to be ready. It soon became clear that construction of Arena Gardens would not be finished in time, and in mid-December it was announced that the two Toronto teams had been dropped from the schedule and the league would play with only four teams that season. The Torontos played their first game on December 25, 1912, before 4,000 fans at Arena Gardens. The Toronto Hockey Club was owned by Quinn, managed by Ridpath, and initially coached by Tom Humphrey who was soon replaced by player-coach Jack Marshall. The team Ridpath put on the ice included Cully Wilson and future hall-of-famers Hap Holmes, Harry Cameron, Frank Foyston, and Frank Nighbor. The Torontos finished the year in a tie for third place. Before the 1913–14 season, the club faced some upheaval. Ridpath resigned as manager in October 1913 and was replaced by Marshall. Ridpath would try out as a player but gave up his comeback attempt before the season started. Despite the changes, the Torontos won the Stanley Cup in 1914, defeating the Montreal Canadiens in a playoff to decide the NHA champion. After the season, the team then played a series with the Victoria Aristocrats of the Pacific Coast Hockey League. A controversy erupted when a letter arrived from the Stanley Cup trustees on March 17, that the trustees would not let the Stanley Cup travel west, as they did not consider Victoria a proper challenger because they had not formally notified the