Ice hockey, game between two teams, each usually having six players, who wear skates

and compete on an ice rink. The object is to propel a vulcanized rubber disk, the puck,
past a goal line and into a net guarded by a goaltender, or goalie. With its speed and its
frequent physical contact, ice hockey has become one of the most popular of
international sports. The game is an Olympic sport, and worldwide there are more than
a million registered players performing regularly in leagues. It is perhaps Canada’s most
popular game.

History
Origins
Until the mid-1980s it was generally accepted that ice hockey derived from English field
hockey and Indian lacrosse and was spread throughout Canada by British soldiers in the
mid-1800s. Research then turned up mention of a hockeylike game, played in the early
1800s in Nova Scotia by the Mi’kmaq (Micmac) Indians, which appeared to have been
heavily influenced by the Irish game of hurling; it included the use of a “hurley” (stick)
and a square wooden block instead of a ball. It was probably fundamentally this game
that spread throughout Canada via Scottish and Irish immigrants and the British army.
The players adopted elements of field hockey, such as the “bully” (later the face-off) and
“shinning” (hitting one’s opponent on the shins with the stick or playing with the stick
on one “shin” or side); this evolved into an informal ice game later known as shinny or
shinty. The name hockey—as the organized game came to be known—has
been attributed to the French word hoquet (shepherd’s stick). The term rink, referring
to the designated area of play, was originally used in the game of curling in 18th-century
Scotland. Early hockey games allowed as many as 30 players a side on the ice, and the
goals were two stones, each frozen into one end of the ice. The first use of a puck instead
of a ball was recorded at Kingston Harbour, Ontario, Canada, in 1860.
Early organization
The first recorded public indoor ice hockey game, with rules largely borrowed from field
hockey, took place in Montreal’s Victoria Skating Rink in 1875 between two teams
of McGill University students. Unfortunately, the reputation for violence that the game
would later develop was presaged in this early encounter, where, as The Daily British
Whig of Kingston, Ontario, reported, “Shins and heads were battered, benches smashed
and the lady spectators fled in confusion.” The first organized team, the McGill
University Hockey Club, formed in 1877, codified their game’s rules and limited the
number of players on a side to nine.

By the late 1800s ice hockey competed with lacrosse as Canada’s most popular sport.
The first national hockey organization, the Amateur Hockey Association (AHA) of
Canada (which limited players to seven a side), was formed in Montreal in 1885, and the
first league was formed in Kingston during the same year, with four teams: the Kingston
Hockey Club, Queen’s University, the Kingston Athletics, and the Royal Military College.
Queen’s University scored a 3–1 victory over the Athletics in the first championship
game.
Stanley Cup
The Stanley Cup.

By the opening of the 20th century, sticks were being manufactured, shin pads were
worn, the goaltender began to wear a chest protector (borrowed from baseball), and
arenas (still with natural ice and no heat for spectators) were being constructed
throughout eastern Canada. In 1893 national attention was focused on the game when
the Canadian governor-general, Frederick Arthur, Lord Stanley of Preston, donated a
cup to be given annually to the top Canadian team. The three-foot-high silver cup
became known as the Stanley Cup and was first awarded in 1892–93. (The first winner
was the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association team, which also captured the Stanley
Cup the following season by winning the initial challenge series to determine the Cup
holder, which was the Cup-awarding format that Lord Stanley originally intended.)
Since 1926 the cup has gone to the winner of the National Hockey League play-offs.

In 1899 the Canadian Amateur Hockey League was formed. All hockey in Canada at the
time was “amateur,” it being “ungentlemanly” to admit to being paid for athletic
services. Thus, the first acknowledged professional hockey team in the world was
formed in the United States, in 1903, in Houghton, Michigan. The team, the Portage
Lakers, was owned by a dentist named J.L. Gibson, who imported Canadian players. In
1904 Gibson formed the first acknowledged professional league, the International Pro
Hockey League. Canada accepted professional hockey in 1908 when the Ontario
Professional Hockey League was formed. By that time Canada had become the centre of
world hockey.
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League rivalries
The National Hockey Association (NHA), the forerunner of the National Hockey League
(NHL), was organized in 1910 and became the strongest hockey association in North
America. Rising interest in the game created problems, however, for there were few
artificial-ice rinks. In 1911 the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) was formed by
Joseph Patrick and his sons, who built two enclosed artificial-ice arenas, beginning a
boom in the construction of artificial-ice rinks.

The PCHA became involved in a money and player war with the NHA. Although the
NHA ultimately emerged as the stronger league, it was the PCHA that introduced many
of the changes that improved the game. The only radical rule change adopted by the
NHA was to reduce the number of players on a side to six, and that move was made to
save money. The western league retained seven-man hockey, but it allowed the goalie to
leap or dive to stop the puck. Under the previous rules, a goalie had had to remain
stationary when making a save. The western league also changed the offside rule. Under
the old rules, a player had been deemed offside if he was ahead of the puck carrier when
he received a pass. The PCHA divided the ice into three zones by painting two blue lines
across the surface and allowed forward passing in the centre zone between the blue
lines. This opened up the game and made it more exciting. Another innovation in the
western league was the idea of the assist. Previously, only the goal scorer had been
credited with a point. In the PCHA the player or players who set up his goal were
credited with an assist. The first numbered uniforms also appeared in their league.
The National Hockey League
Gordie Howe
Gordie Howe, 1969.

Like some of its predecessors, the NHA had its dissenters. In a move to eject one of the
league members, the NHA decided to disband and form a new league. The result was the
creation in 1917 of the National Hockey League (NHL), which became the world’s
foremost professional hockey league. In 1924 the first U.S. team, the Boston Bruins,
joined the NHL. In 1925 the New York Americans and Pittsburgh Pirates were admitted,
followed in 1926 by the New York Rangers, the Chicago Blackhawks, and the Detroit
Cougars (later called the Red Wings). To stock the new teams, the NHL bought out the
Patricks’ league in 1926 for $250,000. Among the players who shifted
to Boston was Eddie Shore, known as a “rushing” defenseman, whose style helped
change the game. He was one of the sport’s most ferocious and, many experts say, most
skilled players, a forerunner of such future NHL players as Gordie Howe, who played
mostly for the Detroit Red Wings. The Pittsburgh Pirates and the New York Americans
eventually dropped out of the league, and, until the expansion of 1967, the NHL was
composed of only six teams: the Rangers, the Bruins, the Blackhawks, the Red Wings,
the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Montreal Canadiens.

In 1967 the NHL undertook one of the greatest expansions in professional sports history
when it doubled in size to 12 teams. A new 12-team league, the World Hockey
Association (WHA), was formed in 1972, and the ensuing rivalry caused an escalation in
players’ salaries. In 1979 the NHL, which had grown to 17 teams, merged with the WHA
to become a 21-team league; by 2017, 31 teams played in the NHL. In 2004, owners
locked out players, insisting that they accept a salary cap that would slow the rapid
growth of payroll costs. The players rejected the owners’ demands, and the entire 2004–
05 season was canceled. (The league resumed play in 2005–06 after the owners
ultimately prevailed, and the NHL became the last of the major North American team-
sport leagues to institute a salary cap.) The regular season consists of 82 games and
determines the 16 teams that will qualify for the play-offs. The play-off winner is
awarded the Stanley Cup.

NHL individual awards are the Vezina Trophy, for the goalie voted best at his position
by NHL managers; the William M. Jennings Trophy, for the goalie or goalies with the
team permitting the fewest goals; the Calder Memorial Trophy, for the rookie of the
year; the Hart Memorial Trophy, for the most valuable player; the James Norris
Memorial Trophy, for the outstanding defenseman; the Art Ross Trophy, for the top
point scorer; the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, for the player best combining clean play
with a high degree of skill; the Conn Smythe Trophy, for the play-offs’ outstanding
performer; the Frank J. Selke Trophy, for the best defensive forward; the Jack Adams
Award, for the coach of the year; the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, for the player
who best exemplifies sportsmanship, perseverance, and dedication to hockey; and
the Lester Patrick Trophy, for outstanding service to U.S. hockey.