Ice Hockey is a team sport that is played on ice skates. It is generally played on an ice skating rink with lines and markings pertaining to the sport. It is part of the family of hockey. In this sport, two team opponents use ice hockey sticks to advance, control and shoot a vulcanized rubber disk called puck into the other team?s goal. The winning team will have the maximum goals to its name, that?s attained when the puck reaches the goal. At a time, in a game, there are 6 skaters in each team barring any penalties and one of the person is a goaltender. Ice hockey is a physically demanding game and is considered a full contact sport.

History of Ice Hockey

It was initially believed that hockey came from English Field Hockey and Indian Lacrosse and expanded all through Canada in the mid 1800s by British soldiers. After a lot of research, it came across that a hockey-like game was played in Nova Scotia by the Micmac Indians which was very much like the Irish game of hurling. It used a hurley (stick) and a square wooden block instead of a ball. It was this game that spread across Canada through the Scottish and Irish immigrants and the British Army. Field hockey elements such as bully, (later the face-off) and shinning (hitting the shin of the opponent), this developed into an informal ice game called shinny or shinty. The term rink was first used in 18th century Scotland in the game of curling that refers to the organized area of gameplay. Primitive hockey allows nearly 30 players to be one side of the ice, with two large frozen stones at each end of the ice to be used as goals. In 1860, the first use of puck instead of the ball came into being in Kingston Harbour, Ontario, Canada.

Evolution of Ice Hockey

The first indoor ice hockey game was recorded in 1875 in Montreal?s Victoria Skating Rink between two teams amongst students of McGill University. The first national hockey association called the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada was formed in 1885 in Montreal which restricted 7 players on each side. And the first ever league was formed in Kingston in the same year which had four teams namely, Kingston Hockey Club, Queen?s University, the Kingston Athletics, and the Royal Military College. Frederick Arthur, Lord Stanley of Preston, donated a cup to be given yearly to the winning Canadian team. This gives the name ? Stanley Cup? to the three-foot high silver cup that was first awarded in 1892-93.

In 1899, the Canadian Amateur Hockey League was formed. It was considered very amateur to even consider it to be paid for athletics. The first known professional hockey team in the world was formed in the United states in 1903, in Houghton, Michigan. Portage Lakers, the team was owned by a dentist Gibson. He? imported Canadian players into the team and in 1904, Gibson formed the first known professional hockey league called the Pro Hockey League. Professional hockey found its way to Canada when the Ontario Professional Hockey League was formed. Around this time, Canada stood firm as the center of world hockey.

Introduction of Ice Hockey as a Professional Sport

The NHA was disbanded to become the NHL (National Hockey League) in 1917, which was the world?s first professional hockey league. A number of teams such as Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago blackhawks, etc joined this league. Starting with 6 teams under its roof, the NHL finally expanded to 12 teams in 1967. In 1979, the NHL undertook a merger with another hockey league that is the WHA which had 12 teams too. By 2017, 31 teams played in the NHL. The season consisted of 82 games out of which 16 teams will qualify for the playoffs and the winner of the playoffs will be holding the Stanley cup.

First Winner of Stanley Cup

The first winner of Stanley cup is Montreal Amateur Athletic Association Team, which was the successor of the same cup after winning the challenge series. This was the format that Lord Stanley had originally planned. Post 1926, the cup went to the NHL to be awarded to the playoff winners.