history of ice hockey

history of ice hockey, notable events and people in the development of ice hockey since its creation during the 19th century. Known simply as “hockey” throughout North America (despite the confusion this creates with the less-prominent field hockey), it is unique among popular team sports in that it is played on top of a sheet of ice. As such, it first gained popularity in the colder climates of Canada and the northern United States, particularly in the northeast and around the Great Lakes, where iced-over lakes could serve as playing surfaces during the winter. Canada, in particular, has taken hockey to heart and made it the country’s official winter sport, becoming home to the vast majority of the game’s best players until the late 20th century. The country also provided ice hockey its most prestigious honor, the Stanley Cup, which was first awarded in 1892–93 and has, since 1926, gone to the champion of the National Hockey League (NHL), the sport’s premier level of play.

Origins

Until the mid-1980s it was generally accepted that ice hockey derived from English field hockey and Indigenous lacrosse and had been spread throughout Canada by British soldiers in the mid-1800s. Research then turned up mention of a hockey-like game, played in the early 1800s in Nova Scotia by the Mi’kmaq (Micmac) people, 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.

First organizations and early development

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.

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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.

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 Stanley Cup has gone to the winner of the National Hockey League playoffs.

In 1899 the Canadian Amateur Hockey League was formed. All hockey in Canada at the time was “amateur,” it being considered “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 center of world hockey.

League formation and key innovations

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.

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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 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 center 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 the league.

Creation of the National Hockey League

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 (long known by the misnomer “the Original Six”): 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 2022, 32 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 playoffs. The playoff winner is awarded the Stanley Cup.

NHL individual awards include 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 playoffs’ 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.

International ice hockey

For much of the 20th century, amateur athletes dominated international competition. League competition among amateurs in England began in 1903. The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) was formed in Europe in 1908. Its five original members were Great Britain, Bohemia, Switzerland, France, and Belgium. The first European championship was held in Avants, Switzerland, in 1910, with Great Britain the winner. From that time the federation broadened its membership, taking applicants from the world over. Canada captured the first Olympic Games title in 1920 and, concurrently, the first IIHF world championship. Canada, which also won at the first Olympic Winter Games in 1924, dominated international competition until the emergence of the Soviet team in the early 1960s. The Soviets continued to be the most powerful team in international hockey until the 1990s and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

In 1995 an agreement between the NHL, the NHL Players’ Association, and the IIHF ended amateur domination of international play as professional athletes were allowed to compete at the Olympics and World Cup championships. Although the decision had little effect on the world tournament, the Winter Games competition underwent numerous changes. Given the high visibility of professional players and their skills, selection to the Canadian, U.S., Russian, Finnish, Swedish, and Czech Olympic teams was no longer based on tryouts but rather on the decisions of hockey personnel from each country’s national hockey governing body. The six “dream teams” were automatically placed in the final round of eight; the two remaining slots were filled by the winners of a qualifying round. The NHL suspended play for a period of 16 days in 1998 so professional players could make their Olympic debut in Nagano, Japan, and it continued to temporarily stop the season for Olympic play thereafter. NHL players participated in the Olympics from 1998 through 2014. In 2024 league officials announced that NHL players would be eligible to play in the 2026 and 2030 Olympics.

Women’s ice hockey

Though at times considered a male sport, hockey has been played by women for over 100 years. The first all-female game was in Barrie, Ontario, Canada, in 1892, and the first world championship was held in 1990. Recognizing the growing popularity of the sport, the International Olympic Committee added women’s ice hockey to its 1998 schedule at Nagano, where the sport made its first Winter Games appearance. Several women’s leagues were formed in North America in the early 21st century, and the Professional Women’s Hockey League was founded in 2023 in an attempt to unify the sport. Its six teams played the league’s inaugural season in 2024.