The National Hockey League (NHL) was founded in 1917 when the NHA decided to fold and form a new league. The NHL began to expand into the United States in 1924. To fill the new teams with players, the NHL bought out the Pacific Coast League. At this time all players were Canadian. In 1967 the NHL doubled it’s size from six to twelve teams. By 1976 the league had expanded to eighteen teams. In 1972 the World Hockey Association (WHA) was formed and it competed with the NHL for players, causing salaries to go way up. The WHA merged with the NHL in 1978. The NHL continued to expand but soon found that there were not enough skilled Canadian players to fill all the teams. They began to recruit players from Europe. After the Soviet Union broke apart in 1991, many Russian players were recruited into the NHL. “By 1999, the number of Canadians in the NHL had fallen to fifty-six percent from ninety-seven percent in 1967.”4 The NHL has now become a world wide league. It has also become big business. Due to the high costs of salaries, team owners have had to sell their arenas to large corporations. “The future for Canadian based teams is cloudy because of the huge gap between the U.S. and Canadian dollar and the extra tax burden faced by Canadian teams.”5 Two Canadian teams, Quebec and Winnipeg, have already left Canada because of financial costs. Today there are thirty teams in the NHL and just six of these are based in Canada. Although there are other professional leagues in Europe and the U.S., they are considered as semi pro when compared to the NHL. The NHL is the elite of all professional hockey. No matter what the future holds for the NHL in Canada, Canadians can pride themselves in the fact that the Montreal Canadians record of twenty four Stanley Cups will most likely never be broken.
As hockey progressed into an organized sport, rules were changed and added to make the game more interesting. In the very early years hockey was a totally disorganized game with as many as thirty players a side. Rules were made up as the game went along. It resembled a pick-up game of shinny. As hockey began to organize into leagues with teams, rules started to be a part of the game. Teams played with nine players a side. Players played the whole game. Substitutions were allowed only if a player was injured. Goalies had to remain standing at all times and forward passing was not allowed. The early 1900’s saw many changes to these rules. Blue lines were drawn on the ice and forward passing was allowed in the defensive and neutral zones. Goalies were allowed to go down on the ice to make a save. As the game got faster the number of players a side was reduced to seven and then to six players a side. Players were allowed to substitute when a whistle was blown and eventually on the fly as well. Penalty shots were allowed and players were given credit for assists. Playoffs were started in 1918. The red line was invented in 1943 and players were now allowed to pass in all three zones. The first all-star team was picked in the 1930-31 season. The game of hockey has basically remained the same today.
The earliest games of hockey required little equipment. They were played with wood sticks, balls and goal posts set out by frozen sticks in the ice. Flimsy skates were the only equipment worn. As the game developed it was decided to use a puck instead of a ball because the ball kept bouncing out of play, and slowing down the game. By the early 1900’s unheated arenas with natural ice were being built and players started to wear some protective equipment. The first shin pads were those used by cricket players and the first goalie chest protectors were borrowed from baseball. Players had to stuff newspapers behind these pads for extra protection. By 1915 all teams were playing with numbered jerseys. Goalies played without face masks until 1959 when Jaques Plante wore the first mask after he was cut badly by a puck. Players were not required to wear helmets until the 1979-80 season. The NHL passed a law making it mandatory for anyone coming into the NHL at that point to do so. Blades on sticks were completely straight until the late 1950’s when Andy Bathgate invented the first curved blade. Today hockey equipment is state of the art and offers superior protection. New and improved equipment comes on the market every year to help a player shoot harder and skate faster.
International Hockey is a very important part of the hockey scene. During the twentieth century, international competition was played mainly by amateurs. The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) began in 1908. Hockey has been part of the Olympics since it began in 1920. Ice hockey was not as popular overseas as it was in Canada and Canada dominated in the early years at both the world champions and the Olympics. “Usually, a good Canadian amateur team was good enough to win the world championships or the Olympic gold medal”6 By the 1960’s hockey had become very popular in Russia, and they dominated amateur hockey until the break up of the Soviet Union. Canadians claimed that if they could send their pros to these events they would win easily. In 1972 a series was set up between an all-star team from the NHL and the Russians. The NHL team won, but just barely. Paul Henderson’s winning goal in the last minute of the final game is still considered to be the most famous goal ever scored in hockey history. In 1995 the IIHF changed it’s rule and started to allow professional athletes to compete at the Olympics and World Cup championships. Canadian teams have not done very well. At the world hockey championships held this year, Canada did not even make the semi-finals. “Canadians are no longer the masters of their own game.”7 Other countries have caught up.
Today, hockey remains to be a very popular sport in Canada. Thousands of children are playing the game at both the houseleague and rep levels. The number of adults playing in old-timer leagues has risen. The biggest change today is in the number of girls who have taken up the sport. “Girls hockey is the fastest growing sport in Canada.”8 Although women have been playing hockey in Canada for over 100 years it was not very popular and did not get a lot of exposure. The first women’s world championship was held in 1990 and women’s hockey became part of the Olympics in 1998. Canadian women have proven themselves the best at these events. Hockey is no longer seen just as a sport for men.
Ice hockey will always remain as one of Canada’s most popular team sports. No other sport has given Canadians so many heroes. The tradition of hockey will continue to live on in Canada not only by those who play it professionally but also by those who play the game just for the fun of it. Although Canadians no longer dominate hockey, Canada will always have a place in the history books as the country that developed the game into what it is today.
