Ice Hockey

X

Amateur Competition

From a young age, players develop their skills and learn about hockey by playing and practicing as much as possible. Watching games, in person or on television, can also be helpful. Some professional teams, in an effort to promote the game and enhance their standing in the community, conduct seminars where they provide instruction. Many aspiring players attend schools or camps in the summer, where they not only spend time on the ice, but also study in the classroom, learning about strategy through lectures or film.

In general anyone who does not play hockey for a salary is considered an amateur. In the United States, this includes youth hockey players, high school players, and college players, as well as those who play on certain teams that represent the United States in international competition. In Canada and some European countries, junior hockey is an advanced level of amateur play for those of high school age and just older. Players who leave home to play for such amateur teams often receive some type of stipend and/or living expenses, but no salary.

The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) oversees many major international tournaments at the amateur level. But national governing bodies such as USA Hockey and Hockey Canada, which are IIHF members, generally assume responsibility and set policies for amateur hockey in their respective countries. USA Hockey, for instance, hires a staff of administrators, coaches, and trainers who design programs to attract and develop players at the amateur level. Each nation’s governing body also registers players, coaches, and officials, and is responsible for picking the top players at various age and skill levels to participate in national and international events. In countries where hockey is particularly popular, national governing bodies establish smaller regional boards, which oversee the game in their area. These regional boards, in turn, oversee state or provincial bodies populated by community teams.

XI

Professional Competition

Professional ice hockey leagues exist in many nations, most prominently Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Sweden, and the United States. The National Hockey League (NHL), with 24 teams in the United States and 6 in Canada, is considered the world’s top league.

---

---

NHL teams compete in two conferences, the Eastern and Western, which in turn are divided into three divisions. From October to April, the teams play an 82-game schedule. Midway through the season the NHL holds an All-Star Game that features the league’s top players.

After the regular NHL season concludes in mid-April, the top eight teams in each conference play in the postseason. Within each conference, three rounds of playoff elimination series are held. Each series is played under a best-of-seven format, meaning that the first team to win four games advances to the next series. The champions of the Eastern and Western conferences play for the Stanley Cup, the oldest team championship trophy in North America.

The NHL, the Pro Hockey Writers’ Association, the NHL Broadcasters Association, franchise general managers, and the NHL Players’ Association give several awards each year to recognize outstanding individual achievements. The Art Ross Trophy goes to the leading scorer; the Hart Memorial Trophy to the most valuable player (MVP); the James Norris Memorial Trophy to the best defenseman; the Vezina Trophy to the leading goaltender; the Calder Memorial Trophy to the best rookie; and the Conn Smythe Trophy to the MVP in the Stanley Cup playoffs. In addition, the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy is given to the player who demonstrates great sportsmanship, the Lester Patrick Trophy is given annually for service to the sport in the United States, and the Adams Award is presented to the league’s top coach.

Each summer the NHL conducts an amateur draft, in which each team obtains the rights to the professional services of the best amateur and minor league players. Some players advance from a junior or college team directly to the NHL, but most develop their skills in a minor league, such as the American Hockey League, the International Hockey League, and the East Coast Hockey League. Several teams in these leagues have agreements and affiliations with NHL teams. Other minor league professional franchises operate independently. No single governing body oversees the various minor leagues.

XII

International Competition

Several international hockey tournaments showcase the world’s top ice hockey players. These tournaments include the world championships and the World Cup. The annual world championship tournament, a 16-nation tournament overseen by the IIHF, is played each spring. Because many top players are still competing in the early rounds of the NHL playoffs at the time, the tournament allows talented younger players to gain necessary experience. The women’s hockey world championships were first held in 1990. The IIHF also oversees the annual world junior championships, which features the world’s top players 19 years old and younger. Many of the top players in this tournament go on to be drafted by NHL teams. Another important international hockey event was the Canada Cup, which was created by the NHL and pitted the best players from the world’s top hockey powers against one another in round-robin play. The first Canada Cup was held in 1976, and after five competitions it became the World Cup of Hockey in 1996. However, when NHL players became eligible to compete in the Olympics beginning in 1998, interest in the World Cup waned.

Amateurs are eligible for the world championships and Olympics, but in recent years the national rosters have been stocked with professional players, when they are available to play. Canada produces many of the world’s best players, so it has traditionally dominated international events (except for the Olympics). The USSR tested the dominance of Canada in major tournaments throughout the 1970s and 1980s, in part because the USSR did not allow its players to compete in the NHL. Many of the great Soviet players came from the Red Army team. This team perfected a style of play in which skating, passing, and puck control on a large ice surface were valued more than the North American game’s reliance on power and checking.

Men’s ice hockey has been played at the Olympic Games since 1920. (In 1920 it was a Summer Games sport, and after the Winter Games began in 1924, hockey became a Winter Olympic sport.) Competition generally begins in a qualifying tournament consisting of two four-nation pools, called Pool A and Pool B. Each nation plays against each team in its own pool. After the round-robin is complete, all teams advance to the quarterfinals. This portion pits the two teams with the best records in each pool against the two teams with the worst records in the opposite pool. Quarterfinal losers are eliminated while winners advance to the semifinals. The winners of the two semifinal matches play each other for the gold medal while the semifinal losers play for the bronze medal. Canada won six of seven Olympic gold medals from 1920 through 1952. With the exception of 1960 and 1980, when the United States scored unexpected victories, Soviet teams won every gold medal from 1956 through 1992. The political breakup of the USSR in the early 1990s finally weakened the Russian team, and in 1994 Sweden took the gold. In 1998, with NHL players participating for the first time, the Czech Republic unexpectedly defeated the United States, Canada, and Russia to earn the gold medal. In 2002 Canada captured the gold medal for the first time since 1952, defeating the United States in the final game.

XIII

History

Hockey was one of the earliest stick-and-ball games. The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Romans, and Arabs played forms of the sport. Hurling, a sport similar to hockey, is known to have been played during the 1st millennium bc in Ireland, and similar sports were adopted by other Europeans in the Middle Ages (5th century to 15th century). Ice hockey was also significantly influenced by lacrosse, a stick-and-ball game developed by native North Americans. The name hockey is thought to have been adapted by the English from the French word hoquet (shepherd’s crook). The name was first given to the sport in the 18th century but was not in common usage until the 19th century.

British soldiers stationed in Canada devised modern ice hockey in the mid-1850s. In 1879 rules were set by students at McGill University in Montréal, Québec, Canada, and several amateur clubs and leagues were established in Canada by the late 1880s. Ice hockey became extremely popular at northern U.S. colleges in the late 1800s, and by the beginning of the 20th century the sport had spread to Britain and other parts of Europe.

The first professional league was established in 1904 in northern Michigan. Because the four-team league included one club from Canada, it was named the International Hockey League. Several leagues followed, including the first significant Canadian professional league, the National Hockey Association (NHA), which began play in 1909. The Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) was founded in 1911. The NHA folded following the 1916-17 season, but its strongest teams then formed the NHL and competed in the 1917-18 season. The NHL remained a four-team Canadian league until the 1924-25 season, when a team from Boston (a popular supporter of amateur hockey) became the first U.S. club admitted. By 1926 there were six U.S. teams in a ten-team NHL.

During this early period, players such as forward Howie Morenz of the Montréal Canadiens, defenseman Eddie Shore of the Boston Bruins, and forward King Clancy of the Toronto Maple Leafs drew crowds as the NHL’s first great stars. Several organizers were instrumental in building the NHL in its early days. The most prominent included Frank Calder, the first NHL president; Conn Smythe, who helped build and guide Toronto’s franchise; and Jack Adams, a coach and general manager in Detroit from 1927 through 1962.

World War II (1939-1945) drained the league of players, and by 1942 the NHL consisted of only six teams—the Bruins, the Detroit Red Wings, the Chicago Blackhawks, the Canadiens, the New York Rangers, and the Maple Leafs. After the war the six-team NHL era saw the rise of several dynasties. Forward Gordie Howe and goaltender Terry Sawchuk were stars on the Red Wings, who won four Stanley Cup championships between 1950 and 1955. The Canadiens, spearheaded by forward Maurice Richard, played in the Stanley Cup Finals each year from 1951 through 1960, winning in 1953 and from 1956 to 1960.

Hockey gained popularity in the 1960s, and late in the decade the NHL began to expand. The league added ten teams from 1967 to 1972. Hockey’s strength as a spectator sport was also shown by the creation in 1971 of the World Hockey Association (WHA), a rival professional league to the NHL. In the summer of 1972 the sport’s popularity received another boost with an eight-game competition between Canada’s best professionals and the top players from the USSR’s Red Army team. The heavily favored Canadians, stunned by the Soviets’ prowess, barely edged the Red Army team, 4 games to 3 (with 1 tie). The series came down to the last game, which the Canadians won on a last-minute goal scored by Paul Henderson, who remains a national hero. A fierce rivalry was born, and a subsequent series took place in 1974.

Other games between Soviet teams and NHL clubs later in the decade gave more attention to international ice hockey. At the same time, the NHL continued to thrive. Notable standouts of the period included forward Bobby Hull, who scored 610 NHL goals and another 303 in the WHA; Bobby Orr, an innovative defenseman who played chiefly with the Boston Bruins; and Vladislav Tretiak, a Russian goaltender who in 1989 became the first non-North American to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

The merger of the WHA and the NHL in 1979 and the entry of 18-year-old center Wayne Gretzky into professional play the same year marked the beginning of unprecedented popularity for ice hockey. Gretzky, who came to be called “The Great One,” dominated the league over the next 15 years with a streak of unprecedented scoring accomplishments. Other powerful scorers such as centers Mario Lemieux and Mark Messier, right wing Brett Hull, and defenseman Paul Coffey were regarded as the best hockey players of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, New York, also helped spark a boom in ice hockey in the United States. During the Games the U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team, a collection of college and minor-league players, defeated the powerful USSR en route to the gold medal. The victory sparked the formation of several new minor leagues and teams in the United States, plus expansion by the NHL into new American markets.

XIV

Recent Developments

The breakups of communist nations such as Czechoslovakia and the USSR in the early 1990s enabled more European players to enter in the NHL, because the democratic governments in the newly formed nations did not restrict the movements of players. The change showed in the shifting national makeup of the league. Canadian players once accounted for virtually all NHL players, but by the late 1990s about 60 percent were Canadian, 20 percent American, and 20 percent European. The emergence of talented NHL players such as Pavel Bure of Russia, Teemu Selänne of Finland, and Jaromir Jagr and Dominik Hasek of the Czech Republic boosted ice hockey’s appeal worldwide. Meanwhile, Canada continued to produce stars such as Eric Lindros and Paul Kariya, and United States standouts included John LeClair and Mike Modano.

This growing pool of talent convinced the NHL to expand to 30 teams by the 2000-2001 season. Teams were placed in warm-weather locales such as Florida, Arizona, and California. At the same time an imbalance emerged between smaller, less financially stable franchises and ones with deep financial backing. The newer franchises and the existing clubs in big cities tended to have more money, while those in smaller cities (usually Canadian) had less. This became an issue as the salaries of outstanding players rose and some teams could not afford to field competitive teams. Several owners were forced to sell their franchises, and the new owners often moved the teams to more lucrative locations. The Québec Nordiques franchise, for example, relocated to Colorado and became the Avalanche following the 1994-95 season, and a year later the Winnipeg Jets moved to Phoenix and became the Coyotes.

	More from Encarta
	•  Presidential Myths Quiz •  Coffee break: Recharge your brain