With the new season ready to start, let’s take a look at how the National Hockey League (NHL) came about and how it grew over the years into the most popular professional sports league in Canada and one of the most popular in North America. As an online bettor, before you decide to stake your money on hockey lines, it’s good to be able to say that you know at least a little bit of NHL’s history.
HISTORY
While the origins of ice hockey may date to stick-and-ball games played during the Middle Ages or even ancient Greece and Egypt, hockey is now Canada’s national sport and this is also observed in the NHL’s history. Montreal, Canada gets credit for the first modern type hockey game in the second part of 19th century. Some characteristics of that game, such as the length of the ice rink and the use of a puck, the institution of match penalties, and allowing line changes on the fly have been retained to this day. The NHA is also commonly cited as the first to require numbering players by requiring players to wear numbered armbands beginning with the 1911–12 season.
The NHA
The NHL was the successor of a previous professional hockey league called the National Hockey Association (NHA) which included teams from Ontario and Quebec, Canada. The NHA was born in 1909 and for its first two years, each team would send seven players on the ice. During the next few years, teams had some challenges trying to keep its players away from the first world war and certain disagreements between owners.
As a result of one of these disagreements, in 1917 the vast majority of owners decided to form a new league named National Hockey League or NHL. The NHA’s rules, constitution and trophies were continued in the NHL.
Two current NHL teams, the Canadiens and Maple Leafs, have roots in the NHA. A third, the Ottawa Senators, borrows its name and heritage from its NHA counterpart, but is a separate expansion franchise founded in 1992 while the original Senators ceased operations in 1934.
NHL Early Days & Stanley Cup
In 1924 Boston Bruins was the first US team that joined the four Canadian teams that formed the NHL in 1917 (Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wonderers, Toronto Arenas and Ottawa Senators).
A few years after its start, the NHL became the strongest team in North America and rightly so took permanent possession of the Stanley Cup which is now the main trophy for which the best NHL teams are trying to conquer every year since. The Stanley Cup was first awarded in 1893 and is the oldest trophy that can still be won by professional athletes in North America. The cup’s donor was the governor general of Canada at that time, Lord Stanley for whom it was named and it was meant to be awarded to the best Canadian team determined each year by a playoff.
Original Six
League membership held steady at six from 1942 to 1967. (Those teams—the Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, and Toronto Maple Leafs—are referred to as the “Original Six,” and that era has been celebrated by the hockey press and fans for generations.) After various periods of expansion and reorganization, the NHL now consists of 32 teams in two conferences and four divisions.
The sport and the league show no sign of stopping from its popularity with millions of fans across North America. Feel free to join the excitement and fun associated with the NHL games and season.