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Ice hockey, referred to simply as hockey in Canada, the United States, and most of Europe including Finland, Sweden, Russia and the Czech Republic, is a team sport played on ice. It is one of the world's fastest sports, with players on skates capable of going high speeds on natural or artificial ice surfaces. Though played on six continents, ice hockey, as a participatory and as a spectator sport, is most popular in nations in which the climate is sufficiently cold as to permit natural, long-term seasonal ice cover; Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Slovakia, Sweden, Russia, and the United States have dominated international competition, claiming 47 of the 48 gold and silver medals awarded in the men's and women's competitions at the Olympic Winter Games.
Ice hockey is one of the four major North American professional sports, represented at the highest level by the National Hockey League. It is the official national winter sport of Canada, where seven of the 32 NHL franchises are based; Canadian-born players, though, outnumber American-born players in the NHL by a factor of three (30 per cent, additionally, come from outside North America).
The sport is played on a hockey rink. During normal play, there are six players, five positional players and one goaltender, per team on the ice at any time, each of whom is on ice skates. The objective of the game is to score goals by shooting a hard vulcanized rubber disc, the puck, into the opponent's goal net, with the goal nets placed at opposite ends of the rink. The players may control the puck using a long stick with a blade that is commonly curved at one end. Players may also generally redirect the puck with any part of their bodies, but the kicking of the puck into the goal is prohibited.
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The Hockey Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and museum located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the history of ice hockey, it contains exhibits that feature interactive displays, players, teams, NHL records, memorabilia and NHL trophies, including the Stanley Cup. The Hall of Fame was first established in 1943 thanks to the efforts of James T. Sutherland and was originally located in Kingston, Ontario. The first class of honourees was officially inducted in 1945, before the Hall of Fame had a permanent location. It was moved to Toronto in 1958 after the NHL withdrew its support of Kingston and its first permanent building opened at the Exhibition Place in 1961. In 1993, the Hall was outgrowing its location and was relocated to a former Bank of Montreal building in downtown Toronto, where it is currently located. As of 2007, 238 players, 96 builders and 14 on-ice officials have been inducted into the Hall of Fame. (more...)
Quotes
| “ | All hockey players are bilingual. They know English and profanity. | ” |
| — Gordie Howe | ||
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Maurice Richard was a professional ice hockey player who played for the Montreal Canadiens from 1942 to 1960. He was the most prolific goal-scorer of his era, and became the first to score 50 goals in 50 games. He also became the first player to score 500 goals during his career.
Did you know ...
- ...that HC Dynamo Moscow were the sole club from the Russian Hockey Super League (RHSL) to reach the 1998 European Hockey League final?
- ...that the Saint Mary's University (pictured) (Halifax, Nova Scotia) Huskies reached the final of the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) ice hockey championship in four consecutive seasons between 1970 and 1973?
- ...that the Middlebury College Panthers, have won five women's ice hockey national championships?
- ...that Jim O'Brien played defense before switching in university to "play as a power-forward centre-ice man"?