Ice hockey

Overview

Fast-paced and hard-hitting, ice hockey consistently attracts fans to arenas across the United States, Canada, and Europe. While there are numerous professional hockey leagues around the world, the most prestigious is the National Hockey League (NHL), which consists of teams based in the United States and Canada. The NHL attracts many of the world’s best players, offering lucrative contracts and a high degree of international media exposure. The NHL’s season culminates in the best-of-seven Stanley Cup championship series.

Other professional hockey leagues include the American Hockey League (AHL), which serves as a developmental league for the NHL; the Premier Hockey Federation (formerly the National Women's Hockey League); and the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) based in Europe and Asia. Ice hockey is also played in international competition, including under the regulation of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) and in the Olympic Games. In addition, the sport is regionally popular at the collegiate and high school levels and is played recreationally by millions of people.

Origins and History

Stick-and-ball games similar to field hockey have been played for millennia by various cultures around the world. Archeologists and historians believe that a rudimentary version of field hockey was played as many as four thousand years ago in ancient Egypt. Ancient Ethiopians of 1000 BCE also played such a game. Ancient Greeks, Romans, and the Aztecs of South America also played games that resembled hockey. Games resembling hockey played on ice also have a long history in places such as Scandinavia and the Low Countries, but the modern game called “hockey”—both field and ice versions—appears to have taken shape in England in the late eighteenth century. British immigrants brought these games with them to North America, where ice hockey evolved over the nineteenth century, especially in Canada.

Played for decades on frozen ponds and rivers, the first official game of organized indoor ice hockey was played on March 3, 1875, in Montreal. The game was organized at Montreal’s Victoria Skating Rink by Nova Scotian James Creighton, who brought his home province’s style of outdoor play to Montreal and adapted it to local hockey customs and the smaller indoor space. The game was played by two nine-member teams (one of them captained by Creighton) and used a flat, round wooden “puck” instead of the usual ball, to help keep the object on the ice and avoid it hitting spectators. In 1877, the nearby McGill University in Montreal formed the first organized hockey team, and other teams soon formed. In 1892, Lord Stanley of Preston, the governor general of Canada, declared that there should be a competition among Canada’s many hockey teams to determine a national champion. The prize was to be a large silver cup that later became known as the Stanley Cup.

By the end of the nineteenth century, the organized sport of indoor ice hockey had traveled to the United States and also to England, where Prince’s Skating Club in London formed its own team in 1896. In 1905, a Belgian and French team squared off in the first international hockey game. In 1908 the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) was founded in Paris, France. In 1917 the NHL came into existence in Canada, adopting the Stanley Cup as its championship trophy, and it expanded to the United States in 1924. An ice hockey tournament was played at the 1920 Summer Olympic Games, and in 1924 the sport was added permanently to the Winter Olympics. Ice hockey further solidified its popularity in the 1930s, and over the next decades the IIHF’s membership grew rapidly and the NHL became one of the four major North American sports leagues.

Like most major professional sports leagues, the NHL has endured labor-relations issues that have resulted in shortened and even canceled seasons. A brief players' strike in 1992 was followed by a lockout that shortened the 1994–95 season. The entire 2004–5 NHL season was lost after another lockout, though attendance rebounded the following season. In 2012 the league and its players again failed to come to a collective bargaining agreement and the 2012–13 season was effectively halved. However, the intensity of a shortened season, coupled with an exciting playoff series, generated strong fan support for the sport once again. Such trends are indicative of the sport’s appeal to general audiences and robust fan base in markets that host NHL teams.

Rules and Regulations

Ice hockey is played on an enclosed, oval sheet of ice called a rink. At the center of the rink is a red line, dividing the opposing teams’ respective sides. Also on the rink are two blue lines, which divide the rink into three separate zones (offensive, defensive, and neutral). Each team sends six players—five offensive and defensive players and one goaltender (or “goalie”)—onto the ice. Each player holds a long, L-shaped stick with a slight curve in the end at the L. The object for each team is to use their sticks to shoot a black rubber puck into the opposing team’s netted goal, which is situated in the defensive zone. The team with the most goals wins the game.

At the professional level, the game is divided into three regulation periods, each of which is twenty minutes in length. At the beginning of the game, and after any stoppage in play (for penalties, injuries, if the goaltender holds the puck, or if the puck flies out of the rink), play is resumed with a “face-off.” During a face-off, a player from each team meets at one of nine designated face-off spots on the rink. The referee drops the puck between the two players, and the players attempt to collect the puck and advance it toward the opposing team’s goal. If the teams are tied at the end of regulation, most leagues will go to a sudden-death overtime period in which the first team to score wins (the number of skaters may also be reduced). If there is no score during overtime, a penalty shootout may then be held, in which players from each team take turns shooting on the opposing goaltender. After a set number of players have attempted a shot, the team with the most shootout goals wins. If a tie still exists, a sudden-death shootout may then be held.

Hockey is a full-contact sport, and physicality is a central element of the game. With the exception of the goalie, players consistently come into contact with each other. Often, a player will attempt to steal the puck from an opponent by running into them, either from the side or front, in what is known as a “check.” Checking is carefully regulated, however, in order to ensure the safety of the players. For example, checking from behind or by raising one’s arms toward the opponent’s head are strictly prohibited. Checking is also not allowed when the player with the puck has already passed the puck to another player.

Penalties in ice hockey vary in scope and severity, but may be separated into two general categories: minor and major. In both cases, the offending player is sent to the “penalty box” off the ice; their team may not send in a substitute for the duration of the penalty. Minor penalties result in the offender sitting in the penalty box for two minutes; examples include tripping, holding, checking from behind, and slashing an opponent with the stick. Major penalties result in five-minute penalty-box stays most typically involve fighting between two or more players, but can also include minor penalty infractions such as checking from behind when they cause injury. When one team has a penalty and is therefore outnumbered by the other, it is called a “power play,” which increases the chances of the other team scoring.

Strategy and Tactics

Ice hockey is a fast-paced game that requires strength, stamina, coordination, and precision. It is also a game that requires careful planning and strategy. Hockey teams must study the patterns by which their opponents play during a game. Knowing opponents’ style of play, strengths, and weaknesses are essential to success on the ice.

Another critical element of the game of ice hockey centers on penalties. Players must show a high level of discipline and work to avoid penalties as much as possible. If a player gives in to high emotion and makes an illegal hit on an opponent, that player puts their team at risk. Any time a team loses a player to the penalty box and the other team does not, the result is a power play. Teams must be well prepared for power plays, both in terms of adjusting to the loss of a player and of taking full advantage when the other team loses a player.

Timing and clock management are also important aspects of hockey. Teams must be mindful of the time available to them in each period. For example, if a team is behind by one point with fifteen minutes left in the game, it may be able to stick to its original game strategy. However, if a team is behind by the same differential with only five minutes left, the team’s players must be willing to move the puck more aggressively. Sometimes, when a team is behind near the end of the game, it will take its goaltender off the ice and substitute them with an additional offensive player and therefore increase the chances to score. There is an attendant risk, of course, that the opposing team will score an addition goal on the empty net.

Professional Leagues and Series

There are a number of major regional and international hockey leagues around the globe. The highest echelon of professional hockey is the National Hockey League. The NHL comprises teams located in cities across the United States and Canada. The league structure has varied over the years, as new teams have been added alongside the "Original Six" franchises that existed from the early 1940s to the late 1960s (the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, and New York Rangers). The league size doubled in 1967, and it continued to grow through the 1970s and 1990s, reaching thirty teams in 2000. In 2013 the NHL realigned its teams into two conferences, each of which is further separated into two divisions. In the Eastern Conference are the Atlantic Division and the Metropolitan Division. In the Western Conference are the Central Division and the Pacific Division. The Las Vegas Golden Knights began play in 2017, while the Seattle Kraken did so in 2021, bringing the league to thirty-two teams.

The crown jewel of the NHL is the Stanley Cup. The NHL’s playoff format features sixteen teams: the top three teams from each division are given the first twelve spots, followed by the two teams in each conference with the next-best records as wild cards. Seeding for the series is based on regular season records rather than final standings, ensuring a degree of parity among the teams. After the first and second rounds are the conference finals, the winners of which compete in the Stanley Cup Finals. All of the series in the NHL playoffs are in the best-of-seven format.

In addition to the NHL, there a number of additional professional hockey leagues, some of which are regional in nature, others of which are international in scope. For example, the American Hockey League consists of teams across the United States and Canada, many in considerably smaller markets than cities hosting NHL teams. That league’s season culminates in the Calder Cup, a best-of-seven series between the winners of the AHL’s Eastern and Western Conferences. The AHL is considered a feeder league for the NHL, and each AHL team is affiliated with an NHL team.

Another major hockey league is the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), which officially came into being in 2008 when the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia assumed a more international appearance by including teams from nearby nations. KHL teams are based throughout Europe and Asia, though the bulk of them are from Russia. Each year, the best KHL teams from each division vie for the Gagarin Cup. In addition, the KHL’s Russian teams annually vie for the distinction of Champion of Russia.

The Swedish Hockey League (formerly known as Elitserien), founded in 1975, is another notable professional league. It attracts many skilled players, primarily from Europe.

Women's ice hockey has also seen various professional leagues. With its inaugural season in 2015–16, the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL) became the first professional women's ice hockey league with salaried players. This led the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL), which had operated as the highest level of women's hockey in Canada since 2007, to begin paying its players stipends before it dissolved in 2019. The NWHL also faced various struggles, and in 2021 was renamed the Premier Hockey Federation.

Popularity

Ice hockey maintains a strong fan base, particularly in Canada, the United States, and the nations of northern Europe. The NHL, the world’s elite professional hockey league, enjoys consistently positive fan support, particularly in the markets in which the teams play. It has been reported that many NHL franchises see consistent fan attendance even when they fail to perform at the level of playoff contenders. This has at times been contrasted to other professional sporting organizations such as the National Basketball Association (NBA). Working in the NHL’s favor is parity—relative equity among the NHL teams has resulted in few dominant performances in the NHL playoffs, adding an exciting element of unpredictability during the regular and postseasons.

The NHL has consistently struggled compared to the other major North American sports in terms of generating television exposure in the United States. This was exacerbated after the NHL canceled its 2004–5 season amid a labor dispute. The sport’s national coverage was relegated thereafter to the little-known cable network Versus. Such a lack of exposure did little to sour long-time hockey fans, but it did not attract many new, casual fans. In 2011, the NHL signed a ten-year contract with the mainstream NBC Sports, enabling improved national coverage. Later Stanley Cup playoffs, charged with strong team performances and NBC’s national coverage, showed considerably improved viewership. A new seven-year television deal between the NHL and ESPN and Turner Sports began in 2021.

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