Evolution of the Game of Hockey

Until the mid-1980s it was generally accepted that ice hockey derived from English field hockey and Indian lacrosse and was spread throughout Canada by British soldiers in the mid-1800s. Research then turned up mention of a hockey like game, played in the early 1800s in Nova Scotia by the Micmac Indians, which appeared to have been heavily influenced by the Irish game of hurling; it included the use of a "hurley" (stick) and a square wooden block instead of a ball. It was probably fundamentally this game that spread throughout Canada via Scottish and Irish immigrants and the British army. The players adopted elements of field hockey, such as the "bully" (later the face-off) and "shinning" (hitting one's opponent on the shins with the stick or playing with the stick on one "shin" or side); this evolved into an informal ice game later known as shinny or shinty. The name hockey--as the organized game came to be known--has been attributed to the French word hoquet (shepherd's stick). The term rink, referring to the designated area of play, was originally used in the game of curling in 18th-century Scotland. Early hockey games allowed as many as 30 players a side on the ice, and the goals were two stones, each frozen into one end of the ice. The first use of a puck instead of a ball was recorded at Kingston Harbor, Ont., in 1860. 

The earliest North American hockey games were played in Canada. British soldiers stationed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, were reported to have organized contests on frozen ponds in and around the city in the 1870s, and about that same time in Montreal students from McGill University began facing off against each other in a downtown ice rink. The North America's first hockey league was said to have been started in Kingston, Ontario, in 1885, and it included four hockey teams. The game became so popular that games were soon being played on a regular basis between clubs from Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal. The English Governor General of Canada, Lord Stanley of Preston, was so impressed that in 1892 he bought a silver bowl with an interior gold finish and decreed that it be given each year to the best amateur team in Canada. That trophy, of course, has come to be known as the Stanley Cup and is awarded today to the franchise that wins the National Hockey League playoffs. When hockey was first played in Canada, the teams had nine men per side. But by the time the Stanley Cup was introduced, it was a seven-man game. The change came about accidentally in the late 1880s after a hockey club playing in the Montreal Winter Carnival showed up two men short, and its opponent agreed to drop the same number of players on its team to even the match. In time, players began to prefer the smaller teams, and it wasn't long before that number became the standard for the sport. Each team featured one goaltender, three forwards, two defensemen, and a rover, who had the option of moving up ice on the attack or falling back to defend his goal. There are many conflicting theories on when and where the game of hockey originated but for all accounts the game evolved out the Irish field game called Hurley. Hurley is played year round in Ireland on a field with a ball and stick. The game of Hurley was played regularly in the fields of Nova Scotia back in the early 1800's. But when winter came around Hurley was to difficult to play because of the rough ground caused by snow so the game was eventually moved onto the ice. This new game called "Hurley on Ice" basically started at King's College in Windsor, Nova Scotia just outside of Halifax and became very popular on the East coast for the first 50 years of the 1800's. This Hurley on Ice was also called Rickets and Shinny but was eventually called Hockey somewhere in the later part of the 1800's. There is a story that a Royal Canadian Rifles officer stationed in Nova Scotia named "Hockey" for years had his men play this game and that's how the name of Hurley or Shinny changed to Hockey. In the early 1870's an engineer named James Creighton taught his friends at McGill University on how to play this new game of hockey that he had learned while living in Nova Scotia. The stage was set in Montreal during the mid 1870's for the first organized hockey game played inside a rink. Eventually James Creighton wrote up new rules called the "Halifax Rules" which had 9 players on each team. The game of hockey became very popular in Montreal at that time and James Creighton who had a law degree decided to move on to Ottawa and eventually became the Law Clerk of the Senate where he started Ottawa's first organized hockey team called the Rideau Hall Rebels in the late 1880's. Also around this same time the first organized amateur hockey league started in Kingston, Ontario and had 4 teams.
 The first Stanley Cup winner was the Montreal AAA (Amateur Athletic Association) in 1893. By the end of the 1800's the game of hockey was becoming the national sport of Canada because nearly all regions of the country were playing this new found sport. 
This start of the 1900s saw the invention of the tube skates which eventually evolved into the present day skates and also netting that was not used in the last century was also invented. This new netting was first used by Maritimers at the turn of the century who threw it over both posts in order to catch the puck and also to show the puck past between both posts. Also the number of players allowed on each team went from 9 to 7 (3 forwards, 2 defenseman, 1 rover and 1 goalie). It stayed this way until the NHL was formed and the rover position was dropped which meant 6 hockey players on each team.

Up to 1917 there were many professional leagues formed like the International Pro Hockey League, National Hockey Association (NHA) and the Pacific Coast League (PCL). All these leagues eventually folded which lead to the creation of the National Hockey League (NHL) in 1917. The National Hockey League started out with 5 franchises, Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Toronto Arenas, Quebec Bulldogs and Ottawa Senators. The Toronto Arenas won the Stanley Cup in the first year of competition. The National Hockey League eventually gained control of the Stanley Cup in 1926 and from then on it could only be won by NHL teams instead of other league champions challenging for this cup.
By 1942 after seeing many teams come and go from the NHL the league settled in with 6 franchises, the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers, Boston Bruins, Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Blackhawks. These original 6 teams stayed this way until the 1967 expansion and have become fondly known as "The Original Six." The NHL Expansion  adding six new teams in the 1967 expansion year. The six new teams were the Minnesota North Stars, Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, California Golden Seals, St. Louis Blues and the Los Angeles Kings. In 1970 two more teams were added to the National Hockey League, the Vancouver Canucks and Buffalo Sabres.
In 1972 saw the formation of the rival World Hockey Association (WHA) which created an instant rivalry to the NHL. This new league was competing with the NHL and signing away some of the top NHL players like Bobby Hull and Derek Sanderson. But the strength of the original league was the downfall of the  new WHA league which folded in 1979.

The NHL continued to expand and  in 1972 two more new teams were added , the New York Islanders and Atlanta Flames. The year 1974 saw another two teams added, the Washington Capitals and Kansas City Scouts. In 1976 the California Golden Seals franchise moved to Cleveland  and was called the Barons and Kansas City transferred to the city of Colorado to become the Colorado Rockies. In 1978 the Cleveland Barons merged and became part of the Minnesota North Stars. In 1979 the NHL added the remaining WHA teams (Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets, Hartford Whalers and Quebec Nordiques that did not fold when the WHA disbanded. In 1980 the Atlanta Flames moved to Calgary and became the Calgary Flames and in 1982 the Colorado Rockies move on to become the New Jerseys Devils. From the late 1970’s to the early 1990’s saw the league with just 21 teams and 4 divisions called the Smythe, Norris, Patrick and Adams division. The Eastern Conference was called Prince of Wales and the Western Conference was called the Campbell Conference.

In the 1990's 9 new teams came into existence in the National Hockey League. The San Jose Sharks were added in 1991, Ottawa Senators and Tampa Bay Lightning were added in 1992, Anaheim Mighty Ducks & Florida Panthers in 1993, Quebec Nordiques moved to Colorado to become the Colorado Avalanche in 1995, Winnipeg Jets moved to Phoenix in 1996 to become the Phoenix Coyotes , the Hartford Whalers relocated to Raleigh Carolina in 1997 and became the Carolina Hurricane, the Nashville Predators were added as the 27 team in the NHL in 1998, the Atlanta Thrashers came into existence in 1999, and in 2000 the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild were the last expanded teams added to the NHL to make a total of 30 teams in the National Hockey League.
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