Skates and Ice: Brain-freeze anyone?

Ice hockey is a game played on ice where two opposing teams of stick wielding skaters try to smash the puck (small, hard rubber disk) through the other team's goalpost.

Think of soccer but with sticks and full protective body armor, or something like that.

The National Hockey League is one of the most popular sports played in Canada and USA today.

However the NHL has a long history dating back to the year 1917.

Let us get an insight into how the NHL was founded and how it progressed to become one of the greatest sports that Canada and America have ever seen.

Foundation of NHA

The National Hockey Association, also known as NHA in short was founded in the year 1917 in Montreal, Canada.

It was formed by the National Hockey Association which would look over the start of play as well as any suspension operations.

However the NHA was not without its set of controversies in the beginning itself. The first of those controversies involved conflicts between the owner of the Toronto Blueshirts owner called Eddie Livingstone and other team owners.

The other team owners were up in arms against Livingstone because he decided to merge his two Toronto teams as a result of which many top players did not get a chance to play.

Livingstone also resorted to dirty politics where he induced top players from other teams not to play by awarding them big contracts. Livingstone also retorted to tactics like telling the organization that he will soon come up with a rival organization in the United States.

Team composition in the first season

The first season of NHL saw six teams competing against each other.

The six teams consisted of Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Bulldogs, Toronto Blueshirts. The sixth team was unnamed at that time but included players from the 228th army battalion in Toronto.

All the team owners met at the Windsor Hotel in Montreal to discuss about the future of the sport. However there was one shocking decision made and that was evicting Livingstone altogether from NHA with his Blueshirts team.

Livingstone was not able to attend that meeting due to illness. Livingstone did not attend any of the meetings after the decision and he sent his lawyer to represent his interests.

Dropout of Quebec

In November 1917 there was more shocking news in the NHA with the Quebec team dropping out of the competition.

The NHA then consisted of just 3 teams. Hence it would not be possible to hold the competition if the Toronto team was not allowed to continue.

Foundation of NHL

There was a major decision made on 26th November, 1917 at the Windsor Hotel in Montreal of starting a new league called the NHL.

Major policy decisions taken at the meeting included changing the rules and constitution of the NHA and franchisees being granted to the Wanderers, Canadians and Ottawa.

The players from the Quebec team were distributed into the other teams.

The early struggles of NHL

The NHL league started with 4 teams that included the Canadiens, Senators, Toronto and Wanderers.

The Wonderers won their first game against the Torontos in December 1917. However the team had to fold up in the competition when a major fire destroyed the Westmount Arena which was a home for Wanderers and the Bulldogs teams.

The Bulldogs also resigned and then the tournament was reduced to just three teams for the remainder of the tournament. The Stanley Cup was then won by the Toronto team.

Popularity in USA

Livingstone made the game popular in the USA as well. And so the game moved from Quebec to Hamilton to New York.

Soon the New York Americans team was included in the competition as well and The Stanley Cup began to be played in America.

The league had its ups and downs in business for the first decade but it was the American teams that dominated the Stanley Cup with a staggering record of winning the first eight of the nine cups in nine years.

Expansion in America

The league soon spread its wings all over America. There were new teams introduced in the subsequent years such as the Boston Bruins, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the New York Rangers, the Detroit Cougars and Chicago Black Hawks in 1926.

In Canada, a new team in the form of Montreal Maroons was added.

Introduction of minor leagues in America

The American Hockey Association soon started its own minor league known as the AHL and then there were a lot of tiffs between the two associations.

There was direct competition between the teams of both the leagues and then in 1926, the AHA filed a Stanley cup challenge with the trustees.

The trustees then ordered the NHL to play the AHL champions but the NHL chairman Frank Calder simply ignored the order.

The NHL then took under its wings the Can-Am Pro League as well as the International Hockey League.

Subsequently it also took over AHL as the AHL was not able to put up a show against NHL in terms of competition.

The Great Depression in 1930s

By the end of 1930, the NHL had ten professional teams in its wings. However during the Great Depression, many team owners became bankrupt and the owners had to sell their teams.

Entry of Mr. Norris

The NHL took a major turnover when the owner of Detroit Red Wings, Mr. Norris took the ownership of NHL as well.

Since Mr. Norris was the owner of a corporation the NHL agreed for him to take over the reins.

The period from 1942 to 1967

During the World War in 1945, the NHL was reduced to just 6 teams.

These are even today known as the original six teams and they consist of The Canadiens, Maple Leafs, Red Wings, Bruins, Rangers, and Black Hawks.

During this period two teams that proved their dominance through consistent performances were Toronto and Montreal. Toronto dominated the 1940s and the 1960s while Montreal dominated the 1950s.

Stanley Cup becomes NHL’s ownership

In 1948, an agreement was finalized between P.D. Ross who was the trustee of Stanley Cup and Mr. Cooper Smeaton of NHL for bringing the Stanley Cup under NHL’s wings.

Till today the NHL looks after the maintenance of the Stanley Cup though the Stanley Cup has trustees.

Player Woes in the 1950s

Players faced some hardships in the 1950s.

They were paid less revenues even though the sponsors made good money. Also they were made to pay more pension from their earnings.

The players were not allowed to play other sports even when there was off season.

Many times the players were not covered by insurance and even when they were insured they had to pay their own medical bills.

However there were very few positives in the form of the first black player in 1958 who was introduced in the Boston Bruins tram.

Expansion in the 1960s

The NHL expanded to include six new teams, the Philadelphia Flyers, St. Louis Blues, Minnesota North Stars, Los Angeles Kings, Oakland Seals, and Pittsburgh Penguins.

The NHL became richer by $2 million for each new team introduced in the organization.

After two years, two new teams were introduced in the form of Vancouver Canucks and Buffalo Sabres. NHL became richer by $6 million for each of the newly introduced teams.

It was NHL vs. WHA in the 1970s

In the year 1972, the World Hockey Association was formed. The WHA proved to be a good rival to the NHL. The NHL introduced two new teams to the league in the form of New York Islanders and Atlanta Flames to counter rivalry from WHA franchises. The two associations always fought for winning over the players. However a merger was agreed upon by bit the associations for mutual benefits. Hence the WHA merged into the NHL and six teams joined the NHL in the form of the Hartford Whalers, Quebec Nordiques, Edmonton Oilers, and Winnipeg Jets.

Two teams dominated the 1980s

The 1980s were dominated by the New York Islanders and the Edmonton Oilers. The first four cups in the decade were won by the Islanders while the next four were won by Oilers.

1990s: NHL expands to 30 teams

In 1989, the NHL went ahead with further expansion plans and it invited proposals from franchises. Each team to be included in the organization had to cough up frees of $50 million. In 1993 two new teams were added in the form of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and Florida Panthers. The best time for NHL came in 1993 when NHL won a five year contract with FOX and ESPN channels to feature their matches on TV. In 1998, all players were able to compete in the Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan.

2000s meet finance and labor problems

Some of the clubs like Ottawa and Buffalo went bankrupt. Other clubs were also making losses. The Canadian clubs were also affected by the low exchange rate of Canadian dollar. The revenues from TV rights also declined. There have been stoppages in work also from the year 1992 to 2005. The NHL Player’s association announced its first strike in April 1992. However the strike was called off quickly. There was also a lockout in 1994 when an 84 games schedule was reduced to just 48 games.

NHL Today

Today the NHL matches are featured on TV during weekends. There is very good audience support in Canada. There have been several changes in rules of the game in 2005 and there is also a full time permanent committee in place.

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