Hockey season has arrived, so learn to enjoy it

Professional hockey is already underway. The season just seems to sneak up on us in early autumn every year…when everyone in America is watching football.

Ice hockey is the national sport of Canada, and that is where the National Hockey League (NHL) got its start. The sport is still somewhat foreign, however, to many of us who live south of America’s “rust belt.” 

So put on your padded uniform that resembles a child’s go-out-to-play snowsuit, strap on your skates and fasten your helmet chin strap…it’s time to learn a wee bit more about this crazy game that claims to be the “fastest game on ice.”

 

Sources generally agree that field hockey preceded ice hockey. There’s a French connection to the game, as it takes its name from “hoquet,” a French word meaning “shepherd’s staff,” which resembles the shape of a hockey stick. 

Kevin Ward of Perani’s Hockey World, a sports retailer based in Flint, Mich., said that “early outdoor ‘pucks’ were made from wood, but when they decided to take the game inside, lacrosse balls were used. They cut the balls in thirds, using only the middle section.” 

“The hockey puck is named after a character from England’s famous playwright William Shakespeare,” Ward said. “In Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer’s Night Dream,’ Puck was a flighty and mischievous elf.” 

“Cutting up lacrosse balls wasn’t a sustainable practice to support the growth of the hockey, so they needed to find a different means. In the early 1900s, pucks were made by gluing together two pieces of used tire rubber.” 

“In 1940, pro hockey hall of famer Art Ross (of Naughton, Ontario) improved the design by creating a vulcanized rubber puck,” Ward said. 

Today, regulation NHL pucks are black in color, 3 inches in diameter and 1-inch thick, weighing between 5.5 and 6 ounces. Pucks are kept frozen in an ice-packed cooler, which usually sits on the officials’ bench. Freezing the puck reduces its bounce.

 

Once in play, the puck begins to thaw out. A special cold-sensitive paint on the puck lets the officials know when it’s time to change pucks. The average NHL game will use between 40 to 50 pucks. 

When the first hockey games were played outdoors on frozen ponds or rivers, each team may have had 30 players per side. 

A fellow named James Creighton of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, arranged for the world’s first indoor hockey game on March 3, 1875, at the famed Victoria Skating Rink in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. For these indoor games, the number of participants was reduced to nine per side.

 

Creighton was the captain of the McGill University Hockey Club in Montreal and was responsible for writing the rules of the game. He is considered to be the “father of hockey.”

 

Here is an early match featuring the McGill skaters.

Another fellow who helped advance the sport of hockey was Sir Frederick Arthur Stanley of London, England, known as Lord Stanley of Preston. He was appointed by Queen Victoria as Governor General of Canada in 1888. 

He and his family became highly enthusiastic about hockey after attending games at Montreal’s 1889 Winter Carnival.

Two of his sons, Arthur and Algernon, learned how to skate and play the game. They formed a new hockey team in Ottawa, Canada’s capital city, and persuaded their father to donate a trophy to be honor the championship team “in the dominion” (of Canada). 

The first winner of the Stanley Cup in 1893 was a team representing the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association. 

The reigning 2022 Stanley Cup championship team is the Colorado Avalanche.

 

It’s time to change pucks.