   #copyright

Ice hockey

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Sports

   Two defencemen and a goaltender guard their goal. The referee's raised
   arm indicates that he intends to call a penalty.
   Enlarge
   Two defencemen and a goaltender guard their goal. The referee's raised
   arm indicates that he intends to call a penalty.

   Ice hockey, referred to simply as hockey in Canada and the United
   States, is a team sport played on ice. While there are 64 total members
   of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), Canada, the Czech
   Republic, Finland, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden and the United States have
   finished within most of the coveted 1st, 2nd and 3rd places at IIHF
   World Championships. Of the sixty medals awarded in men's competition
   at the Olympic level from 1920 on, only six did not go to the one of
   those countries, or a former entity thereof, such as Czechoslovakia or
   the Soviet Union. Only one of those six medals was above bronze. Those
   seven nations have also captured 221 of 240 medals awarded during the
   80 years the IIHF World Championships has been played. Also deserving a
   notable mention is Switzerland, which has won 2 bronze medals at the
   Olympics and finished in third place 7 times at other IIHF World
   Championships. Switzerland also maintains one of the oldest and
   top-rated ice hockey leagues ( The Swiss Nationalliga) outside of the
   NHL.

   Ice hockey is most popular as a sport in areas that are sufficiently
   cold for natural, reliable seasonal ice cover. It is one of the four
   major North American professional sports, represented by the National
   Hockey League (NHL) at the highest level. It is the official national
   winter sport of Canada, where the game enjoys immense popularity, and
   is also the most popular spectator sport in Finland. Six of the thirty
   NHL franchises are based in Canada, but Canadians outnumber Americans
   in the league by a ratio of almost four to one. About thirty percent of
   the league's players are non-North American. The sport's popularity in
   the U.S. is concentrated in certain regions, notably the Northeast, the
   Upper Midwest, and Alaska. This concentration helps to make ice hockey
   the least watched major sport in the United States, however it is by
   far the most watched in Canada. Nonetheless, in certain major U.S.
   cities (notably Buffalo, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Chicago,
   Boston, Dallas, New York City, Philadelphia, and Denver) it is still a
   major competitor to basketball for winter sports fans.

   Ice hockey is a physically demanding sport, due to the high tempo and
   quick changes in puck possession during a typical game. On a full-sized
   rink, a player who merely coasts or who is relatively stationary will
   be of little use to his or her team. Hence, shifts typically last from
   fifteen to sixty seconds in a competitive game.

History

   Dutch burghers playing a game that looks much like ice hockey.
   Enlarge
   Dutch burghers playing a game that looks much like ice hockey.

   Games between teams hitting an object with curved sticks have been
   played throughout history; 4000 year-old drawings at the Beni-Hasen
   tombs in Egypt depict a sport resembling Field hockey. The 1527 Galway
   Statutes in Ireland made reference to "the horlinge of the litill balle
   with hockie stickes or staves." The etymology of the word hockey is
   uncertain. It may derive from the Old French word hoquet, shepherd's
   crook, or from the Middle Dutch word hokkie, meaning shack or doghouse,
   which in popular use meant goal. Many of these games were developed for
   fields, though where conditions allowed they were also played on ice.
   16th-century Dutch paintings show townsfolk playing a hockey-like game
   on a frozen canal.

   European immigrants brought various versions of hockey-like games to
   North America, such as the Scottish sport of shinty, the
   closely-related Irish sport of hurling, and versions of field hockey
   played in England. Where necessary these seem to have been adapted for
   icy conditions; for example, a colonial Williamsburg newspaper records
   hockey being played in a snow storm in Virginia. Both English- and
   French-speaking Canadians played hockey on frozen rivers, lakes, and
   ponds using cheese cutters strapped to their boots, and early paintings
   show hockey being played in Nova Scotia. Author Thomas Chandler
   Haliburton wrote of boys from King's College School in Windsor, Nova
   Scotia, playing "hurley on the ice" when he was a student there around
   1800. These early games may have absorbed the physically aggressive
   aspects of what the Mi'kmaq Aboriginal First Nation in Nova Scotia
   called dehuntshigwa'es ( lacrosse).

   In 1825 Sir John Franklin wrote that "The game of hockey played on the
   ice was the morning sport" while on Great Bear Lake during one of his
   Arctic expeditions. In 1843 a British Army officer in Kingston,
   Ontario, wrote "Began to skate this year, improved quickly and had
   great fun at hockey on the ice." The Society for International Hockey
   Research contends, based on a Boston Evening Gazette article from 1859,
   that an early game of hockey on ice occurred in Halifax in that year.
   The first game to use a puck rather than a ball took place in 1860 on
   Kingston Harbour, involving mostly Crimean War veterans.

   Based on Haliburton's writings, there have been claims that modern ice
   hockey originated in Windsor, Nova Scotia, and was named after an
   individual, as in 'Colonel Hockey's game'. Proponents of this theory
   state that the surname Hockey exists in the district surrounding
   Windsor. In 1943, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association declared
   Kingston the birthplace of hockey, based on a recorded 1886 game played
   between students of Queen's University and the Royal Military College
   of Canada.

Foundation of the modern game

   Ice hockey at McGill University, Montreal, 1901.
   Enlarge
   Ice hockey at McGill University, Montreal, 1901.

   The development of the modern game centered on Montreal. On March 3,
   1875 the first organized indoor game was played at Montreal's Victoria
   Rink by James Creighton and several McGill University students. In
   1877, several McGill students, including Creighton, Henry Joseph,
   Richard F. Smith, W.F. Robertson, and W.L. Murray codified seven ice
   hockey rules. The first ice hockey club, McGill University Hockey Club,
   was founded in 1880.

   The game became so popular that it was featured in Montreal's annual
   Winter Carnival in 1883. In 1885, A.P. Low introduced the game to
   Ottawa. During the same year, the Oxford University Ice Hockey Club was
   formed to play the first Varsity Match against traditional rival
   Cambridge in St. Moritz, Switzerland. This match was won by the Oxford
   Dark Blues, 6-0. The first photographs and team lists date from 1895.
   This continues to be the oldest hockey rivalry in history.

   In 1888 the new Governor General of Canada, Lord Stanley of Preston,
   whose sons and daughter became hockey enthusiasts, attended the
   Carnival and was impressed with the hockey spectacle. In 1892,
   recognizing that there was no recognition for the best team, he
   purchased a decorative bowl for use as a trophy. This trophy, which
   became known as the Stanley Cup, was first awarded in 1893 to the
   champion amateur team in Canada, Montreal AAA. It continues to be
   awarded today to the National Hockey League's championship team.

   By 1893, there were almost a hundred teams in Montreal alone, and
   leagues throughout Canada. Winnipeg hockey players had incorporated
   cricket pads to better protect the goaltender's legs. They also
   introduced the "scoop" shot, later known as the wrist shot.

   1893 also saw the first ice hockey matches in the U.S., at Yale
   University and Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. Amateur Hockey League
   was founded in New York City in 1896, and the first professional team,
   the Portage Lakers was formed in 1903 in Houghton, Michigan (though
   there had been individual professionals in Canada before this).

   The five sons of Lord Stanley were instrumental in bringing ice hockey
   to Europe, beating a court team (which included both the future Edward
   VII and George V) at Buckingham Palace in 1895. By 1903 a five-team
   league had been founded. The Ligue Internationale de Hockey sur Glace
   was founded in 1908 to govern international competitions, and the first
   European championships were won by Great Britain in 1910. In the
   mid-20th century, the Ligue became the International Ice Hockey
   Federation.

The Professional Era

   Ice hockey in Europe; Oxford University vs. Switzerland, 1922. Future
   Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson is at right front.
   Enlarge
   Ice hockey in Europe; Oxford University vs. Switzerland, 1922. Future
   Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson is at right front.

   In North America, two openly professional leagues emerged: the National
   Hockey Association in 1910 and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association in
   1911. Beginning in 1915, these two leagues competed for the Stanley
   Cup. The National Hockey League was formed in November of 1917,
   following a dispute between NHA team owners. The new league began play
   in December of that year with four Canadian teams. The NHA disbanded in
   1918, and the PCHA followed it in 1924. By 1926, the NHL, with ten
   teams, took control of the Stanley Cup and formed a Canadian and an
   American division.

   With the growth of professionalism in Canada, a new challenge cup, the
   Allan Cup, was instituted for amateur players to replace the Stanley
   Cup. This led to the foundation of an amateur governing body, the
   Canadian Hockey Association, which entered the winning Canadian team
   for the first Olympic title in Antwerp in 1920.

   Between the wars, British ice hockey grew rapidly with new ice rinks
   and an influx of Canadian players. A European competition was
   instituted, and in the 1936 Winter Olympics at Garmisch, Germany, Great
   Britain won the gold medal, imposing the first ever Olympic defeat on
   the Canadians. However, because of the disruption of World War II and a
   lack of suitable venues afterwards the sport faded rapidly. This
   contrasted with rapid growth elsewhere. The NHL doubled to 12 teams in
   1967, and by 2006 had 30 teams, following several reorganizations.

   On 16 February, 2005, the NHL became the first major professional team
   sport in North America to cancel an entire season because of a labor
   dispute. Play resumed again in the fall of 2005. During the dispute,
   controversy arose over the decision not to award the Stanley Cup; some
   considered this decision a violation of the terms of the Stanley Cup's
   handover to the NHL. Following a legal challenge, it was agreed that
   the Cup's trustees could award the Cup to a non-NHL team.

   The official museum for the NHL is the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto,
   Canada.

   Ice Hockey is one of Canada's two official sports. It is officially the
   "winter" sport whereas Lacrosse is officially the "summer" sport .

Equipment

   Modern amateur (Swiss) ice hockey skates
   Enlarge
   Modern amateur (Swiss) ice hockey skates

   The hard surfaces of the ice and boards, pucks flying at high speed
   (over 160 kilometers per hour (100 mph) at times), and other players
   maneuvering (and often intentionally colliding, AKA checking) pose a
   multitude of inherent safety hazards. Besides ice skates and sticks,
   hockey players are usually equipped with an array of safety gear to
   lessen their risk of serious injury. This usually includes a helmet,
   shoulder pads, elbow pads, mouth guard, protective gloves, heavily
   padded shorts, a 'jock' athletic protector, shin pads and a neck guard.
   Goaltenders wear masks and much bulkier, specialized equipment designed
   to protect them from many direct hits from the puck.

   The hockey skate is usually made of a thick layer of leather or nylon
   to protect the feet and lower legs of the player from injury. Its blade
   is rounded on both ends to allow for easy maneuvering. Goaltenders'
   skates, however, have blades that are lower to the ice and more square
   than round; this is advantageous to the goalies, for whom lateral
   mobility and stability are more important than quick turns and speed.

   Youth and college hockey players are required to wear a mask made from
   metal wire or transparent plastic attached to their helmet that
   protects their face during play. Professional and adult players may
   instead wear a visor that protects only their eyes, or no mask at all;
   however, some provincial and state legislation require full facial
   protection at all non-professional levels. Rules regarding visors and
   face masks are mildly controversial at professional levels. Some
   players feel that they interfere with their vision or breathing, or
   encourage carrying of the stick up high in a reckless manner, while
   others believe that they are a necessary safety precaution.

   In fact, the adoption of safety equipment has been a gradual one at the
   North American professional level, where even helmets were not
   mandatory until the 1980s. The famous goalie, Jacques Plante, had to
   suffer a hard blow to the face with a flying puck in 1959 before he
   could persuade his coach to allow him to wear a protective goalie mask
   in play.

Game

   Typical layout of an ice hockey rink surface
   Enlarge
   Typical layout of an ice hockey rink surface

   While the general characteristics of the game are the same wherever it
   is played, the exact rules depend on the particular code of play being
   used. The two most important codes are those of the International Ice
   Hockey Federation (IIHF) and of the North American National Hockey
   League (NHL). North American amateur hockey codes, such as those of
   Hockey Canada and USA Hockey, tend to be a hybrid of the NHL and IIHF
   codes, while professional rules generally follow those of the NHL.

   Ice hockey is played on a hockey rink. During normal play, there are
   six players per side on the ice at any time, each of whom is on ice
   skates. There are five players and one goaltender per side. The
   objective of the game is to score goals by shooting a hard vulcanized
   rubber disc, the puck, into the opponent's goal net, which is placed at
   the opposite end 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 redirect the puck with any part of their bodies, subject to
   certain restrictions. A player can angle their feet so the puck can
   redirect into the net, but there can be no kicking motion. Players may
   not intentionally bat the puck into the net with their hands.

   Hockey is an "offside" game, meaning that forward passes are allowed,
   unlike in rugby. Before the 1930's hockey was an onside game, meaning
   that only backward passes were allowed. The period of the onside game
   was the golden age of stick-handling, which was of prime importance in
   moving the game forward. With the arrival of offside rules, the forward
   pass transformed hockey into a truly team sport, where individual
   heroics diminished in importance relative to team play, which could now
   be coordinated over the entire surface of the ice as opposed to merely
   rearward players.

   The other five players are typically divided into three forwards and
   two defencemen. The forward positions consist of a centre and two
   wingers: a left wing and a right wing. Forwards often play together as
   units or lines, with the same three forwards always playing together.
   The defencemen usually stay together as a pair, but may change less
   frequently than the forwards. A substitution of an entire unit at once
   is called a line change. Teams typically employ alternate sets of
   forward lines and defensive pairings when shorthanded or on a power
   play. Substitutions are permitted at any time during the course of the
   game, although during a stoppage of play the home team is permitted the
   final change. When players are substituted during play, it is called
   changing on the fly. A new NHL rule added in the 2005-2006 season
   prevents a team from changing their line after they ice the puck.

   The boards surrounding the ice help keep the puck in play, and play
   often proceeds for minutes without interruption. When play is stopped,
   it is restarted with a faceoff. There are two major rules of play in
   ice hockey that limit the movement of the puck: offside and icing.

   Under IIHF rules, each team may carry a maximum of 20 players and two
   goaltenders on their roster. NHL rules restrict the total number of
   players per game to 18 plus two goaltenders.

Penalties

   Fights often occur near the goal, since defensive players need to
   protect their goaltender.
   Enlarge
   Fights often occur near the goal, since defensive players need to
   protect their goaltender.

   A typical game of ice hockey has two to four officials on the ice
   charged with enforcing the rules of the game. There are typically two
   linesmen, who are responsible only for calling offside and icing
   violations, and one or two referees, who call goals and all other
   penalties.

   In men's hockey, but not in women's, a player may use his hip or
   shoulder to hit another player if the player has the puck or is the
   last to have touched it. This use of the hip and shoulder is called
   body checking. Not all physical contact is legal — in particular, most
   forceful stick-on-body contact, and hits from behind, are illegal.
   There are many infractions for which a player may be assessed a
   penalty. The governing body for United States amateur hockey has
   implemented many new rules to reduce the number stick-on-body
   occurrences, as well as other detrimental and illegal facets of the
   game ("Zero Tolerance").

   For most penalties, the offending player is sent to the penalty box and
   his team has to play without him and with one less man for a short
   amount of time, giving the other team what is popularly termed a power
   play. A two-minute minor penalty is often called for lesser infractions
   such as tripping, elbowing, roughing, high-sticking, too many players
   on the ice, illegal equipment, charging (leaping into an opponent),
   holding, interference, delay of game, hooking, or cross-checking. More
   egregious fouls of this type may be penalized by a four-minute
   double-minor penalty, particularly those which (inadvertently) cause
   injury to the victimized player. These penalties end either when the
   time runs out or the other team scores on the power play; in the case
   of a goal scored during the first two minutes of a double minor, the
   penalty clock is set down to two minutes upon a score (effectively
   expiring the first minor). Five-minute major penalties are called for
   especially violent instances of most minor infractions which result in
   intentional injury to an opponent, as well as for fighting, checking
   from behind and spearing. Major penalties are always served in full;
   they do not terminate on a goal scored by the other team. The foul of
   'boarding', defined as "check[ing] an opponent in such a manner that
   causes the opponent to be thrown violently in the boards" by the NHL
   Rulebook is penalized either by a minor or major penalty at the
   discretion of the referee, based on the violence of the hit.

   Two varieties of penalty do not always require the offending team to
   play a man down. Ten-minute misconduct penalties are served in full by
   the penalized player, but his team may immediately substitute another
   player on the ice unless a minor or major penalty is assessed in
   conjunction with the misconduct (a two-and-ten or five-and-ten). In
   that case, the team designates another player to serve the minor or
   major; both players go to the penalty box, but only the designee may
   not be replaced, and he is released upon the expiration of the two or
   five minutes, at which point the ten-minute misconduct begins. In
   addition, game misconducts are assessed for deliberate intent to
   inflict severe injury on an opponent (at the officials' discretion), or
   for a major penalty for a stick infraction or repeated major penalties.
   The offending player is ejected from the game and must immediately
   leave the playing surface (he does not sit in the penalty box);
   meanwhile, if a minor or major is assessed in addition, a designated
   player must serve out that segment of the penalty in the box (similar
   to the above-mentioned "two-and-ten").

   A player who is tripped by an opponent on a breakaway – when there are
   no defenders except the goaltender between him and the opponent's
   goal – is awarded a penalty shot, an attempt to score without
   opposition from any defenders except the goaltender. A penalty shot is
   also awarded for a defender other than the goaltender covering the puck
   in the goal crease, a goaltender intentionally displacing his own goal
   posts during a breakaway in order to avoid a goal, a defender
   intentionally displacing his own goal posts when there is less than two
   minutes to play in regulation time or at any point during overtime, or
   a player or coach intentionally throwing a stick or other object at the
   puck or the puck carrier and the throwing action disrupts a shot or
   pass play.

   Officials also stop play for puck movement violations, such as using
   one's hands to pass the puck in the offensive end, but no players are
   penalized for these offenses. The sole exceptions are deliberately
   falling on or gathering the puck to the body, carrying the puck in the
   hand, and shooting the puck out of play in one's defensive zone (all
   penalized two minutes for delay of game). In the NHL, there is an area
   behind the goal line that goaltenders are not allowed to play the puck;
   doing so also results in a delay of game minor.

   Games are overseen by officials that are selected by the league for
   which they work. The most common officiating organization is USA
   Hockey, where referees are selected for games depending on their
   experience level (one, two, three, or four). Officials are divided into
   on-ice officials and off-ice officials.

   A new penalty in the NHL is with the goalies. The goalies now are
   unable to play the puck in the "corners" of the rink near their own
   net. This will result in a two minute penalty against the goalie's
   team. The area immediately behind the net is the only area behind the
   net in which the goalie can play the puck.

   An additional rule that is not a penalty in the new NHL is the two line
   passing. There are no more two line passing whistles blown. Now players
   are able to pass to teammates that are more than the blue and half rink
   line away.

Tactics

   Winning the face off can be the key to some strategies. A game between
   Saginaw and Plymouth's OHL teams.
   Enlarge
   Winning the face off can be the key to some strategies. A game between
   Saginaw and Plymouth's OHL teams.

   An important defensive tactic is checking – attempting to take the puck
   from an opponent or to remove the opponent from play. Forechecking is
   checking in the other team's zone; backchecking is checking while the
   other team is advancing down the ice toward one's own goal. These terms
   usually are applied to checking by forwards. Stick checking, sweep
   checking, and poke checking are legal uses of the stick to obtain
   possession of the puck. Body checking is using one's shoulder or hip to
   strike an opponent who has the puck or who is the last to have touched
   it.

   Offensive tactics include improving a team's position on the ice by
   advancing the puck out of one's zone towards the opponent's zone,
   progressively by gaining lines, first your own blue line, then the red
   line and finally the opponent's blue line. Offensive tactics are
   designed ultimately to score a goal by taking a shot. When a player
   purposely directs the puck towards the opponent's goal, he or she is
   said to shoot the puck.

   A deflection is a shot which redirects a shot or a pass towards the
   goal from another player, by allowing the puck to strike the stick and
   carom towards the goal. A one-timer is a shot which is struck directly
   off a pass, without receiving the pass and shooting in two separate
   actions. A deke (short for decoy) is a feint with the body and/or stick
   to fool a defender or the goalie. Headmanning the puck is the tactic of
   rapidly passing to the player farthest down the ice.

   A team that is losing by one or two goals in the last few minutes of
   play may elect to pull the goalie; that is, removing the goaltender and
   replacing him or her with an extra attacker on the ice in the hope of
   gaining enough advantage to score a goal. However, this tactic is
   extremely risky, and often leads to the opposing team extending their
   lead by scoring a goal in the empty net.

   Although it is officially prohibited in the rules, at the professional
   level fights are sometimes used to affect morale of the teams, with
   aggressors hoping to demoralize the opposing players while exciting
   their own, as well as settling personal scores. Both players in an
   altercation receive five-minute major penalties for fighting. The
   player deemed to be the "instigator" of an NHL fight is penalized an
   additional two minutes for instigating, plus a ten-minute misconduct
   penalty. This so-called instigator rule is highly controversial in NHL
   hockey: many coaches, sportswriters, players and fans feel it prevents
   players from effectively policing the objectionable behaviour of their
   peers, which is often cleverly hidden from referees. They point to less
   extreme on-ice violence during the era before the rule was introduced.
   Toronto Maple Leafs owner Conn Smythe famously observed that "If you
   can't beat 'em in the alley you can't beat 'em on the ice."

Periods and overtime

   A game consists of three periods of twenty minutes each, the clock
   running only when the puck is in play. In international play, the teams
   change ends for the second period, again for the third period, and
   again after ten minutes of the third period. In many North American
   leagues, including the NHL, the last change is omitted. Recreational
   leagues and children's leagues often play shorter games, generally with
   three shorter periods of play.

   Various procedures are used if a game is tied. In tournament play, as
   well as in the NHL playoffs, North Americans favour sudden death
   overtime, in which the teams continue to play 20 minute periods until a
   goal is scored. Up until the 1999-00 season regular season NHL games
   were settled with a single 5 minute sudden death period with 5 players
   (plus a goalie) per side, with the winner awarded 2 points in the
   standings and the loser 0 points. In the event of a tie, each team was
   awarded 1 point. From 1999-00 until 2005-06 the National Hockey League
   decided ties by playing a single five-minute sudden death overtime
   period with each team having 4 players (plus a goalie) per side to
   "open-up" the game. In the event of a tie, each team would still
   receive 1 point in the standings but in the event of a victory the
   winning team would be awarded 2 points in the standings and the losing
   team 1 point. The only exception to this rule is if a team opts to pull
   their goalie in exchange for an extra skater during overtime and is
   subsequently scored upon (an 'Empty Net' goal), - then the losing team
   receives no points for the overtime loss. International play and
   several North American professional leagues, including the NHL (in the
   regular season), now use an overtime period followed by a penalty
   shootout. If the score remains tied after an extra overtime period, the
   subsequent shootout consists of three players from each team taking
   penalty shots. After these six total shots, the team with the most
   goals is awarded the victory. If the score is still tied, the shootout
   then proceeds to a sudden death (actually sudden victory) format.
   Regardless of the number of goals scored during the shootout by either
   team, the final goal recorded will give the winning team one more goal
   than the score at the end of regulation time. In the NHL if a game is
   decided by a shootout the winning team is awarded 2 points in the
   standings and the losing team is awarded 1. Ties no longer occur in the
   NHL. Also, no statistics in the shootout count-no goals are awarded to
   players who score in the shootout, and goalkeepers are not credited
   with saves or goals against. Therefore, it is possible for a goalie to
   lose a game in which he gets a shutout.

Women's ice hockey

   Women playing hockey at Rideau Hall circa 1890 (earliest known image of
   women's hockey)
   Enlarge
   Women playing hockey at Rideau Hall circa 1890 (earliest known image of
   women's hockey)

   Ice hockey is one of the fastest growing women's sports in the world,
   with the number of participants increasing 400 percent in the last 10
   years. While there are not as many organized leagues for women as there
   are for men, there exist leagues of all levels, including the National
   Women's Hockey League, Western Women's Hockey League, and various
   European leagues; as well as university teams, national and Olympic
   teams, and recreational teams. There have been nine IIHF World Women
   Championships.

   The chief difference between women's and men's ice hockey is that
   bodychecking is not allowed in women's ice hockey. After the 1990
   Women's World Championship, bodychecking was eliminated because female
   players in many countries do not have the size and mass seen in North
   American players. There are many who feel that the relative lack of
   physical play is a detriment to its popularity among the mainstream
   hockey public.

   One woman, Manon Rhéaume, appeared as a goaltender for the Tampa Bay
   Lightning in preseason games against the St. Louis Blues and the Boston
   Bruins, and in 2003 Hayley Wickenheiser signed with the Kirkkonummi
   Salamat in the Finnish men's Suomi-sarja league. Several women have
   competed in North American minor leagues, including goaltenders
   Charline Labonté, Kelly Dyer, Erin Whitten, Manon Rhéaume, and forward
   Angela Ruggeiro.

Sledge hockey

   Sledge hockey is a form of ice hockey designed for players with
   physical disabilities affecting their lower bodies. Players sit on
   double-bladed sledges and use two sticks; each stick has a blade at one
   end and small picks at the other. Players use the sticks to pass,
   stickhandle and shoot the puck, and to propel their sledges. The rules
   are very similar to IIHF ice hockey rules.

   Canada is a recognized international leader in the development of the
   sport, and of equipment for players. Much of the equipment for the
   sport was first developed in Canada, such as sledge hockey sticks
   laminated with fibreglass, as well as aluminum shafts with hand carved
   insert blades and special aluminium sledges with regulation skate
   blades.

History of sledge hockey

   Sledge hockey was invented by three Swedish wheelchair athletes on a
   frozen lake at a rehabilitation centre in Stockholm in 1961. By 1969,
   five teams competed for the Stockholm City Championship. In the same
   year, the first international match took place between a Stockhom team
   and players from neighbouring Norway. Regular matches between their
   respective national teams ensued. Norway introduced the sport to
   British wheelchair athletes in 1981.

   In the early 1980s Rolf Johansson, an inventor of the sport, gave one
   of his hockey sledges to Dick Loiselle, the former director of the 1976
   Toronto Olympiad. Mr. Loiselle subsequently introduced sledge hockey in
   Canada, leading to further development internationally. By 1990, the
   United States was also participating in international competition.

   In 1994, sledge hockey was introduced as a demonstration sport at the
   1994 Winter Paralympics in Lillehammer, Norway. The sport became a full
   medal event at the 1998 Winter Paralympics in Nagano, Japan.

International competition

   The annual men's Ice Hockey World Championships are highly regarded by
   Europeans, but they are less important to North Americans because they
   coincide with the Stanley Cup playoffs. Consequently, Canada and the
   United States, and other countries with NHL players have never been
   able to field their best possible teams because many of their players
   are playing for the Stanley Cup. Furthermore, for many years
   professionals were barred from play, so Canada and the United States
   were further hampered. Now that many Europeans play in the NHL, the
   world championships no longer represent all of the world's top players.

   Hockey has been played at the Winter Olympics since 1924 (and at the
   summer games in 1920). Canada won six of the first seven gold medals.
   The United States won their first gold medal in 1960. The USSR won all
   but two Olympic ice hockey gold medals from 1956 to 1988 and won a
   final time as the Unified Team at the 1992 Albertville Olympics. Since
   all players in the communist system were "amateurs," the USSR's elite
   national team was the best the country had to offer, while the best
   Americans, Swedes, Finns, and Canadians were professionals and thus
   barred from Olympic competition. Nonetheless, U.S. amateur college
   players defeated the heavily favored Soviet squad on the way to winning
   the gold medal at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics. This " Miracle on Ice"
   launched a surge of newfound popularity for a game about which many
   Americans had not cared much.

   The 1972 Summit Series and 1974 Summit Series, established Canada and
   the USSR as a major international ice hockey rivalry. It was followed
   by five Canada Cup tournaments, where the best players from every
   hockey nation could play, and two exhibition series, the 1979 Challenge
   Cup and Rendez-vous '87 where the best players from the NHL played the
   USSR. The Canada Cup tournament later became the World Cup of Hockey,
   played in 1996 and 2004. The United States won in 1996 and Canada won
   in 2004. Since 1998, NHL professionals have played in the Olympics,
   giving the best players in the world more opportunities to face off.

   There have been nine women's world championships, beginning in 1990.
   Women's hockey has been played at the Olympics since 1998. Currently
   Canada and the United States dominate the world scene. The 2006 Winter
   Olympic final between Canada and Sweden marked the first women's world
   championship or Olympic final that did not involve both Canada and the
   United States.

Ice hockey in popular culture

Films

   Like all of the major sports, hockey plays a major part in American
   popular culture. Though it is the least popular of the four
   professional sports in the US (American football, baseball, basketball,
   and hockey), a number of notable Hollywood films have been made about
   hockey. Notable hockey films include Slap Shot (1977), The Mighty Ducks
   (1992, successful enough to spawn two sequels and an NHL team named the
   Mighty Ducks of Anaheim), and Miracle (2004). The first two are
   fictional comedies; the last is a drama based on the true story of the
   1980 "Miracle on Ice" USA Olympic gold medal team. Other hockey films
   include Youngblood, Hockey Night, H-E Double Hockey Sticks, Mystery,
   Alaska, The Rocket: The Maurice Richard Story, The Sweater and 1937
   John Wayne film Idol of the Crowds . Many other films are less
   hockey-oriented but nonetheless prominently involve the sport. Both
   Happy Gilmore and The Cutting Edge centre around failed hockey players
   using their talents for other sports ( golf and figure skating,
   respectively), while Wayne's World contains a number of prominent
   references to the sport during the film.

American Television

   Hockey also frequently shows up in American television, particularly in
   shows set in the colder regions of the US such as the Northeast. One of
   the recurring characters on Cheers was Eddie LeBec (played by Jay
   Thomas), a French-Canadian Boston Bruins goalie who married cast
   regular Carla Tortelli. LeBec later was cut from the NHL and joined a
   traveling ice show; the character was eventually killed off. One
   memorable episode of Seinfeld, " The Face Painter", involves the antics
   of Elaine's face-painting boyfriend Puddy, a rabid New Jersey Devils
   fan, and Jerry's stubborn refusal to thank an acquaintance for New York
   Rangers playoff tickets after the game when he had already thanked him
   numerous times beforehand. In NYPD Blue, the character of PA Donna
   Abandando, played by Gail O'Grady and a love interest of Detective Greg
   Medavoy in season 3, was a noted New York Rangers fan, having
   previously dated one of the players. Her Rangers pennant famously hung
   over her desk at the front of the squad room. Actor Richard Dean
   Anderson has incorporated his personal love of hockey into two of his
   lead characters: MacGyver, and Stargate SG-1's Jack O'Neill. In an
   episode of The Simpsons, " Lisa on Ice", Bart is the star of his peewee
   hockey team, The Mighty Pigs, coached by Chief Wiggum. Lisa is
   eventually forced to become a goaltender on an opposing team, The
   Kwik-E-Mart Gougers coached by Apu, to avoid a failing grade in gym,
   and she blossoms from a nervous wreck to an intimidating star.
   Eventually, the two teams play each other. More recently, the FX show
   Rescue Me which stars Denis Leary, has featured hockey games as an
   integral part of several episodes; Hockey Hall of Fame and former
   Boston Bruins forwards Cam Neely and Phil Esposito have had cameos.
   Leary's character plays in the FDNY vs. NYPD hockey game. Many Friends
   episodes also involve Joey, Chandler and Ross attending New York Ranger
   Games.

Canadian Television

   Because of hockey's popularity in Canada, it is considered one of the
   most important elements of Canadian pop culture. It features often in
   homegrown television and movies, such as the CBC Television series
   Hockey: A People's History and Hockeyville, the Global TV reality show
   Making The Cut: Last Man Standing, as well as scripted shows like CTV's
   Power Play (1998-2000) and Showcase's Rent-A-Goalie (2006-).

Music

   Among the more famous hockey references in music is The Hockey Song by
   Canadian folk singer Stompin' Tom Connors. Also, the American rock
   group Five For Fighting, whose name is a hockey penalty reference
   chosen by singer John Ondrasik, who is a major ice hockey fan. Also,
   L.A. hardcore band 'Donnybrook' takes its name form a slang term
   referring to a fight between players during a hockey game.

Attendance Records

The Cold War

   The largest crowd to ever watch an ice hockey game in person occurred
   on Saturday October 6, 2001 on the campus of Michigan State University
   in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. "The Cold War" was played
   between archrivals Michigan State University and the University of
   Michigan in which 74,544 packed Spartan Stadium (an American college
   football stadium) to watch the MSU Spartans and UM Wolverines skate to
   a 3-3 tie. Two 300-piece marching bands were present on field and the
   game was televised internationally.

The Heritage Classic

   The largest crowd to ever watch an NHL game was during the Heritage
   Classic when 57,167 people watched the Edmonton Oilers battle the
   Montreal Canadiens. Montreal edged Edmonton 4-3. One of the most
   memorable things about this game was Canadiens' goaltender Jose
   Theodore's toque. There was also the MegaStars game, an oldtimers game,
   before which pitted the alumni of the Oilers against a squad of former
   Canadiens. This is the only alumni game in which Wayne Gretzky has
   played since retiring, and he maintains it will also be the last.

Number of registered players by Countries

      Country     Players % of Population
   Canada         574,125 1.76%
   United States  485,017 0.16%
   Russia         77,702  0.05%
   Czech Republic 72,075  0.7%
   Sweden         65,613  0.7%
   Finland        52,597  1.0%
   Germany        25,934  0.03%
   Slovakia       12,375  0.23%
   Denmark        4,255   0.075%
   Belarus        2,850   0.02%
   Latvia         2,740   0.12%
   Kazakhstan     1,800   0.01%
   Ukraine        1,728   0.003%
   Slovenia       980     0.05%

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_hockey"
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