Early history
The etymology of the word "hockey" is unclear. There is a claim that as early as 1363, there was a reference to a ball game by this name in England in an order issued by King Edward III in which he banned ball games, including hockey. Still, the name "hockey" appears only in modern English translations, and in the original Latin order, there is no reference to a game by this name. In 1527, certain ball games were also prohibited in the laws of Galway in Ireland, including "throwing a small ball with sticks or hockey boards" (originally hockey).
The first recorded mention of the game called "hockey" in English and in the spelling known today is from a book called "Juvenile Sports and Pastimes" (in English: Juvenile Sports and Pastimes) published in England in 1776 and included a chapter called "New Improvements in the Game of Hockey" (in English: New Improvements On the Game of Hockey). The chapter also contains the first known description and first known illustration of a game called hockey (actually an early incarnation of field hockey). It is mentioned as a game played as early as the 1840s.
The games considered to be the origins of the combination of hockey and the ice surface were brought to North America by immigrants from Europe, who brought with them games such as Irish hurling and the similar Scottish game of shinty.
To this day, hockey "without rules" (improvised play on the street, on frozen lakes, etc.) is referred to in Canada as "shiny" (incarnation of "shinty"). The new game quickly developed in Nova Scotia as well. Another game that contributed to the development of modern ice hockey is bandy, a game in which 11 players in each team try to hit a ball into the opponent's goal on an ice surface the size of a football field, which was also brought to Canada by European immigrants and soldiers.
The first written mention of a hockey game played on ice is in a letter written by Arctic ocean explorer John Franklin, dated November 6, 1825, about one of his expeditions in the Northwest Territories of Canada: "Until the snow fell, the game of hockey played on the ice was This morning's sport." The letter does not state whether the game was played while skating or if it was actually a field hockey game.
The beginning of the days of modern ice hockey
The pioneer of modern ice hockey was McGill University in Montreal, whose lecturers and students played the first recorded game played indoors on March 3, 1875. McGill University personnel were also the first to use a puck instead of a ball. They founded the first club in Canada, followed by other clubs that enabled holding tournaments and establishing rules. In 1886, an amateur hockey association was established in Canada, and an organized league was organized for the first time.
McGill University men also initiated the game's first organized rules, the "Seven Laws of Hockey," which were formulated in 1887.
The game came to Europe in 1885 in a match between the University of Oxford and its traditional rival in other sports, the University of Cambridge.
In 1892, the Governor General of Canada, Lord Frederick Stanley, donated a trophy to be awarded to the best team in Canada during the year. The medal was first awarded in 1893 and, over the years, became the Stanley Cup, which is currently awarded to the NHL champion.
In the United States, the game also started in universities, mainly at Yale University. The first major league in the United States was founded in New York in 1896.
The professional era
As early as 1902, a league in Pennsylvania began paying players for the game, thus effectively establishing the first professional league. At the same time, professional leagues began to form in the provinces of Canada. In 1910, Canada's first nationwide professional league, the National Hockey Association (NHA), was established. The NHA league changed the existing rules and established the periods used today in the game - three 20-minute halves and the system of offences and penalties. In 1917, following power struggles that led to changes in its structure, the NHA became the NHL - the National Hockey League. In 1924, the NHL spread to the United States, and the Boston Bruins team was founded, which plays in the NHL today. In those years, the NHL still competed in other professional leagues in Canada, and the champions of the various leagues met at the end of the season for a tournament to win the Stanley Cup. But starting in 1926, with the collapse of the competing leagues, the trophy became the property of the NHL alone.
After many upheavals in the first half of the 20th century, the NHL settled in 1942 on the composition of six permanent teams - the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, New York Rangers, Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Blackhawks, the composition that lasted 25 years. The six groups are called the Original Six (in English: The Original Six). Since then, the NHL has expanded significantly, with most of its expansion being in the southern United States, up to its current composition of 32 teams.
In Europe, the first nationwide league was the Swiss League, founded in 1916. It is currently the oldest active league in the world. Sweden's league was founded in 1922 and Finland's in 1928, both as amateur leagues, which were replaced by professional leagues in 1975. Czechoslovakia's league was established in the 1930s, while in the Soviet Union, the industry rose from an inferior status to centre stage after World War II. Eastern European leagues were not officially considered professional, but they were in practice.
The International Ice Hockey League (LIHG), which later became the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), recognized as the highest body of the industry in the world, was established in 1908 with four founding countries - France, Switzerland, Great Britain and Belgium, with Bohemia joining later that year as the fifth country in the organization. In 1910, the LIHG held its first event, the European Championship, in Switzerland. With the development of the sport in the world and the acceptance of more countries to the organization, the sport became an Olympic sport in 1920, and in 1930, the World Championship was held for the first time.
The NHL league and the international ice hockey competitions under the management of the IIHF were conducted without any common framework until 1972, when the summit series was held that brought together the Soviet Union team, which was considered the leading team of international ice hockey, with the Canadian team, which for the first time was composed of the best stars of the NHL. The series opened a new era of cooperation between the two bodies in a series of joint ventures for clubs and national teams, culminating in the participation of the NHL players as part of their national teams in the ice hockey tournament at the Winter Olympics, from the Nagano Olympics (1998) to the Sochi Olympics (2014).
In recent years, the trend of leagues uniting teams from several countries has been increasing in Europe, including teams that leave the league in their country and join a club based in a neighbouring country. For example, the KHL league based in Russia also unites teams from neighbouring countries such as China, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. In the past, it also united teams from Finland, Latvia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Croatia.
Extended values:
The summit series.
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