HISTORY ON HOCKEY

For more than a century, hockey historians have found that precisely tracing the sports origin is not only a difficult task but, a virtual impossibility. Therefore I can only try to deduce for myself, from the records, claims, and accounts, which are available to me, when, where, and by whom the first ice hockey was played. I'll also discuss the early problems and obstacles that the NHL encountered. Plus I will also tell a little bit about early equipment, along with early game play and ice conditions that players encountered. Lastly, the Stanley Cup, which is the most prized and oldest sports award of the NHL. It has been won many times, by many different teams. Ice hockey is traceable to games played on fields as far back as nearly 2500 years ago. In 478 BC, a Greek soldier, Hemostocoles, built a wall in Athens which contained a sculpture scene portraying two athletes in a faceoff-like stance holding sticks similar to those later used in field hockey. Perhaps Native Americans were the first to play hockey like games. The Indians of Canada invented the field game lacrosse, which is known by the legislative act as Canada's and national sport. The Alogonquins who inhabited the shores The NHL's infant seasons land from 1917-18 to 1924-25. They were to be years marked by financial pains, instances of superb play, and the establishment of one as-yet to on broken record and moment of terrible sadness in the Stanley cup play. 1917-18 - after deciding to play a 22-game season, the NHL went into action for the first time on December 19, 1917, sending Montreal against Toronto, which was played on Toronto's Home facility, the only artificial-ice rink in the circuit at the time, (Montreal took a 10-9 win). Unfortunately the game only attracted 700 fans, despite the fact that men in uniform were admitted with no charge. The meager crowd left no doubt that pro hockey, even under a new banner, was still suffering from the army scandal, most of the greatest players were off fighting at war. Again on the disaster side, the Westmount Arena burned to the ground in early 1918. Montreal had not drawn good crowds during the season and with arena lost, the owners decided to call it quits. What has long been one of Canada's finest amateurs than professional teams came to an end. The actual establishment of the NHL took a very short time, the whole thing boiled down to just one meeting on November 22, 1917 at Montreal Windsor Hotel. (The league is born). This meeting consisted of NHA owners representing the Canadians, the Wanderers, the Quebec Bulldogs, and the Ottawa Senators. (The NHA was an amateur league established before the NHL, in which Lord Stanley's Cup was awarded to the champion of the league). These teams and team owners came up with a radical plan in mind: the creation of new league. They were tired of the NHA's problems.