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TABLE OF CONTENT

NO CONTENT PAGE
1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 2
2 INTRODUCTION 3
3 MAJOR COMPITITIONS 21
4 FAMOUS PERSONALITIES 27
5 REFERENCE 32






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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Special thanks go to our caring and great lecturer, Mr Badrul Ihsan b. Mahidin, for
the supervision and support in which she gave has truly provided great assistance in the
progress and the smoothness of this assignment. The cooperation is much indeed
appreciated. Thank you so much for being such a helpful lecturer.
It is indeed our pleasure to receive your informative guidance during this whole
semester, whether or not it is academic related or non-academic related matters. Your
enthusiasm had indeed inspired the passion in us to pursue excellence in Sport Science.
Besides that, this assignment had inculcated the value of being cooperative as a team
member in us and we had definitely acquired a brand new experience throughout this
whole assignment.
Also great appreciation goes to the rest of the Group A members whom had helped
us from time to time during the implementation of this assignment. The whole program
really has brought us together and got us bonded. We also want to convey our greatest
gratitude to our family especially our parents. They all have been the guiding light of our
lives, leading to what we are now.
Hopefully this assignment would be a significant memory whereby all of us could
reminiscence in the future.







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INTRODUCTION OF ICE HOCKEY































The San Jose Sharks attempting to prevent the Anaheim Ducks from scoring a goal.
Highest governing body IIHF
Nickname(s) "The fastest game on earth"
Hockey
First played 19th century Canada
Characteristics
Contact Yes
Team members 6 per side (including goaltender)
Mixed gender Yes, separate competitions
Categorization Team sport, winter sport
Equipment Hockey puck
Hockey stick
Hockey skates
Venue Hockey arena
Olympic 1920 (summer)
1924 to present (winter)
Country or region Worldwide
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History of Ice Hockey
The Ball-and-Stick on Ice:

Ball-and-stick games are almost as old as civilization itself. Its earliest origins may be
from Persia, Egypt or China, while archaeological evidence shows an early ball-and-stick
game played in Greece in the 400s BCE. As civilization spread, so did the games. And
eventually, as the civilized world went north, ball-and-stick moved onto the ice. Paintings in
the Netherlands in the 1600s showed the Dutch playing a version of golf on the ice;
Scotlands Edinburgh Skating Club, formed in 1642, is considered the oldest in the world,
and records from Irelands Dublin Evening Post have a report of men playing hurling on ice.
When the Europeans made their way across the Atlantic to North America, they discovered
Native Americans had their own games, the forerunners of lacrosse, and some Native
Americans in South Dakota essentially played lacrosse on ice. The modern idea of field
hockey sprouted out of these traditions, and the modern sport of ice hockey was relegated
primarily to small towns, and in no organized setting, until the late 1800s.
In 1872, a young man from Halifax, Nova Scotia named James Creighton moved to
Montreal, bringing the sport of ice hockey (hereafter referred to just as hockey) with him
more particularly, bringing with him hockey sticks and skates. The skates, which were
patented by a Nova Scotia company in 1866, featured rounded blades held onto boots by
metal clamps (the first time that had ever been done and not too different from modern
skates). After introducing the game to his friends, Creighton, in 1875, organized a group of
players to practice the sport indoors at the Victoria Skating Rink. The sport had never taken
hold indoors, forced outdoors by the societal belief that ice hockey only belonged on ponds,
due in large part to the danger of a ball flying around inside. Creighton solved the problem
by creating a flat, circular piece of wood, the first hockey puck. After practicing for about a
month, Creighton staged a public exhibition of the sport on March 3, 1875. While some
praised the new sport, others decried the violence in the game.
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The earliest games in the sport were not carbon copies of the current version;
the Halifax Rules , which Creighton played under in the March 3
rd
game, said the puck
couldnt leave the ice, no forward passing was permitted and the goalie couldnt fall down
or kneel to make saves. As the sports popularity skyrocketed in Montreal in the late 1800s,
the official rules of the sport were created, the Montreal Rules, in 1877. Injured players
could now be replaced, team sizes were set at seven a side (down from eight) and the rinks
measurements were now made standard.
Lord Stanley:

Hockey took the country by storm, as hockey teams sprouted up across
eastern Canada, both at universities and at amateur athletic clubs. McGill University (at
which James Creighton studied law) established the first university hockey team in 1877,
and the 1880s saw an explosion of teams. The first hockey leagues formed in the mid-1880s,
while the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada (AHAC), which began in 1885, was the first
national hockey organization. At the Montreal Winter Carnival in 1889, at a match between
the Montreal Victorias and the Amateur Athletic Association, Sir Frederick Arthur Stanley,
Governor General of Canada, with his wife and two children stopped to watch the game.
Stanley was taken with the game, and helped to form a team, the Rideau Rebels and a
league, the Ontario Hockey Association (which formed in 1890). Two years after the
formation of the OHA, Stanley created the concept of a regional competition and gave a cup
to be awarded to the victor, the Dominion Challenge Trophy. In 1893, it was decided the cup
would never become the property of any team and was renamed the Stanley Hockey
Championship Cup. While the cup, about the size of an association football, has undergone
several cosmetic changes over the years, the Stanley Cup is still awarded to the champion of
the National Hockey League today.
Growth:
As the country spread west, so did the sport. The Manitoba Hockey Association was
formed in 1892, and first competed for the Stanley Cup four years later. In their first
attempt at capturing the Cup, the Winnipeg team defeated their counterparts from
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Montreal, (the first team the Cup winners didnt come from Montreal), and the reports of
the victory came down in hockeys first play-by-play, done by telegraph. The Cup continued
to be awarded, year after year, to teams mainly from Montreal, the hockey capital of the
world. In 1900, a team from Halifax competed for the Stanley Cup, losing to the Montreal
Shamrocks 11-0. However, the Halifax team had come west with the practice of putting up
fishing nets on the back of the metal posts that served as goals. The tradition stayed, and
the first goal nets were born.
Throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s, the game spread not only geographically
but also across the classes. While the amateur athletic clubs who played organized hockey
were made up of upper class men, hockey leagues and teams formed among both the
middle and lower classes, often by banks or mining companies for example. Women also
played early organized hockey, forming their own leagues by the turn of the century. The
first black hockey league began in Nova Scotia, the Colored League of the Maritimes, in
1900. Its creation was spurred because the white leagues wouldnt allow black players. The
game had also spread all the way to the Pacific in Canada and south to the United States by
1900, in places like Vancouver, the Yukon Territory, New England and Michigan. Early
hockey, however, was also plagued by excessive violence. In two cases, one in 1905 and
another in 1907, hockey players were put on trial after blows that killed other hockey
players. Both times the players were found innocent, but the press and many in the country
(including the juries) called on legislation to be enacted that would curb the violence.
Professional Hockey:

Hockeys popularity led to serious moneymaking for the owners; the Stanley Cup in
particular was a huge financial success, drawing large crowds who paid good money to
watch the games. Hockeys success also led to gambling on the sport. However, despite all
the money coming from the sport, almost none was going to the players. The leagues in
Canada and the U.S. were strictly amateur, and though money often changed hands under
the table, the vast majority of players were never paid. That all changed in 1904. Jack
Gibson, born in Ontario in 1880 and a hockey star there, moved to Michigan to study
dentistry in Detroit shortly after the turn of the century. After setting up a practice in
Houghton, Michigan, Gibson formed the Portage Lake hockey team in 1902. Gibsons team
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was given a new arena by local businessman James Dee, who invested a great deal of
money in the team. The Portage Lake squad was exceptionally good, beating most
opponents over the next two years. This was helped by the fact that Gibson had been
recruiting Canadian stars to come play for the team, offering to pay them.
In 1904, Gibsons Portage Lakers beat the Stanley Cup champion Montreal
Wanderers. The success of the two game series called the World Championship led Dee
and Gibson to form the International Hockey League, the first professional hockey league.
The leagues first teams came from Houghton, Calumet, Michigan, Pittsburgh, Sault Ste.
Marie, Michigan and Sault Ste. Marie, Canada. Hod Stuart, star of the Portage Lake team,
took advantage of free agency in the new league and signed with Calumet as player-coach
for $1,800 per season (worth $44,700 today). As the league experienced early success,
players from Canada swarmed over the border, drawn by the prospect of being paid to play
hockey. Canadian hockey finally responded with the creation of the Ontario Professional
Hockey League in 1907, which helped persuade some Canadian stars to cross back over the
border. In the other Canadian hockey leagues, players were now being paid quietly, drawing
even more back to the country, and between the Canadian hockey leagues now paying their
talent and a recession, the International Hockey League folded in 1907.
New Leagues and New Teams:
Late in 1909, the Eastern Canada Hockey Association had folded because of disputes
between new owner J.P. Doran and the rest of the owners. The others owners folded the
league only to start a new one, the Canadian Hockey Association, shutting out Doran. As a
result, Dorans Montreal Wanderers formed a new league of their own, the National Hockey
Association, with small town teams from Haileybury, Cobalt and Renfrew, while adding a
new team by forming the Montreal Canadiens, an all French-Canadian team. This new
league was well-financed, with early stars Lester and Frank Patrick making $3,000 and
$2,000 per season. The biggest star of the new league (and its wealthiest) was Fred Taylor,
who had played in the IHL before going back to Canada to play for the Ottawa Senators.
When the Renfrew Millionaires of the NHA came calling, Taylor negotiated a contract of
$5,200 per season (which, at the time, was just 12 games). At the time, that salary was more
than double that of the Canadian prime minister. The $5,200 salary broke down to just over
$433 per game. In todays money, that comes to $126,000 per season, $10,500 per game.
However, the pricey players spelled trouble for the league, and the NHA by 1912 was
suffering heavily in financial terms, with small town teams Renfrew, Cobalt and Haileybury
all dropping out, and two Toronto teams taking their place.
Meanwhile, as the NHA was suffering, brothers Lester and Frank Patrick had moved
to the Pacific coast of Canada, to Vancouver, where they started up the Pacific Coast Hockey
Association. Hockey had never really caught on on the west coast of Canada, primarily
because there was so little natural ice that formed. The Patricks solved this problem by
building the Vancouver Arena, the worlds largest artificial ice arena (which had previously
been Madison Square Garden in New York). The first pro hockey game ever played west of
Ontario and Michigan was in 1912, and the Patrick brothers had made it possible by
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ensuring they lured players west with plenty of money, poaching many from the NHA. Still,
the money wasnt quite the same in the PCHAs second season, Fred Taylor was convinced
to come west to play for $1,800 a season, more than he could get elsewhere, but far less
than his salary from just three years earlier. In 1915, the Stanley Cup ceased to be a
challenge cup, as the NHA and PCHA agreed to compete for the prize at the end of each
season, with Vancouver winning the PCHAs first Stanley Cup that year. A year prior, the
New Westminster team of the PCHA had been sold and moved to Portland, Oregon, and in
1915, a new franchise was formed in Seattle. The Patricks had created a truly international
league. In 1916, the Portland team became the first American team to play for the Stanley
Cup, losing to the Canadiens in a five-game series, and the next year, the Seattle
Metropolitans became the first American team to win the Stanley Cup.
But Lester and Frank did not merely change the sport through their money; they also
brought new innovations that would revolutionize the game. In 1912, the Patricks debuted
numbered uniforms and allowed goalies to drop to their feet in order to make saves. The
next year, they came up with the concept of zoned hockey, creating the blue lines, and
allowed forward passing in those zones.
The War and Beyond:
World War I claimed millions of lives, and hockey players were among those lost. As
Canada entered the war (it was still under British control, and went to war when the U.K.
did), many hockey teams were gutted, losing quite a few players. However, play went on,
and new teams started to pop up soldier teams. Units put together teams made up of
their soldiers, and exhibitions were often played, some of them earning nice profits for the
soldiers. One soldier team, led by Conn Smythe, who would go on to play a big role in
hockey, earned a profit of $6,706 for one game played ($135,000 modern), with the bulk of
the profit coming from a wager with the opposing teams owner. That caught the attention
of the NHA, who put together a team from the 228
th
battalion and made them a member of
the NHA during the war.
The war also helped the cause of womens rights and women in hockey. Before the
war, women in Canada could neither vote nor own property; once the war began and
women went to work, those things changed. And although women had been playing hockey
almost since the sport began, the war gave womens hockey a far bigger spotlight, and they
flourished, with some rumors circulating that the pro mens leagues were even going to
consider signing some of the top female stars. While that never came to fruition, it
underlined the quality of the womens play.
When Montreal beat Portland to win the Stanley Cup in 1916, it was the first Stanley
Cup victory for the Canadiens. They would go on to win more Stanley Cup than any hockey
team in history. Yet, that first victory was overshadowed by severely low attendance figures;
the war hurt hockey greatly, primarily in the pocketbook. However, when the Canadiens
travelled to Seattle to play the Stanley Cup the next year, with the Metros taking the Cup, it
helped revive some interest in the sport, and as the world exited from world war, hockey
recovered. Ironically, however, the only Stanley Cup series ever cancelled after a full season
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had been played came just a year after the war ended, when, in 1919, the series was shut
down due to the flu epidemic.
1920 also saw hockey at the Olympics for the first time. Though world hockey had
been around for the vast majority of the 20
th
century, its quality was not very high. The
International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) had been formed in 1908, made up of Belgium,
Bohemia (Czechoslovakia), England, France and Switzerland, with Germany joining a year
later. Canada and the U.S., the true centers of the hockey world, did not join until 1920, the
year of the Olympics. Though the Olympics that year were not well attended held in
Antwerp, the majority of the public could not put together enough money to attend
hockey was a huge draw, with the Canadians winning handily.
The NHL:
During the war years, as pro hockey struggled to stay afloat, numerous
disagreements arose among the owners, particularly Toronto Blueshirts owners Eddie
Livingstone, who regularly flouted league rules and angered the other owners.
Things got so bad that prior to the 1917-18 season, the other NHA owners began to
work on shutting down the league and start a new one, leaving Eddie Livingstone out in the
cold. In response, Livingstone transferred ownership of his team to a Toronto arena
ownership group; when the Quebec Bulldogs had to shut down, the other owners allowed
Toronto into the fold of their new league, the National Hockey League (NHL). The NHL, after
its first season, quickly moved to become the premier professional league in hockey, naming
itself pro hockeys governing body.

However, the early NHL was not a massive organization; comprised of four teams
initially, it lost one (the Montreal Wanderers) after its first season. Despite adding a team in
Hamilton along the way, the NHL only had three real, stable franchises: the Montreal
Canadiens, the Toronto St. Patricks (Livingstones old team) and the Ottawa Senators. When
Hamiltons players went on strike in 1925, NHL president Frank Calder suspended the entire
team and fined them. The NHL, wanting to branch out to the U.S., then sold the team to a
New York entrepreneur and renamed them the New York Americans. The Americans
debuted at the newly built Madison Square Garden (which replaced its predecessor in
1925).
Meanwhile, out west, the PCHA had been struggling along in the late 1910s and into
the 1920s, and in 1924, they merged with the Western Canada Hockey League, which had
started up in 1921. After two years, the new league (the Western Hockey League) finally
folded, and the Patrick brothers sold off their two remaining teams to owners from Detroit
and Chicago. Those two teams joined the NHL, which now had teams in Boston and
Pittsburgh in addition to Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and New York. That same year, 1926,
New York businessman Tex Rickard (who had spearheaded the building of Madison Square
Garden and the addition of the New York Americans to the NHL) sought to form his own
team, also in New York, having them named the Rangers (a word play on Texas Rangers).
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The NHL had truly taken form, and established itself as the premier pro hockey league in the
world.
Trophies:
With the PCHA/WCHL/WHL now out of the way, the NHL took control of the Stanley
Cup, awarding it to the victor of the league. The NHL also added more trophies to its case,
awarding them each year. The first trophy was the Prince of Wales trophy, which the Prince
of Wales had donated to the NHL in 1924. Initially, it was given to the winner of the NHL
(while the Stanley Cup was awarded to the victor of the series between the NHL and WHL).
After the WHL folded, the Prince of Wales trophy was presented to the regular season
champion, while the Stanley Cup was given to the playoff champs. Years later, in the 60s,
when the league expanded, the Wales trophy would play a different role.
In that same year, 1924, Dr. David Hart, father of Cecil Hart, who managed the
Canadiens to three Stanley Cup wins, donated a trophy to the league to be awarded to the
player considered most valuable to his team. The Hart Memorial Trophy is still awarded to
the league MVP, as voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA). Its
first winner was Frank Nighbor of the Ottawa Senators. Nighbor also received the first Lady
Byng Trophy. In 1925, Lady Byng, wife of Canadas governor general, invited Nighbor to
dinner, impressed by his play. After asking Nighbor if he thought the NHL would accept the
trophy to be awarded to the most gentlemanly player (and Nighbor answered that he
thought the NHL would), Lady Byng awarded the trophy to Nighbor. The award is still given
today to the player who shows the most sportsmanship, again as chosen by the PHWA.
Finally, the Vezina trophy was first introduced in the 1920s. Georges Vezina, who had
played goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens for years, collapsed on the ice in the 1925-26
season, suffering from tuberculosis. He died a year later. At the end of the 26-27 season,
Leo Dandurand, Louis Letourneau and Joe Cattarinich, owners of the Montreal Canadiens,
gave the trophy to the league, awarding it to the goalie of the team with the fewest goals
against it. In 1981, the Vezina was changed, awarded instead to the goaltender considered
to be the best in the league (as determined by the PHWA).
War Again: the 1940s:
As had happened during World War I, World War II saw the creation of several
military teams across Canada. However, unlike before, public outcry eventually worked
against them. As most of the military teams stayed at home for the early part of the war,
the public thought it outrageous that hockey players essentially got deferments. The
military responded by almost immediately sending the soldier teams to war. Still, many
enlisted players never had to fight overseas; the Montreal Canadiens in particular largely
escaped the conflict because of a loophole in the system, which allowed them to stay home
if their jobs were considered essential to the war effort. The Toronto Maple Leafs would
have mostly done the same had Conn Smythe not been so devoted to the military. With the
Canadiens able to stay at home, they dominated the early part of the 1940s in hockey. This
domination was helped by the addition of a young player from Montreal named Maurice
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Richard. The man who eventually earned the nickname Rocket was a scoring machine: in
the 1944 Stanley Cup Finals, Rocket Richard scored five goalsin one game, including three
in the first period alone (known as a natural hat trick). The next year, Richard would become
the first player to score 50 goals in 50 games, a record that would stand for over 30 years.
Richard would go on to be the first NHL player to record 500 goals in a career.
The 40s also saw an innovation in the game that helped significantly increase
scoring: the creation of the center red line. The brainchild of NY Rangers coach Frank
Boucher and Boston Bruins coach Art Ross, the red line, which divides the rink in half, was
put in place so players could now pass the puck out of their own zone (which had previously
been illegal). This helped open up scoring: scoring averages went from 2.5 goals per game in
the late 30s to 4.08 gpg in 1944, the first year of the new line. That same season, six NHLers
scored 30 or more goals, the first time in NHL history that happened.
In 1947, the NHL had another first: their first All-Star game. The exhibition, played
between a team of NHL All-Stars and the defending Cup champion Maple Leafs, raised
money for the newly created NHL Pension Fund. The All-Stars won 4-3 and the game raised
more than $25 thousand ($240 thousand today). In that same season, 46-47, the NHL
increased the regular season from 50 to 60 games. Just three years later, in the 49-50
season, the number of games would again go up, this time to 70. That number would not
change again until expansion hit the league. Also in the 47 season, Boston Bruins coach Art
Ross gave the NHL a new trophy, named for him, to be awarded to the NHLs scoring leader
at the end of each season.
Mr. Hockey: the 50s:
The latter part of the 1940s belonged to the Maple Leafs; since the NHL assumed
control of the Stanley Cup in 26, no team had won it more than twice in a row. That
changed in the last three years of the 40s, when Toronto won three straight, and four times
in five years (winning in 45 and 47-49). Their opponents in the last two Stanley Cup
victories were the Detroit Red Wings, a sign of things to come. In the first year of the new
decade, the Red Wings took home the Stanley Cup, and would go on to dominate the first
half of the 1950s. Of the first six Stanley Cup finals in the 50s, the Red Wings would win four
of them. The Winged Wheelmen were led by Gordie Howe, a brilliant hockey player who
began his career in the NHL in the 1946-47 season, and would go on to play professional
hockey for 31 more season, spanning four decades. Nicknamed Mr. Hockey, Howe won six
Art Ross trophies, six Hart Trophies and when he retired held the records for goals and
points, considered by many to be the greatest hockey player of all time (before Gretzky
came along, anyway).
Just as the Detroit Red Wings had faced the Maple Leafs twice at the end of the
Leafs string of Stanley Cup wins in the 40s and went on to form their own dynasty, the
Montreal Canadiens did the same, facing the Red Wings in 54 and 55, losing both times.
However, the rest of the decade belonged to the Habs (their nickname, short for Les
Habitants). Beginning in 1956, the Canadiens went on a string of five straight Stanley Cup
victories, unmatched either before or since. The Canadiens even switched coaches twice
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during their run, but remained unbeatable for that stretch. Just as the Red Wings were led
by Gordie Howe, the Canadiens were led by Maurice Richard and a newcomer, the young
(and handsome) hockey star Jean Beliveau.
Three innovations that changed the game forever appeared in the 1950s, and two of
them actually began in the same year. The first was television. Though televised hockey had
actually appeared as far back as 1939, it was an extremely rare occurrence. In 1952,
however, as more people began to own televisions, hockey waded into the pool of TV. The
first to dip their toes were the Chicago Black Hawks, who decided to broadcast weekend
matinee games on Saturdays (not wanting to compete with Saturday night television
programs. The Saturday matinees became a staple for the Hawks for years. That same year,
a program began in Canada that goes in to this day: Hockey Night in Canada. The first airing
was on November 1, 1952, showing a game between the Canadiens and Maple Leafs
(beginning in the second period, as Conn Smythe didnt want to show it all). Smythe had
sold the rights to Imperial Oil for $100 per game that first year (just $808 today), but after
seeing it was a smash success, Smythe sold three years worth of games for $450 thousand
dollars beginning that next year (worth $3.6 million today).
The second innovation (and arguably just as significant) was the invention of the
Zamboni. TheZamboni, the ice-smoothing tractor used at ice rinks around the world, was
created by Frank Zamboni, who opened an outdoor ice rink in southern California in 1940.
Zamboni, with backgrounds in both auto repair and refrigeration, wanted a less time-
consuming way to resurface the ice, coming up with the machine that drives over the ice,
shaving it, smoothing and squeeging it with clean water and recycling the dirty water for
reuse. The first Zamboni used in an NHL game was between, again, Montreal and Toronto in
1952.
The last innovation occurred at the very end of the decade. Canadien goaltender
Jacques Plante, winner of five Vezina trophies and five Stanley Cups, had been hit in the face
by a puck in 1955, sidelining him for five weeks, and again in 1956. After the 56 strike,
Plante mentioned in an interview hed be interested in a facemask of some kind. A Quebec
fan sent Plante a plastic facemask that Plante used in practice for the next three years. In
57, a man named Bill Burchmore sent Plante a letter, telling him about a facemask made of
fiberglass that could be molded to fit Plantes face that Burchmore had been working with.
Together, Plante and Burchmore perfect the design, but it wasnt until 1959 that it finally
made its debut in the NHL. Plantes coach, Toe Blake, refused to allow Plante to wear the
mask, worried it would distract him. On November 1, after Plante was hit in the face with a
slapshot, he refused to go back in unless he could use the facemask. Blake finally agreed,
and after the Canadiens went on a 10-game winning streak with Plante wearing the
facemask, it became a permanent fixture, both in Montreal and across the league.
Canadian (and Canadien) Domination:
The 1950s had been primarily controlled by two teams: the Red Wings and the
Canadiens. The 60s would be no different, only this time, it was Toronto who shared the
decade with Montreal. Of the 10 Stanley Cup series in the decade, all but one were won by
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a team from Canada. Montreal won five titles, Toronto four and the Chicago Black Hawks
won their first Stanley Cup in 23 years when they hoisted the Cup in 61 and would not do
so again for 49 years. Until 1968, only four teams even played in the Stanley Cup finals:
Montreal (who won in 60 and 65-66), Toronto (who won from 62-64 and in 67), Chicago
and Detroit (losers in 61, 63, 64 and 66). Finally, in the last two years of the decade, a new
team arrived on the scene, the St. Louis Blues (a new team to the league, as well). However,
the Blues could not get past the Canadiens, who finished the decade with back-to-back
wins. The Blues were coached by Scotty Bowman, who, when his career was done, would
have more Stanley Cup victories than any coach in history with nine (compiled with three
different teams, none of them the Blues, who have never won a Stanley Cup).
The Maple Leafs, however, enjoyed their success in the 60s without a familiar face
at the helm: in 1961, Conn Smythe, now 66 years old, decided to sell his shares of the team
to his son. His son immediately sold the team and the arena away. Though Smythe stayed
on as chairman of the board until 1964, his days of running the team were over. In 1964,
upon his retirement, the league awarded a new trophy at the end of the Stanley Cup finals,
the Conn Smythe Trophy, to the player voted most valuable in the playoffs.
Expansion:
The St. Louis Blues were not the only new hockey team to appear in the late 1960s;
1967 saw the first large-scale expansion in league history, with the NHL adding six teams to
its existing six. The existing six teams (the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs,
Boston Bruins, New York Rangers, Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Black Hawks) were
nicknamed the Original Six, a moniker that has stuck to this day. The expansion was spurred
by a league that had formed in the 1950s, the Western Hockey League. The WHL, which
began in 1952, focused its attention on California, and experienced early success there. The
WHL even intended to establish itself as a major league, competing for the Stanley Cup.
They never reached that status, and in 1974 went under. However, their success on the
West Coast (in addition to the NHLs desire to cash in on the TV market there) led to NHL
expansion.
The six new teams were the Los Angeles Kings, California Seals, Minnesota North
Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins and St. Louis Blues. The Seals would, in the
span of just ten years, change their name to the Oakland Seals, California Golden Seals,
Cleveland Barons (after moving to Cleveland) and then merge with the North Stars. The
omission of a Canadian team from the expansion caused considerable ire in Canada, made
worse by the addition of St. Louis. Vancouver had been considered a strong candidate for
expansion, but Montreal and Toronto reportedly didnt want to share TV revenues. St. Louis
hadnt even put in a bid, but Chicago Black Hawks owner Bill Wirtz owned a stadium in St.
Louis, and therefore supported putting a team there. The Blues were easily the most
successful expansion team early on, making three straight Stanley Cup finals.
The addition of the six new teams also divided the league for the first time.
Previously, the league had only one division; now that six more teams were added, the
league split into two divisions, the East and West. With expansion also came an increase in
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the number of regular season games, which went up to 74 in the 1967-68 season. Just one
year later, they increased to 76. New to the divisions were awards for regular-season
triumph: the winner of the East Division received the Prince of Wales Trophy. The winner of
the West got the Clarence Campbell Bowl, named for a former president of the NHL.
Ups and Downs: the 1970s:
The 70s were a tumultuous time for hockey in North America. In the 70s, seven
different professional leagues closed down operations. The Western, Eastern, North
American, Pacific, Southern and Northeastern Hockey Leagues all closed up shop, as did the
World Hockey Association. Each league was either set up as a rival to the NHL or as a minor
pro league. The World Hockey Association, however, had a far greater impact on the league
than any other. The WHA, which began operations in 1972, was mostly made up of teams
from cities that had been rejected by the NHL for being too small-market: the New England
Whalers, Alberta Oilers, Houston Aeros, Calgary Broncos, Ottawa Nationals and Quebec
Nordiques. The new league received a boon when they successfully challenged the NHLs
reserve clause, which allowed NHLers to move to the WHA. The most high profile of these
defections was that of Bobby Hull, the Black Hawks star who signed with the Winnipeg Jets
of the WHA for a then-record ten year, $2.75 million deal (worth $12.8 million today).
Another notable name to join the WHA was Gordie Howe. Howe had retired from the NHL
in 1971, but returned with the Houston Aeros in 1973 to play on a line with his two sons.
Howe tallied 100 points in his first year back (at age 46), and would play six seasons in the
WHA. The WHA also began recruiting European players, something the NHL had not yet
done, believing European hockey players to be inferior to North American players. In 1979,
the WHA folded, but not before agreeing to a merger with the NHL. The Edmonton Oilers
(whose name had been changed from Alberta to Edmonton), the Winnipeg Jets, the Quebec
Nordiques and Hartford (nee New England) Whalers all joined the NHL. All four teams still
play in the NHL, though only one (the Oilers) still play in the city in which they originated.
The WHA also helped end the reserve clause, raise player salaries and give credence to
Canadian teams (who didnt happen to be located in Montreal or Toronto).
The four WHA teams were not the only ones to join the NHL in the 70s. In 1970, the
Buffalo Sabres and Vancouver Canucks joined the league, in 72 the Atlanta Flames and New
York Islanders joined the fold and in 1974, the Kansas City Scouts and Washington Capitals
were added. Each of those franchises still exists, though some have moved/changed their
name, including the Scouts, who moved to Denver just two years after they came into the
league and became the Rockies.
The increase in the number of teams also altered the landscape of the NHLs number
of games played and divisions. In 1970, the games had increased to 78 in the regular season,
and in 74, they went up further, to 80. They would remain at that number for almost 20
years. Additionally, no longer would teams play in the East and West divisions; now, the NHL
was divided into two conferences, with two divisions in each. The Prince of Wales
Conference, with the Norris and Adams divisions, and the Campbell Conference, with the
Smythe and Patrick divisions made up the new NHL. The conferences got their names from
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the trophies awarded to their regular-season winners. The divisions were named for
significant figures in hockey: James Norris was the former owner of the Red Wings, while
Jack Adams was the former coach and manager of the Wings (the Adams trophy was also
introduced that year, awarded to the leagues top coach). The Smythe division was named
for Conn Smythe, and the Patrick division for Lester.
The 70s also saw the first Summit Series played, a matchup of a Canadian national
team (made up of NHL stars) and the Soviet Union national squad. Helped along by Prime
Minister Pierre Trudeau, the Summit Series was a worldwide event, with all eyes of the
hockey world turned on the eight-game series. The Canadian public (and most of the press
and players) expected to win easily. Though they won, it was not easy, as the Soviets proved
to be an incredibly fierce opponent. However, it would be years before a Soviet hockey
player laced up skates in the NHL.
Also in the 70s, Bobby Orr came to the forefront of the sport. Orr, a young
defenseman playing for the Boston Bruins, helped lead the Bruins to their first Stanley Cup
title since 1941 when, in 1970, he won the Art Ross Trophy, the Hart Trophy, the Conn
Smythe Trophy and the Norris Trophy. No other player in history has even won all those
awards in the same year. The Norris Trophy had been give to the NHL in 1953 to recognize
the late James Norris, awarded annually to the player considered the best defenseman.
Orrs 1970 win was his third, and he would go on to win five more, winning it an unmatched
eight times (all in a row). No player before or since has accomplished that feat. Orr also
collected three Hart Trophies in his career, the last defenseman to win the award until Chris
Pronger did it almost 30 years later. Orr is credited with revolutionizing the defense
position, making it a more offensive position than it had ever truly been.
International Hockey:
For years, the balance of power in hockey resided in North America. European teams
simply did not have the talent to compete. However, as the WHA showed by recruiting
European players and as the Soviets showed in the Summit Series, the rest of the
international hockey world was finally catching up (with the rest of the hockey world being
essentially Europe). The European game developed into a different entity than the North
American game, emphasizing speed and skill with less focus on physicality. While North
American hockey liked speed and skill just fine, they also loved their bruisers, and Europe
didnt play that style very much.
In international hockey tournaments (both the World Championships and the
Olympics), the Soviets ruled, though this was helped greatly by the fact that both the World
Championships and Olympics were played by amateurs and not NHLers. Still, no one could
deny the Soviet might; almost all of the Soviet stars of the 70s and 80s could (and should)
have played in the NHL, but were barred from doing so by the Iron Curtain. In particular,
Soviet goaltender Vladislav Tretiak was considered by most to be the greatest goaltender in
the world (and is still thought of that way in many circles). Their international dominance
from 1956 to 1988, the Soviet Union won seven out of a possible nine gold medals is a
major part of what made the 1980 Olympic games such a surprise. The United States, made
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up of a group of college players, beat the Soviets in one of the greatest upsets in sports
history, 4-3, in the semifinal match of the tournament. The U.S. went on to beat Finland in
the gold medal game.
In the 90s and 00s, international teams started using their professionals to play,
and in 2002, Canada won its first Olympic gold medal in 50 years, beating the U.S. in the
gold medal game. Eight years later, in the Olympic games in Vancouver, Canada succeeded
on home ice, winning another gold medal again, beating the U.S. in the final. In the last
fifty years, only five teams have won gold medals: the Soviet Union (and, in 1992, the
Unified Team, a squad made up of the former Soviet republics and Russia), Canada, the
U.S., the Czech Republic and Sweden.
The Great One: The 80s:
The 1980s marked the first decade since the 50s that the NHL did not add a single
franchise, though the Atlanta Flames moved to Calgary (where they still reside) in 1980 and
the Rockies moved to New Jersey to become the Devils (where they remain to this day) in
1982. 1980 also saw the end of an era: Gordie Howe, who had moved from the Houston
Aeros to the New England Whalers two years before the WHA merged into the NHL, played
one season with the Whalers (in their new location, Hartford), retiring for the final time
after the season. At 52 years old, Howe led the Whalers in scoring for the vast majority of
the season, finishing with 41 points and playing in all 80 games.
Early in 1981, after two years with the new WHA teams, the NHL realigned itself.
Although they kept the conference and divisional names, the conferences and divisions
themselves were reorganized geographically: previously, the Wales and Campbell
conferences (which had been, respectively, the East and West Divisions) were a mish-mash
of east and west teams. Now, the Wales Conference was made up of teams entirely from
the eastern parts of the U.S. and Canada, while the Campbell Conference was made up of
teams from the west and Midwest. The playoffs were also redone: teams now competed
with teams in their own division in the division semi-finals and finals, then advancing to the
conference finals before reaching the Stanley Cup finals. Additionally, the Prince of Wales
trophy and Campbell Cup were now awarded to the team who won their conference in the
playoffs.
But perhaps the biggest addition of the 1980s was two players who came over from
the WHA with the Edmonton Oilers: Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky. Messier, considered
one of the all-time great captains of the game, ended his career with six Stanley Cup
victories (including five with the Oilers in the 80s and 90s) and would probably have
finished with a large number of NHL records if not for Gretzky. Wayne Gretzky, nicknamed
The Great One, ended his career considered the greatest hockey player of all time. He
won the Art Ross trophy an unmatched ten times, including seven in a row in the 80s, won
the Conn Smythe twice, won the Hart Trophy nine times, including eight in a row (only one
other player won a Hart Trophy in the 1980s: Mario Lemieux) and won the Lady Byng five
times. To this day, Gretzky holds or shares 61 different NHL records, from the regular
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season, playoffs and All-Star game, including career points, goals and assists. Messier is
second to Gretzky in many of those records.
However, before Gretzky and Messiers Oilers could dominate in the later half of the
decade, the New York Islanders had something to say first. Following the Canadiens four-
peat to close out the 70s, the Isles opened up the 1980s with four straight Stanley Cup
championships, coached by Al Arbour (who, ironically, won his only Adams award the year
before the Islanders went on their run). The Islanders streak ended when they lost in the
Stanley Cup finals to Edmonton in 1984. The Oilers would win back-to-back titles twice in
the decade, their string of four Stanley Cup victories interrupted by the Montreal Canadiens
in 1986. The 80s also marked the end of long-lasting dynasties in the NHL; in the two
decades since, no team has won more than two consecutive Stanley Cups.
The Oilers success, however, clearly did not rest solely on Wayne Gretzky; theirs was
a complete team, from Messier to winger Jarri Kuri, from defenseman Paul Coffey to
goaltender Grant Fuhr, all of them Hall-of-Famers. Still, a shockwave was sent through the
hockey world when, on August 9, 1988, Gretzky was traded from the Oilers to the Los
Angeles Kings. Many blamed penny-pinching Oilers owner Peter Pocklington for Gretzkys
departure, while others also pointed fingers at Gretzkys wife, the Los Angeles native Janet
Jones. Whatever the reason, Gretzkys trade stunned both Oilers fans and hockey followers
across the globe. While the Oilers would go on to win one more Stanley Cup, however (in
1990), Gretzky would never win another.
Labor Unrest and Further Expansion:
The 1990s were yet another decade of great change in the NHL. When the 90s
began, there were 21 teams in the NHL. When the calendar changed to the year 2000, there
were 30. Two sets of expansion created a larger league than ever before; the first set began
in 1991, when the San Jose Sharks joined the league. The next year the Tampa Bay Lightning
were added along with the Ottawa Senators (with no connection to the old Senators other
than the name). The following year, the Florida Panthers and Anaheim Mighty Ducks
brought the NHLs total to 26. The Mighty Ducks inclusion was a source of great contention,
particularly among hockey purists. The Ducks, owned by the Disney Corporation, were
named after a team of children from a 1992 Disney film. Hockey fans thought this
embarrassing; despite their objections, the Ducks stayed around, though the team was later
sold, and their named changed from the Mighty Ducks to just the Ducks it was only after
this change that the team finally won a Stanley Cup.
The second wave of expansion occurred at the close of the decade. In 1998, hockey
came to Nashville in the form of the Predators; a year later, the Thrashers brought hockey
back to Atlanta. Finally, the 2000-01 season began with two new teams: the Columbus Blue
Jackets and Minnesota Wild. Of the nine teams that were added to the NHL lists in the 90s,
only two have won the Stanley Cup finals: the Ducks and the Tampa Bay Lightning.
In addition to adding teams, the NHL moved several teams around in the 1990s. .The
Minnesota North Stars packed up and moved to Dallas in 1993, becoming the Dallas Stars. In
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1995, the Quebec Nordiques headed southwest, making their home in Denver and calling
themselves the Colorado Avalanche. The Winnipeg Jets also left Canada, moving to Phoenix
and renaming themselves the Coyotes in 1996, while in 97, the Whalers abandoned
Hartford and relocated to North Carolina, rebranding themselves the Carolina Hurricanes.
However, as the league enjoyed unprecedented expansion in the 90s, it also
suffered through its first significant labor disruptions. The first came in 1992, when, after
new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) could not be reached, the players announced,
on April 1, that they would go on strike, the first league-wide player strike in NHL history. It
would last ten days, as an agreement was signed on April 10. Of the 30 remaining regular
season games, 11 were played. The playoffs were not interrupted. The second, and more
serious disruption, came just two years later. In 1993, the CBA that had been
negotiated in 92 expired, and the entire 1993-94 season was played under the expired CBA.
On October 11, after months and months of fruitless negotiating, the owners announced a
lockout. This would not last a short time; the lockout lasted over 90 days, with the owners
and players association finally reaching an agreement on January 11. The season began on
January 20, lasting only 48 days.
While the 80s belonged to Gretzky, the early 90s belonged to Mario Lemieux.
Lemieux had been the Pittsburgh Penguins first round pick in 1984, and as the 80s wound
down and the 90s started up, Super Mario came into his own, winning three Hart
Trophies, winning the Art Ross Trophy six times and winning the Conn Smythe trophy in
both of the Penguins Stanley Cup finals appearances (which they won both times). In the
minds of many, Lemieuxs talent was second only to Gretzkys.
The other star of the 90s was undoubtedly Patrick Roy. The goaltender began
playing for Montreal in the mid-80s, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy his rookie year, 1986.
He would go on to win two more, though one was not for the Canadiens. In the middle of
the 1995-96, Roy was traded to the Colorado Avalanche, and that spring backstopped them
to a Stanley Cup championship. He would win a second with the Avs in 2001, winning his
third and final Conn Smythe. He also won three Vezina trophies, all while with Montreal.
When he retired, Roy held almost several major goaltending records and was considered by
many to be the best of all time. Since then, he has lost some of those records to a new
challenger to the throne of greatest goalie of all time, Martin Brodeur.
Hockeys Darkest Days:
As the new millennium dawned, hockeys fortunes appeared bright. They had finally
reached a level of stability no new teams were added or moved in the entire decade, while
only one team changed its name (the Mighty Ducks to the Ducks). Parity had reached the
NHL as well: only two teams won multiple titles in the 2000s, the Devils and the Red Wings,
and those victories were three and six years apart, respectively. Several teams made or won
the Finals for the first time, including the Carolina Hurricanes and Ottawa Senators, the
Ducks and the Lightning. However, the middle of the decade saw a dark cloud descend on
the sport.
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Leading up to the 2004-05 season, the CBA had expired, and negotiations between
the league (led by Commissioner Gary Bettman) and the NHLPA hinged primarily on the
issue of a salary cap. Contracts had been going up and up, and with no kind of cap, there
was no end in sight. The players stood firm, refusing to back down, and on September 13,
2004, the owners imposed the second lockout in history. This one, however, would be far
more damaging than the first. This lockout lasted 310 days, causing the cancellation of the
entire 2004-05 season and playoffs, the first time the Stanley Cup had been cancelled since
1919, when the flu epidemic shut it down. When the lockout finally ended in July of 2005,
severe damage had been done. Only in the last few years has the NHL finally been able to
recover somewhat from the lockout, in attendance, TV ratings and revenue.
Out of the lockout, the NHL got itself a hard salary cap (including significant pay cuts
for its players). The NHL also, in an attempt to win back fans (and perhaps gain new ones)
also changed some of its rules, opening up the ice (by shrinking the neutral zone),
prohibiting contact in the neutral zone and introducing touch-up offsides, all in an attempt
to increase scoring.

Hockey Today:


As the NHL and professional hockey enters the next decade, it is in a far better place.
Its new stars, including Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin, are major figures in the sports
world. The Detroit Red Wings returned to dominance in the late part of the decade, winning
the 2008 Stanley Cup. In fact, the 2008 and 2009 Finals included both the Pittsburgh
Penguins and the Red Wings, with the Wings winning the first matchup and the Penguins
the second, the first time since 83-84 thats happened, and only the fourth time in history.
The next season, the most recent Stanley Cup finals, the Chicago Blackhawks captured their
first Cup victory since 1961. Interestingly, winger Marian Hossa, one of the major NHLers of
the 2000s, played in all three Stanley Cup finals from 2008 to 2010 each for a different
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team, the first time in NHL history that has occurred. Hossa played with the Penguins when
they lost in 2008, played for the Red Wings when they lost in 2009, and finally took home
the title with the Blackhawks in 2010.
With the NHL finally starting to recover, they are starting to see TV ratings and
revenues pick up. However, another CBA expiration is looming, and if the NHL fails to learn
from its mistakes of the mid-2000s, it could spell doom for the sport. Time will tell.





















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MAJOR COMPETITIONS

National teams

The annual men's Ice Hockey World Championships are more highly regarded by
Europeans than North Americans because they coincide with the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Consequently, Canada, the United States, and other countries with large numbers of NHL
players have not always been able to field their best possible teams because many of their
top players are playing for the Stanley Cup. Furthermore, for many years professionals were
barred from play. 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 to 1952, the exception
occurring in 1936 when Great Britain won. The USSR won all but two gold medals from 1956
to 1988 as well as a final time as the Unified Team at the 1992 Albertville Olympics. The
United States won their first gold medal in 1960. On the way to winning the gold medal at
the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics amateur US college players defeated the heavily favored
Soviet squad an event known as the "Miracle on ice" in the United States. Since the 1998
games in Nagano all top players from the NHL have been able to take part, with Vancouver
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2010 being the first time held in an NHL market since the inclusion of NHL players.
Nowadays Winter Olympics games are the most highly regarded international tournament
by ice hockey fans.
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 the initial women's world championships in 1990 there have been
thirteen tournaments.[53] Women's hockey has been played at the Olympics since
1998.[55] The 2006 Winter Olympic final between Canada and Sweden marked the only
time the women's world championship or Olympic final did not involve both Canada and the
United States
The annual Euro Hockey Tour, an unofficial European championships between the
national men's teams of the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia and Sweden have been played
since 199697.
Other ice hockey tournaments featuring national teams include the World U20
Championship, the World U18 Championships, the World U-17 Hockey Challenge, the World
Junior A Challenge, the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, the World Women's U18
Championships and the 4 Nations Cup.





Club Team
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The National Hockey League (NHL), and specifically the Stanley Cup trophy, is the
oldest still operating international competition, featuring clubs from the United States and
Canada.



The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), an international ice hockey league in Eurasia
and the successor to the Russian Super League and the Soviet League, the history of which
dates back to the 1940s, was launched in 2008 with clubs from the post-Soviet states. It
expanded beyond the former USSR in 2011 with the addition of Lev Poprad from Slovakia.
That team was disbanded after one season after it was purchased by interests from the
Czech Republic, who reconstituted the team as Lev Praha (representing Prague). Slovakia's
presence will continue with the addition of Slovan Bratislava.
Other Tournament:
-The Czech Extraliga is the top professional ice hockey league in Czech Republic.
-The SM-Liiga is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland.
-Slovakia's top-tier pro ice hockey league is known as the Slovak Extraliga.
-The Elitserien, or Swedish Elite League, is the top level league in Sweden.
-The American Hockey League (AHL), sometimes referred to as "The A," is the primary
developmental professional league for players aspiring to enter the NHL. It comprises 30
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teams from the United States and Canada. It is run as a "farm league" to the NHL, with the
vast majority of AHL players under contract to a NHL team.
-The SM-Liiga, Elitserien, and AHL are often considered roughly comparable in terms of
talent and competitive level.
-The National League A (NLA) is a professional ice hockey league in Switzerland.
-The Deutsche Eishockey Liga (German Ice Hockey League, shortname DEL) is a the top level
profession league in Germany
-The East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) is a mid-level minor league in the United States. Some
ECHL players are under contract to NHL teams.
-The Professional Hockey League (PHL) is the sole professional league in Ukraine and
successor to the nation's Ukrainian Hockey Championship. The history of the league dates
back to 1992 and the country's independence, and dissolution of the Soviet league format.
-The Elite Ice Hockey League is the highest level of ice hockey in United Kingdom. The league
is served by teams from all of the home nations: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern
Ireland.





The Austrian Hockey League, called the Erste Bank Eishockey Liga (English: Erste
Bank Hockey League) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest-level ice hockey league in
Austria. The roots of the EBEL league go back to 1923; it exists in today's form since the
1965-66 season. Since 2005/06 also non-Austian teams are competing for the "EBEL
Champion" title. Since then the league has added teams from Slovenia (starting 2006-07 and
200708), Hungary (starting 2007-08), Croatia (starting 2009-10 season), and the Czech
Republic (starting in 2011-12). Since the season 2012/13 the EBEL consists of 12 teams.
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The Asia League Ice Hockey, an international ice hockey league featuring clubs from
China, Japan and South Korea, is the successor to the Japan Ice Hockey League.
The Australian Ice Hockey League and New Zealand Ice Hockey League are
represented by nine and five teams respectively. As of 2012, the two top teams of the
previous season from each league compete in the Trans-Tasman Champions League.

International club competitions organized by the IIHF include the Champions Hockey
League (currently cancelled), the Continental Cup, the Victoria Cup and the European
Women's Champions Cup.


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One of the oldest international ice hockey competition for clubs is the Spengler Cup,
held every year in Davos, Switzerland, between Christmas and New Year's Day. It was first
awarded in 1923 to Oxford University Ice Hockey Club.The World Junior Club Cup is a
tournament for junior ice hockey clubs from all over the world.Pre-season tournaments
include the European Trophy, Tampere Cup and the Pajulahti Cup.
















FAMOUS PERSONALITIES OF ICE HOCKEY

1). Wayne Gretzky
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Birth Name
Wayne Douglas Gretzky

Nickname
The Great One
The White Tornado (as a child)
The Great Gretzky
Gretz

Height
6' (1.83 m)
Position
Center

Detail
Wayne Gretzky, nicknamed "The Great One, " is widely considered the greatest
hockey player of all-time. At the time of his retirement at the end of the 1998-99 NHL
season he was the NHL's all-time scoring leader in Goals, Assists & Points in both the regular
season & Stanley Cup Playoffs. He led the NHL in scoring a record 10 times, was Captain of 4
Stanley Cup Championship teams, and was named the league's MVP a record 9 times. He is
the only NHL player ever to score 200 Points in a season, and did so 4 times in the span of 5
years. A great ambassador of pro sports, he was also named the NHL's Most Gentlemanly
Player 4 times and received the Order of Canada (their highest civilian honor) in 1998. Upon
his retirement in 1999, his trademark jersey No. 99 was retired by the NHL.

2. Mario Lemieux
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Birth Name
Mario Lemieux
Nickname
Super Mario

Height
6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Position
Center

Detail
Yet another Canadian ice hockey professional, Mario Lemieux had a playing career
from 1984-2006. This talented fast skater and playmaker was well-known for beating
defencemen with fakes and dekes and was NHL's most deadly goal and point scorer for each
game. He played for the Pittsburgh Penguins of NHL as a forward for 17 seasons from 1984
to 2005. However, unlike Gretzky, Lemieux did not play for a prominent team. Moreover, his
sport's career was plagued by several health issues. He suffered from several medical
conditions like cancer, back pain, spinal disc herniation and chronic tendinitis of a hip-flexor
muscle. The pain would be so excruciating that other people had to tie his skates for him.
However, despite these setbacks he came and continued playing the game. In 2006, when
he retired, he had the seventh place in the 'all-time scorer' award with 690 goals and 1,033
assists.

3). Bobby Orr
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Birth Name
Robert Gordon "Bobby" Orr
Nickname
The Maggot
Height
1.82 m
Position
Defenseman
Detail
This Canadian ice hockey player enthralled crowds and sports fans during his 12 year
playing career from 1966-1978. This greatly acknowledged defenceman had his NHL career
comprising two seasons with Chicago Black Hawks and the remaining part of his career with
Boston Bruins. He won the record of eight straight Norris Trophies, thereby being titled as
NHL's best defenceman. He also won the title of NHL's most valuable player after he lead
Boston Bruins to three regular season first-place finishes. On retirement, Orr partnered with
Paul Krepelka and Rick Curran and became a player agent.





4). Maurice "The Rocket" Richard
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Birth Name
Joseph Henri Maurice "The Rocket" Richard
Nickname
Rocket
Height
5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Position
Right wing
Detail
With a player career from 1942-1960, Joseph Henri Maurice or Rocket Richard
happened to be the first hockey player in his era to score 50 goals in 50 games. Moreover,
he was the first player to score 500 goals in the hockey career. He was the captain of four
consecutive straight cup wins from 1957-1960 and also won the Stanley Cup eight times in
Montreal. On retirement Rocket Richard had 544 goals to his credit along with the credit of
leading the league in goals 5 times. At the time of his retirement he was NHL's all time-
leading scorer.






5). Gordie Howe
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Birth Name
Gordon "Gordie" Howe
Nickname
Mr. Hockey
Height
6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Position
Right wing
Detail
There isn't a hockey player in the history of hockey who has played more games than this
legendary player, Gordie Howe. Beginning his player career in 1946, Howe happens to be
the only player to have competed in the NHL in 5 (1940s through 1980s) different decades.
Wow! What an achievement! He spent 25 fantastic seasons with the Detroit Red Wings and
holds under his belt the record for the most goals (786). He also holds the title of gaining the
most points, that is 1809 points in a hockey player's career and the most career assists;
1023. This all round player had mastered the art of shooting, scoring, stickhandling as well
as the other hockey techniques involved in the game. He played till he was 52 and retired
finally in 1980.

REFERENCES

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Olympic Hockey.com (2010). Retrieved November 22, 2012 from
http://www.olympic.org/en/content/Sports/All-Sports/Ice-Hockey/
USA Today Hockey .com (2009). Retrieved November 28, 2012 from
http://content.usatoday.com/sports/hockey/nhl/salaries/default.aspx
NHL Trophies.com (2011). Retrieved November 29, 2012 from:
http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=24934
NHL Stanley Cup Finalists and Winners .Retrieved December 3, 2012 from:
http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=25426
Gordie Howe. Retrieved December 3, 2012 from:
http://www.mrandmrshockey.com/HistoryStats.php
ESPN bio of Gordie Howe. Retrieved December 5, 2012 from:
http://espn.go.com/classic/biography/s/Howe_Gordie.html
Hockey Hall of Fame. Retrieved December 5, 2012 from
http://www.hhof.com/
Wayne Gretzky. Retrieved December 5, 2012 from:
http://www.gretzky.com/hockey/nhl_records.php