National Hockey League
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The modernized NHL shield logo debuted in 2005, replacing the orange and black shield, which had been used since the league's inception. The silver colour is a homage to the Stanley Cup, the trophy awarded to the NHL champion. |
The
National Hockey League (
NHL) is a professional
sports organization composed of
ice hockey teams in
North America. Its
French name is
Ligue Nationale de Hockey (
LNH). It is the premier professional ice hockey league in the world,
and one of the
North American major professional sports leagues. The league's teams are divided into two conferences, each comprising three divisions.
The league was founded in 1917 in
Montreal,
Quebec with five teams, and through a series of expansions, reductions and relocations is now composed of 30 teams, 24 of which are based in the
United States and six in
Canada. After a
labour dispute that led to the cancellation of the complete 2004–05 season, the league has staged a successful
2005â€"06 regular season and
2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Historically, due to its origin in Canada, a large majority of players in the National Hockey League were Canadians. Over the past 25 years, due to the NHL's continued expansion into the United States, its high standard of play compared to other leagues, and the availability of highly skilled European players from
Eastern Europe after the fall of communism, there has been an increasing presence of American and
European players. Nevertheless, more than half of the league's players on the 2005–06 roster were born in Canada.
After a series of disputes in the Canadian
National Hockey Association (NHA) between the owner of the
Toronto Blueshirts and the owners of other teams, all the owners met at the
Windsor Hotel in Montreal to talk about the NHA's future.
Their discussions eventually led to the creation of the National Hockey League in 1917; the founding teams were the
Montreal Canadiens,
Montreal Wanderers,
Ottawa Senators,
Quebec Bulldogs and the newly-renamed
Toronto Arenas.
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Montreal Canadiens in 1942 |
Even though the league struggled to stay in business during its first decade, the NHL's teams were very successful on the ice; during the NHL's first nine years, NHL teams won the
Stanley Cup seven times. By 1926 the NHL was the only league competing for the Stanley Cup.
The NHL then started a process of expansion; the
Hamilton Tigers were added in the 1920–21 season; the
Boston Bruins and
Montreal Maroons entered the league in 1924–25; the
New York Americans and the
Pittsburgh Pirates entered in the 1925–26 season; and the
New York Rangers,
Chicago Blackhawks, and the
Detroit Cougars (now known as the
Red Wings) entered in the 1926–27 season. By the end of the 1930–31 season, the NHL had a total of 10 teams. Among other reasons, the
Great Depression and the onset of
World War II, however, took a toll on the league, and the NHL was reduced to six teams in 1942.
These six teams (Montreal Canadiens,
Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Blackhawks, Boston Bruins, and New York Rangers) are collectively known as the
Original Six, and for the next quarter-century were the only teams in the National Hockey League.
The rise of the
Western Hockey League, which many pundits thought would transform into a major league and challenge for the Stanley Cup, spurred the NHL in
1967 to undertake its first expansion since the 1920s. Six new teams were added to the NHL roster, and placed in their own newly-created division. These six teams included the
Philadelphia Flyers,
St. Louis Blues,
Minnesota North Stars,
Los Angeles Kings,
Oakland Seals, and
Pittsburgh Penguins.
Three years later, the NHL added the
Vancouver Canucks and
Buffalo Sabres as franchises.
In
1972, the
World Hockey Association (WHA) was formed and though it never challenged for the Stanley Cup, its status as a potential rival to the NHL did not go unnoticed. In response, the NHL decided to rush its own expansion plans by adding the
New York Islanders and
Atlanta Flames in the same year, which was followed by the addition of the
Kansas City Scouts and
Washington Capitals two years later.
The two leagues fought for hockey players and fans until the WHA folded in
1979. Four of the remaining six WHA teams merged into the NHL: the
Hartford Whalers,
Québec Nordiques,
Edmonton Oilers, and
Winnipeg Jets.
In the early 1990s, the NHL further expanded with five new franchises. The
San Jose Sharks entered in 1991; a season later the
Ottawa Senators would join the NHL along with the
Tampa Bay Lightning.
In 1993, the league added two additional teams, the
Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and the
Florida Panthers.
Approaching the new millennium, the NHL added another four teams: the
Nashville Predators (1998), the
Atlanta Thrashers (1999), the
Minnesota Wild and the
Columbus Blue Jackets (both added in 2000), bringing the total to 30 teams.
National Hockey League games are 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, called 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. The goaltender tries to stop the puck from entering their net.
Each National Hockey League regulation game is played between two teams and is 60 minutes long. The game is composed of three 20-minute periods with a 15-minute intermission between periods. At the end of the 60 minute regulation time, the team with the most goals wins the game. If a game is tied after regulation time,
overtime ensues. During the regular season, overtime is a five-minute, four-player on four-player
sudden-death period, in which the first team to score a goal wins the game. Beginning in
2005â€"06, if the game is still tied at the end of overtime, the game enters a shootout.
Three players for each team in turn perform a
penalty shot. The team with the most goals during this shootout wins the game.
If the game is still tied after the three shootout rounds, the shootout continues, but becomes sudden death. Whichever team ultimately wins the shootout is awarded a "goal" in the final score, though none of the goals or saves register in the main statistics since shootout stats are tracked separately.
During the playoffs, the overtime format is changed, with the shootout removed. Instead there are an unlimited number of sudden-death, 20 minute, five-on-five periods until one team scores.
While a game can theoretically continue forever, only a handful of games have ever surpassed four overtime periods, and none have gone beyond six.
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Locations of teams in the National Hockey League |
The National Hockey League originated in 1917 with 5 teams, and through a sequence of team expansions,
reductions and relocations currently consists of 30 teams, 24 of which are based in the United States and 6 in Canada. The
Montreal Canadiens are the most successful franchise with twenty-four
Stanley Cup championships;
in the four major
North American professional sports leagues the Montreal Canadiens are only surpassed in the number of championships by the
New York Yankees of
Major League Baseball.
The next most successful franchise is the
Toronto Maple Leafs with thirteen Stanley Cups, but they have not won a championship since 1967.
The
Detroit Red Wings, with 10 Stanley Cups, are the most successful
American franchise.
The longest streak of winning the Stanley Cup in consecutive years is five held by the Montreal Canadiens from 1955-56 to 1959-60; the
New York Islanders and the Montreal Canadiens have four-year championship streaks.
The 1977 edition of the Montreal Canadiens, the second of four straight Stanley Cup champions, was named by
ESPN as the second greatest sports team of all-time.
More recently, the
Carolina Hurricanes and the
Tampa Bay Lightning have won the Stanley Cup in the past two seasons.
The current league organization divides the teams into two conferences. Each conference has three divisions, and each division has 5 teams.
The current organization has roots in the
1998â€"99 season where a league realignment added two divisions to bring the total number of divisions to six; the current team alignment began with the
2000â€"2001 season when the Minnesota Wild and the Columbus Blue Jackets joined the league as expansion teams.
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Eastern Conference| Division | Team | City | Arena |
|---|
| Atlantic | New Jersey Devils | East Rutherford, New Jersey | Continental Airlines Arena |
|---|
| New York Islanders | Uniondale, New York | Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum |
| New York Rangers | New York, New York | Madison Square Garden |
| Philadelphia Flyers | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Wachovia Center |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | Mellon Arena |
| Northeast | Boston Bruins | Boston, Massachusetts | TD Banknorth Garden |
|---|
| Buffalo Sabres | Buffalo, New York | HSBC Arena |
| Montreal Canadiens | Montréal, Québec | Bell Centre |
| Ottawa Senators | Ottawa, Ontario | Scotiabank Place |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | Toronto, Ontario | Air Canada Centre |
| Southeast | Atlanta Thrashers | Atlanta, Georgia | Philips Arena |
|---|
| Carolina Hurricanes | Raleigh, North Carolina | RBC Center |
| Florida Panthers | Sunrise, Florida | BankAtlantic Center |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | Tampa, Florida | St. Pete Times Forum |
| Washington Capitals | Washington, D.C. | Verizon Center |
;
Western Conference| Division | Team | City | Arena |
|---|
| Central | Chicago Blackhawks | Chicago, Illinois | United Center |
|---|
| Columbus Blue Jackets | Columbus, Ohio | Nationwide Arena |
| Detroit Red Wings | Detroit, Michigan | Joe Louis Arena |
| Nashville Predators | Nashville, Tennessee | Gaylord Entertainment Center |
| St. Louis Blues | St. Louis, Missouri | Savvis Center |
| Northwest | Calgary Flames | Calgary, Alberta | Pengrowth Saddledome |
|---|
| Colorado Avalanche | Denver, Colorado | Pepsi Center |
| Edmonton Oilers | Edmonton, Alberta | Rexall Place |
| Minnesota Wild | Saint Paul, Minnesota | Xcel Energy Center |
| Vancouver Canucks | Vancouver, British Columbia | GM Place |
| Pacific | Anaheim Ducks | Anaheim, California | Arrowhead Pond |
|---|
| Dallas Stars | Dallas, Texas | American Airlines Center |
| Los Angeles Kings | Los Angeles, California | Staples Center |
| Phoenix Coyotes | Glendale, Arizona | Glendale Arena |
| San Jose Sharks | San Jose, California | HP Pavilion |
The National Hockey League season is divided into a
regular season, where teams play each other in a predefined schedule, and a
playoffs, which is an elimination tournament where two teams play against each other to win a
best-of-seven series in order to advance to the next round. The final remaining team is crowned the
Stanley Cup champions. The past season is the
2005â€"06 regular season, which culminated with the
2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
In the regular season, each team plays 82 games; 41 games at home and 41 on the road. Beginning in 2005-06 regular season, of the 82 games, teams play 32 games within their
division, 40 games against non-divisional intra-conference opponents and 10 inter-conference games (1 game against each team in two of the three divisions in the opposite conference).
The two divisions from the opposite conference which each team plays against are rotated every year, much like
interleague play in baseball. Points are awarded for each game, where two points are awarded for a win, one point for losing in
overtime or a shootout, and zero points for a loss in regulation.
Among major professional sports leagues, the NHL is the only one to award a team for losing in overtime.
At the end of the regular season, the team that finishes with the most points in each division is crowned the division champion with the league overall leader awarded the
Presidents' Trophy. The three division champions along with the five other teams in each conference with the next highest number of points, for a total of 8 teams in each conference, qualify for the
playoffs. The division winners are seeded one through three (even if a non-division winner has a higher point total), and the next five teams with the best records in the conference are seeded four through eight.
The
Stanley Cup Playoffs is an elimination
tournament, where two teams battle to win a
best-of-seven series in order to advance to the next round. The first round of the playoffs, or conference quarterfinals, consists of the first seed playing the eighth seed, the second playing the seventh, third playing the sixth, and the fourth playing the fifth.
In the second round, or conference semifinals, the NHL re-seeds the teams, with the top remaining conference seed playing against the lowest remaining seed, and the other two remaining conference teams pairing off. In the third round, the conference finals, the two remaining teams in each conference play each other, with the conference champions proceeding to the
Stanley Cup Finals.
In each round the higher-ranked team is said to be the team with the
home-ice advantage. Four of the seven games are played at this team's home venue – the first and second, and, when necessary, the fifth and seventh games – with the other games played at the lower-ranked team's home venue.
The best known
NHL players have historically included
Gordie Howe,
Bobby Orr,
Maurice Richard,
Newsy Lalonde,
Jacques Plante,
Eddie Shore and
Bobby Hull. In recent years,
Wayne Gretzky,
Mario Lemieux,
Steve Yzerman,
Ray Bourque,
Mark Messier, and
Patrick Roy were among the most celebrated and honoured players.
The top five scoring forwards in the 2005–06 season were
Joe Thornton,
Jaromir Jagr,
Alexander Ovechkin,
Daniel Alfredsson, and
Dany Heatley.
The top three scoring defencemen were
Nicklas Lidstrom,
Sergei Zubov, and
Bryan McCabe,
and the top three goaltenders were
Martin Brodeur,
Miikka Kiprusoff, and
Marty Turco.
The rookie race between
Alexander Ovechkin and
Sidney Crosby also garnered much attention during the 2005-06 season.
In addition to Canadian and American players, which have historically composed a large majority of NHL players, the NHL draws players from all over the world. Since the 1990s when communism collapsed in Eastern Europe and the newly formed nations did not restrict the movements of players there has been a large increase in amount of European players in the NHL.
European players were drafted and signed by NHL teams in an effort to bring in more skilled offensive players.
The addition of European players has changed the style of play in the NHL considerably; European style hockey has been accepted, if not embraced, in the NHL.
The league also voluntarily stops its season so that its players can play in the
Winter Olympics to have the players represent their own country. Currently the NHL has players from 18 different countries, with the majority still coming from Canada.
For more information about the origins of NHL players, see the
List of NHL statistical leaders by country.
National Hockey League games are played on a
hockey rink which is rectangular
ice rink with rounded corners and surrounded by a wall. It measures 25.91 by 60.92 metres (85 by 200 ft) in the NHL,
while international standards call for a rink measuring 60–61 metres long by 29–30 metres wide (196.85–200.13 ft by 95.14–98.43 ft). The
center line divides the ice in half,
and is used to judge icing violations. There are two
blue lines that divide the rink roughly into thirds, which divide the ice into two attacking and one neutral
zone.
Near the end of both ends of the rink, there is a thin red
goal line spanning the width of the ice, which is used to judge
goals and icing calls.
Starting in the 2005–2006 season, after testing in the
American Hockey League, a trapezoid area behind each goal net has been introduced.
The goaltender can only play the puck within that area or in front of the goal line; if the goaltender plays the puck behind the goal line and not in the trapezoid area, a 2 minute minor penalty for delay of game is assessed by the referees.
While the National Hockey League follows the general rules of
ice hockey, it differs slightly from those used in international games organized by the
International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) such as the
Olympics. Infractions of the rules can lead to either the stoppage of play in the case of offside and icing calls, or a penalty call for more serious infractions.
In ice hockey, play is said to be
off-side if a player on the attacking team enters the attacking zone before the
puck.
When an offside violation occurs, the
linesman blows the play dead, and a
faceoff is conducted in the
neutral zone.
During the 2004–05 lockout, the league removed the
offside pass or
two-line pass rule, which required a stoppage in play if a pass originating from inside a team's
defending zone was completed on the offensive side of the
center line, unless the puck crossed the line before the player. The removal of the two-line offside was one of several rule changes intended to increase overall scoring,
which had been in decline since the expansion years of the mid-nineties.
Icing occurs when a player shoots the
puck across both the
center line and the opposing team's goal line without the puck going into the net.
In the NHL, a
linesman stops play due to icing if a defending player (other than the goaltender) touches the puck before an attacking player is able to,
in contrast to the IIHF rules where play is stopped the moment the puck crosses the goal line. As a result of the rule changes following the 2004–05 lockout, when a team is guilty of icing the puck they are not allowed to make a line change before the following
faceoff.
A
penalty is a
punishment for infractions of the rules regarding conduct. During a penalty, the player who committed the infraction is sent to the
penalty box. Small infractions are deemed minor penalties, and the player is kept off the ice for two minutes of gameplay.
More dangerous infractions, such as fighting, are deemed major penalties and have a duration of five minutes
; this is in contrast to the IIHF rule, where players who fight are ejected from the game.
The penalized team cannot replace the player on the ice and is thus
shorthanded for the duration of the penalty.
If the penalties are coincidental (such as fighting), however, both teams remain at full strength, but the players serve the penalty. If the penalized team is scored on during a minor penalty, the penalty immediately terminates.
Unlike minor penalties, major penalties must be served to their full completion, regardless of number of goals scored during the power play. If a goalie or the bench receive a penalty it must be served by a player on the ice at the time.
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Hart Memorial Trophy on display at the Hockey Hall of Fame |
The National Hockey League presents numerous trophies per year. The most prestigious team award is the
Stanley Cup, which is awarded to the league champion at the end of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The team that has the most points in the regular season is awarded the
Presidents' Trophy; during the 2005–06 season the Detroit Red Wings were awarded the Presidents' Trophy. There are also numerous trophies that are awarded to players based on their statistics during the regular season; they include, among others, the
Art Ross Trophy for the league scoring champion (goals and assists), the
Maurice 'Rocket' Richard Trophy for the goal-scoring leader, and the
William M. Jennings Trophy for the goalkeeper(s) for the team with the fewest goals against them.
For the 2005–06 season these statistics-based trophies were awarded to
Joe Thornton, and
Jonathan Cheechoo of the San Jose Sharks and
Miikka Kiprusoff of the Calgary Flames respectively.
The other player trophies are voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association or the team general managers.
The most prestigious individual award is the
Hart Memorial Trophy which is awarded annually to the
Most Valuable Player; the voting is conducted by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association to judge the player who is the most valuable to his team during the regular season. The
Vezina Trophy is awarded annually to the person deemed the best goalkeeper as voted on by the general managers of the teams in the NHL. The
James Norris Memorial Trophy is awarded annually to the National Hockey League's top defenceman, and the
Calder Memorial Trophy is awarded annually to the top rookie; both of these awards are voted on by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association.
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The Hockey Hall of Fame in downtown Toronto |
In addition to the regular season awards, the
Conn Smythe Trophy is awarded annually to the most valuable player during the NHL's Stanley Cup playoffs. Furthermore, the top coach in the league wins the
Jack Adams Award as selected by a poll of the National Hockey League Broadcasters Association. The National Hockey League releases the top three vote getters for all awards, and then names the award winner during the NHL Awards Ceremony.
Players, coaches, officials, and team builders who have had notable careers are eligible to be voted into the
Hockey Hall of Fame. For players there is a waiting time of three years after their last professional game.
In the past, however, if a player was deemed significant enough, the pending period would be waived; only 10 individuals have been honoured in this manner.
In 1999,
Wayne Gretzky became the last player to have the three-year restriction waived,
and after Gretzky's induction, the NHL declared that he would be the last one to have the waiting period omitted.
There have been three league-wide work stoppages in NHL history, all happening between 1992 and 2005.The first was a
strike by the
National Hockey League Players Association in April
1992 which lasted for 10 days, but the strike was settled quickly and all affected games were rescheduled.
A
lockout at the start of the
1994â€"95 forced the league to reduce the schedule from 84 games to just 48, with the teams playing only intra-conference games during the reduced season.
The resulting
collective bargaining agreement was set for renegotiation in 1998 and extended to September 15, 2004.
With no new agreement in hand when the existing contract expired on September 15, 2004, league commissioner
Gary Bettman announced a
lockout of the players union and cessation of operations by the NHL head office.
The lockout shut down the league for 310 days, the longest in sports history; the NHL was the first professional sports league to lose an entire season.
The league vowed to install what it dubbed "cost certainty" for its teams, but the
National Hockey League Players Association countered that the move was little more than a
euphemism for a
salary cap, which the union initially said it would not accept. A new collective bargaining agreement was ratified in July
2005 with a term of six years with an option of extending the
collective bargaining agreement for an additional year at the end of the term, allowing the NHL to resume as of the
2005â€"06 season.
On
October 5,
2005, the first post-lockout NHL season took to the ice with 15 games. Of those 15 games, 11 were in front of sell out crowds.
The NHL received record attendance in the 2005–06 season. 20,854,169 fans, an average of 16,955 per game, was a 1.2% increase over the previous mark held in the 2001–02 season.
Also, the
Montreal Canadiens,
Colorado Avalanche, and the
Vancouver Canucks sold out all of their home games;
all six Canadian teams played to 98% capacity or better at every home games.
Twenty-four of the thirty clubs finished even or ahead of their 2003–04 mark. The
Pittsburgh Penguins had the highest increase at 33%, probably because of Canadian phenom
Sidney Crosby.
In Canada, National Hockey League games are aired nationally by the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and
The Sports Network (TSN). Regional games are broadcast by a number of networks including
Rogers Sportsnet (RSN); French language games are broadcast by the
RĂ©seau des sports (RDS). The program
Hockey Night in Canada, aired on Saturday nights on CBC, is a long-standing Canadian tradition since first airing on television in 1952.
During the playoffs, the CBC airs all games that involve Canadian teams and the Stanley Cup playoffs; TSN airs some other game during the first three rounds.
In the United States NHL games are aired nationally by the
OLN (Soon to be renamed "Versus") and the
National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC).
NBC replaced the previous over-the-air network,
ABC, and has a revenue-sharing deal with the NHL. OLN replaced
ESPN as the cable network;
Comcast, which owns OLN, offered a two-year $120 million deal, while ESPN offered a revenue sharing deal.
OLN has about 20 million fewer subscribers than ESPN, but Comcast switched OLN from a digital tier to basic cable to make NHL games available to more cable subscribers.
For OLN the NHL coverage was a good addition as OLN's
ratings grew by about 275% when it showed an NHL game,
, but television ratings in the United States have seen record lows.
OLN posted a 0.4 rating for the 2006 playoffs while ESPN posted a 0.7 rating two years ago; NBC posted a rating of 1.1, compared to ABC's 1.5 rating two years ago.
In Canada, for the first four games of the Stanley Cup finals, the CBC has averaged 2.63 million viewers, and RDS has averaged 346,000 viewers.
In the United States ratings have fared worse due to the inclusion of two small-market teams, including one Canadian team; the first two games on OLN posted a 0.9 rating (621,000 households), and game 3 and game 4 on NBC had ratings of 1.6 and 2.0 respectively (1.7 million and 2.2 million households).
In 1994, when the New York Rangers were involved, game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals posted a rating of 5.2.
Game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs gained the highest Stanley Cup rating in the series with a rating of 3.5 (3.8 million households),
but it was down from the previous season's game 7 final.
*
*
NHL's official website*
NHL Player's Association (NHLPA)*
National Hockey League Fan's Association*
The Internet Hockey Database*
The NHL Officials Association Website
