Born Indoors in Montreal
Ice hockey grew up in Canada, and Montreal played the starring role. The first indoor game was played there on 3 March 1875. From that start, amateur leagues took off in the 1880s, and professional hockey appeared around 1900.
The game did not come from nowhere. It grew out of simple stick-and-ball games played in Britain, Ireland and elsewhere, mainly bandy, hurling and shinty. The North American sport of lacrosse, which came from Native American games, also shaped it. Informal winter games such as shinny and ice polo were later folded into one sport with written rules.
Its most famous prize came early. The Stanley Cup was commissioned in 1892 as the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup and first awarded in 1893 to Canada's amateur champion. It later became the trophy of the National Hockey League. In 1994, ice hockey was officially named Canada's national winter sport.
Six Skaters, Three Periods
Each team puts six players on the ice at once: three forwards, two defencemen and a goaltender. They use sticks to move a puck made of vulcanized rubber and shoot it into the other team's net. Every goal is worth one point, and the team with the most goals wins.
A professional game has three periods of 20 minutes each. The clock runs only when the puck is in play, so a 60-minute game takes about 2 hours and 20 minutes from the first puck drop. Teams switch ends after each period.
Players swap in and out all the time. Forwards often play as a unit of three, and replacing the whole unit at once is called a line change. Doing it while play goes on is known as changing on the fly. After any stoppage, play restarts with a faceoff, where an official drops the puck between two players.
Offside, Icing and the Penalty Box
Before the 1930s, hockey was an on-side game, so players could only pass the puck backward. Skaters had to carry the puck forward themselves. Once forward passes were allowed, hockey became a true team sport, with plays coordinated across the whole ice.
Two key rules still limit the puck. A player is offside if he enters the opponent's zone before the puck does. Icing means shooting the puck all the way across both the centre line and the opponent's goal line, which is not allowed in many situations.
Breaking the rules can send a player to the penalty box. A minor penalty lasts two minutes and a major penalty lasts five. While a player sits out, his team plays short-handed, and the other team gets a power play. If a foul stops a clear scoring chance, the player may get a penalty shot, alone against the goalie.
Speed, Blades and Armor
Hockey is fast and rough. Players move at around 30 to 50 km/h, and goaltenders face pucks flying at up to 160 km/h. In men's hockey, a player may use a hip or shoulder to hit an opponent who has the puck. This is called body checking.
That is why protective gear is required in all competitive play. Skaters wear helmets with visors or face masks, shoulder and elbow pads, mouth guards, gloves, padded shorts and shin pads. Goalies wear even more, including large leg pads and a special mask. Their equipment has kept getting bigger, leading to fewer goals and many rule changes.
Skates matter too. Hockey skates are built for quick starts, stops and turns, and most blades are only about 3.2 mm thick. Sticks have a curved blade: a deep curve lifts the puck more easily, while a shallow curve helps backhand shots. Some Swiss teams are even testing helmet sensors that alert coaches to risky hits to the head.
Women's Hockey and Record Crowds
Women have played hockey since the late 19th century. Several games were recorded in the 1890s in Ottawa, and women in Lord Stanley's family played on the outdoor rink at Rideau Hall. Starting in the mid-1980s, body checking was removed from the women's game, which helped it grow fast.
The first Women's World Championship was held in Ottawa in 1990, and women's hockey joined the Olympics in 1998 in Nagano, Japan. Only one woman has ever played in the NHL: goaltender Manon Rhéaume, in pre-season games. In 2024, a crowd of 21,105 at the Bell Centre in Montreal set the record for a professional women's game.
The biggest crowd of all came on 11 December 2010. The University of Michigan hosted Michigan State at its football stadium in an event billed as The Big Chill at the Big House. Guinness World Records counted 104,173 fans who actually entered. The home team won 5-0.
