National Hockey League
The National Hockey League (NHL) is a professional sports organization composed of hockey teams in Canada and the United States. Its French name is Ligue Nationale de Hockey (LNH). It is the premier professional ice hockey league in the world, and one of the major professional sports leagues of North America. The currently ongoing season is the 2005-06 regular season and the 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
History
The National Hockey League was founded in 1917 in Montreal, Quebec, after a series of disputes in the Canadian National Hockey Association (NHA) between Edward J. Livingstone, owner of the Toronto Blueshirts, and owners of other teams. The owners met at the Windsor Hotel in Montreal to talk about the NHA's future. Livingstone was unable to go to the meeting because of an illness and was amazed to learn that the team owners had decided to effectively release him and the Toronto Blueshirts from the NHA. Discussions eventually led to the creation of the National Hockey League. The founding teams were the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Bulldogs and the newly-renamed Toronto Arenas.
The NHL had a rough first season starting with the temporary chattering of the Bulldogs. On January 2, 1918, the Westmount Arena in Montreal, Canada, home to the Montreal Wanderers and Montreal Canadiens, was destroyed in a fire. The Montreal Wanderers folded in the aftermath of the fire, ending one of the most storied franchises in the early years of Canadian professional hockey. So with the Bulldogs and Wanderers out, the NHL operated with only three teams for the remainder of its opening year and throughout its second season.
Even though the league struggled to stay in business during its first decade, the NHL's teams happened to be very successful on the ice. The NHL's teams won the Stanley Cup seven out of the first nine years. Competition was cancelled in the near future because of the Spanish flu that had hit Seattle, Washington. By 1926, because player salaries increased to a level that could not be matched by any of the Canadian hockey leagues, the NHL was alone in Stanley Cup competition. The league had also expanded into the United States with the Boston Bruins in the 1924-25 season; the New York Americans and the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1925-26 season; and the New York Rangers, Detroit Cougars (now known as the Red Wings), and the Chicago Blackhawks in the 1926-27 season. Additions were also made which included the Montreal Maroons and Hamilton Tigers. By the end of the 1930-31 season, the NHL had a total of 10 teams. However, the Great Depression took a toll on the league: the Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Americans and Ottawa Senators folded due to financial problems. With these developments and the onset of World War II, the NHL was reduced to six teams during its twenty-fifth season. These six teams (Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Blackhawks, Boston Bruins, and New York Rangers) are collectively known today as the Original Six, and for the next quarter-century, the NHL would only consist of these six squads.
Expansion: 1967 and beyond
The rise of the Western Hockey League, which many pundits thought planned to 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. They were 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. Though it never challenged for the Stanley Cup, its status as a potential rival to the NHL rival did not go unnoticed. In response, the NHL decided to rush its own expansion plans by adding the New York Islanders and Atlanta Flames that year, along with the Kansas City Scouts and Washington Capitals two years later. The two leagues fought for the services of hockey players and fans until the WHA folded in 1979. Four of the remaining six WHA teams merged with the NHL: the Hartford Whalers (formerly known as the New England Whalers), Québec Nordiques, Edmonton Oilers, and Winnipeg Jets. By 1997, the Oilers were the last remaining original WHA franchise still playing in the city where they began in the NHL.
In the early 90s, the NHL expanded further with five new franchises. The San Jose Sharks debuted in 1991; a season later the Ottawa Senators would join the NHL along with the Tampa Bay Lightning. In 1993, the league added an additional two teams, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks 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.
Labour issues
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 1994-95 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.
Negotiations to replace the contract that expired in 2004 turned into one of the most contentious collective bargaining sessions in the history of professional sports. 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. 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, causing the NHL to lose an entire season.
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 2005-06 season.
Post lockout
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, despite negative press generated during the lockout, had success attracting fans to the initial games of the season and extending fan bases into non-traditional markets in the US such as Nashville, Atlanta, and the Carolinas.
Current organization
The National Hockey League currently has 30 teams divided into two conferences. Each conference has three divisions, and each division has 5 teams. This alignment of the league began with the 2000-2001 season. Over the years many different divisional alignments have existed.
- For a list of previous teams see List of defunct NHL teams.
- For the franchise histories of the NHL, see Timeline of the National Hockey League.
Eastern Conference
Western Conference
Season structure
Regular season
Currently, each team plays 82 regular season games: 41 games at home and 41 on the road (away). Teams play 32 games within their division (8 games against each of their four divisional opponents), 40 games against non-divisional, conference opponents (4 games against each of the 10 other teams) and 10 interconference 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 will be rotated every year, much like interleague play in baseball.
Points are awarded for each game as follows:
- Two points are awarded for a win (regulation, overtime or shootout).
- One point for losing in overtime or a shootout.
- 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.
Stanley Cup playoffs
At the end of the regular season, 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 Stanley Cup 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, with the other games played at the lower-ranked team's home venue.
Rules
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 such as the Olympics. Changes to rules if a player clears the puck over the glass it will be a descretion call made by the referee.
Game timing
Each regulation game is 60 minutes, composed of three 20-minute periods. Between each period there is a 15-minute intermission. Between stoppages of play, teams have 18 seconds (5 seconds for the visiting team, 8 seconds for the home team, 5 seconds to line up at the faceoff location) to substitute their players, except during TV timeouts. TV timeouts are two minutes long, and occur three times per period: during normal game stoppages after the 6, 10, and 14 minute marks of the period, unless there is a power play or a goal has just been scored.
Each team may also take one 30 second time-out which may only be taken during a normal stoppage of play.
Overtime
When a game is tied after regulation time, overtime ensues. During the regular season, overtime is a five-minute, 4-on-4 sudden-death period, in which the first team to score a goal wins the game. Beginning in 2005-06, 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--shootout stats are tracked separately. Since the 1999-2000 season, teams that lose in overtime/shootout games receive a point in the standings: a "regulation tie," so to speak.
During the playoffs, the overtime format is an unlimited number of sudden-death, 20 minute, five-on-five periods. While a game can theoretically continue forever, practically, only a handful of games have ever surpassed four overtime periods, and none have gone beyond six. While some media outlets have suggested adding the shootout to the playoffs, for the sake of TV-friendliness and, in the case of extremely long games, fan-friendliness, this idea has been rejected by the NHL thus far, much to the relief of hockey purists.
Hockey rink
The hockey rink is an ice rink which is rectangular with rounded corners and surrounded by a wall. It measures 85 by 200 feet in the NHL, while international standards call for a rink measuring 60-61 meters long by 29-30 meters wide (196.85-200.13 feet by 95.14-98.43 feet). The center line divides the ice in half lengthwise. The center line is used to judge icing violations. There are two blue lines that divide the rink roughly into thirds. They divide the ice into zones. Near each end of the rink, there is a thin red goal line spanning the width of the ice. It is used to judge goals and icing calls.
New for this year, after testing in the American Hockey League, is a trapezoid behind each goalie net. The goalie can only play the puck within that area or in front of the goal line. If he plays the puck behind the goal line and not in the trapezoid, a 2 minute minor penalty for delay of game will be assessed by the referees.
Scoring and winning
A goal is scored when the puck completely crosses the goal line and enters the net, though a goal may be disallowed if the scoring team takes a penalty on the play; the puck is directed in by an attacker's high stick (above the crossbar), glove, or skate (with a kicking motion); or if it is deemed to have gone in after a stoppage in play. The team with the most goals at the end of regulation time wins the game. If the game is tied at the end of regulation, the game goes into overtime (see above).
Offside
In ice hockey, play is said to be offside if a player on the attacking team enters the attacking zone before the puck. When an offside violation occurs, the linesman blows play dead, and a faceoff is conducted in the neutral zone.
The NHL in 2005-2006 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 red line, unless the puck crossed the line before the player.
Icing
Icing occurs when a player shoots the puck across both the red line and the opposing team's goal line without the puck going into the net. When icing occurs, a linesman stops play if a defending player (other than the goaltender) touches the puck before an attacking player is able to. Play is resumed with a faceoff in the defending zone of the team that committed the infraction. Icing is not enforced for a team that is short-handed. If the goaltender makes a move from his net to play the puck, the icing is immediately waved off. Icing can also be waved off if, in the officials' opinion, the defending team had a viable opportunity to play the puck before crossing the goal line.
Under the rules following the 2004-2005 lockout if a team is guilty of icing the puck they are not allowed to make a line change before the following faceoff.
Penalties
A penalty is a punishment for infractions of the rules. A referee makes all penalty calls while the linesmen may call only obvious technical infractions such as too many men on the ice. In the NHL, the linesman may also call major intent-to-injure penalties that the referee may have missed.
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. The penalized team cannot replace the player on the ice and is thus shorthanded for the duration of the penalty. Normally, hockey teams have five skaters on the ice (excluding the goaltender), so if a minor or major penalty is called, play becomes five-on-four.
This situation is called a power play for the non-offending team and a penalty kill for the offending team. A team is far more likely to score on a power play than during normal play. 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.
There are exceptions to the rule where a team cannot replace a player on the ice after a penalty: mutual majors for fighting, where there are two participants in a fight, will result in each person receiving five minutes, but the penalties will not affect the on-ice strength of either team (play remains five-on-five), unless if a player is deemed to be the instigator of the fight, that player will receive a two minute minor. There are also "coincidental" minors in which the penalties called against both teams are simultaneous and equal in length, so that neither team receives a power play.
There also exist game- and 10-minute-misconducts which are reserved for infractions such as continued disputing of a call with an official or for intent to injure penalties. Misconducts do not affect the on-ice strength of the offending team, though they are usually accompanied with a minor, double minor, or five-minute major.
Trophies and awards
The National Hockey League presents numerous trophies per year; some are given to teams, and other are given to players.
Team awards
- Stanley Cup (1893 - present) -- Overall NHL playoff champion; previously a challenge cup (1893-1914) and interleague championship trophy (1914-26). It was not awarded in 2004-2005 season because of the labour dispute.
- Clarence S. Campbell Bowl (1968 - present) -- Western Conference playoff champion.
- Prince of Wales Trophy (1924 - present) -- Eastern Conference playoff champion.
- Presidents' Trophy (1986 - present) -- Overall NHL regular-season champion (based on points).
- O'Brien Trophy (1910 - 1950) -- Awarded in the NHA and NHL to the league playoff champion (1910-23), the Canadian Division regular season champion (1927-38), then finally to the Stanley Cup runner-up (1939-50).
Individual awards
- Art Ross Memorial Trophy (1948 - present) -- regular season league scoring champion
- Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy (1968 - present) -- perseverance and sportsmanship
- Calder Memorial Trophy (1937 - present) -- rookie of the year
- Conn Smythe Trophy (1965 - present) -- most valuable player during the playoffs
- Frank J. Selke Trophy (1978 - present) -- top defensive forward
- Hart Memorial Trophy (1924 - present) -- most valuable player during the regular season
- Jack Adams Award (1974 - present) -- coach of the year
- James Norris Memorial Trophy (1954 - present) -- most outstanding defenceman
- King Clancy Memorial Trophy (1988 - present) -- leadership and humanitarian contribution
- Lady Byng Memorial Trophy (1925 - present) -- player combining playing ability and sportsmanship
- Lester B. Pearson Award (1971 - present) -- most outstanding player as selected by his peers
- Maurice 'Rocket' Richard Trophy (1999 - present) -- goal-scoring leader during the regular season
- NHL Plus/Minus Award (1983 - present) -- highest plus/minus statistic
- Roger Crozier Saving Grace Award (2000 - present) -- best save percentage by a goalkeeper
- Vezina Trophy (1927 - present) -- most outstanding goaltender
- William M. Jennings Trophy (1982 - present) -- goalkeeper(s) for the team with the fewest goals against them
- Lester Patrick Trophy (1966 - present) - honours significant contribution to hockey in the United States.
Hockey Hall of Fame
Players are eligible to be voted into the Hockey Hall of Fame three years after their last professional game. In the past, if a player was deemed significant enough, the pending period would be waived. However, only 10 individuals have been honoured in this manner. In 1999, Wayne Gretzky became the last player to have the three-year restriction waived. After Gretzky's induction, the NHL declared that he would be the last one to have the waiting period omitted.
NHL: An international league
The NHL draws players from all over the world. Since the 1990s, the league has tried to promote itself throughout Europe with ads, media, and magazines. 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. While the league once had a strong Canadian majority, the percentage of Canadian players has gone down slowly in the past 25 years due to the increasing presence of Americans and influx of Europeans. The most international team is the Montreal Canadiens with 10 different nations being represented.
| 2005-2006 Season | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Percent | Country | Number of Players | Teams with Highest | |
| 53.1 | 
|
Canada | 389 | Mighty Ducks of Anaheim - 71% |
| 18.3 | 
|
USA | 134 | New Jersey Devils - 52% |
| 6.8 | 
|
Czech Republic | 50 | New York Rangers - 29% |
| 5.7 | 
|
Sweden | 42 | Detroit Red Wings - 28% |
| 4.4 | 
|
Finland | 32 | Dallas Stars - 30% |
| 4.2 | 
|
Russia | 31 | Montreal Canadiens - 15% |
| 3.1 | 
|
Slovakia | 23 | |
| 1.0 | 
|
Germany | 7 | |
| 1.0 | 
|
Ukraine | 7 | |
see also: Ice hockey at the 2006 Winter Olympics
References
- McFarlane, Brian (1997). Brian McFarlane's History of Hockey. Champaign, IL: Sports Publishing Inc. ISBN 1571671455.
