There's a well known joke that "I went
to a fight, and a hockey game broke out." Hockey
is notorious for its aggressive playing, fights and what
appears from other sports to be unsportsmanlike conduct.
But in hockey, it's just a part of the game. Most women
might think that Hockey isn't a game for them, but I'm
here to tell you that once you've gone to a game...you'll
be hooked! To help your first experience, here's a little
about the game itself...what it all means. And just think
how impressed the men in your life will be when you know
more than they do!
History
Until the mid-1980s it was generally accepted
that ice hockey derived from English field hockey and
Indian lacrosse and was spread throughout Canada by British
soldiers in the mid-1800s. Research then turned up mention
of a hockeylike game, played in the early 1800s in Nova
Scotia by the Micmac Indians, which appeared to have been
heavily influenced by the Irish game of hurling; it included
the use of a "hurley" (stick) and a square wooden block
instead of a ball. It was probably fundamentally this
game that spread throughout Canada via Scottish and Irish
immigrants and the British army.The players adopted elements
of field hockey, such as the "bully" (later the face-off)
and "shinning" (hitting one's opponent on the shins with
the stick or playing with the stick on one "shin" or side);
this evolved into an informal ice game later known as
shinny or shinty. The name hockey--as the organized game
came to be known--has been attributed to the French word
hoquet (shepherd's stick). The term rink, referring to
the designated area of play, was originally used in the
game of curling in 18th-century Scotland. Early hockey
games allowed as many as 30 players a side on the ice,
and the goals were two stones, each frozen into one end
of the ice. The first use of a puck instead of a ball
was recorded at Kingston Harbour, Ontario, Canada, in
1860.
The first record of a puck, rather than
a ball, being used was in 1860 at Kingston Harbour, Ont.,
and the first game with rules was played in 1875 between
two student teams at McGill University in Montreal. The
game thereafter spread quickly throughout Canada and the
United States.
The National Hockey League (NHL), organized
in 1917, consists of professional teams in the United
States and Canada. The annual Stanley Cup, which is the
highest award in professional ice hockey, was first given
in 1893-94 to the best Canadian team and since 1917 to
the winner of the NHL play-offs.
Ice hockey was made an event in the Winter
Olympic Games in 1920, and in 1924 the Boston Bruins became
the first U.S. team in the NHL. The World Hockey Association
was founded in 1972 as a rival to the NHL, but in 1979
the two leagues were merged.
(Brittanica encyclopedia)
