A Timeline of Ice Hockey's Rules

Well, here we are. Post #10. If I had stayed on top of this project like I was supposed to do, I wouldn't have had to rush the entire thing, so I regret that. But we finally made it, were finally doing it. So without further ado, I will now answer the research question I formed on post 1; how has the sport of ice hockey changed between now and its first appearance? Using all of my previous research and this really good webpage that described current ice hockey rules, equipment, positions, and rink layout; "Basic Rules of Ice Hockey." Home. Web. <http://www.ohf.on.ca/new-hockey/basic-rules-ice-hockey>., I can list the differences in ice hockey's history and point out where changes were made. So, for starters, I'm going to talk about ice hockey's past rule book. The first form of official ice hockey rules was, as I have mentioned previously, set up by the MUHC. Most of the MUHC rules for ice hockey play were adopted from European field hockey playing rules, with a few changes and additions regarding players and equipment. At the time, there was no designated rink size or method of tie-breaking, but definite rules included that the goalposts be 8 feet apart, the puck be a circular wooden disk, the game consists of two 30-minute periods, and that there be 7 players per team; left wing, right wing, center, rover, point, cover-point, and goaltender. Then, the concept of adding a net to the goal posts was introduced by the CAHL, along with replacing the positions of point and cover-point with left defense and right defense. The IPHL made the sport professional with the concept of paying its players. Major changes occurred during the lifespan of both the NHA and the PCHA, with the NHA implementing reforms such as dropping the rover position so that there were 6 players per team, dividing games into 3 periods with each period being 20 minutes long, and creating minor and major penalties and the power-plays that go with them. The PCHA developed the layout and dimensions of the artificial ice hockey arena and built them across the U.S. and Canada, thus popularizing the sport. They also came up with the idea of an assist and numbered jerseys and invented the neutral zone across the middle of the ice where players can complete forward passes without being penalized, thus also changing the offside rule. And to finalize all the changes, the NHL brought the concept of sudden-death overtime and shootouts, along with a smaller goal net. And that concludes the timeline of ice hockey's changes. The official NHL dimensions of ice rinks are 200 feet long by 85 feet wide, goal nets are 4 feet tall by 6 feet wide, and hockey pucks are one inch thick with a 3 inch diameter and are made of vulcanized rubber. A skaters must wear pads, a helmet, gloves, and skates and carry a hockey stick, while a goaltender wears heavy padding along with blockers on their arms and legs, a mask, thick skates, and a trapper (a trapper looks similar to a baseball mitt) and carries a thick goalie stick. The objective of hockey is to score more points than the opposing team by shooting the puck into their goal, and there are three ways to shoot the puck; the wrist shot, the slap shot, and the backhand shot. The regular NHL season consists of 82 games that determine the 16 teams that qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs. The team that wins in every playoffs bracket and wins the Stanley Cup Finals series is declared the playoffs winner and is awarded with the Stanley Cup. So there you have it, the whole summary of ice hockey; the best sport ever created! And I believe I have perfectly answered my research question with detailed examples. I must admit that this project drained me of energy and I am happy it is over, but I still really enjoyed the research I conducted and I liked making these blog posts. I got the chance to learn so much about my favorite sport, and I love ice hockey even more because of it. I'm so ready to watch the Stanley Cup Finals series that is coming up soon, and I can't wait for the joys that will come with the start of the 2016-2017 season. Anyway, thank you so much for sticking alongside me through this research-based adventure, this is Cole Sears signing off!

Here is a labeled diagram of your standard NHL rink so you can see the layout for yourself.

 

And, just to prove how awesome hockey is, here is an epic highlights compilation I found on YouTube!

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taPTPxspRQ0   

The NHL (pt 2)

Hello guys! I'm back for post #9! So, I found this good article; Marsh, James H. "National Hockey League (NHL)." The Canadian Encyclopedia. 19 Dec. 2012. Web. <http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/national-hockey-league/>., to complete my research of the NHL, and here's what I found. As I had mentioned briefly at the end of post 7, the NHA lasted until 1917. The NHA fell apart by its own choice; it disbanded itself in an attempt to eject a few of the unfavorable PCHA members who had merged into the NHA. This plan was successful, and shortly after the NHA shutdown, the National Hockey League (NHL) formed in its place. The NHL started with 8 teams, but two teams dropped out and Detroit's team had a name change, resulting in the NHL's Original 6; the New York Rangers, the Boston Bruins, the Detroit Red Wings, the Chicago Blackhawks, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Montreal Canadiens. The year 1967 brought NHL expansion; the number of teams that year doubled into 12 teams. In 1972, the formation of another new 12-team league, the World Hockey Association (WHA), caused rivalry between the conflicting leagues. In 1979, the WHA was finally overlapped and merged into the NHL, which was at that point a 17-team league, to form a massive 21-team league. And by 1999, 30 teams were playing in the NHL, and although a few teams were relocated and/or renamed, and some even dropped from the league, there are still 30 teams to this day. But recent NHL news reports that there is a possibility that by the 2016-2017 or 2017-2018 seasons, we may see the number of teams reach 32. At the time of its creation, the NHL was considered the premier hockey league of the world, and it is still considered to be today. I have only one more post to finish, and the last one is going to be pretty lengthy. I will be comparing and contrasting the ice hockey rules, equipment, positions, and rink of the past to the current NHL rules, equipment, positions, and rink. So I will see you guys in the final post!

These are all of the current NHL team names and logos, and what division they are in. If you are a hockey fan, which is your favorite team (go Ducks!)?

 

The NHL

Hello readers, I'm back from dinner with another blog post. Unfortunately this post is going to be pretty short because of yet another unsatisfactory resource. So the next post will make up for the lack of info of this post. The topic here and for the next post are where I left off on post 7; the NHL. When first researching this, it seemed completely obvious where to look first; the official NHL website; "Official Site of the National Hockey League." NHL.com. Web. <https://www.nhl.com/>. The NHL website was chock full of player and teams stats, hockey news, playoffs standings, game schedules, and highlight videos, but unfortunately there was no sign of any articles about the history of the NHL. So this source had no use to me at this time. It's getting pretty late, so I'm really going to wrap up the last two posts tomorrow. So I'll see you in post 9!

This is the logo of the National Hockey League.

 

Development of Professional Leagues

Well, I'm back for post number 7. It took me a good deal of researching to find and collect enough info to completely cover the topic of this post; the development of professional ice hockey leagues. I searched for quite some time but I didn't really find anything that neatly listed the names and formation dates of the several north american professional hockey leagues, so I ended up putting aside all the superstitions and decided to use this Wikipedia article; "Ice Hockey." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_hockey>. And I am so glad I used this article; it has a section of professional leagues with the details that I need! Wikipedia is a knowledgeable and trustworthy research platform, despite the taboo that many teachers have placed on it. Anyway, time to tell you what I found. Very shortly after the formation of the AHA of Canada, small leagues began to form in cities across Canada. These city-specific leagues were so numerous and small that they are not really worth mentioning by name because they didn't have that big of an impact on the sport itself except to spread its popularity. It was the year of 1899 that finally brought change to the world of hockey with the formation of the Canadian Amateur Hockey League (CAHL), which overlapped the previous AHA of Canada. The CAHL and AHA of Canada are considered "amateur" and not professional because hockey players at that time were not paid. The first professional league with paid players, the International Pro Hockey League (IPHL), was finally created in 1904 by a dentist named J.L. Gibson in, surprisingly, the United States. Canada later accepted professional hockey in 1908 with the creation of the Ontario Professional Hockey League (OPHL), which overlapped the CAHL. The year 1910 brought the creation of the National Hockey Association (NHA), which overlapped both the IPHL and the OPHL, and unified the U.S. and Canada under one league. But one year later came the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), and a rivalry formed between the two leagues. The NHA ended up on top of its rival, and the PCHA was forced to merge into the NHA. Although the NHA was more popular and more prominent, it was the PCHA that brought major reforms and additions to the ice hockey rule book. The NHA would last until 1917, until the formation of the NHL. More to come on that in the next blog post (sory this post was so long)!

This is a photograph of J.L. Gibson's first hockey team, the Portage Lakers.

The Stanley Cup (pt 2)

Alright readers, I'm back from lunch and I'm ready to kick off another blog post. I managed to find this good source about the Stanley Cup; "Stanley Cup History." - A Brief History of the Stanley Cup and NHL Finals. Web. <https://www.ticketcity.com/nhl/stanley-cup-finals-tickets/stanley-cup-history.html>. This source was very reliable because it presented in-depth history of the Stanley Cup and the cup's founding father using reference dates. So, in order to fully cover the Stanley Cup, we should start with its creator, Frederick Arthur, Lord Stanley of Preston. Lord Stanley of Preston was the Canadian governor-general, and in 1893 he donated a 3-foot tall silver trophy that was to be given annually to the top-performing Canadian hockey team. This trophy became known as the Stanley Cup, with the first and second winning team being the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association team. As time, and hockey, progressed, ownership of the Stanley Cup was passed between various hockey leagues until the NHL took ownership of the Stanley Cup and began awarding it annually to the team that won the Stanley Cup Playoffs, starting in 1926. I will educate you all about these various hockey leagues leading up to the NHL in the next couple of posts, which will be coming up shortly, so stay tuned for more! 

Below is a picture of the man himself, Lord Stanley of Preston.

The Stanley Cup

Hello readers, and I'm so sorry about my absence. Things just got really out of hand for me, but I have got to finish this blog. So to wrap things up quickly, I am going to publish 6 blog posts today, so I can catch myself up and have all my posts done. So, for post 1 and 2 of 6, I will talk about the history of the Stanley Cup, ice hockey's ultimate prize. The source I referenced was; Hutchinson, Sean. "22 Things You Might Not Know About the Stanley Cup." Mental Floss. Web. <http://mentalfloss.com/article/51140/22-things-you-might-not-know-about-stanley-cup>. This website had several small facts and details that I found to be very interesting, but I don't think I could really use this as a research source. The site only contained small factoids and not in-depth research, so this article doesn't fit the purpose of my research. But, I'll list my favorite informative facts from the page for you guys, just because I think you might like to hear them;

• Every player, coach, and officiating staff member from the winning team that year has their name engraved on the cup
• The Stanley Cup is always accompanied by at least one appointed member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, and is called the, "Keeper of the Cup"
• During the NHL off-season, each individual player from the winning team is allowed one whole day with the cup

Well, that's all for this post, but there's a lot more coming, so see you then!

This is an image of the currently used Stanley Cup.

First Ice Hockey Leagues (pt 2)

Hello again readers, and I'm back from my research! So to continue where I left off in the last post, I found this great website; "History of Ice Hockey." History of Ice Hockey. Web. <http://www.theuhl.com/history-of-ice-hockey/>., and it provided me with great material; I was also able to find a little info from the site I referenced in the last post. I discovered that the first ever ice hockey team was started by a group of Canadian students at McGill University in 1877, and the organization was named the McGill University Hockey Club (MUHC). Some crucial and official rules that the MUHC set up were that the goal posts were 8 feet apart, there were 7 players per team, and each game consisted of two 30 minute periods. After the formation of a few more teams, a "world championship" was held annually starting in 1883 at Montreal's Winter Carnival. The winning team of this event won a special trophy called the Carnival Cup. In 1886, the Winter Carnival teams decided to organize themselves a bit more, and this led to the formation of the Amateur Hockey Association (AHA) of Canada. A similar movement also happened back in Europe; in 1885 the Oxford University Ice Hockey Club became the first ice hockey organization in Europe, where 4 college teams competed yearly to win the Carr-Harris Cup. Well it's very late so I should get some sleep and I have basically finished this part of ice hockey's history; next Tuesday I have scheduled to discuss the origins of the original Stanley Cup. Until then, good night everyone!

The old photograph shown below depicts the McGill University Hockey Club.