The pinnacle of club-based ice hockey competition is the National Hockey League (NHL), which sits with the NBA, NFL, MLB as the most famous sporting leagues in the United States.ĭon’t be mistaken, though, because ice hockey is also played in central and eastern Europe, the Nordic countries, and Russia.
Ice Hockey is the king of all ice-based sports and is one of the most popular sports in Canada and the United States. A few year later, in 1905, France and Belgium played two international games and a further three years on, the LHIG – which later became the IIHF – was established in Paris, France. In Europe, the first recorded games of ice hockey were played at the Prince’s Skating Club in Knightsbridge, England, in 1902. Creighton is also credited with coordinating the first ever organized game of ice hockey, on March 3rd, 1875. Creighton, of Nova Scotia, is widely credited with bringing the ‘Halifax-rules’ to Montreal in the 1870’s, where they were developed to become the ‘McGill-rules’. Ice Hockey, recognizable to this definition, originated in the mid-to-late 1800’s in Canada.
The Society for International Hockey Research (SIHR) offers the following definition of the game: “Hockey is a game played on an ice rink in which two opposing teams of skaters, using curved sticks, trying to drive a small disc into or through the opposing goals”.
