HOCKEY, ICE

Getting More American

Nine out often hockey players were Canadians in the 1930s, but National Hockey League (NHL) teams in Boston first and New York, Chicago, and Detroit later were helping to increase the sport's popularity and give universal recognition to the organized league. The New York Rangers had become the first American Division team to win the Stanley Cup in 1928, They came in first place in 1930, only to be eliminated in four games by the Montreal Maroons. The Chicago Black Hawks won the Stanley Cup in 1934 behind the goaltending of an ailing Charlie Gardiner (who died two months later) and the playmaking of Mush March. In 1938, with the veteran Marsh and American-born players such as Alex Levinsky, Carl Voss, and goalie Mike Karakas (who played the final game with a broken toe), the Black Hawks, who had the sixth-best—or third-worst—record in league play, captured their second Stanley Cup.

More Offense

For too long hockey had been a defensive game. There was call for a much more open style of play. A big rule change came in 1930 when forward passing was finally permitted in all zones. Scoring got another big boost during the 1933—1934 season when the league mandated that only three players (including the goalie) could occupy the defensive zone. The penalty shot was introduced and modified over the next couple of years. As the game became faster and more offensive, it also grew more violent. As George Striclder described one game in the Chicago Tribune, "fist fights developed and several times sticks came crashing down on unprotected scalps." In 1933 Toronto's Ace Bailey nearly died after being hit over the head by Boston's Eddie Shore, who received a suspension. After getting his nose broken for a third time, goalie Clint Benedict designed a leather mask, which he wore infrequently. Protective gear of any kind was considered cowardly.

A New Era

Franchises came and went in the 1930s, dropping from ten to eight, then finally to seven teams playing a forty-eight-game schedule. Amateur hockey got going about the same time in the United States. But with the improved offense and concentration of teams, players were becoming faster skaters and more-adept stick handlers. Many future Hall of Famers began playing in the 1930s: Syl Apps, Frank Boucher, Eddie Shore, Earl Seibert, Babe Siebert, Art Coulter, Charlie Conacher, Dave Schriner, Toe Blake, and goalie Tiny Thompson.

The Stratford Streak

The biggest star of them all was the Montreal Canadiens' "Stratford Streak," Howie Morenz. Morenz had been a young star in the 1920s, but three of his best seasons came in the early 1930s, when he won two consecutive Hart Trophies as the league's most valuable player. In 1936 his trade in midseason to the Rangers (from Chicago) prompted John Kieran to imagine "Morenz going out in a New York uniform to annoy the Habitants, the team with which he soared to fame in hockey." But Morenz was on the decline by then. He returned to the Canadiens in 1937 and played just as hard and furiously—the way he lived. He was badly injured in a game and languished in a hospital bed with a broken leg. He suffered a nervous breakdown and died there two months later of heart failure at the age of thirty-four. Roger Kahn wrote in 1956, "It was always speed with Howie Morenz, and in the end it was speed that killed him."

HOCKEY'S LONGEST GAME

• he record for the longest hockey game ever played was set and broken in the 1930s. Both were Stanley Cup games, and both went into the sixth overtime. In 1933 the Bruins and the Leafs went 0-0 for an additional one hour, forty-four minutes and forty-six seconds until Toronto scored a goal. Three years later an even longer game was played between the Detroit Red Wings and the Montreal Maroons in the first round. One reason for the tight games was that teams often relied on their old habit of playing more-defensive hockey in a championship series. Games were long and slow, with few penalties, few shots on goal, and few risks. After the 1933 game the league wanted to cut overtime games short by using a coin toss or playing without goalies, but the fans protested. In 1936 it was sudden death—or nothing. The sixth overtime had nearly elapsed when Red Wing rookie Mud Bruneteau beat Lionel Conacher. The game had begun a little past 8:30 P.M. and finished just before 2:30 A.M. The teams had played 176 minutes of hockey, and the fans had sat for almost six hours. The next night Detroit goalie Norm Smith shut out the Maroons again and did not give up a goal until twelve minutes into the third and final game of the series—still a playoff shutout record. The Red Wings went on to clinch the Stanley Cup.

Sources:

Zander Hollander and Ed Bock, eds., The Complete Encyclopedia of Ice Hockey, revised edition (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1974);

Roger Kahn, "The Life and Death of Howie Morenz," in Games We Used to Play (New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1992).

ice hockey team sport in which players use sticks to propel a hard, round disk into a net-backed goal.

Rules and Equipment

Ice hockey is played on a rectangular rink with curved corners whose length may vary from 184 to 200 ft (56–61 m), its width from 85 to 98 ft (26–30 m). Six players—a goalie, a center, two defensemen, and two forwards—all of whom are on ice skates, make up a team. The rink is surrounded on all sides by walls 3 1/2 to 4 ft (1.06–1.22 m) high. The goal mouths are 4 ft (1.22 m) high and 6 ft (1.83 m) wide and are set 10 ft (3.05 m) out from each end of the rink, which is divided by colored lines in the ice into three zones (attacking, neutral, and defending) that are each 60 ft (18.29 m) long. A puck, once made of rubber but now of composite material, 1 in. (2.54 cm) thick and 3 in. (7.62 cm) in diameter, and frozen to reduce resiliency, is the object used in play. The weight, size, and shape of the sticks used to hit the puck are standardized. After a face-off (the dropping of the puck between two opposing players by an official), the team in possession of the puck seeks to maneuver it past the other team and into its net. Each goal counts one point. The game is divided into three 20-min periods; overtime periods in case of ties are used in certain professional games. In this fast and body-bruising sport, players use heavy protective equipment, and there is unlimited substitution. A player detected by the referee in roughing, tripping, high-sticking, or other violations must spend two minutes (a minor penalty) or more (major penalties) off the ice in the penalty box, and his team must continue play shorthanded. Linesmen, goal judges, a timekeeper, and a scorer also officiate.

The National Hockey League

The modern game originated in Canada in the 1800s, and the first modern indoor hockey game was played in Montreal in 1875. By the 1890s it had become extremely popular and had spread to the United States. Since 1917 the National Hockey League (NHL), with teams in both countries, has been the primary professional association. The rival World Hockey Association (WHA), launched in 1972, ceased operation in 1979; several of its 12 teams gained entry to the NHL. The NHL's current 30 teams play in two conferences, the Eastern and Western, each with three divisions. Though most NHL players have always been Canadian, an increasing number of players from the United States and Europe have appeared since the 1980s. Teams vie for the Stanley Cup—originally donated to the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (1893) by Sir Frederick Arthur Stanley—the NHL's championship trophy and the symbol of world professional supremacy. In recent years the NHL has been marked by contentious labor relations, leading to a strike in 1992 and lockouts in 1994–95 and 2004–5, the last so prolonged as to cancel the season.

International and Amateur Play

The NHL long regarded itself as the world's elite, but the overwhelming superiority of the Soviet Union in international amateur play in the 1960s led to a dramatic 1972 summit series between Team Canada (Canadian NHL players) and the Soviet national team. With their reputation on the line, the NHL stars narrowly won the series 4–3–1. Two years later the Soviets crushed a WHA All-Star team. In 1976–91 six of the world's major hockey powers competed in the periodic Canada Cup, a tournament the NHL and its player association organized. The Canadians won four times (1976, 1984, 1987, 1991) and the Soviets once (1981). The first World Cup, an eight-team expansion introduced in 1996, was won by the United States. The International Ice Hockey Federation (founded 1908) is the governing body for Olympic competition (begun in 1920) and world tournaments held annually since 1930 (but no longer contested in Olympic years). From the early 1960s through 1990 the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia dominated both. Although Canada has an elaborate system of amateur hockey leagues, the country has not excelled in international amateur hockey since the early 1950s, mainly because the best Canadian players quickly turn professional. The distinction between amateur and professional, however, is disappearing. In 1998 professionals played in the Olympics for the first time, as did women. Hockey at U.S. colleges has also been gaining in popularity; the National Collegiate Athletic Association championships, held since 1948, are now widely followed.

Bibliography

See Stan and Shirley Fischler, Everybody's Hockey Book (1983).

ICE HOCKEY

Canada's National Sport

In the 1950s the National Hockey League (NHL) simply stayed put. There were no franchise changes, few television contracts, and for most people in the United States the NHL remained invisible. There were only six franchises, with four in the United States: Boston, New York, Detroit, and Chicago. The only Canadian teams were Toronto and Montreal. Americans outside of the Northeast paid little attention to hockey.

American Domination

To the dismay of Canadians an American team, the Detroit Red Wings, dominated the sport from the late 1940s through the middle of the 1950s, and Red Wing offensive star Gordie Howe was the league's preeminent player. Howe may have played for an American team, but he was, like every other player in the NHL, a Canadian. Tommy Williams of Minnesota joined the Boston Bruins in the later part of the decade and was, for a long time, the only American in the league. During the later part of the decade the Montreal Canadiens led by the incomparable Maurice Richard began a run of five straight Stanley Cups. When Richard scored his four hundredth goal, he became a sports hero comparable in America to Babe Ruth.

Source:

Richard Beddoes, Hockey! The Story of the World's Fastest Sport, revised edition (New York: Macmillan, 1971).

Stanley Cup Champions

1950—Detroit

1951—Toronto

1952—Detroit

1953—Montreal

1954—Detroit

1955—Detroit

1956—Montreal

1957—Montreal

1958—Montreal

1959—Montreal

ice hockey Fast-action sport on an oval ice rink in which two teams of six players wearing ice skates (and protective clothing) use special hockey sticks to try to propel a vulcanized rubber disc (puck) into the opponents' goal. The rink is usually 61m × 26m (200ft × 85ft) and surrounded by walls c.1.2m (4ft) high. It is evenly divided into three zones – attacking, neutral and defending – each 18.3m (60ft) long. The goals are within the playing area, 3 to 4m (10–15ft) from each back line. Games consist of three 20-minute periods of actual timed play. Substitutions are allowed at any time, and the game is controlled by a referee and two linesmen. A penalized player may be banished to the ‘sin bin’ for two or more minutes, and his team meanwhile remains a player short on the ice unless their opponents score. The National Hockey League (NHL) of North America was instituted in 1917. The major trophy is the Stanley Cup. The sport has been included in the Winter Olympics since 1920.

ice hockey was pioneered by McGill University in 1880 and spread rapidly throughout Canada and the USA. A small English league was formed in 1903 and the first Scottish game was played in 1908. A British Ice Hockey Association was formed in 1914 and the sport was introduced into the Olympics in 1920.

J. A. Cannon

ice hockey was pioneered by McGill University in 1880 and spread rapidly throughout Canada and the USA. A small English league was formed in 1903 and the first Scottish game was played in 1908. A British Ice Hockey Association was formed in 1914 and the sport was introduced into the Olympics in 1920.

ice hock·ey • n. a fast contact sport played on an ice rink between two teams of six skaters, who attempt to drive a small rubber disk (the puck) into the opposing goal with hooked or angled sticks. It developed in Canada in the 19th century.

ice hockey see hockey, ice .