Tag Archives: NHL

5 greatest hockey players of all time

  1. Wayne Gretzky

Wayne Gretzky is the only player in the history of the National Hockey League (NHL) to score 200 points in one season, and Gretzky has achieved this feat four times in his career. He also holds the record for fastest scoring with 50 goals in 39 matches. Gretzky developed a passion for hockey in California through his time with the Los Angeles Kings, eventually turning Golden State into one of the fastest growing hockey locations in the United States.

  1. Bobby Orr

Having played only 10 seasons at the NHL, Orr dominates his time by perfecting the skills and art of an attacking defender. Although Doug Harvey was a pioneer in creating the way defenders shine, it was Orr who took that philosophy to a whole new level.

Due to his fast and strong strides, Orr is able to slide around the team, often moving the field during the game. He is the gold standard for defender position with a record of scoring and assisting effective attacks. In addition, Orr’s influence went beyond the rink when he led the players against the dishonesty of the player management company Alan Eagleson.

  1. Mario Lemieux

Mario Lemieux scored 282 points in 70 games in his last season for Laval Voisins. His career was interrupted for three seasons due to health reasons. Lemieux will always be remembered as one of the greatest players on ice. In addition, the Mario Lemieux Foundation that supports cancer treatment research has made his name known and remembered with great respect.

  1. Gordie Howe

Howe is a player who scored more than 800 goals in NHL history. With six MVP titles in a decade, Howe truly dominated his time. His career spanned from the end of World War II to the midst of the Cold War with 32 professional seasons at the NHL and World Hockey Association.

  1. Jaromir Jagr

Jaromir Jagr owns five scoring titles, three Lester Pearson titles (now Ted Lindsay) and a Hart title, and he has won all the individual hockey player awards.

With great strength, physique and playing skills, Jaromir Jagr will easily reach a career-leading record of more than 800 without a three-year hiatus. At the age of 43, he is still an effective player and is most sought after by the NHL teams.

Jacques Plante: the greatest NHL goaltender in history

Jacques Plante, whose full name is Joseph Jacques Omer Plante. He was born on January 17, 1929, and died on February 27, 1986.

Jacques Plante spent 28 years of his life as a professional hockey goaltender (1947 to 1975). His great performance and passion for this sport enable him to be recognized as one of the most important revolutionaries in this sport, especially ice hockey.

The Canadian goalkeeper played for the Montreal Canadiens team from 1953 to 1963. During this decade, the Montreal Canadiens team won 6 Stanley Cup including 5 consecutive victories.

Even though retired in 1965, with that talent as well as relentless dedication to Canadian hockey, Jacques Plante was persuaded to return to the NHL to play for the St. Johns Open Louis Blues in 1968.

After that, he also joined the World Hockey Association in North America. In 1973, his position is a coach and general manager for the Quebec Nordiques team. One year later, he played for the Edmonton team. He officially retired from his professional hockey career in 1975.

In 2017, Joseph Jacques Omer Plante was honored as one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players.

The reason, people called Joseph Jacques Omer Plante one of the revolutionaries of ice hockey because he had many early innovations in this sport.

Jacques Plante is the one who first started to wear a goalie mask in NHL history. Not stopping there, he also developed and tested a variety of masks under the assistance of other hockey experts. Among them is a precursor to today’s helmet-matching mask.

Jacques was also the first hockey goaltender who often guided and encouraged the teammates on how to attack when keeping the goal.

During his ten years playing for Montreal Canadiens, he and his teammates earned Montreal Canadiens the title of Dream Team in 1985.

As a professional ice hockey goalkeeper,  Joseph Jacques Omer Plante has played a total of 437 matches played during his 28 years which help him to one of 7th greatest NHL goalkeepers in history.

The early history of ice hockey and NHL tournaments (Part 2)

Stanley Cup

The popularity of this sport continues to grow. In the beginning, even amateurs could fight for it. Since 1927, ownership of the Stanley Cup has been disputed by representatives of the National Hockey League.

Revolutionary innovation of ice hockey

The history of ice hockey in the early twentieth century is characterized by constant innovations. Specifically, in 1900, they started to install a network on the target, so the number of contests on a recorded target actually dropped to zero.

Since the metal whistle stuck to the judge’s lips, he traded for a bell for the first time and even then for a plastic analog. At that time, the face also appeared. To increase speed and entertainment, in 1910, it was decided to allow in-game replacements.

Under the \ u200b \ u200b initiative of the three Patrick brothers, hockey players started to be assigned numbers, goalkeepers were allowed to tear their skates, and players were allowed to get ahead. Furthermore, it was they who proposed limiting the duration of the match to three twenty-minute periods.

In 1929, Clint Benedict, goalkeeper of the Montreal Maroons team, used the mask for the first time. Multicolored lanterns with sirens to accurately calculate g targets started being used in 1945. At the same time, the rules for the three arbitrators were revised.

The first arena

Hockey’s history is simply unthinkable without the right infrastructure being built. Originally, the competitive arena was an ice rink with natural ice. To prevent it from melting, cracks are created on the walls of the buildings, through which cold air flows in.

In 1899, the first artificial ice rink was built in Montreal. In the thirties of the twentieth century, sizable arenas began to be erected in Canada and the United States. One of the most notable of them is the “Sports Palace”, built in Chicago in 1938. The arena has a total of 15,000 seats.

The early history of ice hockey and NHL tournaments (Part 1)

The first memories of an ice hockey game with a club and a ball day. Along with this, as a distinct kind of competition, it was formed much later. And the development described in more detail below is a team sport in which stroke players have to score a goal against their opponent’s goal. The main feature of the contest is that players have to move around the ice rink on skates.

Many versions appeared

For a sport like a hockey, history has become one of the most controversial. Not all modern researchers agree with this. The fact that images of people taking part in a similar game on a frozen pond are present in some paintings by Dutch masters dating back to the sixteenth century.

As if possible, British soldiers, after recapturing Canada from France in 1763, brought ball hockey to the country. Due to the fact that severe and long winter is featured, \ u200b \ u200b game needs to adapt to local conditions. Therefore, people began to compete on frozen rivers and lakes. So the feet won’t slip on their surface, the cheese cutter is tied to the boots.

The debuted match

It was in this city, at Victoria Stadium, on March 3, 1875, that the first officially registered hockey game was played. The story of the war was even shown in an article in a local newspaper called the Montreal Gazette.

Each competing team consists of nine players. A wooden plate became a projectile and common stones were used as gates. The participant’s protective gear was borrowed from baseball.

The rules

Two years after the first hockey game took place, a group of students from McGill University in Montreal invented the first rules of the game. They include seven points. In 1879, a rubber washer was created. The game quickly gained popularity, so in 1883 it was presented as part of the annual Winter Festival in Montreal. Two years later, Canadians here formed an amateur association in the sport.

In 1886, the rules of hockey were streamlined, refined, and printed. It should be noted that they are not much different from the modern version. From now on, seven players competed in each team.

They are goalkeeper, defender and defender, three strikers, and also a racer (strongest hockey player to score the best goal of all). Composition during the match remains unchanged. The only substitution allowed is a player injury. A prerequisite for doing it is the consent of the opposing group.

Labour Issues relevant to NHL

There have been four league-wide strikes in NHL history, both starting in season 1992. The first strike launched by the National Hockey League Players’ Association in April 1992 lasted 10 days. however, things were settled quickly and canceled matches were rescheduled.

A lockout early in the 1994-95 season forced the tournament to reduce the number of games from 84 to 48, whereby teams would only play matches with conference teams, but a new agreement called the NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement was established. It is devoted to dialogue activities in 1998 and renewed until September 15, 2004.

Due to the agreement expiring on September 15, 2004, chief executive Gary Bettman announced that there will be another lockout of the players association and the closure of the NHL headquarters. The tournament promised to set a term they called cost certifications for all teams. However Players’ Association said that this change was just a screen for the salary cap, which in the beginning the player association never accepted. The stoppage caused the tournament to be interrupted for 310 days, the longest in sports history, and NHL became the first professional sports tournament to lose an entire season. A new CBA agreement was approved in July 2005, including a salary cap. The deal is for a six-year term with a CBA agreement extension for an additional year at the end of the deal, allowing the tournament to resume from the 2005-06 season.

On October 5, 2005, the first post-lockout season played with 30 teams. NHL received a record audience for the 2005–06 season: an average of 16,955 per game. The TV audience of the tournament was not as high as expected due to the decision of US cable station ESPN to stop playing hockey. A new contract with NBC gives the prize the right to collect a portion of the profits from advertising in each match. The annual profit of the tournament is estimated at $ 2.27 billion.

At midnight on September 16, 2012, the employment agreement expired, and the tournament resumed pause. The bosses proposed to reduce the players’ share from hockey-related proceeds from 57 percent to 47 percent. All matches were postponed until January 14, 2013, along with the 2013 NHL Winter Classic and NHL All-Star Weekend 2013 matches. The parties reached a preliminary agreement on 6 January 2013 for a match. ten years. On January 12, the league and the players’ association signed a memorandum of understanding agreeing to the new contract. This allows teams to start training again from January 13, and the season will have 48 games left starting January 19.

The Original Six and Post-Original Six expansion

The first NHL All-Star Game was held in 1934 to raise funds for Ace Bailey, a player who had to retire because of a nasty play by Eddie Shore. The second match took place in 1937 to support Howie Morenz’s family after his death due to a coronary artery caused by a broken leg injury during a match.

The Great Depression and the outbreak of World War II caused great damage to the tournament. The Pirates became Philadelphia Quakers in 1930, then dissolved a year later. The same Senators team also changed its name to St. Louis Eagles in 1934, then only one year to play. The Maroons did not survive, as they suspended operations in 1938. New York Americans were banned from playing in 1942 due to a lack of players and no handcuffs since.

The tournament dropped to six teams in the 1942-43 season: Boston Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs. These six teams remain intact for 25 years, and are called Original Six. The tournament then reached an agreement with the trustees of the Stanley Cup in 1947 to gain full control of the title, helping NHL to reject the offer of other tournaments to compete.

Maurice “Rocket” Richard became the first person to score 50 goals in a 50-match season. Richard then led Canadiens to five consecutive championships from 1956 to 1960, a record that has never been broken. Willie O’Ree broke the color divide on January 18, 1958 with his debut for Boston Bruins and was the first black player in NHL history.

By the mid-1960s, the ambition of a television contract in the United States, and the concern that the Western Hockey League was aggressively announcing it would become a major and competitive tournament for the Stanley Cup, forcing the decision to expand. for the first time since the 1920s. The National Hockey League must compete fiercely with the WHA to retain players; they lost 67 people to the emerging tournament in the 1972-73 season. Wayne Gretzky played one season at the WHA for Indianapolis Racers (8 games) and Edmonton Oilers (72 matches) before Oilers joined the National Hockey League in 1979-80.

The complete history of NHL hockey tournaments (Part 2)

Indeed, World War II had its own adjustments for the organization of the Stanley Cup, then only 6 teams remained at NHL. And the Great Depression forced some owners to simply disband their clubs.

Expand the tournament abroad

Since the mid-1960s, more and more new teams from the lower divisions have started to participate in the National Hockey League, where being able to compete fully with clubs from the beginning is part of NHL. Another hockey association, VHA, appeared in those years, could compete with NHL, and so it was decided to expand the tournament further.

NHL clubs were in better financial condition, and by the end of the 70s, HAA was no longer in existence, losing more than half of its teams.

The final NHL component was formed entirely in 2001, including 30 teams from Canada and the United States.

NHL beginner

Due to the fact that in recent years, the popularity of hockey has decreased and baseball and basketball have taken first place, NHL management decided to admit some new people to their ranks.

Of the teams that have applied in the NHL, so far only one club has been decided. In the 2017/2018 season, a team from Las Vegas will participate in the National Hockey League. An application from Quebec has been postponed so far, and a decision about this club will likely be made by the end of 2017.

NHL clubs every year are becoming more and more attractive to hockey players from other countries, because the NHL player’s salary is many times higher than other tournaments.

NHL club: a list of the most titles

Among the NHL clubs that represent Canadian cities, Montreal Canadiens has the most titles, with 24 Stanley Cups in their entire history. Among the teams playing in the US, the nearest pursuer of the Montreal club nearly doubled. On the Detroit Detroit Red Wings 11 11 Stanley Cup football account.

NHL plans to check COVID-19 players daily if the game continues (Part 2)

Infectious Diseases Specialist Dr. Amesh Adalja of the Johns Hopkins University Health Security Center is unsure how often athletes should be tested to make sure they are virus-free.

He said testing in German football will help other leagues determine the appropriate frequency, which also depends on the type of quarantine and exposure risks that players will face.

We know that people who have increased contact with each other will have a better chance of spreading the virus and hockey is one of the sports that individuals have a lot of contact with, throwing Adalja. I would say that they will have to be more aggressive than other tournaments in terms of testing.

Although players differ in their overall interest in virus infection by resuming the season, many seem to have been on board with regular testing.

A necessary plan

Representing each day begins to limit the likelihood of being infected with the virus, Edmonton player representative, Darnell Nurse said. If that’s what is needed, that’s what experts in this field and solve these challenges every day, if that’s what they believe is the best option, then that’s how you have to go.

Team mate Connor McDavid and Toronto captain John Tavares, a member of the NHL / NHLPA Return to Play committee, told experts about how often players should be checked. McDavid added, I think you have to check in on times like this and you want to be checked as often as possible to catch it right away.

Daly said a person who tests positive for coronavirus will not necessarily mean another pause for NHL. The Leaguewide test performed daily will allow the isolation of an infected player, coach or employee before the onset of an outbreak.

League and club officials insist they will only use thousands of tests if the numbers do not endanger the public supply, Adalja’s concern for all sports. Bettman said health experts told NHL that by the time the games can resume operations this summer, 25,000-30,000 would be a relatively insignificant number.

Voluntary training and training protocols require PCR testing if available, and Daly said NHL continues to study the potential for antigen testing.

Part of the decision about how cities organized games was the number of COVID-19s available in the community. Bettman hopes the combination of going to a place with fewer venues, checking regularly and putting players in a quarantine bubble means it’s less likely for anyone to sign a contract.

The complete history of NHL hockey tournaments (Part 1)

The NHL is the most popular organization that players from around the world are trying to get involved with. NHL clubs have their own logos, traditions and histories.

Some of the people of the last century who are part of this tournament have become legends. Instead, they have new candidates to join this hockey tournament.

Start of the story

The history of the most prestigious solidarity hockey clubs from the United States and Canada dates back to 1917. After the National Hockey Association had a dispute and disagreement over a number of key issues, it has been replaced by NHL. NHL hockey clubs participated in the first season of 1917/1918 with only 4 cities. They are Montreal, Quebec, Toronto and Ottawa.

The owner of the team from Toronto, due to reorganization needs arose, until finally did not believe that the organizers had decided to remove him and the Blueshirts group from the association. After lengthy negotiations, Edward Livingstone still agreed not to ban the team from hockey. However, he promised to sell the club within 5 days.

Following was the resignation of NHA President Charles Robinson and the association ceased to exist. The owner of the first Stanley Cup was the same team from Toronto. owever, changed the name and gave it to the local stadium care. Later Livingston did not lose hope to regain the club and filed a lawsuit against the hockey tournament, winning unsuccessfully.

Difficult early years

In the first decade of existence, the league simply fought for its existence in this business. Despite this precarious position of the new organization, the teams participating in the national tournament, have won the Stanley Cup 7 times in 9 years. After that, the players were able to raise their salary to a level that the Pacific Coast Hockey Association could not even dream of. NHL clubs, since 1925, have only grown and by 1930 there were 10 of them.

The early years of the National Hockey League

The National Hockey League was founded in 1917 as the successor to the National Hockey Association (NHA). Founded in 1909, NHA had its first season in 1910 with seven teams from Ontario and Québec, and was one of the first professional hockey tournaments. But in the eighth season, a series of disputes with Toronto Blueshirts owner Eddie Livingstone led owners of Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, and Quebec Bulldogs to hold a discussion about the future. hybrid of the tournament. Realizing that NHA’s rules did not allow them to remove Livingstone from the tournament, the four teams agreed to stop NHA’s operation, and on November 26, 1917, formed the National Hockey League. Frank Calder was elected the first president, and held this position until 1943.

The Bulldogs were unable to compete, so the remaining bosses decided to form a new team in Toronto, called Toronto Arenas, to compete with Canadiens, Wanderers and Senators. The first matches were held on December 19, 1917. When the Montreal Arena burned down in January 1918, causing the Wanderers to shut down, NHL was forced to continue with his father. The team remained until the Bulldogs returned in 1919.

NHL replaces NHA to become one of the Stanley Cup competitive tournaments; At that time Stanley Cup acted as a common title for the strong teams of the major hockey leagues across North America. Toronto won the NHL championship first, and then the Vancouver Millionaires of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) at the 1918 Stanley Cup Final The Canadiens won the NHL in 1919; however, the Stanley Cup Final Stanley Cup Final against Seattle Metropolitans was canceled due to the Spanish flu. In 1924 Montreal won the Stanley Cup for the first time as a member of the NHL. Hamilton Tigers, who won the regular season 1924-25 season, refused to compete in the Championship Series unless they were rewarded with an additional $ 200. NHL rejected and declared Canadiens the champion after it defeated Toronto St. Patricks (formerly Arenas) in the semi-final. Montreal then lost to the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL) Victoria Cougars in the Stanley Cup Final of 1925. This was the last time a non-NHL team won the Stanley Cup, after the Stanley Cup became the NHL championship in 1926 after. when WCHL was dissolved.

The National Hockey League began an expansion in the 1920s with the joining of Montreal Maroons and Boston Bruins in 1924. The Bruins team was the first US team to compete. New York Americans started playing in 1925 after acquiring Hamilton Tigers, with a new team called the Pittsburgh Pirates. The New York Rangers joined in 1926. Chicago Black Hawks and Detroit Cougars (later changed to Red Wings) also joined the tournament after NHL acquired WCHL. A corporation quickly goes to Toronto St. Patricks in 1927 and renamed the team to Maple Leafs.