Fighting is not condoned in hockey.
Players who fight are given penalties and can be ejected from the game.
Fighting can also 💶 lead to suspension.
Although European and collegiate leagues are stricter than North American leagues when it comes to fighting, it still 💶 occurs, often to protect teammates.
Research suggests that ice hockey is derived from a game played in Nova Scotia by the 💶 Mi'kmaq people.
It included the use of a "hurley" (stick) and a square wooden block.
It was probably fundamentally this game that 💶 spread throughout Canada via Scottish and Irish immigrants and the British army and evolved into an informal ice game later 💶 known as shinny or shinty.
Ice hockey is an Olympic sport.
The sport made its Olympic debut in 1920 in Antwerp, Belgium 💶 .
Participating teams consisted mostly, if not completely, of amateur players.
However, in 1995 an agreement between governing bodies and player associations 💶 allowed professional athletes to compete at the Olympics, and National Hockey League players participated in the Olympics from 1998 through 💶 2014.
Ice hockey is immensely popular in Canada , where it is the national winter sport and arguably the country's most 💶 popular game.
Hockey is also popular in the United States and in European countries such as Russia , Sweden , and 💶 Finland .
More than a million registered athletes play regularly in leagues worldwide.
Ice hockey is a game between two teams who 💶 wear skates and compete on an ice rink.
Each team usually has six players.
The object is to propel the puck past 💶 a goal line and into a net guarded by a goaltender.
Ice hockey is popular for its speed and frequent physical 💶 contact.
ice hockey , game between two teams, each usually having six players, who wear skates and compete on an ice 💶 rink.
The object is to propel a vulcanized rubber disk, the puck , past a goal line and into a net 💶 guarded by a goaltender, or goalie.
With its speed and its frequent physical contact, ice hockey has become one of the 💶 most popular of international sports .
The game is an Olympic sport, and worldwide there are more than a million registered 💶 players performing regularly in leagues.
It is perhaps Canada 's most popular game.
History
Origins 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 Mi'kmaq 💶 (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.
Early 💶 organization The first recorded public indoor ice hockey game, with rules largely borrowed from field hockey, took place in Montreal's 💶 Victoria Skating Rink in 1875 between two teams of McGill University students.
Unfortunately, the reputation for violence that the game would 💶 later develop was presaged in this early encounter, where, as The Daily British Whig of Kingston, Ontario, reported, "Shins and 💶 heads were battered, benches smashed and the lady spectators fled in confusion.
" The first organized team, the McGill University Hockey 💶 Club, formed in 1877, codified their game's rules and limited the number of players on a side to nine.
By the 💶 late 1800s ice hockey competed with lacrosse as Canada's most popular sport.
The first national hockey organization, the Amateur Hockey Association 💶 (AHA) of Canada (which limited players to seven a side), was formed in Montreal in 1885, and the first league 💶 was formed in Kingston during the same year, with four teams: the Kingston Hockey Club, Queen's University, the Kingston Athletics, 💶 and the Royal Military College.
Queen's University scored a 3–1 victory over the Athletics in the first championship game.
Britannica Quiz Sports 💶 Moments Nicknames Quiz Stanley Cup By the opening of the 20th century, sticks were being manufactured, shin pads were worn, 💶 the goaltender began to wear a chest protector (borrowed from baseball), and arenas (still with natural ice and no heat 💶 for spectators) were being constructed throughout eastern Canada.
In 1893 national attention was focused on the game when the Canadian governor-general, 💶 Frederick Arthur, Lord Stanley of Preston, donated a cup to be given annually to the top Canadian team.
The three-foot-high silver 💶 cup became known as the Stanley Cup and was first awarded in 1892–93.
(The first winner was the Montreal Amateur Athletic 💶 Association team, which also captured the Stanley Cup the following season by winning the initial challenge series to determine the 💶 Cup holder, which was the Cup-awarding format that Lord Stanley originally intended.
) Since 1926 the cup has gone to the 💶 winner of the National Hockey League play-offs.
In 1899 the Canadian Amateur Hockey League was formed.
All hockey in Canada at the 💶 time was "amateur," it being "ungentlemanly" to admit to being paid for athletic services.
Thus, the first acknowledged professional hockey team 💶 in the world was formed in the United States, in 1903, in Houghton, Michigan.
The team, the Portage Lakers, was owned 💶 by a dentist named J.L.
Gibson, who imported Canadian players.
In 1904 Gibson formed the first acknowledged professional league, the International Pro 💶 Hockey League.
Canada accepted professional hockey in 1908 when the Ontario Professional Hockey League was formed.
By that time Canada had become 💶 the centre of world hockey.
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