Ice Hockey And Canada

The exact origin of ice hockey is unknown however the game was developed in 1875 by a canadian j g a creighton.

Ice hockey and canada. The kingston hockey club queen s university the kingston athletics and the royal military college. The sport is very popular and played year round and at every level in the country. Ice hockey is the official national winter sport of canada. Born of various influences from stick and ball games brought from the united kingdom and indigenous games the contemporary sport of ice hockey originated in montreal.

Most canadians alive at the time can tell you where they were when paul henderson scored the winning goal to beat russia in the canada soviet series. The montreal canadiens and toronto maple leafs are still the country s most popular hockey teams neck and neck for first place and miles ahead of the other five canadian based nhl franchises. There is year round media coverage of hockey. Montréal windsor nova scotia and kingston ontario have all claimed to be the birthplace of ice hockey but there is little clear evidence to pinpoint the game s origins.

The official schedule of the nhl including date eastern time access to tickets tv network and video highlights. It is the official national winter sport of canada and is widely considered canada s national pastime with high levels of participation b. The first game played under these modern rules formed by creighton took place in montreal. The first game of organized ice hockey as we would recognize it today was in montréal in 1875 where j g a.

Creighton a mcgill student established a set of formal rules. Ice hockey is most popular in canada central and eastern europe the nordic countries russia and the united states. Queen s university scored a 3 1 victory over the athletics in the first championship game. The only sport that is played by more adults in canada is golf which is played by 5 2 of canadian adults compared to ice hockey s 4 4.

And when asked in 2004 to come up with a list of the ten greatest canadians of all time millions of canadians polled put both wayne gretzky and don. A hockey scene figures prominently on the back of the five dollar bill. Hockey canada is the national governing body for hockey in canada working with its 13 member branches and local minor hockey associations to grow the game at all levels including minor hockey and canada s national teams. 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.

Ice hockey simply referred to as hockey in both english and french in canada dates back to the 19th century. A cbc news report from 2013 confirmed that hockey is one the most popular sports in canada with 1 239 000 people over the age of 15 of all genders saying that they play ice hockey.