"You do not play hockey for good seasons. You play to win the Stanley Cup. It has to be the objective."
-Guy Laheur
The National Hockey League, or NHL, was founded on November 26, 1917 in Montreal, Canada. That same year, in December the first NHL game was played by the Canadiens and the Wanderers, both teams from Montreal, the Edmonton Oilers, and the Bulldogs, from Toronto. The Boston Bruins were the first team from the US to officially join the NHL in 1924. Between 1942 to 1967, the NHL had a total of 6 teams, called the "Original Six", but later doubled in size during the 1967 NHL expansion. By 1974, the league had 18 teams, and soon after had 21 teams by 1979. After that the league had 30 teams and finally added it's last and 31st team in 2017. In 1989 headquarters moved to New York. In the 2004-05 season, the season was canceled due to a labour management dispute, but quickly resumed the following season. Skipping back to 1888, Lord Stanley of Preston had watched his first hockey game at a winter carnival, and later on with the help of his family, he donated the Stanley Cup trophy to the NHL. In 1914, the opportunity to win the Cup was open to American teams, and in 1917, the Seattle Metropolitans became the first American team to win the Cup. Competition for the Cup picked up quickly and teams today compete for the same trophy from the 1880s.
|