NHL: Ice Hockey in the United States

The NHL is the National Hockey League.  It is a professional hockey league comprised of 30 teams.  7 of these teams are based in Canada while the other 27 teams are base in the United States of America.  The NHL is popularly considered as the foremost Professional League in Ice Hockey.  It is also considered as a major sports league in Canada and the United States.  The Stanley Cup is the ultimate prize in the NHL.  It is awarded to the team who wins the championship for the season.  It is also the oldest trophy in North American professional sports.  The NHL operates from its main headquarters located in New York City.

The National Hockey League was first organized in Montreal, Canada, on November 26, 1917 with only 4 teams on the roster, all of which were Canadian.  It came as an offshoot of the closure of operations of the National Hockey Association which was the organization responsible for running the hockey league since 1909. From the original 4 teams, the NHL has been able to grow to 30 franchises spanning Canada and the US through a series of relocations and continuous expansion.   A labor dispute in 2004 stalled the development of the NHL and caused the cancellation of that entire season.  This was eventually settled though and the new Collective Bargaining Agreement that came out of it is partly responsible for the record highs in television audiences, in game crowds, and major sponsorships that the league was able to experience in 2009.

Although the teams in the NHL are based in the United States and Canada, there are many players of international decent that play in the league.  The latest records show that there are 20 countries represented throughout the NHL.  Most of the players are still from Canada but those that are from the United States and European countries are steadily growing in number.

Each season of the NHL is divided into 3 sub-seasons: the exhibition season, the regular season, and the post season or the playoffs.  The exhibition season is usually played in the month September.  At this time, the NHL teams play exhibition games against teams from other leagues in Europe as tune ups for the regular season.  The regular season meanwhile is played from October to April the following year.  In this part of the season, the NHL teams play only against each other following a schedule that is defined before the regular season starts.  Each NHL team will play a total of 82 games in the regular season.  41 of these will be played in their home ice while the other 41 will be played on the opponents’ ice.  The third sub-season, the playoffs, is played from April to June.  Only the best teams are left to play in the playoffs for the Stanley Cup.  The post season is different from the regular season in that teams compete against each other in a series of 7 games.  The team that wins 4 games against the other gets to advance in the bracket to face the winner of the other series.  The team that remains after all of the series have been played is crowned the champion and is awarded the Stanley Cup.