Montreal’s 1875 indoor game launched modern ice hockey
Ice hockey sends six skaters a side chasing a vulcanized rubber puck into a net. The modern code coalesced in Canada—especially Montreal, where the first indoor match was played on 3 March 1875—drawing on shinty, field hockey, bandy, and lacrosse ancestries.
Amateur leagues formed in the 1880s; professionals appeared around 1900, with the Stanley Cup as the sport’s iconic prize. Women’s play widened after mid-1980s rules removed body checking; the IIHF Women’s World Championship began in 1990 and Olympic entry followed. IIHF and NHL rulebooks both descend from early-twentieth-century Canadian codes. Each side fields three forwards, two defencemen, and a goaltender; boards keep the puck alive and enable checking.
Hands may bat a falling puck to oneself but not catch-and-hold or hand-pass except in the defensive zone; kicking into the net is illegal. Before the 1930s the game was onside-only—backward passes—so stickhandling ruled; forward passing afterward made true team tactics possible. Offside, icing, and puck-out-of-play stoppages still police space and tempo.
The game grew from stick-and-ball games of 18th- and 19th-century Britain and Ireland, chiefly bandy, hurling and shinty, with lacrosse, derived from Native American games, also an influence. Forwards comprise a centre and two wingers, and bodychecking an opponent into the boards is allowed to stop progress. A player is offside if he enters the attacking zone ahead of the puck, and icing means shooting it across both the centre line and the opposing goal line. IIHF rosters allow 20 skaters and two goaltenders, while the NHL dresses 18 plus two. Professional games have three 20-minute periods with a stopped clock; NHL playoff ties go to repeated 20-minute sudden-death periods with no shootouts, whereas regular-season games use five minutes of overtime followed by a shootout.
Source: Ice hockey
